“Right. And it's a really good thing the family is so big. There was one night when we had two in jail, two in the hospital, one stuck at the airport, and one with his truck stuck in the bayou. We really had to spread out that night.”
Wow. And now she was a part of all of that. Rory could feel it. Whether she was at the airport, stuck by the side of the road, in the hospital…or jail…the Landrys would be there for her.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and faced front of the building. “Wish me luck.”
Ellie shook her head. “Nah. I’ll wish you a little of what you actually need…some alone time with that boy of yours. There’s a whole lot of people in there and he’s gonna want to get you somewhere private pretty quick, I’m guessin’.” Then she winked and turned and headed for her truck.
Which left Rory facing the front of the jail. She took a deep breath and marched to the door. She stepped inside and immediately everyone turned to look at her. And went silent.
Her gaze went straight to Drew. He came off up off of the bench in the cell and stalked to her. She didn't miss the fact is that the door to the cell had been standing wide open.
“Hey, are you okay?”
She smiled and shook her head. “I think I'm supposed to ask you that.”
“I'm fine,” he said. “A little sheepish.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Your dad set me up.”
“Well, he's been at this bad guy stuff a lot longer than you have.”
“Yeah.”
She met his gaze directly and wet her lips. “This is going to keep happening, Drew. He's not going to leave us alone. Just because you're here now, and stood up to him, doesn't mean he's going to back off. He's probably going to see it as a challenge.”
“I don't care. I want you.”
Those six words squeezed her heart and she had to swallow hard before she asked, “Because you want to protect me from my dad?”
“I want you in spite of your dad, Rory. I want you and whatever comes with you.”
Relief, desire, and a love like she’d never felt or even imagined before flooded through her. “You know,” she said, her voice thick. “I think maybe you can’t shake this good guy thing because I need it. I’ve been waiting for a good guy all my life.”
The next thing she knew, Drew had her up against him and was kissing her as if that was all that was keeping him alive.
She melted into him, her arms going around his neck, stretching her body against his as fully as she could. He palmed her ass, lifting her, angling his head to deepen the kiss.
It was only Zander clapping his hands together and his firm, “Okay. You’re free to go, Ryan,” that broke them apart.
Drew and Rory just stared at one another for several seconds. Drew’s eyes were full of heat and wonder and love. Definitely love.
Finally, she stepped back from Drew and turned to look at Zander.
Then she took in everyone else in the room. Oh, boy.
She cleared her throat. “My dad is an ex-con. He comes in and out of my life once or twice a year, and if I don't give into whatever he needs—usually money—he wreaks havoc. He messes with my business, my relationships, whatever he can. He's mostly left me alone since I came to Autre, but obviously he knows I'm here now. He's going to keep coming back and I will totally understand if you guys want to keep your distance.”
She looked at Zander. “His name is Roger Robins and he’s taking a new job at one of the casinos in New Orleans. I'll be able to have the name of that casino to you later tonight. He's likely staying with one of three friends. I can give you all of their addresses. My mom probably has or can get any other information you might want. I'm happy to help however you want me to.”
Zander looked at her, then at everyone else in the room, then back to her.
“Well, first of all, there’s no reason to stay away from you because of this. This is kind of what we do.”
“What you do?” she asked.
“Yeah…crazy,” Zander said. He sighed. “We do a lot of crazy.”
Everyone else in the room nodded.
“Second of all, I would love those addresses. We might not have enough evidence of a crime this time, but it wouldn’t hurt to know where he might be for next time.”
Rory looked at Drew, then over at Charlie. “Are you pressing charges against Drew?”
Charlie laughed. “Of course not. Even if we hadn't gotten the toys back, we would never do that. But the controllers are back and we have the extra toys that Ollie and Piper sent, so it's just going to be an even bigger Christmas party tomorrow.”
Suddenly, everything that had happened—and not happened—crashed into Rory at once. She felt a little dizzy, incredibly relieved, and so full of happiness and love and hope and relief that she almost couldn't speak.
As if sensing what she was going through, Drew put his arm around her, hugged her up against his side, and said, “We should get you home.”
“You can really just go?”
“Yep. I answered all Zander's questions.”
“Then why are you still just sitting around up here?”
He shrugged and looked toward Zander's desk. “This is where the gumbo is.”
She followed his gaze to the large takeout container that Ellie must've left behind and laughed. “Well, I have hot chocolate at my house,”
“How about frosted sugar cookies?” he asked, heat, flickering in his gaze.
“I don't have any cookies left,” she said. “But…I did pick up some chocolate sauce.”
Without another word, Drew scooped her up into his arms and started for the door.
“Hey, we have a bunch of game controllers we need to wrap for the party tomorrow,” Charlie called after them, laughing.
Drew didn’t even slow down. “Sorry. I need this elf’s help getting me firmly on the naughty list tonight.”
“Drew Ryan? On the naughty list? I don’t believe it!” Paige called after him.
But Rory snuggled closer and grinned up at him. “I do.”
Epilogue
One year later…
* * *
“I can’t believe you thought doing a live nativity was a good idea,” Rory said as she chased a goat back into the barn with her trusty giant candy cane.
Drew grinned. “Oh, come on. We had to. We already had the donkey and camels and sheep.”
“Those are not sheep,” Rory laughed, as the goat she’d just herded into the barn, darted back out. “Those are goats dressed to look kind of like sheep.”
“Yeah, maybe we should get some real sheep,” Drew said, coming to stand next to her.
Rory turned to see what he was looking at.
One of the goats was chewing on the side of the manger where the baby Jesus lay.
She sighed, but laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”
Drew looped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. She leaned into him, absorbing his warmth.
The past year with him in Autre had been amazing. He’d, of course, fit in perfectly with the animal park, and had taken on a lot of the daily animal care activities.