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I know I’ll have to steal her away from this gathering sometime during the night.
Linda enters the kitchen, wearing a big grin. “It’s so good to hear this house alive with voices again.” She hefts a slab of meat into the air and bellows, “Now who wants ribs?”
We set up the grill.
Hang out on the back porch.
Watch the sun set.
I wrap my arms around Shanel and hold her to me, swaying lightly while I listen to the laughter of my friends and family.
The night is warm, full and bright.
Perfection.
I shudder to think of what would have happened if I’d chosen fear instead of love on that boat. I would have missed out on her. On this moment.
Shanel looks at me with a contented smile.
I kiss her lips, pushing aside those ‘what ifs’. Life has a way of working itself out anyway and even if it didn’t, I would have fought my way back to her.
Shanel was mine in the beginning.
She’ll be mine when I’m old and grey.
My head nestles against hers and I inhale a deep, cocoa-butter-scented breath.
“I love you,” she whispers.
I kiss her neck and mumble, “Let’s go upstairs.”
She giggles and follows me up the stairs where I crush her to me and assure her once again that she’s the only woman I’ll ever need.
In this world and the next.
Epilogue
MORGAN
“You came back empty-handed,” Pavel murmurs. “Our machine is busted.” He points to the smoking doorway and then tosses a wrench. “Damn. I thought we’d made a breakthrough that time.”
“It’s my fault. I didn’t convince her.” I turn the golden bracelet around in my hands.
“Why are you both moping?” McCarthy dances into my garage, his dark fingers twined around three bottles of champagne.
I freeze. “Did you raid my wine cellar?”
He laughs and hands me a bottle. “We tore through time and space, connected with a parallel dimension and transported an item through it without breaking the fabric of our reality.” He laughs. “We need to throw a party.”
Pavel glowers. “There is no celebration for me.”
“Why not?”
“I made a promise.”
“To who?” I ask.
He grinds his teeth together. “To the boy.”
