One Last Time(51)

“That’s two days away.”

“Tomorrow?” I circle back to my original suggestion.

“Tomorrow.” Noah nods, gives me a quick kiss, and makes his way out the door.

I stand here, hand on the wood, head resting on it with no idea how this is real. Noah Frazier is walking away after the most unbelievable night and still wanting to see me again.

He opens his car door and smiles when he sees me watching him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.”

“For the article . . .”

“And maybe a little fooling around.” He smirks and gets into the car.

I am in a world of trouble.



“Kristin!” Aunt Nina calls as I walk in.

I scream and run toward her and throw my arms tightly around her. “I didn’t know you were visiting!”

“I told your mother.” She rocks me back and forth, squeezing me tight.

My aunt is the coolest person in the world. She was the person I could talk to about everything my mother wouldn’t be able to handle. The first time I had sex, she was who I called to talk about it. When I turned eighteen, she took me for my tattoo. There’s nothing that my Aunt Nina doesn’t know about me. It’s crazy that she’s my mother’s sister.

“She didn’t tell me. When did you get here?”

“Just today. Jackson, Catherine, and the girls are out back, too.”

“Really?” I smile. “I can’t believe I didn’t know! Are Uncle Brendan and Reagan here?”

My cousins and I are around the same age. They moved a lot, but when I was twelve they were stationed at MacDill Air Force Base and we all grew extremely close. Then they left, and it sucked only seeing them for the occasional holiday.

It’s been too long since I’ve seen them.

“I am, I am!” Reagan comes out of the kitchen with Aubrey in her arms. “Look what I found!”

Aubrey squirms, reaching for me. “Mommy!”

“Hi, baby!”

I squeeze my peanut and then hug Reagan.

“Grandma made me wait to go in the pool until you got here.” She huffs. “Can I please go in the pool now?”

There goes any chance of the talk I planned, but then again, I’m happy to put that off. “Sure, go get changed, and I’ll be right out.”

Aubrey runs off screaming to my mother, and Reagan takes my hand in hers.

“You look amazing,” she says. “Seriously, Kris.”

“Look at you!” I touch her hair that she cut to right above her shoulders. “You lost like ten inches.”

“It was time.” She shrugs.

“This haircut looks good on you,” I note.

“I think you mean divorce,” Reagan smirks.

“Well, it’s apparently a look we both wear well.”

Yeah, there’s that. We’re both newly divorced from asshole men.

“You can’t even say hello?” Jackson’s deep voice booms.

“Jackson!” I yell and launch myself at him.

He lifts me and spins around. “It’s been too long.”

“No one told you to move to California and never come back.”

They all moved out to California a few years ago. Jackson owns a security company that does God knows what, and he opened an office there.

“I would’ve wound up there if I were still active duty, anyway.”

We all try to forget his time as a Navy SEAL. I’m pretty sure this is what caused me to have the insane fear when it comes to Heather and her job. Why does everyone think getting shot at is a good career choice?

“Where’s Cat?”

“She’s got the kids in the pool.”

I give him a look, wondering if he’s lost his damn mind. “And you’re in here?”

He lets out a laugh and then pulls me against his side. “You’ll protect me.”

Yeah right, he’s on his own.

We get outside and Finn has their oldest daughter, Erin, in his arms as he moves around the pool. “Hey, buddy!” I smile and wave.

“Mom, look! Erin likes me.” His face illuminates.

“She does.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that smile. Erin and Aubrey are a year apart, but God forbid, he plays with his sister that way.

He’d probably drown her.

“Hi, Mom.” I give her a kiss on the cheek. “Did the kids have fun?”

“They always do. You know your father spoils them rotten.” She pats my father’s arm.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hi, Krissykins.” He pulls me into his arms. “How’s my favorite daughter?”

I love that no matter how old I am, he still looks at me as if I’m his whole world. My father would slay dragons for my mother and me. He loves with his whole heart.

Sometimes, I wonder what’s wrong with me to have ever thought the way Scott treated me was right. I have the perfect embodiment of love in front of me. Yet, I was willing to take not even an eighth of what my father and mother have.

My father’s eyes narrow as he studies me. “You look awfully happy.”

“I do?”

“You have fun last night?”

Lying is not something I’m comfortable with. It makes me feel gross inside, but lying to my father is abhorrent. I was the world’s best teenager because I couldn’t lie. Sneaking out would never happen because I would go right back in or tell them I had just done it. Nicole hated me in high school for that part. I was always ratting us out.