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Jesse sighed. “You don’t have to fight everything alone, you know.”
“Like you, you mean?”
Jesse shook his head again. “How did you even get in here anyway?”
“I asked her.” Emory had appeared at Jesse’s elbow. His face was cool as he studied Trixy. All she did was raise an eyebrow, but Jesse could see the cold glint of fear in her eyes. “Whatever the intention, she is right. Everything she has done helped, in the end. And, without her”—Emory smiled at Jesse—“we would never have met. I owe her for that, if nothing else.”
“Em…”
“So you’ll give me an interview, Baron?” she said, showing her teeth in a wry grin. “An exclusive? Filmed at Oswald House?”
“I invited you here tonight to show you the truth of these narratives you seem so invested in,” Emory said in a low voice. He put his hand possessively on Jesse’s shoulder. “My people will get back to you about the interview and your book. But if you don’t mind, I will be stealing Jesse away now.”
Trixy clearly wanted to say something more, but Emory steered Jesse toward the Ferris wheel.
“She won’t let it go, you know,” Jesse muttered as they approached the car behind Dimity and Oliver’s. Jesse was aware of Anton watching from a distance but was pleased to note the smile on his face. Then he stared as Darragh Kelly and Tom approached Trixy. She started when Kelly touched her on her shoulder. They began conversing in low tones. Trixy looked between them with a disbelieving expression. But then Kelly, his face as serious as ever, took Tom’s hand. Tom’s face lit up, as did Trixy’s.
“She’ll get her interview,” Emory said as he stepped up onto the waiting car, drawing Jesse with him. “But not from us.”
“Tom and Kelly?”
“They’ve been dancing around each other for some time now,” Emory said as he sat and fastened the belt over both their laps. “But they were both uncertain about many things.” Emory smiled as Kelly and Tom wandered away, hand in hand, with Trixy at their side. “I think we may have influenced more than we think.”
“That’s great,” Jesse said as the car eased forward, and more kids were secured into the car behind them. “I knew Tom needed something…more. More than me.”
“The way his family treated him made him very scared of who he was. And for a while he had lost himself in a dangerous place. But he has found himself again, now. And Darragh? Well”—Emory smiled—“you need something more than the law to keep you connected to the world, though he would obviously never admit it.”
Jesse clutched the bar as the car swayed and the Ferris wheel began to turn. Dimity and Oliver squealed with delight as they went up and up.
“Holy shit,” Jesse said as they climbed higher. “Look who’s here.”
Helena stood in the gate with her own security at her back, staring around the scene with hard eyes.
“Aunt Helena!” called Dimity from above. The woman blinked and looked up. Dimity waved, her face pink and grinning. Helena’s expression warmed ever so slightly and something like relief softened her face. She raised a gloved hand to wave back then her gaze fell on Jesse and Emory. Jesse wove his fingers with Emory’s and held him tight. But all Emory did was incline his head. Helena hesitated then nodded in reply, turned to speak to her security and strode through the gate toward where some of the adults were congregating at the free bar next to the ghost train.
As the Ferris wheel turned, she and everyone else fell out of sight. The bright lights of the fun fair shrank until it was like looking down on a starlit sea. The lights of the city glimmered in the distance, and stars shone overhead. The wind picked up, brisk and chill, whipping Jesse’s hair about his face. He leaned into Emory’s shoulder just as the moon came out from behind the clouds and bathed them in silver.
“I didn’t think life could be like this.”
“Life can be anything you want it to be,” Emory said and kissed him, slow and deep. Jesse sighed, breathing in his scent and swallowing his taste. He broke apart and pressed his forehead to Jesse’s. “I’m so glad you came intomylife, Jesse Truelove.”
“Broke into it, you mean?” Jesse said with a smile.
“Crashed into it like a speeding car.” Emory smiled wider. “And shook things up in all the right ways.”
“I’m glad too,” Jesse said, kissing the end of his nose. “It’s all still crazy. But it’s good crazy.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Emory said as the Ferris wheel continued to climb higher. “Jesse,” he said softly, “I would very much like you to marry me.”
Jesse choked. “Youwhat?”
Emory’s face was so serious in the moonlight that it made Jesse ache. “Marry me, Jesse Truelove. I want you to be my husband.”
“You have got to be yanking my chain.” Jesse’s voice was hoarse. Emory’s expression never flickered. “How would it even work? Till deathIdo part?”
Emory took both his hands in his own and held them, looking into his face, unblinking. “I’m yours…entirely, for as long as you’ll have me. I want to make that promise to the world.”
Jesse’s head spun. He remembered Glen getting down on one knee in that restaurant, remembered seeing his heart breaking when Jesse turned him down. He blinked until the vision lifted.
