Chapter Twenty-Eight
Eight months later
ANNIE WAS WATCHING the llamas in the east paddock while the ponies and Esmeralda chased one another in the west field. Esmeralda had matured, given up butt nipping, and become the ponies’ nanny over the past couple of weeks.
Dorothy lay on her side in the sun, enormous. She was going to have her piglets any day now—the result of a brief affair with another rescue pig that had only stayed for three days.
Annie sat on the deck with a glass of lemonade as Cole rounded the corner of the farmhouse. When he wasn’t working on his business, providing security consulting for places that worked with vets, he was helping out with the animal sanctuary.
Since the sanctuary was growing by the day—they were big enough to take horses now—Annie had withdrawn her request to go full-time at Hope Hill. She had plenty to do right around the house.
“I see nobody’s here yet.” Cole walked over and kissed her breathless.
She floated on a sea of joy and bliss. “Kelly’s running late.”
“Want me to drive around and get your grandfather?” He nibbled her bottom lip.
She ran her fingers through his short, dark hair, which now covered the barbed-wire tattoos on the sides of his head. “Kelly and David have the new bed that tilts up. They have to go there anyway to drop it off. They’ll bring Gramps over.”
Switching houses had been Gramps’s idea. He couldn’t get up the stairs anymore. When Annie finally renovated her little rancher, she updated it with a wheelchair ramp, wide doorways, a handicap shower, and level floors throughout. In exchange, Gramps donated the farmhouse and land to her animal sanctuary, with Kelly’s enthusiastic approval.
Both renovations had been done live, on local TV, with Kelly as the show host. Her business was booming.
Cole pressed one last kiss on Annie’s lips, then looked over at the table, set for six. “What can I do to help?”
His right arm was steadily improving. She’d talked him into going back to acupuncture, and that made a difference, as nothing else had. He saw an old Chinese woman in West Chester. He refused to go to Milo at Hope Hill, and he wouldn’t tell Annie why.
“Fire up the grill.” She hooked her arms around his neck. They had time for one more peck. “So are you going to reveal your secret sauce recipe?”
“Not even under bloody torture.”
“Fine. Then I’m not going to tell you about my secret sauce.”
A low growl escaped his throat as he pulled her onto his lap. “I know all about your secret sauce.” He moved her legs until she straddled him, and then he pulled her against his massive, hard body—as much as her growing belly allowed. “Your secret sauce is mine, all mine. And don’t you forget it. I’m planning a leisurely sampling later.”
Heat spread through her body. “They probably won’t be here for another twenty minutes,” she said, because she was weak.
Cole nibbled his way down her neck. “You can’t rush anything that has to do with secret sauce.”
Damn Navy SEAL self-control and mastery over one’s body and discipline and all that crap. She wriggled against him, rubbing her center against the hardness between his legs. She might have succeeded in swaying him, but the sound of a truck in the driveway interrupted them.
She slid off Cole’s lap and patted down her hair. “I guess they’re not as late as Kelly thought they would be.”
Cole adjusted himself. “I’ll go in and grab the burgers and the ribs.”
She smirked. “You’re going in to stand in front of the fridge.”
“That too.” He fixed her with a pointed look. “Do not say secret sauce while they’re here or I’m going to pop up all over again. The word is off-limits until we’re alone.”
“You’re not above me in the chain of command.”
“But I can wrestle you into submission.”
Before she could argue, he disappeared into the house. Not a moment too soon.
Their guests were coming around the corner of the house, Kelly balancing Gramps’s birthday cake.
David—Kelly’s brand-new husband and Broslin’s star TV producer—carried two bottles of wine: one red, one white. Beyond them, Tyler, David’s six-year-old, walked in, holding Gramps’s hand.
Tyler had probably been told to secretly help Gramps navigate the uneven path. While Gramps had probably been told he was keeping track of Tyler. The two were generally inseparable.
The grumpy old man had accepted Tyler from the second Kelly had brought David and his son for dinner that first time. And the kid dove into the family as if into a pool. As if all his short life, he’d been dying to be in all that water, dying to be part of a family.
His mom had died when he was two. All Tyler remembered was a series of babysitters. He wanted family with an endearing greediness that melted everybody’s heart every time he walked through the door.
Tyler escorted Gramps to the nearest chair at the edge of the large patio. Gramps glanced toward the table on the other end, then back at Tyler. “Go grab me a cookie.”
The kid cast a longing look at the bakery box. “Kelly said no cookies before dinner.”
The old man harrumphed. “If I want a cookie, I’ll have a cookie, boy. Don’t make me put on my butt-kicking boots.”
Tyler’s eyes went wide, his gaze snapping to his father. “Gramps said butt-kicking boots.”
David shook his head, but he was clearly fighting a smile. Which his son didn’t miss. Tyler giggled.
“Gramps.” Kelly tried to look disapproving, but failed, so she went for distracting Tyler. “Hey, let’s go inside and wash hands.”
Tyler wasn’t ready to be distracted. “Can I see your butt-kicking boots? What color are they?”
Annie shook her head. Now would probably be a good time to interfere. “We have the baby’s room ready, Tyler. Want to go and see?”
They had the guest room ready too. Cole’s mom was coming up from Chicago to help, and she was going to stay through the baby’s birth.
Annie’s mother was gone. Annie had contacted her father and told him about the baby, leaving it up to him if he wanted contact with his grandchild once the baby was born. He didn’t.
You win some; you lose some.
Annie was happy with her winnings.
Tyler ran to Annie and threw his arms around her growing belly. “I can’t wait to meet my new brother.”
“He’ll be your cousin, honey,” Kelly said, and exchanged a look of pure love with David, who put his arms around her from behind. “Talking about your brother or sister . . .”
Kelly flashed a smile and pressed her palm to her belly.
Wait a minute . . .
“When did you find out?” Annie jumped up. OK, she intended to jump. Point was, eventually she made it to her feet. “I’m so happy for you.”
Then they were hugging and crying—all happy tears. Ecstatic.
“What are we having a feminine drama fest over now?” Cole came from the house with a tray of ribs.
“Kelly is going to have a baby.” Annie’s eyes were leaking.
“Another boy? A few more and we’re going to have a decent team to play football in the backyard after Thanksgiving dinner.”
He shook Tyler’s hand first, then David’s, then Gramps’s, then finally threw his arms around Kelly and Annie, who were still embracing.
Annie elbowed him in the side. “We’re both going to have girls just to spite you.”
Cole pulled her back and turned her in his arms. “Then David and I will keep going until we get a full football team. We’ll be the Testosterone . . .” He paused and glanced at Tyler. “What else starts with a T?”
“Taters!”
Gramps snorted. Kelly was shaking her head.
Cole never gave it another thought. “Good job, buddy.” He ruffled Tyler’s flyaway brown hair. “We’ll be the Testosterone Taters.”
“Can I be the captain?” Tyler wanted to know immediately. “I want to be the captain of the Toasted Taters!”
Cole winked at him. “That’s a given.”
With a big smacking kiss on Annie’s cheek, he let her go and went to put the ribs on the grill.
David chased Tyler and demanded that at the very least, they arm-wrestle for the captain position.
Annie caught Kelly’s eyes. Kelly had tears too.
“I’m just stupid happy,” Kelly said. “You know what I mean?”
Annie glanced at Cole. “I think I might.”
“I think the Murray Love Curse is officially broken.”
“I’ll drink to that. When we can drink.”
Kelly followed her gaze and lowered her voice. “I love David to pieces, but I think Navy SEALs in aprons should be a thing. A new trend.”
Annie sighed, her heart more full of love and gratitude than she could ever have imagined. “At the very least, there should be a calendar.”
“Talking about printed materials.” Kelly pulled a flyer from her purse and handed it to Annie.
Concert promo for Hershey Park. “Thanks, but I think I’m out of the rock-concert scene until after the baby comes.” She’d never been into the rock-concert/groupie thing to start with.
“Look at the guy in the middle.”
She did. Then she choked. Xane?
“Xane is in Men on the Moon?” She’d heard the band on the radio, but she hadn’t really paid attention to them in particular, couldn’t have named any of the members if someone had bet her solar panels for her roof.
She read the flyer. “They’re the main act. They have a cover band.”
“They’re supposed to be the next big thing.”
“Oh my God.” Annie collapsed into a chair next to Kelly.
“Are you OK?” Kelly sat with her and took her hand. “Is it the baby?”
“It’s a hundred grand.”
“The what now?”
“You know my website for the animal rescue? I have a tip jar on it. People can donate a dollar or two. When I started putting up regular pictures and stories, people started asking me if they could help. Anyway, I had a hundred-thousand-dollar donation this morning from Moon Productions. I figured someone got a couple of zeros wrong. Or a kid signed in with her parents’ account or something. I was going to contact them tonight to figure out how I could send the money back.”
Kelly’s eyes were comically wide. “You think it’s Xane?”
“He said he’d pay me back when he made it big.”
Kelly squeezed Annie’s hand. “If I wasn’t such a lady, I’d say holy shit.”
Cole called over, “What is it?”
Annie told him.
He frowned. “I don’t like another guy giving my wife money.”
“It’s for the animals.”
“We’re doing fine by the animals. If Mr. Rock Star thinks he’s going to come around—”
“Are those ribs almost done?” Annie pushed to her feet. She was keeping the money. Cole needed distracting. “I think I’ll go and see if I can find more of my secret sauce in the pantry.”
Cole’s gaze heated. He put the spatula down. “I’d better come with you, sweetheart. I think it’s on the top shelf.”
His look promised he’d kiss her senseless.
She lost her breath.
“Are you sure you’re OK?” Kelly asked behind her.
“I just need a cold glass of water.”
Then Cole was next to her, his arm around her waist as he steered her toward the sliding glass doors. “No worries. I’ll make sure she gets what she needs.”
When Annie glanced back, Kelly was fanning herself with her hand and grinning her full endorsement.
Cole took Annie into his arms and twirled her into the pantry. She laughed.
He couldn’t hear the sound, but he could see the way her eyes crinkled, the way her lush mouth turned up at the corners, the way everything about her softened. When I’m in your arms, I’m home, her body said.
If he could hear, he might never have noticed all that. He was beginning to learn the advantages of always keeping his eyes open.
Some things might have been taken away from him, but he’d definitely received a tremendous number of blessings.
He didn’t feel deaf. Or crippled. He just was. Was a pine tree better than an oak? Who could tell? Who cared?
Ambrose was in prison. He’d confessed to the stalking, the dead animals, even Trevor’s and Mitch’s murders, as well as the transfer of military information. The other end of his operation in Yemen had been rolled up.
He’d gone to grad school in England. Some Yemeni bigwig’s son had been his roommate. They’d been friends. And when the guy had turned radical and reached out, offering a fortune, Ambrose hadn’t resisted. He wanted enough money to never have to work again. He wanted to stay home to take care of his mother.
Lilly Ambrose had passed on the day after her son’s arrest. According to Murph, Ambrose was inconsolable. The psychiatrist wasn’t going to see the outside of a prison cell ever again.
Hope Hill had survived the scandal—better than survived it. The media attention focused not just on Ambrose but also on the amazing results Hope Hill was producing with alternative therapies. They gained a couple of new donors, along with a growing reputation for helping vets.
They were going to add another building.
Joey was cleared of the grand theft auto charges and had joined the navy.
Cole had Annie.
All was well with the world.
“I love you,” he said against her lips.
“I love you,” she said back.
He didn’t hear it with his ears.
He heard it with his heart.