“You do realize we have three golden retrieversnow that West is part of the group,” Rath says dryly.
“Sorry, not sorry,” I tell him.
West glances over at me, and the love and happiness shining in his eyes warms something deep inside me. He belongs with us, but more than that, he belongs with me.
I never thought I’d find anyone I’d want to spend more than a few nights with, and now I can’t imagine spending a single day away from him.
West is mine, but I’m also his, and now that I have him, I’m never letting him go. And I know he’ll never let me go either.
EPILOGUE
West
5 years later
The house isdark as I unlock the front door and step into the main foyer.
A frown tugs at the corner of my lips, and I pull my phone out of my pocket as I step inside.
“Babe?” I call into the dark house as I close the door behind me.
There’s no answer, and I open my texts to make sure I haven’t made a mistake.
Today is Anthony’s twenty-fifth birthday, and just like every year, I’ve planned a night out with our friends. But because this is a milestone birthday, I made sure to plan a night he’ll hopefully never forget.
Everything is in place and ready to go, but I got a text from him this afternoon asking if I could meet him at the house an hour and a half before my original time.
That request isn’t exactly unusual, but the fact that I’m almost ten minutes late yet he’s nowhere to be found is weird.
“Babe?” I call again and quickly re-read his text to make sure I didn’t mess up the new time.
Nope, I got it right. Where is he?
More confused than a cat at a laser show, I shove my phone back into my pocket and flip the foyer light on, already gearing up to call for him again.
Anthony is one of those people who can move around in the dark like it’s nothing, so it’s not exactly unheard of for him to leave all the lights off when he comes home.
My call dies on my lips, and I blink a few times to make sure I’m not seeing things.
Our foyer isn’t fancy, just a small area separating the front entrance from the main part of the house. The only thing we keep in it is a table where we put our keys, mail, and any other odds and ends we want to take out of our pockets when we get home.
Right now, instead of the various piles of our stuff, there’s a crystal vase holding a single long-stemmed rose. But what really catches my attention is the trail of rose petals on the shiny tile floor leading to the staircase.
My mind sort of ping-pongs as I look between the petals and the stairs.
Did Anthony set this up for me? But why would he do that if it’shisbirthday?
Shaking off my surprise, I follow the trail up the stairs, then down the hall to our bedroom.
The door is closed, and I pause in front of it like a dumbass. After a moment of thinking way too hard about what I should do, I gently twist the knob to see if it’s unlocked.
It turns in my hand, and I push the door open and step into our room.
Unlike the rest of the house, our bedroom is lit up with what looks like dozens, if not hundreds, of different-sized candles, all flickering and creating a warm glow and giving the room an almost ethereal feel.
But it isn’t the candles, the trail of petals leading into the room, or the small table near the bed that’s been set up with what looks like takeout boxes that catches my attention and makes my breath catch in my throat.
Standing a few feet from the bed is Anthony in a pair of dark jeans and a black tank top, looking as handsome as I’ve ever seen him, and my heart skips a few beats as I drink him in.
