Epilogue

“You don’t think it’s too small?”

“Are you kidding? I love it.”

“Ain’t anything special.” He kicked the tire of their new fifth-wheel trailer. He’d bought the most premium model he could find, but now, seeing it next to Mari, it didn’t seem half good enough. Especially since he knew she’d given up a permanent job with a house to be with him.

“It’s better than anyplace I’ve ever lived in.” She bounded inside. “Look at those gorgeous countertops!”

“AC, too,” he offered. “Central, so it vents in every room and you don’t have to throw your pillow under the window unit come August.”

“That’s going to be important, until I get certified to work with some nondesert species.” Mari ran her hand over the creamy paneling. “It’s really beautiful. I can’t believe how big the bathroom is, and this kitchen is a dream. Huge upgrade from my tailgate, and I can even bake in here. Are you sure it wasn’t too much money?”

“I make a good wage,” he growled. “If I’m gonna live in a trailer again, it better be a damn nice trailer.” He shook back his hair—getting long again already—and squinted at the complicated panel for lighting and climate control options. “I’m not having you living in some shithole with tinfoil on the windows and a hose poked through the wall for a shower.”

He didn’t want to risk the chance of the smell of a pizza warehouse creeping back into his nose. This was his new life, his choices. He liked the hell out of all of them, but he wanted to make sure Mari liked them, too.

“Heck, when I was living in my truck, I didn’t even have a shower.” She grinned, dropping to bounce on the thick cushions of the leather couch. “This is practically a palace. And it feels like ours.”

Her quiet smile made his chest feel tight, like it was growing too big for his ribs, and he glanced down and cleared his throat, trying not to grin like a dope.

“Well, it’ll work for now, anyhow. Give us a home to take with us. Plenty of power lines being built through the desert to LA and Las Vegas. That’ll keep me busy until you get certified for those other species like you were telling me about.”

“I love the Mojave Desert, but honestly, I can’t wait. Then we can travel all over the country, see the mountains, the rivers, the coasts . . .” She tugged him onto the couch next to her. He didn’t put up much of a fight. “Besides, there are fewer tortoise jobs all the time.”

“If you ever get tired of moving around, just say the word,” he insisted. “I can work local distribution lines anywhere. I don’t have to build. Don’t need to bust my back lugging steel into my sixties like Vernon did.”

“I could get a job with a local fish and wildlife department someday,” Mari suggested. “Maybe somewhere with some big shady trees . . .”

“House with a porch.” He’d build her a porch swing, buy her some cushions for it so she could sit out there as long as she liked on nice days.

“I could take some time off, too,” she said. “If you ever get a job somewhere they don’t need biological monitors. Money’s not so tight now that my bills are caught up.”

Brad paid the medical bills he’d given her, sure. But her ex only lasted a few weeks before he broke his word and showed up again, begging her to come home. Once he saw Jack, he stopped the Mr. Nice Guy act and came back with a gun. They’d already alerted the police and had him on the restraining order violation, but it was the pistol that sent him to prison. Still woke Jack up in a cold sweat some nights, to think how close they’d come to bullets flying before the cops showed up.

“You shouldn’t have had any medical bills to pay!” he grumbled. “It’ll be a cold day in the devil’s jockey shorts before I give that prick any credit for paying off those bills when he’s the only reason you had ’em to start with.”

“Oh, I don’t give Brad any credit. But it’s sure nice to have my credit looking better.” She gave Jack a soft smile, her blue eyes glowing the way they did so often now.

He shook his head with a laugh. “You’ve got to be the nicest damn person ever born. Give Gideon a run for his money.”

“Oh, Gideon isn’t that nice. Don’t you remember what he said about that referee’s mother when the Packers lost last Sunday?”

Jack chuckled, and she kissed him, her hand finding his and toying with his fingers.

“You’re too good to me. I can’t help but tease.”

“Ain’t too good. You had to take out the trash yourself last week because I forgot.”

“You’re still upset about that?” She snorted. “Are you going to buy me a trailer every time you forget to take out the trash?”

“Nope. Only gonna buy one, that way you’ve gotta stay in this one with me.” As soon as he said it, he realized it sounded bad, like he was going to make her or something, but she laughed like that was so far from their reality that it could only be a joke.

After they’d found each other again, she never took that biologist-in-residence job, or the survey gig in the Chocolate Mountains. Instead, she’d come to monitor a job he took building power lines near Vegas. No matter how often he checked in with her, she never seemed to mind having followed him to that assignment. His whole crew had pretty much come with him from the last job, even Kipp and Joey the apprentice.

Mari wasn’t always the bio on his crew, but he was pretty sure she ran interference for him with the other bios because they were all real good to him. Explained the reasons for their weirder regulations, which he appreciated. He tried his best never to yell at work anymore, tried to talk soft and let people figure shit out on their own like Vernon had, but every now and again he slipped up when someone did something really stupid.

After the Vegas job ended, he’d shown her a list of all the places that needed linemen, all mapped out inside the boundaries of the desert tortoise habitat he’d found online. She’d picked their next job and he’d applied, and bought a ring on the drive there. Took him five months to work up the courage to ask her, and only then because he’d found the ring moved from one side of his underwear drawer to the other.

She hadn’t left him after finding the tiny velvet box, and had made his favorite dinners for the next six consecutive days, so he’d figured it was a pretty safe bet to ask her.

Turned out, that had been a correct assumption.

That ring glittered on her finger now as she braced herself on his shoulder to swing a leg over his lap and straddle him. “I’m going to have to stay in this RV with you, huh? Well, we’ve all got problems.” She kissed him with a smile curving her lips. “I sure like mine.”

Much later, when their clothes had migrated to the floor and the AC was working overtime to catch up, Jack was thinking about their conversations about what made a home, both today and when they first met.

He stroked a hand over her silver-streaked hair, hugging her closer into his chest. “Just so you know, I don’t care if we get a house or not. Or when.” He laid a kiss on her forehead. “With you, anyplace feels like home to me.”