Epilogue

Five months later

Moist, humid air surrounded them. Frogs croaked in the low scrub, and birds flitted in and out of the tall Sierra palms and guava trees.

Kade stepped over another root belonging to what looked like a three-hundred-year-old guava tree. Bamboo lined one side of the wet trail, lush green bushes the other. Sweat dripped down his temples and his back, and all he could do was smile like an idiot.

El Yunque Rainforest was even more beautiful than he remembered. Probably because this time, he was here with Laia and Rosa, taking that vacation to Puerto Rico he and Laia had talked about in the elevator that fateful day. Laia’s mother, Millie, aka Mima, had been shocked when Kade had insisted she join them.

Mima tripped over a root but didn’t go down. Kade took hold of her arm, steadying her while she regained her balance. “I’m fine,” she reassured him, patting his arm.

Getting to know Mima had been awkward at first, but he’d had plenty of free time to break through her shell. Thirty days in fact, the length of time the DHS had suspended him without pay for all the rules he’d broken.

Shortly after that, Laia had been accepted for the winter term at UPenn’s veterinary school in Philly. He’d put in for a transfer and was picked up almost immediately by the DHS at Philly Airport. Then he and Laia had declared that they were all moving to a suburb outside Philadelphia.

Rather than shrugging him off as he’d expected, Millie kept her hand on Kade’s forearm, leaning on him as they continued walking.

Millie had taken the news that Laia and Rosa were leaving New Jersey with grace, but the minute Laia’s back was turned, she’d glared silently at Kade. Until he’d suggested she relocate there with them. Since then, they’d formed a tentative truce.

“C’mon, Uncle Kade! C’mon, Mima!” Rosa waved her hand, urging them to keep up. “You’re lollygagging.”

“Lollygagging? Never!” he shouted back, unable to stop grinning. In truth, he’d never smiled more in his life since Laia and Rosa had moved in with him. That had been another bone of contention with Millie. Living in sin, unmarried, and with a child in the same house. The glaring had picked up again until Kade had shown Millie four plane tickets to San Juan, one of which was in her name.

Laia and Rosa stopped to look at a book Laia had purchased at a local bookstore on the rainforest’s flora and fauna. They both wore matching khaki shorts, hiking boots, and sleeveless orange shirts.

“Thank goodness,” Millie said as she sat on a fallen tree trunk. “I thought they’d never stop walking.”

Kade sat beside her, leaning down and pretending to retie his boot lace. For a woman around seventy, Millie was in great shape, but he wanted to make sure she didn’t overdo it.

“You know,” she said, leaning in closer, “I never told you this…”

Uh-oh. Kade had no idea what bomb Millie was about to drop.

“When I met you the day of Laia’s wedding to your brother, I thought to myself: my daughter is marrying the wrong man.”

Kade’s fingers froze on his boot. Say what? He straightened, thinking he must have misheard her.

She elbowed him in the arm and laughed. “Don’t look so shocked. I saw you two together that day. It may not have been obvious to anyone else, but I know my daughter. She was in love with you even then.”

Kade shook his head, trying to digest this revelation. “Then why did you—”

“Nudge her into Josh’s arms?” Her brows rose. “Because she was carrying his child. Marrying him, not you, was the way things had to be at that time. Could you really have been with her when she was bearing your brother’s child?”

“No,” he admitted. He’d figured that out a long time ago.

“It would have torn your family apart,” she continued. “While I never wished your brother any ill will, things are finally the way they were always meant to be.”

“I thought you didn’t like me.” More like hated his guts.

“That was never the case. I was worried about the impact you would have on my daughter if you tried being a part of her life back then. But you did the right thing.”

“By staying away.” Even though it had killed him.

“Yes.”

They watched Laia point to the book, then up at the trees. Rosa followed her gaze, also pointing.

“This is our last day here, so what are you waiting for?” Millie nudged his arm.

Since seeking and receiving Millie’s blessing, Kade had been stalling. Not because he wasn’t more and more in love with Laia every day but because he was scared shitless that the new and improved, independent Laia wouldn’t want to go through the formalities again.

Millie held out her hand. “Help an old woman up. I want to hear this.” Her eyes crinkled and her lips twitched. “Find your courage, young man.”

Courage?

In his military and law enforcement careers, he’d faced more danger than most people, but he’d never been more scared than he was now. As he tugged the tiny box from his pocket, his hand shook. Millie hooked her hand into the crook of his arm as they joined Laia and Rosa, still looking up into the trees.

“Uh, Laia?” He cleared his throat.

“Uh-huh,” she said, pointing to where a green bird was barely visible sitting on a limb over their heads. “See that bird, Rosa?” Laia redirected her daughter to the book in her hands. “It’s not as rare as a Puerto Rican Parrot, but we won’t see anything like that in Philadelphia.”

“Laia!” he said louder than intended.

She snapped her head up. “What?”

Rosa gasped and smacked her hands to her cheeks. “Is it time?”

“Yeah, Cream Puff. It is.”

Getting Millie to keep the secret that he was going to propose during their trip was easy. Getting a five-year-old to keep that secret had been a miracle, one that had involved promises of pineapple pizza every week for a month.

Kade got down on one knee and opened the green velvet box. “Laia Velez, you and Rosa are the center of my world. The hearts of my heart. My life is nothing without you in it. Will you marry me?”

Rosa began jumping up and down. “Say yes, Mommy! Say yes!”

Laia’s eyes filled with tears. When she didn’t say anything, Kade’s heart about stopped. Then slowly, she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes!”

Still jumping up and down, Rosa threw her hands in the air. “Yay!”

Behind him, Millie started clapping.

Kade pulled out the ring and slid it on the ring finger of Laia’s left hand. Then he stood and captured her mouth in a searing, heart-melting, soul-binding kiss, not caring that Millie was watching.

Fluttering directly over their heads brought their kiss to an end. A few leaves floated to the ground at their feet.

“Look!” Laia whispered, pointing.

A green bird about twelve inches long with blue wings and a distinctive red crown perched on a limb over their heads.

“A Puerto Rican Parrot,” Millie murmured. “It’s a sign of good luck.”

“It is good luck.” When Laia reached up to rest her hand on Kade’s cheek, he clasped her hand, tenderly kissing her palm.

He had to agree. He’d never felt luckier in his life. And Millie was right.

As he stared into the eyes of the woman he loved, finally…this was the way things were always meant to be.

Did you fall in love with DEA Special Agent Adam “Deck” Decker and his Belgian Malinois canine partner, Thor? Don’t miss Tough Justice, the first book in Tee O’Fallon’s new spinoff series. Available everywhere Mass Market Paperbacks are sold.

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