Page 96 of Here to Stay

I heard her sigh. “It was time. We wanted to move on, spend the rest of the time we had before retirement building something. The Sturm family’s legacy has to be more than the stores. We kept the foundation, and that’s where you hopefully come in.”

I had no clue where this was going. “Ma’am?”

This time they both laughed. “That just rolled off your tongue. I guess this town is finally rubbing off on you.”

Julia and I both grinned at that, but were brought back to the conversation by Muffy’s no-nonsense tone. “Let me cut to the chase. We need a finance guy to help us run this foundation. We have an endowment from our grandfather of almost two hundred and fifty million dollars. And we’re not interested in running day-to-day operations. We want to focus on the vision, the big picture.”

I sat down as Julia barely contained a yelp.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Rocco, you’re the kind of guy we need. We need someone with values that he can stick to. No matter what. So what do you say? Do you want to exchange that Mets hat for a cowboy one?”

I took Julia’s hand in mine, as I leaned in to give them an answer.

Epilogue

Six Months Later

Julia

“Looks like Pulga finally’s going to need to learn how to share your attention,” I said jokingly, as I walked back into the house after seeing off the last of the Exiles. They’d been over for a housewarming of our new place. I looked down at Rocco, who was trying to build a Magna-Tile castle with Blue while Pulga did her best to trample the structure.

I shook my head, watching Blue trying to protect her blocks from Pulga’s wrath.

Sofia smiled at them. “She’s a menace. Whoever heard of a cat with a leash?” She laughed as Rocco looked up from his spot on the carpet.

“Hey, she likes going on walks.”

We both rolled our eyes at him. Sofia and Blue had come over too, since they were now official Gotham Exiles. They’d been in Dallas for almost a month and we’d started a tradition of having them over for dinner on Sunday nights.

The last six months had been wild and full of changes, but Rocco had managed to balance it all and had finally delivered on his promise to his sister. As I sat there enjoying the sight of my man, looking at peace and happy, my heart filled with love and pride for him—for us and the life we’d built here.

Rocco had taken the job as CFO for the Sturm Foundation just weeks after that call from the twins, and he loved his job. He’d gone back and forth to New York to help Sofia make the transition and finally, after many logistical pieces coming together, she and Blue arrived in Dallas and moved into my old apartment. Like me, Sofia was in love with a place that had more bathrooms than people. Their parents hadn’t made the transition easy, but with a lot of intervention from Coach and even some help from me, we’d managed to get Sofia settled and his parents at least willing to do a Skype call with the baby once a week.

Sofia and Blue’s arrival had finally given Rocco and me a reason to make our own living arrangements official, and we were now sharing the little bungalow he’d rented after accepting the twins’ job offer. I must’ve been making a particularly cheesy face because Rocco stopped what he was doing and blew me a kiss.

Next to me, Sofia yelped in feigned horror. “Yo, what’s the deal with you two and the PDA?”

I laughed and turned to her. “Hey, I can’t help it if your brother is the hottest man in Texas.”

This time she did look terrified. “Oh my God, y’all do the most.”

Rocco smiled, pointing at his baby sister. “Ooh, Texas is rubbing off on you. Was that a ‘y’all’ I heard?”

She rolled her eyes at his teasing and stood up. “Okay, enough of that. I’m leaving. I got school and work tomorrow and Blue has day care.” She walked over to her little girl, who was happily playing with the cat as she sucked her thumb. As soon as she bent down to her, Blue raised her arms.

Groaning, Sofia picked her up. “Baby girl, you’re getting so big. Pretty soon Uncle Rocco will be the only one who can pick you up.” At the mention of her favorite person, Blue smiled and cheered.

“Unca Rock.”

I walked over to him and extended my arm to pull him up. As I expected, he held on to me and came in for a kiss as soon as he was standing. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I tried hard not to grin like an idiot, but it was really fucking hard to keep my cool whenever I saw those blue eyes twinkling in my direction. “I make it too easy for you.”

That smile was going to be the end of me.

“It’s because you love me,” he said, as Sofia moved around the apartment gathering her things before heading home.

“I do,” I said, pressing a kiss to his mouth.

The Gotham Exiles were finally home.