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“So?” Alyssa asked, looking up into my face. “How do you feel about me moving down here, at least temporarily?”
I smiled down at her. “I think I need to take my guest house off Airbnb.”
She turned to face the other two.
“Nothing would make me happier,” Mateo said.
Liam was grinning. The grin he always wore when he was about to make light of a serious situation. “I don’t know. Not sure if I want to get involved with someone whose twin is a convicted criminal. Probably runs in the family.”
Mateo and I chuckled. Alyssa had made plenty of jokes like this; it was her way of dealing with it all, we knew. Laughter and jokes.
“Mateo?” she asked. “Can you go get a fire ax for me? I need to remove someone’s appendage.”
Liam recoiled. “I don’t want to lose an arm. Or a leg.”
“You’ll keep all of those.” Alyssa smiled deeply. “I was going to remove something smaller.” Her eyes drifted downward.
“Smaller, but not small,” Liam said, holding up a finger. “I would like the record to reflect that she only means smaller relative to my other limbs.”
“I like how you’re upset about the way she’s describing your dick,” I said, “and not the fact that she wants to cut it off.”
“Because she’s joking.” Liam’s eyebrows rose in concern. “You are joking, right?”
Alyssa grinned widely.
“I told you she’s bad news,” I declared.
“Should’ve listened,” Liam admitted.
Mateo nodded in agreement.
Alyssa rounded on me. “You told them what about me?”
“I, uh…”
Just then, the alarm went off in the station. A robotic voice filled the room: “Engine five. Respond to a civilian disturbance at Beachside Park. Engine five. Respond to a civilian disturbance…”
“You told them I’m bad news?” Alyssa demanded, ignoring the alarms.
“Shit, got to go!” I said, kissing her on the cheek. “Firefighter business. Extremely serious.”
“We’re going to continue this conversation when your shift ends tomorrow,” she said, hands on her hips.
“Whatever you say.”
She pulled me into a tight hug and kissed me more passionately than before. Then she did the same to Mateo, and finally Liam. It wasn’t weird. In fact, it was kind of nice. Knowing that Alyssa was waiting for us, all of us, made me confident that we could handle anything out there.
Maybe it wouldn’t last. Most things ended eventually. But for now, it felt pretty damn great.
Epilogue
Alyssa
It took four more days to settle all of my mother’s accounts. Mostly, it involved making copies of her death certificate and sending them to various banks, credit card companies, and courts. Mateo helped with most of this, for which I was immensely grateful.
When it was done, I owned the title to the building her upholstery store was in. It was located in a strip mall, so it wasn’t very impressive, but at least it was something.
Jack’s suggestion that I keep the building and lease it out, thus earning some passive income, was a no-brainer now that I was staying in Florida rather than New York. He helped me contact some commercial real estate agents. We put the space up at an aggressive lease rate, and within a day we had four serious offers.
