Burn Down the Night (Everything I Left Unsaid #3)- Molly O'Keefe Page 0,116

need me. I’ll be there.”

“Why does this feel so scary?” I asked.

“Because it’s a second chance. For you and me. For your sister. For all of us. But we gotta change our lives if we’re going to take it. We gotta trust each other. We gotta believe we’re enough. That it’s not either-or.”

My hands were in fists because I wanted to grab on to him so hard I hurt.

I licked my lips. Oh God, they were dry. I was dry. I was a desert in need of rain. A woman in need of him.

I thought about my sister and my future. About how I kept making these decisions that closed us off instead of opening us up. How not trusting anyone had left us so little room to move.

“I want that,” I said, suddenly greedy. Every chance and opportunity I never imagined for myself or pretended that I never imagined—I wanted all of it. Him. My sister. I wanted to go to school and be a nurse. I wanted to sit by a pool on a honeymoon. I wanted Max to get everything he wanted and I wanted to be by his side when he got it. “I want everything.”

“There’s my girl,” he said and leaned in to kiss my lips. So softly. So carefully. Like I was precious.

And I kissed him back the same way.

“I think…” Maybe it was the drugs. Maybe it was all this new courage and hope, but I was suddenly braver than I’d ever been. “I think I’m going to fall in love with you.”

“Yeah?” he asked, as I stroked his beard, ran my thumb across his lips.

“Yeah.”

“Good, because I already love you, baby.”

“How do you know?” I asked. “I mean…we barely know each other.”

“Barely know each other?” he said. “You know that’s not right.”

It wasn’t. I knew him and he knew me. And I knew that once this man loved someone, he loved them forever. That he and I…we would be forever.

“I’ve waited for you for so long,” I breathed.

“I’m here now,” he said, kissing the knuckles of my hand. “We’re both here. We made it, baby. We made it.”

Epilogue

CHRISTMAS ONE YEAR LATER

Max

Olivia put holly in her hair for the party. I mean, it was fucking adorable. And her hair was red, her natural color—full of secrets and spice just like her. Which just about drove me crazy. She was such a redhead. Green eyes, fair skin. Temper as hot as hell.

I loved it.

I pulled her forward into my arms once we got around the front of the car and kissed her head, right by the plastic holly.

But that wasn’t enough for her, nope. She put her arms around my waist and kissed me on the mouth. A big, wet, happy smacker.

Olivia was a kisser, color me surprised. She kissed me. She kissed her sister. She kissed the friends she’d made at nursing school. Every once in a while, we went out to a strip club and she kissed a few strippers while I watched.

Hard to complain about any of that.

Hard to complain about anything, really.

It took us a few months to get here. I ended up doing a little time under house arrest. Which had been mostly okay. Olivia had been there, keeping me company. And we’d both been doing a little court-ordered counseling. Which was just as much bullshit as you might think. But it made Olivia happy. She came back from those appointments a little lighter. A little easier.

And I’d been right about a happy Olivia—the world could barely hold her.

I kissed her back, curling her into my arms, because it was winter and winter was hard for her, with memories of her father and that year in the woods.

And I kissed her because she was so beautiful with her holly.

And I kissed her because I was so damn grateful to have her in my life.

It wasn’t easy, this transition. Going from outlaw to civilian. But she helped. She made it possible.

“Get a room!” Jennifer yelled as she got out of the back of the car.

“Great idea,” I murmured, my hands cupping her ass through her long coat. “Let’s bail on this and go back to the hotel.”

We would have stayed at Dylan’s house, but Pops was living in the guest room and to be honest, it wasn’t great for Pops and I to spend too much time together. We’d both spent too much of our lives without any collars. And it wasn’t always easy for me to be with Dylan,