Zane stared us down then silently walked over to his room and shut the door behind him.

"Dani," I whispered into her hair, "look at me."

She lifted her head, her blue eyes swollen, cheeks puffy.

"I love you too."

"Are you s-sure?"

I burst out laughing. "Pretty. Damn. Sure." My mouth met hers in a whisper of a kiss before I pulled her against me again; hugging her so tight it was hard to breathe, hard to speak.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was muffled against my chest. "I'm sorry I freaked out. I had no idea, it was you, and I was so angry at first, and I blamed you, and I'm sorry." She hiccupped. "But it wasn't your fault. It wasn't even mine or my parents'." Her eyes cleared. "It's life."

I nodded. "It's life, Dani."

"Life… means I leave what's behind me behind me."

"Can't drive a car in reverse," I agreed.

"Can't drive a car period. It's why Jay got me an SUV," she joked.

Laughing, I kissed her nose. "I'll keep that in mind."

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Dani

Three months later

IT WAS HARD. I ALWAYS HATED movies that ended with "And they lived happily ever after," because that was never how the real world worked. Going through hell didn't automatically give you a free pass to happyland. But having Linc by my side? It made it better, easier, because I finally had someone who understood and accepted me.

"No way!" a girl shrieked next to me. "I think that's Lincoln Greene!"

The friend started fanning herself. "Seriously, tell me he isn't the hottest thing you've ever seen?"

"I heard he's basically engaged to some local girl back in Oregon. Damn, there must be something in the water over there. Did you know AD2 both got married to local girls too?"

"Well." The girl with dark hair rubbed her hands together. "That's settled. I'm moving to Oregon!"

They busted up with laughter until Linc grabbed our coffees and made his way in our direction. Then, absolute silence.

He handed me my coffee, brushed a soft kiss across my forehead, and whispered, "You ready?"

"Sure." A satisfied smile crossed my face as the three girls dropped their jaws in unison and watched me walk out the door with his hand on my hip, shoved into the back pocket of my jeans.

Eat your heart out, ladies. He's all mine.

"So…" Lincoln threw on his aviators and gave me that perfect movie-star grin that had my heart thumping loudly against my chest. "… where to?"

"Well…" I tapped my chin. "… we have to meet Zane for dinner, so we only have a few hours. I say Disneyland."

Linc gave me a thumbs down.

"Put on a hat!" I laughed. "Please?"

"Oh, what? What was that?" He handed me his coffee then dug two tickets out of his pocket. To Disneyland.

"LINC!" I shouted.

"Pris said your parents always promised to take you and never could, so I'm yours and Mickey's for the day. Demetri, Lyss, Alec, and Nat are meeting us along with baby Ella. It's her first trip, too."

"Aw, we can get matching ears."

"Great." Lincoln chuckled, but his excitement matched mine, I could tell.

"Thanks…" I swallowed the lump in my throat. "… for doing this on the anniversary of their death."

"Baby…" Linc took his coffee from my hand and kissed me on the cheek. "… I will always be here for you. Always."

I stared hard into his grey eyes. "I know."

"Good." He brought my hand to his lips. "Now let's go get this over with so I can take you back to my house. We only have three weeks before we need to go back to Seaside to re-shoot the last two scenes that your drama king of a brother-in-law is convinced will look better if we just used a different camera angle."

"Genius, you mean?" I arched my eyebrows.

Linc refused to admit it, but this movie had so much buzz that people were even saying it might gain a few Academy Award nominations for the soundtrack alone, not to mention Best Director for Jaymeson, which was pretty amazing for someone so young.

We walked hand in hand back to his car.

And it felt better, not easier. I still struggled in crowds and with strangers. The last interview Linc had done had me looking like a lunatic because I couldn't even answer yes or no questions, but he hadn't cared and, oddly enough, neither had the reporter.

Life, I was starting to figure out, was never going to be easy. There would be hard days, and there would be great days, but the most important thing to remember was that I was given those days.

And my parents weren't.

So my new goal was to live them to the fullest, and thank God, I'd had them in the first place.

EPILOGUE

Zane

"HEY, YOU'RE FAMOUS, RIGHT?"

"Nope," I lied then steered my way out of the grocery store line, brown paper bag in hand, my vision blurring already from the extreme concentration it took to walk into a stupid public place by myself.

By the time I reached my Range Rover, I was already sweating.

My hands shook as I tried to hit unlock on the key fob. I struggled, missing it with my thumb at least three times before my lights blinked and the car opened.

I secured the package in the passenger's seat and put on my seatbelt, then drove across town to the beach house.