“They’re still only leaving notes.”
“Have you told Hector about this yet?” I asked.
I could see the man in question through the serving hatch. He was chopping something in the kitchen, but his eyes were on us. Maybe he noticed how stiff Atlas suddenly became and got worried? Though I had a feeling our grumpy diner owner never had his eyes far from his sunshine server.
“I don’t want to worry him,” Atlas whispered.
I sighed. He was still being stubborn about this. He would be safer if Hector was aware of the potential danger he faced, but I couldn’t force him to do anything.I could only keep my vigilance up and do my best to protect him and find this stalker as soon as possible.
The others finally wound down their discussion and looked like they were ready to order. I quietly asked Atlas to bring the newest note to the police station tomorrow. He nodded, then with a quick shift of expression, he took our order with a bright smile that oozed sunshine. You couldn’t tell anything was wrong just by looking at him. His ability to hide his feelings honestly impressed me.
“Everything okay?” Dan asked in hushed whispers. Sam was chatting with Atlas about hanging out later this week. Our friends were all laughing and chatting happily around us. I’d tell Dan about my conversation with Atlas later, but for now, I wanted to enjoy my time with my friends and the man who had my heart.
“Yeah. I love you,” I said, twining our fingers again.
Dan smiled and scooted closer to me. “I love you,” he murmured back.
I didn’t think anything sounded more beautiful than Dan saying those words to me.
Epilogue
DAN
Five years later
“Where is your husband, dear? It’s rare to not see you two together,” Auntie Mae said from behind me in the grocery store checkout lane. She was Ryan’s mom andthebiggest gossip in town.
Sometimes I wondered if the town solely ran on the gossip she fed it. If she’d gotten a job as a reporter, she would have made a killing with how scarily quick she got her intel.
I swore she knew themomentsomething happened in town, which was why it hadn’t surprised me when the entire town found out Clay and I got married, even though we’d secretly eloped.
Privacy in Kither Springs? What’s that?
I couldn’t even get mad, though. Auntie Mae was good people. In fact, she was one of the main forces thatgot our town to accept Clay and my shift from stepbrothers to boyfriends so quickly.
I heard anytime someone even skirted in the territory of shit-talking us, Auntie Mae was there knocking some sense into them.
She wasn’t the only one who had our backs. Our amazing friends were always there to defend us, and our parents were our biggest supporters.
Lao-baeven threatened to ban someone from the clinic for giving me a lecture about living in sin and all that jazz. Mylao-banever once in my entire life threatened to refuse service before, and his doing so to stand up for me made me secretly happy. It showed just how much he loved me.
The man ended up apologizing, probably not wanting to drive all the way to the city for his basic care. We were bound to provide emergency care to everyone, but owning our own clinic meant we technically could refuse general service.
I finished paying for my groceries, then turned back to Auntie Mae, flashed her a smile, and replied, “He’s at home. Speaking of, he’s waiting for me, so I’ll see you around.”
“Bye, dear. Give Clay my love!” she called to my departing back.
There weren’t many people on the street since it was still early morning, but a few early risers were already out in town. They greeted me with smiles before heading their own way. There were no weird looksabout the man who married his stepbrother, not like it’d been a few years back. Everyone pretty much accepted that Clay and I were in love, and if they had a problem with it, they had an entire wall of supporters they had to get past.
“Honey, I’m home!” I called when I reached home. Clay didn’t respond, but I knew he was waiting for me.
I didn’t go to find him immediately. It was still early. I took my time putting away the groceries, then fed our pet rats a round of treats.
Captain and Hook passed away a few years back. It was one of the worst things about having pet rats, since they had such short lifespans.
Even though I was the one who wanted to adopt them in the first place, Clay had taken their passing harder than I had. It’d gotten to the point where Clay swore off getting any other pets—especially such short-lived ones as rats—until we were presented with more rats who needed adopting, and Clay fell in love.
The trio squeaked happily as they took the treats from my hands. Their little noses twitched in the air, probably looking for their other daddy. I couldn’t blame them for loving Clay so much. He spoiled them rotten.
