I smirk. “Sam, Ava is asking if you’re crying.”
She pinches my arm, eyeballing me.
I laugh while my brother seems unable to respond.
After a moment, Sam restarts, “Now you know, I can get sentimental sometimes. I…um… I’m happy for you both.”
“Thanks, Sam,” Ava says.
I try hard not to get tangled in his emotions, thinking about what he has done for me. After years of solitude, I finally have a family again in Sam and my father, all thanks tothat man. And now, because of him, I have a chance to have a family of my own.
Once more, Sam clears his throat. “Well, actually, Jack. Since you’re now officially unemployed, have you thought about my offer?”
Despite his provocation, I play it cool. “Maybe.”
“Comet says hi, by the way.”
That young man is something. I’ll be thrilled to work alongside him, learning from each other—whether it’s about rescue strategies or life.
“Let me talk to Ava about it,” I reply nonchalantly. I won’t hesitate to join Red Mark. I just want to make my brother wait.
“Should you decide to join, which I’m sure you will, you’ll have to get used to dressing up. Can you handle it?”
“Oh, I know how to dress up. I’m a Marine.”
“Excellent,” Sam says. “I’ll leave you to it. Semper fi, Jack.”
As soon as I hang up, Ava greets me with a smile. “So, you’re going to start wearing suits?” She runs a hand over the neckline of my T-shirt.
“It’s an unwritten rule of Red Mark I’ve got to follow. But I’ve known how to dress up since my first ball,” I explain.
“Aha. Speaking of which, are you allowed to wear your dress blues at our wedding?”
“What did I say, Ava Belle?”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” she replies with confidence.
She hooks an arm over mine, and I take the opportunity to caress Quinton. I hint, “So, didn’t you say you wanted a sibling for him?”
She hums with a seductive tone. “Siblings,” she emphasizes the ‘s.’
I murmur in her ear, nibbling her lobe. “What do you say?We go back to our room, put Quinton to sleep, and we can start?”
She grunts, a signature sound that indicates she can’t wait to tear our clothes off and ravage each other. Without wasting another moment, she ransacks my lips, gluing her breasts against my pecs. Her soft belly grinds against my abs erotically as if the bed were just inches away. “How about we do it there?” She gestures at a nearby shed.
“Ava…” I understand if she wants that thrill of getting caught, but not tonight.
She giggles, telling me she’ll let me get away with it this time.
We leave the beach in a hurry, hoping Quinton is tired enough that he’ll fall asleep easily. The fading rays of the sunset play with her hair as I imagine life in beautiful chaos, overrun by children and pets.
“I love you, Ava West,” I murmur.
“Jack Kelleher, I’ve loved you since the first night I met you.”
My fingertip glides along her lower lip. She has captured the very words I should have expressed first. I have loved her since that moment, too, but at the time, I believed in the power of my demons instead of in her, drowning my true feelings. But our reunion has proven how solid we are.
Faith is the life force of love, and Ava is the love that fills every fiber of my being. My body will tirelessly protect her, and my heart will stay faithful to her until its last beat.
