I return his strong handshake. “Thank you.” And I have to admit that I see a curious edge to his eyes, as if marriage had not been something he thought about before, until this moment.
Before I can decide if I’d give my blessing to Micah asking for Allie’s hand in marriage, my half-sister spins around to me and gestures at the tombstone. “This would’ve pleased her. A lot.”
“I’m glad.” I don’t know what I’m thinking or feeling, but I just act and grab Allie, wrapping my arms around her tight. She stiffens, and I know why; I’ve never hugged her before. But when this little fifteen-year-old girl walked into my life with a big heart and warm eyes, she turned everything upside down. For the better, I can now see. I lean down and whisper in her ear, “Are you pleased, though?”
When I lean away, tears well up in Allie’s eyes. “I am so very happy for you and for Taylor…and for me.” She smiles, even though her chin is quivering. “And you know, I’ve been thinking about fate lately, wondering why we’ve gone through the things we’ve gone through. And I think Mom left me so I could find you. She wanted to save you in the only way she knew how, by forcing us together.”
My throat tightens with emotion, my eyes water. “Dammit, Allie. Stop trying to make me cry.” Every time she tells me a story about our mother, I see her looking for tears.
She laughs softly, stands on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “One day I’ll crack through all that toughness.”
“What a goal to have,” says Micah, who smiles at me, pulling Allie into his arms.
I reach for Taylor, bringing her close, her back pressed to my chest. I place my chin on top of her head. “Tell me a story,” I say to Allie.
“What kind of story?” she asks.
“Another story about Mom.”
A tear slides down
her cheek before she wipes it away quickly and her smile warms. I see now that Allie needs this as much as I do. She wants to never forget the woman I never knew.
“She always had this saying,” Allie begins. “No matter how bad things were, she’d always say, ‘Everything’s going to be okay,’ and somehow it always was—”
A squeal of tires jerks my head left, and I notice Ryder’s truck coming to an abrupt stop behind Micah’s car. A second later, Ryder’s out of his truck, charging toward us.
“Do I even want to know how you knew we were here?” I inquire when he reaches us.
“Later,” Ryder quips, tension radiating off him. To Micah, he says, “Apparently, your money laundering story is not enough to keep the tabloids fucking happy.” He lifts a magazine up. “Now they’re coming after me.”
I squint, reading the written words:
Is the senator’s daughter, Hadley Winters, becoming a handful for head security detail and multi-millionaire Ryder Blackwood? Our sources say, yes! And they also tell us that the kick-ass bodyguard is madly in love with her.
I glance up at Ryder. “What’s your plan?”
Ryder pauses, clearly considering his choices. Then he slowly begins to smile. “I’m going to squeeze and keep on squeezing until this fucker has nowhere to hide.”
Tension ripples in the air around us. We all knew this fight wouldn’t end with Taylor telling our story. It might have taken the heat off us, but tabloids live for dirty little secrets. And by the rage on Ryder’s face, his dirty little secret has some truth behind it.
I look from Ryder to Micah to Allie to Taylor and say the only thing that comes to mind, “Everything’s going to be okay.”