EPILOGUE
“And over here is the gym.” Kellan gestured to the cluster of machines in one corner of the 11th Hour’s HQ.
“No fucking kidding,” Jack muttered.
Kellan ignored him, pointing over to the desks where all the computers and screens were. “And over there, is our control center.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Jack was impatient now. This orientation bullshit that Faith had insisted on was getting old.
“Over there,” Kellan went on, as if Jack hadn’t said a word, “is the R&R area.” He pointed to where all the couches were and the recliner that Isiah seemed permanently embedded in.
Callie was sitting on the couch, her guitar on her knees, showing an interested-looking Isiah some chord changes.
It hadn’t been long since Jack had agreed to accept a position with the 11th Hour team. But he’d insisted that he wasn’t going to take on any jobs until he’d had at least a week alone with Callie, in the privacy of his own house.
That had been deemed acceptable, so that’s exactly what he and Callie had done, spending most of the week in his bedroom and only coming up for air to eat, to get some fresh air at the beach, and to argue about Callie’s clothes lying all over the floor. Arguments that generally ended back where they started. In bed.
It was good. It felt right. More right than anything else in his life ever had.
And then it had got even better, with Callie starting to investigate local colleges and their music departments, because she was eager to start a music degree. She’d also been surprised by the 11th Hour team paying her a retainer because her knowledge of East Coast old-money families could prove very useful to them.
Yeah, it was good. Callie was finding herself, finding her freedom, and even though it was hard to give her the space sometimes, he made himself do it. Because he loved her. Because she was important to him.
And the more he did it, the easier it got.
Shit, she could even spend a night away from him without him wanting to call her every five seconds. Probably.
She looked up from her position on the couch and smiled at him. And his heart felt like it was bursting right out of his chest.
Because he’d found the thing he’d been looking for the day he’d first picked up Faith’s card.
A purpose. And that purpose wasn’t this team. It was Callie.
“I trust Kellan’s shown you everything?” Faith said, appearing suddenly at Kellan’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you could join us.”
Jack never took his eyes off the woman sitting on the couch. “Yeah, someone was pretty convincing.”
“I bet,” Kellan muttered.
But Faith only smiled. “Welcome to the 11th Hour, Mr. King.”