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“Mommy!” Callie called from a few feet up the beach, her hair lifting in the wind. “Look!” She held up a shell of some kind and then put it in her pocket. Noelle smiled at her daughter’s unceasing joy at finding a shell when shells were so plentiful where they lived.Never lose that, baby girl. Never take anything wonderful for granted, no matter how much of it you have.
A figure caught her eye, stepping off the walking bridge and onto the sand. Evan. Her heart galloped and then soared, her breath catching with happy surprise.
“Evan!” Callie shouted as he drew closer. Their little girl ran in his direction, her short legs pumping. Evan’s laugh was caught by the wind and delivered straight to her. She laughed, too, as he swooped Callie into his arms and spun her around. Her heart squeezed tightly. That sight.Oh, thank you God for that sight.
Evan set Callie down and took her hand, and Noelle waited, watching as they walked together toward her. “Well this is a surprise,” she said, her lips trembling as she tried not to smile, tried desperately notto fly into his arms the same way Callie had. He hadn’t told her he was coming. She’d flown home from Reno three days before, and he’d stayed to assist the police as they began unraveling the crime that had rocked the entire globe and to sort some of his father’s affairs. They’d both been in shock when they’d said goodbye, knowing she had to get home to their daughter, both desperate for that, even while it was important that Evan stay.
There hadn’t been time for plans, or even for more than a few uttered words.I love you. Kiss her for me. We’ll talk soon.
Evan squinted out to the ocean for a second, a playful smile tilting his lips. “Do you figure there’s much of a need for a PI here in town?”
Her heart flipped, and she couldn’t help the tiny laugh that bubbled up her throat. He was moving here? She blinked tears from her eyes, his softening as he stared so lovingly at her. A few feet from them, Callie had become entranced with yet another shell that she’d spied and run to collect. She was holding it up now, her gaze moving over the details of that particular one.
“There’s always need for a PI. I can solve a few mysteries for you right off the bat, though.”
He grinned, a ray of sun hitting his eyes so that she could practically see right through them, the blue deep and endless. “Yeah? Like what?”
“At least one cup of coffee before I’m conversational. Preferably two, but definitely one.”
“I appreciate the heads-up.”
“I’ll do anything after a salted caramel crème brûlée.”
“Anything?”
She confirmed with a nod.
A brow shot up, and he pretended to search for something in his pockets. “That one’s very important. I think I should write it down.”
She laughed. He was here. He washere, and for a moment she let all the horror they’d experienced fall away and she was only hope. Onlywild, beautiful, healing hope. She let it wash through her, the sunlight after the storm.
“Come on, sweetheart,” she called to Callie, linking arms with Evan as they turned toward Sweetgrass. Callie ran ahead of them, skipping and singing one of their favorite nursery rhymes. Noelle could see Tilly sitting on the porch. She couldn’t wait to introduce Evan to her. They were going to love each other.
“Can we figure out when to tell her?” he asked, his eyes on Callie.
Noelle pulled him closer, laying her head on his shoulder as they walked. “Yes. Let’s get you settled and her used to you being here, and then we’ll sit down and tell her.” Noelle couldn’t wait. She couldn’t wait to be a family, to share the ups and the downs and the boring. God, she couldn’t wait to share the beautiful boring.
They had a lot to talk about; she’d have to prepare herself for the emotional impact of the updates he surely had. All she knew at this point was the good news that Cedro Leon and Grimaldo Zamora were safe with Cedro’s brother in Arizona and that Grimaldo had already expressed interest in becoming their sponsor, and that the women who had been freed from cages were being cared for, their families contacted. The handful of men who had survived the poison were in custody, except for one lone server, the man who had seemed to be helping Vitucci or ... Caspar. He hadn’t been recognizable to her or to Evan, and Noelle had a feeling he’d remain unidentified, and strangely, the thought didn’t distress her. Whoever he was, and whatever conflicting feelings she had about Caspar, that man had been there to assist in taking down evil.
Yes, there was so much more to learn about the monsters who’d victimized so many. And all that was important. But so was this. A few moments of blessed peace. Of only them.
He stopped, and she did too. “Oh,” he said, reaching in his back pocket. She watched to see Callie run across the bridge, raising her arm toward MissTilly, who waved her forward. When Noelle looked backat Evan, she saw that he’d removed a jewelry box. “This isn’t what you think,” he told her. “Yet. Because I’ve got better plans for that.”
She laughed softly. Okay, so he wasn’t proposing. She was glad, because she wanted at least a little time to process all they’d been through so she could focus solely on the future. Again that wild hope billowed inside. She glanced up to see that Callie had made it to Tilly. “What is it?”
He opened the box, and she inhaled a breath. “My mom’s ring.”
“Baudelaire sent it to me,” he said. “It came in the mail anonymously. But it had to be him. Who else?”
She stared down at it for a moment, thinking about that before picking up the beautiful, delicate piece of jewelry, the one her mom had once worn.
She slipped it on her right hand.
“For now, a promise,” Evan said, their eyes meeting. A promise. That they’d love hard, that they’d always be honest, that they’d try their very best to be a living embodiment of the victory that had risen from the ashes of evil.Love.
“A promise,” she repeated. They were good at keeping those.
They turned, fingers linked, and headed toward the house. Whole. Together
