“That’s good. I’m glad that anything important that could’ve been hurt had already been moved to this place or to storage.” Natalie looked up at me and kissed my chin. “Stop feeling guilty.”
“I’m going to feel guilty for a long fucking time,” I grumbled.
“If I don’t get to feel guilty about my dad, you don’t get to feel that way about Jared,” Dillon growled.
I looked up at that and remembered the horror that Dillon and Elise had gone through because of Dillon’s dad. I swallowed hard.
“Why do people who think they’re part of our family keep trying to hurt us?” I asked, unaware I’d even voiced the question until everyone went even more silent.
“They’re not ours, though,” Natalie whispered. “The people that we care about are in this room or close to it. Dillon’s family loves him, and some of them were made and found, not blood-related. Yet, still, they are his family.”
“They’re your family, too,” Dillon said, a small smile on his face.
“I’m finally getting along with my parents. But for a while, I thought that Dillon’s family would be my only family.” Elise shook her head.
“We don’t need to talk about my family,” Pacey chimed in with hollow laughter.
“I have my dad and Everly and her family, but you guys are it for me, too,” Nessa added.
“We have blood family, but we also have the one we made,” Miles said after a moment.
“We are not responsible for the actions of those who hate us. Not for those who think they know better than us, either.” I looked at Miles and Nessa, at the rest of them, and nodded tightly.
“It still doesn’t make it right.”
“No, but that’s on him,” Natalie said. “Our memories are safe. And, yes, we lost all our kitchen things and a few boxes of clothes, but we’re safe. The baby’s safe. All that can be replaced.” She let out a shaky breath, and I wiped away her tear. “And, honestly, Jared is safe.”
I glared. “Really?”
“If he had died because you pulled me out of the fire instead of him, you would’ve felt guilt. Yes, Jared deserved to be hurt and deserves to be locked up. But he didn’t deserve to die. Nobody does. We can’t put that on our souls. So, here we are. A family. All under one roof.”
Pacey laughed. “The more, the merrier.”
“So, I guess all eight of us will be living here for the next month or so?” Mackenzie asked as she looked around at everyone.
My arms tightened around Natalie’s waist. “Looks like. We can store a lot of stuff in the basement or the attic. Or even Sanders’ room.”
“Let’s not call it that.” Mackenzie twisted her lips, and I snorted.
“How about the spare room?”
“That works for me,” Pacey added. “Of course, if we just want to stay here forever, we could always make it the nursery.” He winked.
Natalie laughed, and the sound was so joyous that I calmed. Finally. For the first time in over twenty-four hours, I was calm.
My mother and brother were safe at my aunt’s house and would soon be moving into another home of their own. They would be free from Jared, and he would hopefully be locked up for a while.
We were all finding our own paths somehow, making things work. In the long run, all that truly mattered was that we had found our family. We were making it. While we might not be able to look back on our four years here—especially the last two together—without some painful memories, I hoped that the fond ones, the ones of joy, and thoughts of us being together were the ones that mattered.
“I can’t believe how many godparents our baby’s going to have,” Natalie said after a moment when everyone else was speaking amongst themselves.
I looked down at her, and Miles cheered. “Yes. Though I get to be the best godparent, right? We all know that it’s my turn. We’ll alternate with the other kids.”
“Other kids? Is there something I need to know?” Nessa asked with a wince.
Miles blustered. “I just mean, we can alternate between the four of us. We’ll be their child’s godparents, and then they can be Pacey and Mackenzie’s kids’ godparents, and then for Dillon and Elise, and so on.”
“So you’re saying that we’re all going to have kids and get married and have a big future together?” Nessa asked, and Miles blushed to the tips of his ears. “I’m not not saying it.”
She kissed him hard on the mouth, and we all laughed. Natalie leaned into me. “I think that sounds great. We can put in some spares like other family members. Though even as we all make friends and start new lives with new jobs and homes and neighborhoods and whatnot, it’s the eight of us.”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Pacey said, and I kissed the top of Natalie’s head. “Soon, there’ll be nine of us, so I guess we should make sure we all remain a family. Even if we’re not all living under the same roof.”
The others held up their coffee cups, and we did the same. We toasted to our future, one where we might not know everything that was going to come, but where we could try. We could pretend.
Or maybe not pretend because we’d worked for this. This was the future we wanted. The people we wanted in our lives. I had the one person I’d never thought to have, even though I’d almost lost her because of my stupidity and my hatred of another. Still, she was mine.
I’d fallen in love with Natalie Blake, the princess, the girl who wasn’t for me. Yet, she was mine.
And, thankfully, I was hers.
Epilogue
Natalie
Four years later—
“You know, even though I only technically lived here for a month, I feel like this could be my second home.” I looked over at Tanner as he led me inside the large home on University Row. It had been four years since we had left Pacey’s house, all eight of us ready to embark on our new futures. Four years in which everything changed, yet the feeling of peace and family remained.
I looked up at my husband and grinned. He just rolled his eyes and kissed the top of my head.
“I’m pretty sure that last year you stayed here more than you did at your house. I’m just saying.”
“Mom, Mom,” Corinne exclaimed from the living room. “It’s us!” She pointed at a framed photo on the mantel, and tears sprang to my eyes.
“Of course, she’s crying. Of course, she’s crying.” Tanner muttered under his breath as he led me forward and moved to pick up our little girl. Corinne wrapped her arms around his neck, and I smiled up at my family.
The last four years hadn’t been easy. Finishing grad school, working on internships, and landing our new jobs meant that we were exhausted most days and hadn’t had much time for ourselves. We were making it work for the three of us, though.
We were a family, and thanks to the Montgomerys, we had childcare and great people to work with.
And, indeed, on the mantel were images and photos taken over the past six years. Some when we were still in school, all learning to be with one another and finding out who each of us was—others with all of our newfound families.