The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(65)

“It’s really me.”

She closes her eyes and smiles softly, then moves just to the side for her husband to take her place.

The two men give another one of those manly hugs.

The sound of each of them letting out a strangled sob in the quiet room seems to make every person jerk slightly. I don’t need to look to confirm there isn’t a dry eye in the whole room. There were three people who I knew would have the biggest impact on him today. His brother, for obvious reasons. Emmy, because of the friendship they had before moving to Georgia had kept them closer than the other females. And Beck, who I knew was the closest person he had aside from his brother.

These three were his rocks during a horrible time in his life. Each of them impacted him in distinctive ways to the other before and after he died. He missed all of these people, but he missed these three people just a little differently than the others.

I had just taken a tissue from Melissa’s outstretched hand when Zeke was back at my side. I blew my nose quietly and dried my face before I looked up at him. He stood so close we were touching from shoulder to hip, his arm around my shoulder.

“This is my Livi. Olivia …” He pauses, and I feel the shuddered breath he pulls in. “Olivia, this is my family.”

There are sniffles, someone sighs, and I hear someone else whisper, “Finally.”

I’m not sure who it was, but they nailed it.

Finally.

His arm curls slightly, bringing me closer to his body. I inhale the delicious scent that is him. Smiling and meeting the eyes of the people in the room is a little intimidating when they’re focusing right back on you this time. I give them a small wave and marvel in the enormity of this moment.

So this is what people mean when something means everything to them. It must be, because only “everything” could feel this monumental. Pure love, all of them, and a true family built on one heck of a solid foundation.





“Wandering Child” by wild Rivers



We stayed at the Reids’ house for hours after the initial kitchen introductions.

At one point, I lost track of Zeke. Later, after we had gotten back to the hotel, he told me that he had stepped aside with Asher and Chelcie to talk about how they would tell Zac. Of course, Zac being an adult and all, he didn’t have to get their advice or input on how to handle telling him, but I love that he did. It showed how much respect he had for both Chelcie and his brother as Zac’s parents. I hope that it would help him understand that Zeke felt like he was Zac’s true father and didn’t want to take that role from him. He wanted his son to know that he was his, but also to know that his dad would always be Asher, and he wasn’t going to threaten that relationship.

I love that he did that.

I love that he was asking for their guidance as well.

In the end, they decided that it was best for Asher and Chelcie to talk to Zac privately and then they would all go from there.

Personally, I had a feeling that Zac might be the luckiest man on earth to have both a dad and a father. Zeke might have just found out about him, but I don’t for a second doubt that he would give his life for his son. He wanted to have a relationship with him, just not at the detriment to the one Zac shared with Asher.

That was two nights ago. Now, three days later, I was getting worried.

We’ve had a couple of great days here in Hope Town, but with no word on Zac, they came with a double edge to them. It was great getting to know these people, and watching Zeke heal a little more each day that he’s with his family is a sight to be seen. However, knowing that with each great moment we had shared with everyone, there was a dark shadow that hung a little bigger each passing day that we heard nothing from Zac.

I walk into the backyard at the Reids’, again marveling at the perfection that is their backyard. Talk about a secret garden.

One side is set up to be an outdoor kitchen with a grand seating area of a permanent solid wood table under a tall hut peaked roof. Instead of walls, thick white cotton drapes blew slightly in the breeze. They hung from rustic-looking hoops connected to metal beams that wrapped around each wall. There were so many chairs they could probably host a full football team to dinner. I was told earlier that was where they had their monthly mandatory family dinners. Over the years, they kept adding to it, improving and building it up, and just this year they had added the covered walkway to the outdoor kitchen—complete with a six burner stove, a flat top grill, and a pizza oven.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, on the other side of the yard was a huge landscaped oasis that had me wishing I had my bathing suit every time I saw the Jacuzzi bubble or heard the crash of the waterfall (yes, the waterfall) over the chatter around me.

And finally, the icing on top of the backyard dreams are made of was what the pathway between the garden of flowers and colorful bushes. Once you cleared the canopy of low hanging trees, you were standing on the most stunning and peaceful lakes I had ever seen. It looked like heaven on earth, no exaggeration. The thick trees that hid the house from view while on the dock also gave it a barrier to the sounds beyond them. It’s so still, calm, and quiet you would swear you were alone for miles and miles.

Now this kind of living might have a chance to sway me away from Boston. I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel this every day. Could I have this kind of peace? In the city, impossible. But here? Oh, yes.