My phone vibrates on the nightstand.
It’s Camilla. I haven’t talked to her in a while, and I immediately feel guilty.
I pick up. “Hey.”
“Hi. How are you? How’s Leo?”
“Good. We’re good.” I tuck the phone against my shoulder and pull on a T-shirt. Duke’s T-shirt. It hangs to mid-thigh. “Leo is currently conducting a breakfast negotiation with Duke.”
“Duke.” Camilla’s voice is loaded. “So that’s still happening.”
“Yeah. It’s happening.”
“Violet.” She draws my name out. “Are you happy?”
Down the hall, Leo yells, “Pancakes!”
Duke says, “You can’t just yell pancakes and expect them to appear, kid.”
Then Leo yells “PANCAKES” louder.
Duke sighs and opens a cabinet.
“Yes,” I tell her. “I’m happy.”
“And you’re staying? In Ash Valley?”
“I’m staying.” I sit on the edge of the bed. “Leo and I are good. And Duke is… he’s everything. I’m in love with him, and he loves me.”
“I knew it.” She’s grinning. I can hear it through the phone. “The second he showed up at my door, I knew you were staying for good.”
“It was fate.”
“So I’m going to see you?” she asks. “Like, regularly?”
I laugh. “You’re going to see me all the time. Bring the baby. Leo needs a friend who isn’t a grown man in a leather vest.”
“Deal.” She pauses. “Vi, I’m glad you stayed. You deserve this.”
“Thanks, Cam.”
We hang up. I set the phone on the nightstand and walk barefoot down the hallway.
Duke is at the stove with Leo on one hip and a spatula in his free hand. Pancake batter is on the counter. A mess of eggshells is in the sink. Leo has a fistful of Duke’s beard and is explaining, with great passion and very few real words, what he expects from breakfast.
Duke catches my eye over Leo’s head. His mouth curves.
I lean against the doorframe and let this moment sink in.
I once ran from this man because I was afraid of what loving him would cost me.
Now I’m standing in his kitchen in his T-shirt, watching him burn pancakes with our boy in his arms. A property cut hangs on the hook by the front door with my name on it. A ring is hidden in this house, tucked into a drawer or a pocket or wherever a man like Duke hides the thing he’s been carrying around, waiting for me to be ready.
I’m ready.
This is my family. Messy, loud, dangerous, and mine.
I’m not running again.
