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“Very.”
Epilogue
LYNX
THREE YEARS LATER
Poppy adjusts her green gown, the silky fabric ruffling as it hides her body. Her hair is pulled back, loose curls down her spine. I bite my lip, attempting to stifle my groan where I hover in the doorframe. She whips around, hearing the strangled sound, a wicked smirk on her thick, red-painted lips.
“No!” she scolds me, laughing loudly, “Bonnie just did my make-up!”
“I know,” I bite my lip, running my gaze down the length of her, her graduation gown open, those long, now suntanned, legs on display, a black cotton summer dress covering the rest of her. “I want to lick it off of you,” I tell her with a low rumble as I stalk forward, grab her up in my arms and swing her around.
“Lynx!” she squeals, swatting at my shoulders. “Put me down!” she laughs, burying her face into my neck, wrapping her legs around my waist.
I perch her on the edge of the basin, flick my gaze over her beautiful face, feel my heart thud that much harder.
“We’re graduating,” I beam at the smile that takes over her very pretty mouth.
“We are,” she breathes, her hands adjusting my shirt collar. “And your dad’s here,” she smiles shyly, looking up at me from beneath her thick fan of lashes.
I swallow around the lump in my throat, tears gathering in my eyes.
Dad was released two years early after anonymous evidence found its way to the authorities, proving his innocence and Christopher MatthewsSenior’sguilt. Chris’ dad killed himself before he was ever locked up, and Chris and his familymoved out of state, but not before he was charged with sexual assault and attempted rape. At least, that’s the story Bennett told Poppy.
Dad was released just days before Raiden and Rex graduated, so he got to come to their ceremony, and now, he gets to see ours.
I bite down on my teeth, Poppy’s arms linking around my neck, her nails scratching over my scalp.
“Are you happy, Treasure?” I ask her in a whisper thinking of how happy she makes all of us.
Our family loves her like their own, and I think she feels a little like she has her mama back in the form of both of ours. Raiden and Flynn’s mom is obsessed with her just as much as mine and Bennett’s.
She hasn’t had contact with her dad since he was sent to jail not too long after Matthews’ conviction. She doesn’t ever want to talk about him, she says she hashed it out in therapy, that she still attends regularly, and doesn’t want to waste her new life with thoughts of him. It’s the only reason he’s still breathing, in case she ever needs closure.
Poppy smiles up at me, those red lips finding mine, “Always with you.”
And later, once our green, tasseled caps are launched into the heavens and we’re all eating together in my dad’s favorite restaurant, passing plates of good food down the long bench table filled with all of the people we love.
I smile, and I know as long as she does the same, we won't ever stop.
THE END
