“T.J.” She heard Vaughn’s voice as she surfaced, shaking the water from her hair and eyes.

“Hey!” she called out. “I’m over here!”

He stood, waist deep in the pond, his chest bigger and more muscular than it was last summer, and she couldn’t help the little flutter that started in her tummy and worked its way someplace lower. His hair was brushed back from his face, his eyes were searching for her, and when they landed where she was treading water out in the middle of the pond, they lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

“God, T. Don’t do that,” he grumbled. “I thought you’d drowned. You scared the hell out of me.”

She smiled. “How could I have drowned in a pond the size of a swimming pool where the deepest part is hardly deeper than I am tall?”

He moved, pushing off the bottom into the water where he did a slow breast stroke to her. “Maybe there’s a monster in this pond that snatches girls and pulls them under to its murky lair,” he said, using his best creepy-movie voice and grinning maniacally at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Or maybe there’s just a stupid boy trying to scare a girl with stories about pond monsters.”

He shrugged as much as you can while swimming, and answered, “Maybe. I guess you’ll find out soon enough.” And then he dove, torpedoing under the water until he reached her legs, where he yanked, pulling her under with him. She shrieked before she went down, and once underwater, she began grabbing back, trying to push him down while pushing herself up. They struggled and wrestled and spent the next hour getting thoroughly mucky with pond water and mud. When they finally took a break and lay in the warm sun on the towels they’d brought, all Vaughn could think of was that moment when she’d disappeared under the water’s surface and he couldn’t find her. He knew right then and there that he’d always need to know where T.J. was. He had to be able to find her, no matter what or when or where.

* * *

“T.J.” She heard Vaughn’s voice as she surfaced, shaking her head gently to clear the fuzziness and buzzing in her ears.

She tried to say his name, let him know where she was, but when she did, her throat was dry and sore.

“Shh, baby,” he whispered to her as his hand stroked her hair. “You don’t need to say anything, I’m right here.”

She managed to pry open her eyes, finding a softly lit room and Vaughn’s very anxious face over her.

Joy replaced some of the worry when her eyes met his, though.

“Hi,” he whispered as tears shone in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but judging by the way she felt, it was akin to being hit by a Mack truck, and it had obviously done a number on Vaughn.

She opened her mouth again, but still nothing was forthcoming.

“Here,” he said, reaching first to the call button on the wall, then over to the table next to them. “Let’s see if you can get some of this in you.” He held up a glass of water with a lid and straw inserted.

She gave a tiny nod, and he held the straw up to her mouth. She managed to get it between her lips and sucked. Cool, sweet liquid washed down her throat, and she closed her eyes for a moment just to savor it.

When she nodded again, he pulled the cup away and set it aside.

Then he gazed at her, his face so open that she could see every tiny thought he had. And he was scared, and he was relieved, and he was something else, something so different from anything she’d ever seen there that she lifted one heavy hand to touch him, grasp his forearm lying on the bed, and squeeze as much as she could when she felt as weak as a kitten.

“Do you remember what happened?” Vaughn’s voice was gentle, and he continued to stroke her hair.

“I went to close the floodgate,” she said, trying so hard to remember more than that. And what was that ringing in her ears? She shook her head gently, but that sent everything to sloshing and the world around her to spinning.

“Whoa,” Vaughn said, holding her face between his palms. “You still with me?”

“Dizzy. And my ears are ringing.”

He smiled, warm and gentle. “Yeah, that’s normal. The doctors said it may last as much as a few weeks. You were struck by lightning, baby.”

Oh my God. Now she remembered. Stepping out of the pickup a sizzling crack, bright light, then nothing until now.

“I think I remember,” she told him, relishing the feel of his rough palms on her tender cheeks. “Will I be okay? Is there anything permanent?”

“You’ll have a pretty cool scar on your arm. Other than that, you’re going to be fine.” He paused, swallowing visibly as his gaze dropped from hers. When he continued, his voice shook with emotion. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, T. You were unconscious for hours. I thought I’d lost you.”

She felt her heart swell, and tears came to her eyes. She hurt everywhere, but somehow, seeing him here, knowing that he was hers and that he cared so much made all the pain dissipate like smoke in the air.

“I love you,” she said, her voice raspy.

“Oh baby, if you only knew just how good it is to hear you say that, because I am never going to let you go again.”

He kissed her then, long, deep, and slow, only coming up for air to look into her tired eyes.

“This is it, T.,” he whispered.

“What?” she asked, a soft smile working its way across her face.

“The start of forever.” Then he kissed her again.

“Enough of that now. She just came to,” a nurse chided as she bustled into the room followed by T.J.’s parents.

“Oh my God, she’s awake!” Grace cried out, rushing to the bedside. Vaughn stepped out of the way so Grace could see her daughter, but T.J. kept her eyes on him, yearning for his touch to return. She knew he was the best medicine they could give her, and his love was going to make her well.

* * *

A week later, T.J. sat in her porch swing, a cup of tea in hand, as she watched Vaughn’s truck rumble up the drive. He stopped in front of her steps, opened his door, and climbed out.

“Took you long enough,” she said, grinning at him. God, he was beautiful. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt and loose track pants. When he twisted to get things out of the cab of the truck, the shirt lifted just enough to show the V that arrowed down from his abs. Yum. Just downright lickable, her guy was.

He turned back, a paper bag in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. “Quit your complaining, I had to make a stop.”

“You got me Lynn’s lemon poppy seed muffins,” she exclaimed with delight.

“I did, but if you’re going to complain, I’ll just eat it myself.”

He climbed the steps, then held the bag out, snatching it away as she reached for it.

“Fine. I don’t need it anyway.” She feigned disinterest, looking at her fingernails, struggling not to smile.

He dangled the bag in front of her. “You sure? This muffin’s pretty damn special. Maybe the most special muffin you’ll ever get.”

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. He just grinned evilly and wiggled the bag in front of her.

“Give it to me,” she finally said.

“Ask nice,” he said, his voice growing rough and his gaze hot. T.J. felt an ache start between her thighs. He’d only been gone to town for a couple of hours, but already she missed being in bed next to him. Missed his touch on her sensitive skin, missed his harsh breaths in her ear as he stroked in and out of her.

“Please,” she said, no longer really caring about the damn muffins.

He set the bag on the swing next to her, then leaned down, placing his hands on either side of her hips. “Your wish is my command,” he whispered before kissing her seductively on the lips.

When he pulled away, she was breathless and fuzzy headed. Somehow, after all this time, he could still do things like that to her. She looked away to grab the bag and remove a muffin. But what her hand hit wasn’t soft, fluffy pastry. Instead, she felt a rough cube of some sort. She glanced back to Vaughn, questioning what he’d put in her muffin bag. But Vaughn wasn’t standing over her anymore. No, Vaughn was in front of her on one knee.

Her heart raced as she grasped the object and pulled it out of the paper bag. Her hands began to shake, and Vaughn reached out to gently remove the box from her hold.

T.J.’s hand flew to her mouth to muffle the gasp that tried to escape.

Flipping the lid on the velvet box open, Vaughn removed a familiar white-gold ring with an oval-cut diamond in the center.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, gently reaching out to touch it.

“When Cade asked Nina, he didn’t even consider using Mom’s ring. He wanted to get her something that was exactly her taste. I always figured that we’d just give all of Mom’s jewelry to Katie when she grows up, but then I told them I was going to ask you, and Cade and Ty came to me with this.”

He lifted her left hand in his and held the ring out just shy of her finger.

“We all agreed, T. You were the daughter that Mom never had, and while she would have loved Nina and welcomed her to the family with open arms, she would have wanted you to have this.” He slipped the ring onto her finger. “Someday, Lynn will be gone, and then there will only be four people left in this world who truly knew my parents. Cade, Ty, me, and you. There is no one my brothers and I would rather see wearing this ring than you.”

Tears floated at the edge of T.J.’s vision as she stared down at the ring she’d seen on Sophia Jenkins’s finger so many times. When she looked back at Vaughn, he returned all her emotions with one tender gaze.

He cleared his throat before he continued. “Theodora Jayne Brisco,” he said, a tear trickling down his cheek. “When I saw a little girl with shiny black braids standing under a flowering eucalyptus tree on a playground, I never dreamed that she would become so essential to my life. But over almost twenty years, hard times and beautiful times, childhood, and hopefully some adulthood now too ”—he chuckled, and she smiled back—“you are the one constant in my world. The center of everything I am and the reason for everything I want to become. Will you do me the honor of marrying me so we can continue this beautiful trip together?”

She nodded through her tears, and he leaned forward, taking her face in his hands and kissing her on the lips over and over. And if spirits really did roam the world with the humans they’d once loved, T.J. knew that Sophia Jenkins was right there with them, watching, protecting, blessing. The road had been hard, and long, and painful, but the reward was the sweetest thing that life could offer.