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I dump my handbag on the side table beside the elevator and move into the apartment, kicking my high heels off as I do.
It was a long day.
A really fucking long day.
When I decided to go into trauma counseling, I knew it would be challenging. I knew it would break my heart more often than not. But I did it because I wanted to be what Emerson was for me when they first brought me home to others in need, and every day is just as rewarding as it is challenging.
I finished my degree a few months ago, and I’ve been working at the Chicago Center for Women and Children, the second location Emerson and her father opened.
The smell of my favorite meal hits my nose before I can reach the kitchen, and I find Ace by the stove with Fergus, our cat, under his arm as he stirs the pasta sauce.
He learned to make it for me not long after I killed Cyrus and I finally decided what my future was going to look like. He said he wanted to be able to have dinner ready for me after a long day, and most days he makes good on that.
Who would have thought the wall of a man was capable of cooking after all the years he spent eating nothing but takeout?
“You’re home late,” he comments, but when he turns to me, there’s only concern etched in his brow. He lets Fergus down, and the gray rag doll runs straight to me.
I scoop him up and breathe him in. The day Ace came home with this cat, I swear I fell in love with him all over again. He said Emerson had told him that animals can be good for emotional support, and the next day I had a kitten.
By the time I look up, Ace is wrapping me up in his arms, sandwiching Fergus between us, but he’s used to it at this point. This is a pretty normal afternoon for us.
“I missed you today, sugar,” he murmurs.
“You miss me every day,” I point out. “And I always miss you.”
Ace started working for Frost Industries not long after I was taken and he bought the apartment for us. But the problem is that he works from home more often than not, and he still struggles to let me out of his sight, but he loves what he’s doing. It’s all the shit he loves without the added pressure of working for people that might kill him for what he knows.
He pulls back and gives Fergus a quick scratch on the head, and I catch sight of the gray titanium around his left ring finger, bringing a smile to my lips.
We got married on a spring afternoon. Just the two of us and Tommy and Clara. Part of me wanted to have everyone with us, but another part longed for the little family I found all those years ago, with the addition of Clara, of course.
It was the happiest day of my life.
“Emerson brought Gale in this afternoon. He’s getting so big!” I tell him as I take a seat on the other side of the kitchen island.
Ace’s gaze flashes with something that he quickly masks and that I was oblivious to until a few months ago. I don’t know if I was just so busy with school that I didn’t realize there was something missing in our lives, or if I just wasn’t ready to admit it was something I wanted after everything I’d been through. “That’s because he eats as much as Rayne does.” He chuckles at his own joke, and I shake my head.
“Do you want to know why I was late home?”
“Because you were cuddling a baby?” he guesses.
I shake my head slowly, my bottom lip disappearing between my teeth. “I had Doc come to the center this afternoon?—”
He doesn’t let me finish before he’s back around the island, his hand falling straight to my forehead. “Are you okay? Are you sick? You should have told me you weren’t feeling well.”
I slap his hand away and laugh. This man is as overprotective as they come, but I wouldn’t have him any other way. “I’m not sick, stop that.”
“Then why did the giant asshole come visit?”
“He’s not an asshole.” I sigh.
“Not to you, maybe,” he grumbles.
I carefully push my cardigan off my shoulder, wincing at the pain in my arm. The anesthetic didn’t last anywhere near as long as I was hoping.
Ace spots the bandage immediately. “What the hell happened? Did someone hurt you? Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
“Will you let me finish?” I snap. “I had Doc come to the center to take the implant out of my arm.”
