Fifteen minutes later, we loaded up in Champ’s truck and drove a mile and a half through familiar roads. When he pulled into a very familiar driveway, I wondered if he was trying to make a joke.
“Ha ha, very funny. I had no idea you knew where my aunt Cherry used to live.”
Champ threw the truck into Park and turned to stare at me. We both realized it at the same time.
“You bought my aunt Cherry’s house?” I asked with wide eyes and a growing smile.
“This was your aunt’s house?”
“The place where I spent my Licking Thicket summers,” I confirmed. “Broke my heart when she sold it, but it was too much to maintain and needed too much work.”
“No shit,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been a challenge.”
I remembered him describing it as a money pit rather than “a challenge,” so I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Show me. I can’t wait to see what you’ve done.”
The house was stunning. It was everything Cherry would have wanted it to be with the modern conveniences I would have insisted upon had we been the ones doing the updating.
“Champ,” I said with awe in my voice.
“Don’t credit me,” he said. “Jericho did all the work.”
The fresh paint, new light fixtures, and clean windows made a difference in every room. Original woodwork had been restored to its original lustre, and the hardwoods shone with new stain and a clear coat.
Hot tears began rolling down my face as childhood memories mixed together with hopeful excitement about the future.
“Can we keep it?” I breathed, looking around the entry hall. From there, I could see the front salon, the dining room, the curving staircase, and the new, modern kitchen.
Champ pulled me into his arms. “Hell yes we can. I was really, really hoping you’d say that. It’s yours.”
I hugged him tightly, but after a few seconds, I heard a familiar voice coming from the direction of the kitchen.
“Quinn Taffet, mind your manners! Snogging a strange man in your own entry hall is considered gauche.”
I turned to see a smiling Bunny Champion leading a group of people in through the back door. I saw Ava and Malachi, Cindy Ann and her husband, and a bunch of people I didn’t know. But bringing up the rear, holding the arm of a short, handsome older man, was my aunt.
“Cherry!” I took off at a run and hugged her almost as tightly as I’d hugged Champ. “He bought your house,” I whispered. “Look what he did. He brought it back to life.”
The warm, familiar strength of her was all I needed to finally feel like everything was right in my world. “He brought more than the house back to life, sweetheart,” she whispered back.
After hugging me, Cherry introduced me to Terry, whose kind eyes had laugh lines that immediately put me at ease.
Herc hopped around, licking Bunny’s wool slacks and then nipping at Kev’s jeans until Kev dropped on the floor alongside Ava’s toddler to pet him. The rest of Champ’s team began bringing in trays of wedding leftovers from their vehicles and coolers of leftover drinks before mingling with my new Licking Thicket friends and their families.
Pretty soon, we had an impromptu housewarming party full of our closest friends and family. Riggs and Carter blushed every time someone commented on their wedding bands, and Carter looked at Riggs like he was God’s gift to wedding planners.
“I still can’t believe you went through with it,” he said to his new husband.
Riggs kissed him on the side of his mouth. “I had to lock you down before you found greener grass.”
“You know I was already yours forever.”
Riggs kissed him again. “I’ve been wanting to marry you since that crazy-ass flight out of Venezuela. I had one condition in a man, and it was that he knew how to subdue insurgents with grace while I hijacked a plane.” He shrugged. “Right place, right time, I guess.”
Carter flicked him on his shoulder with his finger before leaning in and kissing him hard on the mouth. I saw him whisper I love you against his lips.
A banging noise came from upstairs, and we all jumped. “My bad!” a man called.
Champ sighed. “That’s my contractor. Jericho. He’s finishing hanging window treatments in one of the guest rooms.”
Hux’s phone buzzed with a notification. He sucked in a breath when he read it. “Boss, we may have a problem. I need to head back to Carter and Riggs’s place to see if this can be right.”
Champ’s crew moved out of the kitchen and into the empty salon. I trailed after them next to Kev, who was clearly as curious as I was.
“What is it?” Champ asked once we left everyone else to set out the food in the kitchen.
Kev whispered to me, “Hux looks nervous. He’s never nervous.”