Reaching up, I wrapped a hand around his wrist, brought his palm to my mouth and kissed him there before I tugged it flat against my beating heart. “I would have given up anything to save her, Rex. Anything. The restaurant. My heart. My life.”
I clutched him a little tighter. “And I thought I was going to. I thought both of our lives were slipping away. And then you were there. Saving me. Saving Frankie.”
His expression tightened, almost grim in its emphasis. “Maybe that’s what being a family is all about. I’ve always been terrified of losing Frankie. Knowing I would never survive that kind of loss. When it became a possibility—losing either of you—I would have sacrificed everything. Anything. Sold my soul. Lost my life. And you . . . you, Little Thief . . .”
Thumb brushing across my cheek, his head angled to the side. Those sage eyes speared me, finding their way to my soul.
“You saved my daughter, Rynna.” He blinked at me, as if he were struggling for the right thing to say. “I knew the moment I met you that you were different. I fought it and fought it while you just continued to fight for me. To fight for us. But every time our paths crossed, I knew my life changed a little more. Truth is, I was terrified to take the chance. But like you said, it’s all about taking the right ones.”
He edged in, so close that our noses brushed and his breaths became mine. “You and Frankie? You were the best chances I ever took. And I was terrified both times. But if something doesn’t scare you? Maybe it’s not important enough. You are my life. You and Frankie are what it means to be a family. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
My heart went wild, flailing against its boundaries.
He dipped in and pressed his lips to mine. So sweet. Before he pulled back, pinning me with that mesmerizing stare. “I love you, Rynna Dayne. I love you so much, and I’m not ever going to let you go.”
Love. Love. Love.
It surged and spread and flowed. Filling every crevice. Every void. And my heart. I think maybe it did manage to split in two. Held in the hands of two people. Two people who’d become my center. My focus. Etching themselves into my being.
Mounting Rex Gunner’s walls had seemed impossible. Those towering obstacles insurmountable.
Impenetrable and impossible.
But my gramma had always told me that life was just one long string of possibilities.
That chances were worth taking.
And this man and his baby girl? They were worth every single one.
The Epilogues
Epilogue One – Rex Gunner
“Are your eyes closed?” I asked, unable to keep from peeking over at her. At the incredible woman who rode in the front seat of my truck.
Just looking at her had every inch of me tightening.
In need.
In want.
In this mad kind of love.
She was beautiful.
So damned beautiful she was hard to look at. Rynna was the kind of beauty that shined and blinded and radiated. Inside and out. Flush with goodness and grace. That body still my greatest temptation.
Though, I had zero qualms about giving in.
“Yes. And you put this blindfold on me.” Rynna pointed at the strip of purple fabric, like I wasn’t already well aware it was there.
I suppressed a chuckle while she continued her little rant.
“Seriously, I’m not sure what you think I’m going to see because it’s pitch black in here.” Rynna almost whined, all of it done behind the most brilliant smile, the girl biting at her lip, totally failing at trying to keep her excitement contained. “And I’m pretty sure you’ve been driving in circles, trying to throw me off. Or get me sick. There’s that.”
But she was grinning so wide that I knew she was loving this every bit as much as me.
“Hold tight, baby. Your surprise is right around the corner.”
I eased the truck into a parking spot and killed the engine. I leaned across the cab, enjoying the way she inhaled sharply when I got close to her face, the way a shiver rolled down her spine when I leaned around her and gently untied the purple silk fabric from her eyes.
Slowly, I eased it back. The girl blinked, reoriented herself, needing time to grab on to her senses. Nothing made me happier than the fact when she did, she was looking directly at me.
I’d become her focal point. Just the same as she’d become mine.
“Hey,” she murmured, her expression soft.
“Hi, beautiful.” For a few seconds, we floated on the moment, just loving being together. Then I grinned and angled my head, urging her attention out the windshield.
She laughed. Laughed loud before she looked back at me like I’d lost my mind.
Truth was, the only thing I’d lost was my heart.