In San Diego.
“Mum looks like she’s having fun, doesn’t she?” Cara commented, a smile in her voice.
I nodded and grinned. “She absolutely does.”
Carina was good people. I credited her with smoothing things over with David, Cara’s dad, for us. Cara was an adult—he couldn’t very well stop her from leaving the country—but none of us wanted her relationship with him to suffer any more than it already had because of his actions. Understandably, he was worried about her moving halfway across the world with two men he’d never even heard of, one of whom was old enough to be her father.
But Carina had defended Cara, and her absolute faith in our girl had gone a long way toward alleviating his fears. She’d also told him what Cara’s true passion was, a secret that came as no surprise to David. He not only insisted on helping finance Cara’s living expenses while she was trying to get her writing career off the ground, but he also gifted her a third of the money for the house.
It helped that Carina was spending time in the US too. But none of us, including Carina, expected that she’d end up in San Diego. She’d gone to stay with Gauthier’s parents in Seattle. But a week after Carina had arrived, Sophia had received a call from her mother. Her father had fallen and broken his hip and would need months of rehab as well as emergency home renovations so he could return home after his operation. Gauthier’s parents had hopped straight on a plane back to Canada. Carina didn’t want to be alone in Seattle, so she’d accepted Jacques’s invitation to spend the summer with him and his flatmates.
Except I suspected they weren’t just friends at all—there was something more going on between them if the way they looked at each other like their next meal was anything to go by. Every time we’d seen them in the weeks we’d been here, both Gauthier and his friends had doted on Carina, and the sexual tension between the four of them was so thick, it was palpable. Alec and I both had a feeling it was because Gauthier, Trav, and Rusty were showing Carina exactly how gorgeous they thought she was. Carina’s smile was multiplied tenfold on Cara—she was ecstatic that her mum was smiling again.
“Do you like it here?” I asked Cara, not just referring to the bar.
She looked out over the lights of the city, and a slow smile tilted her lips up. She was radiant.
“I love living here. The city is incredible. I love how we can explore it together and find new things every time.”
“The food is so good,” I agreed. But it was so much more than those little things. It was so much bigger than that. I was happy.Wewere happy.
Our life together was better than I could have ever imagined.
Coming home to Cara and Alec after a day at the marina was indescribable. I hadn’t realized how lonely my life had become before them. I’d missed living with people. I’d missed pillow talk and the intimacy that came with being in love. I’d missed that jittery feeling of butterflies swooping in my belly when I thought about Cara and Alec. I’d closed myself off after I’d lost Rosa and Ash. I’d been too scared to open myself up and be vulnerable again. I’d been watching my life pass me by. I’d simply been existing. I wasn’t thriving. I wasn’t even really living. I was merely there. Each day I put one foot in front of the other and just plodded along.
I’d been young when I’d fallen for Rosa, and after losing her and Ash, I’d been deep in an abyss. My heart had been broken,shattered in the worst possible way. I was a shell of a man. I was hollow inside. I hadn’t seen daylight for a decade.
Then Zali became involved withTarnished Crown.They’d discovered the truth of what had happened and given me back my boy. I’d been able to say goodbye to him. I’d found peace. I’d begun healing.
Then I’d met Cara.
She was like sunshine after a rainy day. She filled my life with rainbows of the most spectacular colours. From the moment I met her, I knew she was special. She taught me that I was capable of falling in love again.
At first, I hadn’t understood what my feelings for Alec were. It’d started off as helping Cara feel comfortable, showing her the ropes of sorts, which I had been, but I’d fallen for him at the same time.
The want and the need to touch him had sideswiped me, knocking me flat on my ass. But what we had was real and true. He’d taught me something about myself that I’d never even known existed—I had a serious thing for tall, dark, and broody hockey players. Who knew?
We were like pineapple on pizza—perfect. Some people hated it, but we didn’t give a fuck what they thought. We worked. We laughed, we loved, and we were happy. They were it for me. They were my whole heart.
Now we were living together halfway across the world, and it was incredible. Being in the US was an adventure. We were having a blast. I’d found work straight away, and the company I worked for wasn’t half bad.
It hadn’t taken long to find a place together too. It was close enough to both the marina and the practice rink but out of the main part of town in a more residential part of the city. It suited us to a T. We were at home there from the moment we’d walkedin the front door. Actually, it was from the moment we turned into the drive.
The yard was private. The house was beautiful. Every room along the western part of the house had uninterrupted views of the Pacific Ocean. Cara’s eyes had lit up when she saw the outlook from the office. She instantly went to the desk and touched it reverently. She looked at me with wonder in her eyes and said, “This is where I want to write my bestseller.” I’d known it was home.
Cara had proven herself right—she’d finished her book, and it was full of all the feels. I’d devoured it in one sitting. She’d reached out to a few agents and was about to sign a contract that would change her life. I couldn’t wait.
Alec couldn’t get past the primary bedroom. Every house we’d looked at was clearly made for two people—two closets, two sinks, two towel hooks. But this one was different. It had his and hers closets in the primary bedroom, and a third reserved for shoes. But renovations were easy. So was adding a third sink to the attached bathroom’s countertop.
I didn’t care about all that, but I did care about Alec’s reaction. He’d exhaled and closed his eyes. His smile was serene when he said that he could see us waking up there every morning. Then the agent showed us the courtyard garden. It was surrounded on three sides by high trees, including a eucalypt of all things. The gardens drew our eyes down to the ocean beyond. It was peaceful and completely private, somewhere Alec could go to recharge. I knew he’d found his place in the world—with us in this oceanfront oasis. It was as if a weight sitting on his shoulders had lifted. He’d smiled again, and I’d swallowed the lump of emotion that got caught in my throat.
Then I’d told the agent that we wanted it.
It was only when I’d walked down to the bottom of the yard to the ocean that our home really called to me. I’d dipped myfingers into the waves lapping at the sandy shoreline and closed my eyes. Asher’s voice filled my ears like he was standing next to me. We were on the opposite side of the ocean to where we’d spread his ashes, but he’d been right there. The connection between us was stronger than it had been since I’d lost him. It was as if the water was a conduit, bringing us closer together. It bridged the continents separating us. I hadn’t had any doubts that the house was for us, but Asher’s blessing had stolen my breath and left me a shaking mess.
“What are you thinking about?” Cara asked me, twisting in my arms until her back was to the view.
She fingered the leather strap around my throat. Suspended from it was a smoothed pebble Asher had found on the beach one day that we’d taken home and drilled a hole through. I thought he’d lost it. But he’d found a leather strap and wrapped the present, ready for my birthday. Ry was holding onto it, and he gave it to me after we’d lost Ash. He’d wanted to surprise me. I’d worn it every day since.
