“Dane. This is amazing,” Kennedy says. I pull her into my arms.
“I’m a princess,” Faith declares, jumping on her bed that indeed looks like it belongs to a princess. The whole room does. “Is that my own bathroom?” She’s off the bed, running toward me through the door. I hear her gasp inside the closet. She runs back out wearing a crown.
“That’s the bathroom, sweetheart.” I point to another door. She takes off again.
“I love you so damn much. I don’t know what I did in this life to get you,” Kennedy says.
“I love you too.” She’s wrong. I’m the one who is lucky. She showed me what life was actually about. She changed my whole world.
“I love it, Mom and Dad.”
Both Kennedy and I still. That was the first time she called us that. When we told her we’d adopted her, she asked if we were her mom and dad now. We’d told her yes. Then she asked if she should call us that. Kennedy told her she could call us whatever she wanted.
She runs toward us. I bend down and scoop her into my arms, pulling my wife into my side. As fucked up as this has all been, I know neither Kennedy nor I would change it. As scary as it was, in the end we got Faith.
Faith was the one thing I’d held on to when Kennedy disappeared. I’d held on to it knowing she was out there somewhere and I’d find her. Nothing was going to stop me.
Everyone needs a little faith in their lives.
EPILOGUE
KENNEDY
“I’m going to have to put a tracker on you.” I glance up from the papers that are spread out in front of me to see my husband. I’ve pretty much taken over his office. It’s now more mine than his at this point. He’s pretty much retired at this point. His office runs itself. He does do some projects here locally from time to time.
“You don’t already have one on me?” I lift a brow, finding that very hard to believe.
“It only alerted me that you’re in the house. It obviously needs to be upgraded,” he mutters with a determined look on his face. I have no doubt he will have it sorted out in the next few hours.
“I’m sure you’ll have that worked out by the end of the day.”
I make a few more notes for the renovations that will be starting soon on the apartment building we bought. Soon it will house women and their children. It will be a fresh start for them, to help them get back on their feet.
I wanted there to be more resources available to women who were in a tough spot. The way I was when I first arrived at the shelter. I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if I hadn’t had it.
The women thrive around other women like themselves. Many times in the past I wondered if a few of them were ready to fully leave the shelter. Some just seemed too young in my opinion.
Having an apartment of their own will give them time to transition. It’s something I came up with so they would have time to adjust to a life outside of the shelter. It may have been my idea, but my husband and Fawn made it a reality. They didn’t hesitate to buy a whole apartment building in the blink of an eye for us.
“How is it going?”
Dane comes up behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist. He brushes the hair off my neck, kissing me there. I relax against him, thankful that I have him in my life and that he never gave up his search for me.
“I’m good,” I say. His teeth sink into my neck. “Okay! I’m goodish. It’s always hard when summer is over and the kids go back to school. I miss them.” I turn in his arms. We only had our son Grant and Faith. We thought about having more children, but with the shelter there are tons of children that need love from us too.
“Need me to make you feel better?” His hands go to my ass, lifting me off the ground. I wrap my hands around his neck, going in for a kiss. It starts off soft and sweet, but in no time Dane is kissing me harder and deeper, putting me down on the desk, his hands sliding up my thighs.
Now this is definitely one of the perks to the kids being at school. We don’t have to sneak around to have sex randomly.
“Always so wet for me.” He groans against my mouth. “Your pussy wanting what it knows only I can give it.”
I whimper. His filthy words never get old. He dips his fingers inside of my panties as he starts to strum my clit.