“There’s nowhere else I would rather be. It’s going to be okay, honey. If you want to get out of there, just say the word and I’ll make it happen.”
“You gonna steal a car and take off with me?”
I hold his gaze for a beat. “If that’s what you need? You bet your tail I will.”
I get his smile. His real smile. Not the one full of worry and fear for what is about to come, faking it for me. I open my mouth, ready to say something to keep that smile on his face, but I don’t get the chance before Sway clears his throat.
I had almost forgotten we weren’t alone.
Almost.
“We’re about to pull in, honey buns,” Sway announces from the front.
When I glance out the window, I realize we’re in a neighborhood. A big one, with tons of space between the homes. Houses that were meant to be the showcase of the land around them. As the car pulls us farther into the neighborhood, I realize that the space between each house gets larger and larger. Wouldn’t it be something to have this much land? If I didn’t love living in Boston so much, this is what I would want.
Sway pulls the car into a driveway, and I marvel at the beauty around us. Heck, no matter how much I love Boston, something as magnificent as this would be a huge temptation.
“They’re likely out back at this time of the evening. When the sun starts going down and the grandbabies start getting tired, never fails to pull them around the backyard. We do monthly family dinners out here in their backyard. Older kids stay on the lake most of the time, but those grandbabies of theirs are passed around like hot potatoes for the adults that soak up the time with them.”
“Been gone a long time,” he murmurs, loud enough for Sway to hear him, pain thick in his words. “Somehow, it still looks the same.”
“You’re home now,” he responds softly. “You’ve been gone, yes, but not sure it matters the why of it when you’re back from the dead, honey child. Remember that.”
“You’ve got nothing but faith this will work out, Sway.”
Sway smiles at me before looking back at Zeke. “And you, my dear, apparently don’t live only once. Why don’t we squash that doubt now and yolt.”
“What the hell is yolt?”
“You only live … twice.” Sway laughs maniacally.
I watch some of the worry wash off Zeke. I have no idea what that meant, but it clearly means something to him. Enough to ease some of his worries and fears, at least.
“You’ve got all the time you need. Your brother is meeting me … well, us … in the home office Ax has. It’s away from everyone. They’re still out back. You and Asher talk first and then you decide what to do after. It will give you two the privacy you need. I should warn you, they know something big is happening, just unsure what.”
“Cameras?”
“I texted Axel on the way,” Davey starts. “He’s reluctantly turned them off until you’re inside, and I let him know it’s clear to monitor the house again.”
Zeke turns his gaze from the house, giving Sway a look of disbelief. “He agreed to that?”
He holds his hands up with a small laugh.
“He’s older now. His daughter, which I might add put every part of his overprotective nature in overdrive, is out of the house. Izzy is undoubtedly on his lap. He turned them off for me and not for long, but he did it because and only because he trusts me and everything he holds dear is already safe.”
“I find it hard to believe that time could have cooled his protective nature.”
Sway just laughs and shrugs. He and his husband step out of the car, shutting the door and leaving us in silence.
“Tell me what I can do?” I ask after a beat.
“Don’t leave me,” he answers with so much vulnerability in his tone.
“Never.”
“No matter what happens, Livi. Don’t leave me.”
“Sweetheart, I’m not going to leave you. I’m right here, by your side.”
His eyes, even in the dark, heat. He lets go of the hand he had been holding and frames my face with his large hands. His gaze holds mine, studying and searching. I take his handsome face in, the changes that just make him even more stunning, but those eyes are both the Drew I knew and the Zeke Cooper of his past.
“Wouldn’t be here without you, Olivia. No matter what happens in there, you need to know that I’m thankful for you and that gift you’ve given me. Been dead a long time. Even without this”—he looks toward the house—“you have given me so much in the time we’ve been together that my life already was becoming beautiful. Can’t imagine it can get much bigger than only everything in the world I every cared for in one place together. I know I wouldn’t be here without what you and Riley have given me. I have no idea how this will go, but I know I can get through it with you.”
He gives me a short but deep kiss, and when he pulls back, I can see the solid resolve and determination that’s destroyed the fear in his stunning eyes. His whole body seemingly grows bigger and stronger in the darkness of Sway’s car. I’ve seen so many sides to him over the years I’ve known him, but this is something to behold. I imagine, had I know him before the pain and years of being “Drew,” I would see this man.
“Ready or not, darlin’,” he says softly against my lips. “You only live twice, after all, so might as well make the second one count.”
“Starting Over” by Chris Stapleton
I’m going to be fucking sick.
Olivia’s hand tightens in mine, and I release some of the tension I’ve been holding on to her with. I let my grip up some, but not much. I need her. I need that hold on her to make sure she’s with me. That tether her hold gives me a feeling of safety that only she can provide.
It’s not some grand big epiphany, this dependency that I have on her. Especially for this. If anything, it just drives home what I already knew about her and us together. I’ve been alone for so long, I had forgotten what it felt like to have someone who had your back out of love, not obligation. Even in the time “before,” which I like to look at as the time I had with them in Hope Town before the shooting, I never had this. Sure, I had my brother by blood and the brothers I found in Axel, Greg, Beck, and Maddox. I knew, deep down, that the women in their lives had supported me out of love, not obligation, but that wasn’t like the love that Olivia gives me. No, her love isn’t the familial kind that the others gave me. It’s the kind only found with your person.
Sway walks around me with Davey staying behind to take up the rear. He opens the door, the chimes making a little jingle that the alarm system does when the door opens. I follow as he enters, moving toward the home office that Ax has by memory more than because I’m following. My heart pounds with each step. I give Olivia’s hand a little squeeze, relaxing slightly when she returns the gesture. We stop a little before the office door and let Sway go in first. I don’t know what he says, but I hear my brother respond. First time I’ve heard him talk in so painfully long. I close my eyes and soak it in.
“Seems a little cloak and dagger type of mystery here, Sway. Isn’t this a little different from your normal MO?”