She smiles. “I know that.”
Relief chokes me. It builds so fast and so furiously within me, there’s no outlet for it.
Other than my eyes. I breathe out and haul her into me, my face falling straight into her neck, needing to smell her, feel her. Needing to make such she’s flesh and bone and in my arms. “I’ve left you a really long voicemail,” I whisper. I want to remember what I said, want to relay each and every word, slowly and concisely, but they’re gone, vanished from my mind, something else replacing them.
Raya.
In my arms.
And, really, only three of those words matter, the three that scream the loudest. The three that I need to say over and again.
“I love you.”
Epilogue
I hope you’re happy here,” I say, handing the keys over to Annie Ryan.
“Thank you, Drew.” She tosses the keys in her hand, looking around the hallway. “I think I’m going to be very happy here.”
I take the handle of the front door and pull it open as she kicks a few of the letters at her feet, piles of correspondence that will never be read. Stepping out onto the street, I have a quick check of my phone. No missed calls. Where are they? “Any plans to knock the place about a bit?” I scan the street, left to right. Nothing. “Since you’re an architect and all.”
“A weekend scrubbing and a lick of paint is all it needs for now. The second bedroom will be my studio.” Her green eyes glimmer with excitement that I just can’t help but smile at. “Are you waiting for someone?” She looks past me, scanning the empty tree-lined street.
“Yeah,” I dial Raya, starting to worry. “Remember that really uncomfortable time when I asked your opinion on something entirely inappropriate?” I take my phone to my ear, and Annie smiles, wide and bright.
“Oh, your friend’s problem?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah.”
“And the girl moving out of the country.”
“Oh, you mean my girlfriend?” It sounds so strange saying that.
“Ah, Drew!” Annie lightly punches my bicep. “So you asked her not to go.”
My phone rings off and I frown, having another quick scan of the street. “I did. She’s supposed to be meeting me here with my daughter.”
“You have a daughter?”
She sounds shocked. What’s most shocking is that I have a girlfriend. “I do, but I get the feeling that I’m not her favorite person anymore.”
Annie laughs, starting to collect up some of the envelopes littering the floor of her new hallway. “I’m happy for you.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Her arm extends toward the road. “Oh, is this them?”
I crack my neck, quickly looking in her pointed direction, grinning wide when I find Raya and Georgia skipping down the road hand in hand. “This is them.” Peace and contentment wraps me in its warm embrace and squeezes tightly. “Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”
They come to a stop at the bottom of the steps, arms full of cuddly toys and cotton candy. “Hey, Dad!” Georgia flicks her head to rid her face of hair. “We’ve been to the fairground!”
I turn to Annie. “I’d better go.”
She nods past me. “They suit you.”
“I know.” I smile, sliding my phone back into my pocket. “Maybe your love’s next victim, Annie.”
She scoffs, truly amused. “Like I told you, Drew. Not even sizzles, so definitely no sparks.”
“Don’t sound so sure. These things bite you on the arse unexpectedly.”
She smiles, though it’s a space-filler, something to do other than tell me that there’s no arse-biting in her life likely to happen soon. “Enjoy them.”
“I will. Take care, Annie,” I say, because if there’s one thing I’ve figured out about Annie Ryan in the short time I’ve known her, it’s that she’s quite happy taking care of herself. She doesn’t need a man, but does she want one?
I head down the steps and scoop up my girl, taking a bite of her candyfloss. “How much of this stuff have you had?”
“There’s no hope of her sleeping on the plane.” Raya slides an arm under my suit jacket and attaches herself to my side, and like a magnet, my arm wraps around her shoulder and pulls her in, because she isn’t close enough.
I drop a kiss on the forehead of each of my girls and start walking us to the car. “We all packed?”
“Yes!” Georgia is about to burst with excitement. “I have two new bikinis and a sparkly dress, too,” she declares.
“Bikinis?” I question, turning nervous eyes onto Raya. A shake of her head, no words, tells me not to worry. “And Grandpa?” I ask.
“He’s all set.” Raya burrows her face into my chest, her palm resting on Georgia’s dangling leg down my front.
“Then let’s get him back to Australia.”
If happiness was a chain, it would be platinum with solid hearts between every link and entwined around my swelling heart.
I’m chained, make no mistake, but I’m the most free I’ve ever been.
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I gather up the remaining glasses and make to turn, being sure to maintain my stability. Not that I’m stubborn or anything. I’m not drunk.
“Care to prove it?” he asks, pulling me to a stop. A challenge?
I risk a peek at him out of the corner of my eye and find the most gorgeous smile on his already gorgeous face. Where the hell did he come from?
Prove it? “How?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“Take the shots to your friends.” He nods past me, and I look over to see my friends all now gathered around the tall table, Micky’s arms flying in the air dramatically, the girls laughing. I manage to note that Dishy Man here knows who I’m with. How long has he been here? There’s no way he would have slipped under any of the girls’ Hot-Man Radar. “Then come back to see me, if you want,” he adds quietly.
If I want? Do I want? I have another quick peek up at him. He’s still smiling. It’s a dangerous smile. Very dangerous. He’s too handsome to be harmless.
I slink off, shamelessly adopting a mild sway of my arse as I go, resisting the urge to see if he’s watching me. He is watching me. I just know it, and it’s got me all hot and bothered.
Lizzy is on me like a pouncing tiger when I arrive back at the table. “Who in God’s name is that?” she asks, eyes wide with excitement as she takes a shot.
“I don’t know,” I reply, downing the last shot myself instead of giving it up to any one of my friends, all the while feeling the magnetic pull of the man behind me, my body tightening with the strain it’s taking not to turn and seek him out again.
“Annie, I know you’re pretty much immune to men, but this is taking the piss. He’s watching you.”