Maybe I do, too. Looking at him, I know I have everything I need.
EPILOGUE 1
Cecily
One year later…
I walk into the house to the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen. It still surprises me that Quinn is that good a cook. I mean, it shouldn’t. I’ve never known him not to be good at something he puts his mind to. But it’s nice, walking in the door after a long day in the clinic and knowing that dinner is sorted out for me.
“Hey,” he calls out. “It’s Taco Friday.”
“I thought that tacos were for Tuesdays,” I answer from the kitchen doorway. I lean there for a minute and just watch him. He’s completely at home here. And he should be. It’s his house now, too. Somehow or other, we managed to refinance everything and there’s no threat of foreclosure hanging over us. Just a monthly mortgage payment that hurts more than a little. But between the two of us, we’re doing okay. Better than okay, because we’re together.
“Tacos,” he pauses for effect, “are for everyday… if you’re living right.”
I can’t not smile at that. The man does love his Mexican food. “Speaking of tacos, a bunch of people are meeting up at El Fuego’s Friday night. Troy and Lizzie. I think Emma and Cody will be there. Cam and Cassie.”
“I’m in the group chat,” he reminds me, still none too pleased to be added to it. “I’m down with dinner and some margaritas if you wanna go.”
“We’ve not been out in a while. It should be fun… You get enough margaritas in me and you might even get lucky.”
He winks at me. “There’s a pitcher in the fridge right now.”
“Pour me one and I’ll go ditch the scrubs. Feels like a billion and one sick kids rolled through there today.”
He makes a cross with his fingers. “Keep that shit away from me. I’m exposed to enough already.”
“Relax, germaphobe. They were primarily preschoolers who can’t keep their hands off anything or out of their mouths. I think you’ll be okay.”
“Not taking any chances.”
I leave him there and head down the hallway to the bedroom. I feel a little shiver. It doesn’t always hit me. But sometimes, when I step into the hall, I see it all over again. Evan Salyers laying on the floor, a knife stuck in his arm, his own knife still spinning on the floor where it had been dropped.
But all that is over.
Evan went back to prison with a lot more years tacked on, and this time it’s not some minimum security thing. He went to the real big boy prison in Eddyville. Jenna is locked up at the correctional institute at Pewee Valley. She got fifteen years on her sundry charges. She’ll probably serve ten. But that’s a problem for ten years from now. I’m not letting that Class A nutball have any more of my time. She took enough with all her scheming and petty bullshit.
I open the bedroom door and step inside, making straight for the bathroom where I ditch the dirty scrubs and step into the shower. It’s a quick one, though. When I get out, I grab a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and make my way back to the small dining area in the kitchen. All the taco fixings are set out and there’s a sugar-rimmed margarita glass waiting for me. One sip and I whistle.
“Strong?”
“You could warn a person, you know!” I tell him as I feel the tequila burning my throat. “Damn.”
“I’m a good cook, Cec, but a shit bartender. We both know that.”
I put the drink down and walk over to him, looping my arms around his neck. “You might be a shitty bartender, but you’re a damn good husband.”
Quinn kisses me. Hard. Backing me up against the door to the refrigerator. It’s still there. The hunger and the heat, but it’s not as desperate now. Because we both know we’re not going anywhere. There’s no expiration date on us anymore.
When the kiss breaks, he pulls back. “Ran into Damien today. Apparently ol’ Farnsworth screwed over a bunch of people. He’s up to his eyeballs in work right now trying to untangle it all.”
“I don’t care. His mistake was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“The best?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow.
“Second best,” I concede. We both know what, or who, takes first place.
“Wanna hold off on dinner and make out like we’re in high school again?”
