because their love could weather any storm, they’d stand together, enjoying the sunshine and rainbows that followed.
Epilogue
One month later.
“Watch out for the poodle!”
Jack laughed as Ace somersaulted over the large fluffy black poodle and landed on the sand on the other side. He fell onto his back dramatically, legs and arms spread out like he was about to make snow angels in the sand before Chip and Duchess descended on him.
“Colton, save me!”
“Oh, the humanity! Won’t someone save my fiancé from the vicious attack? So much licking!” Colton chuckled but didn’t move from the comfort of his beach chair, eyes closed behind his sunglasses. “I thought you enjoyed a good tongue bathing?”
“From you! Not these furry monsters. Ah! Damn it, Chip, right in the ear!”
Jack chuckled and shook his head. Duchess was a standard poodle, eight months old and as gorgeous and graceful as her person. Fitz had wanted a dog so bad, but with the repairs to the salon underway, he didn’t have the time to train a puppy. Jack did what he did best and got the word out. Soon he’d gotten a phone call from a client who trained dogs about an eight-month-old poodle they’d been training for someone who sadly could no longer keep Duchess. Jack set up a surprise meeting between Fitz and Duchess, and the moment they laid eyes on each other it was over. Love at first lick.
Duchess was meant to be Fitz’s. The two were so alike it was a little scary. She was the most graceful, beautiful poodle Jack had ever seen, prancing across the sand, her black coat glossy and flawless. She had long legs and sass for days. Next to Chip, Jack had never come across a dog with so much attitude. Speaking of sass, Jack moved his gaze to Fitz, his tanned skin glistening in the sun, a rainbow sarong tied around his waist over his flamingo-pattered swim trunks and his hair clipped back away from his face as he played frisbee with Joker, Lucky, and Mason.
“I’m happy for you,” Colton said, getting Jack’s attention. “You two were meant to be.”
Colton’s words made Jack’s heart swell. Whether it was true or not, Jack wasn’t about to deny something had been there from the start. He supposed everything happened in its own time, and sometimes all you could do was be patient. Though he wondered what it might have been like without the pressure Emmett added by targeting Fitz. Six years. He’d worked with Emmett for six years, and not once had he gotten so much as a hint that something was wrong. Since that day at the pier when Jack had been on the verge of losing everything, all he could think about was how he hadn’t seen it coming. How had he missed it? Communication was his life. Surely at some point Emmett must have said or done something that Jack should have questioned.
“Get out of your head.” Joker’s growl snapped Jack out of his thoughts.
“Sorry,” Jack murmured. He hadn’t even noticed Joker running over until he was with them in the tent they’d set up that morning.
“What’s wrong?” Colton asked, concerned.
“Our boy Jack is still beating himself up over Emmett.” Joker grabbed a bottle of water and knelt next to Jack, elbow on the armrest of Jack’s chair as he gazed out at the ocean and sipped his water. “But like we keep telling him, it wasn’t his fault.”
“But I’m the one he was obsessed with. I should have seen it. I almost lost Fitz. If Emmett had succeeded—”
“It still wouldn’t have been your fault,” Joker snapped. “I love you, man. We all do, and we get the guilt thing. Baby, you don’t gotta explain guilt to us. But fuck it. Emmett’s actions were on him, not you. Was it our fault we lost Deuce, Pip, Spider, and Kicker?”
Jack glared at Sacha from behind his sunglasses. “You fucking know it wasn’t.” It had taken them a really long fucking time to come to terms with the loss of their brothers, to know deep down in their souls that what happened that day hadn’t been their fault, that no amount of “what-ifs” would change the outcome.
“That’s right, it wasn’t. Just like it’s not your fault Emmett did what he did. We all worked with him, talked to him every day, just like you. Hell, I can usually read someone from a mile away, and I didn’t see it. Is it my fault you were almost killed?”
Jack shook