parents. After Blake took over the house, she fought to stay with you because she knew you needed her.”
That was my Mary. “She saved my life,” I whispered. “More than once. Patched me up, snuck me food, and put up with terrible treatment to stay with me. I owe her so much.”
Dylan kissed my cheek and then my neck, and I sighed at how good it felt. “For that alone,” he breathed against my skin, “I forgive her. You needed her more than I did. I had my best friends, and they kept me sane.”
He wiped away the few tears still trailing across my cheeks before his lips found mine, and our kiss was deep and sweet. He didn’t push harder, knowing we couldn’t go too far, but he thoroughly loved my mouth.
“Everything is going to be okay now,” I told him between kisses. “We will be the family we both deserved. Mary will be the most amazing grandmother, and this little kiddo will have a bunch of insane uncles and an aunt who will shoot any asshole that look at them wrong. We will make our perfect life, just wait and see.”
“It’s already perfect,” he whispered, and I breathed in the truth of that.
This was the exact life I’d always hoped and prayed for. I would never take it for granted, pun intended. Dylan, my baby, Mary, and the rest of the Delta crew... We might be an unorthodox family, but it was the best one I could ever imagine having.
Epilogue
Dylan… Seven months later
The strong smell of paint fumes reached my nose the minute I stepped foot inside my house, and I instantly knew what the source was.
"Brooke!" I shouted, racing up the stairs in long strides, taking them three steps at a time. "You’d better not be doing what I think you're doing!"
I burst into the nursery and pulled up short when I found the room totally empty. It did, however, have a fresh coat of pale blue paint covering the previously lilac walls.
"Brooklyn Lawson! You're in huge trouble!" I boomed, stalking through the nursery and tossing open the door to the master suite.
Our bedroom. Brooke's and mine. She'd only moved in a month ago, but the whole house already felt more like home. Like she was the missing piece in my puzzle, and now I was complete. Or, almost. There was one tiny piece that needed to fall into place, but she—or he—was due any day now.
"Brooke! Baby, where are you?" I called out upon finding our bedroom empty. Now I was getting worried. She was full term with our baby, and I'd meant to be home hours ago. What if something had happened? Those paint fumes were too dangerous; she might have—
"I'm in here!" her familiar voice called back from our bathroom.
The relief that hit me was enough to make my knees weak, and I needed a couple of calming breaths before I pushed open the bathroom door.
She was like a goddamn angel, submerged up to her chin in our huge bathtub with bubbles overflowing onto the tile floor. Her white-blonde hair was piled up on top of her head, and her cheeks were flushed with warmth from the water.
Every time I looked at her, she took my breath away.
"You repainted the nursery," I accused, parking my hands on my hips and forcing a frown to my face. I wasn't even mad anymore. I just wanted to strip off and join her in the tub.
She grinned at me, smug as a happy cat. "I told you, I'm positive we're having a boy. It needed to be changed."
I glared. "You were positive we were having a girl last week. Besides, I told you I'd paint it myself once we knew for sure." We'd decided not to find out the sex, and it'd been all kinds of fun taking guesses.
She shrugged. "I didn't do it myself. Jasper and Evan did it in exchange for a crisp high five."
I rolled my eyes. "Fucking bastards. You know I'm only late home because they never showed up for their scheduled meetings at Delta?"
She just grinned wider. Yep, she knew.
With a heavy sigh, I dropped to my knees beside the tub, uncaring of the overflowing bubble-water. I scooped my hand around the back of Brooke's neck and brought her lips to mine for a lingering kiss.
"I missed you today, little birdie," I told her in a low voice. "I couldn't stop thinking about you and our tiny human. How are you feeling?"