Page 88 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
“I’m not so sure about that. Look who you’re with.” Jett winked at Emery. “He didn’t know I was coming either. But when Mom told me what happened at the benefit dinner, I knew my brother needed backup.”
Jett pointed at Tango, who was creeping under the couch skirt with the white thong Emery had worn to the benefit dinner hanging from his mouth. “Is that…?”
“What the heck?” Dean dropped to his knees, lifted the decorative flap, and peered beneath the couch. “Holy cow. Em, you’ve got to see this.”
She and Jett dropped to their knees on either side of him and looked under the couch at a stash of Emery’s underwear, her necklace, headbands, two sets of keys—Emery’s and the set for the golf cart—and one of her pink flip-flops.
“Your place isn’t the Bermuda Triangle after all.” She laughed as she pushed to her feet, and man, it was so good to see her smile. “You just have thieves for pets. Oh my gosh, you guys…”
They followed her gaze to Cash prancing out of the guest room dragging Emery’s missing yoga strap, and they all laughed.
“Ourplace,” he reminded her. “I guess there were bigger forces than me trying to keep you here.” He pulled her close and glanced at Jett. “Now, if we could just get rid of this guy, maybe we can leave some more things on the floor for our kitties to steal.”
Epilogue
EMERY PULLED HER legs up to her chest, her fingers tucked inside the sleeves of her sweatshirt. The temperature had dipped with the mid-September sun as all their friends gathered around the table in Desiree’s yard for a late dinner. She couldn’t believe she’d been at the Cape for four months already. Her brothers had come up to visit in August, and after a brief banging of chests with Dean, they realized he was just as alpha as they were, and they could trust him to take care of her. Austin continued to call DeanViking. And when they were out dancing at Undercover, one look at all the cute girls and her brothers threatened to never leave. She missed them, but she was enjoying what she and Desiree had deemed as theirgrown-up lives. She knew her brothers were only a phone call away and nothing would ever come between them.
Cosmos pawed at her leg, and she lifted him into her lap. “I’m still convinced you had something to do with Tango and Cash’s thievery, in some sort of animalistic matchmaking scheme.” The pup cocked his head and licked her chin. She leaned down and whispered, “Thank you.” The kitties had continued stealing Emery’s things. Since she’d moved in with him, she and Dean had discovered another stash of items under Dean’s bed that they hadn’t noticed had gone missing—pens, hair clips, underwear…
Dean’s laughter drew her attention like music to her ears. He still wore her necklace around his wrist, and they’d added his elemental sign to the mix. Her strong, stable man was an earth sign. Their love even made astrological sense. While she lifted him from the confines of reality, nourishing his sillier side and showing him the intangible, magical side of things, he kept her grounded. And like the banks to a flowing creek, he supported her creativity and ideas so her dreams could flourish, while she continued believing in miracles.
And one miracle seemed to be coming true.
Things between Dean and his father weren’t great yet, but they were working on it. They were talking more, and his parents had come for dinner twice since she’d moved in. His father was so blown away with Rose’s progress now that she was out of her wheelchair, he’d even relented about the value of yoga back-care. Just last week, after observing one of Emery’s yoga classes at LOCAL, he had proposed that his practice refer patients to her. She considered that a major milestone. But everything wasn’t coming up roses on all Douglas Masters Sr. fronts. Jett wasn’t as accepting of his father’s apologies as Dean had been, though Emery hoped one day he would be. No man could have raised three sons as loving and remarkable as Dean, as affable as Jett, and as kind as Doug—whom she’d had the pleasure of meeting via Skype the week after she’d moved in with Dean—without possessing a large amount of kindness, patience, and tact. Their father simply needed to dig out from under years of mistakes to find and nurture those sides of himself again. But he was making strides in the right direction, and for that she was grateful. They all had a long road ahead of them, but she knew it would be worth it.
Emery snuck a piece of a corn muffin from Dean’s plate, but he was too busy giving Drake and Jett a hard time about not having steady girlfriends to notice, as if he’d become the authority on the subject. Jett was down for a visit, but Dean was doing his best to convince him to stay for a few weeks.
Desiree leaned closer and said, “Rick found a plate big enough for two in one of the wedding catalogs that saysHISandHERSon opposite sides. We should get you guys a few of those.”
“Why bother?” Dean said as Emery snagged another piece of muffin from his plate. “She’d eat only from my side anyway.” He pressed his lips to hers. “Right, doll?”
“I didn’t think you were paying attention.”
“I’m always paying attention to you.” He kissed her again.
“We need to get going if we’re going to make it to the drive-in,” she reminded him.
She’d recently enjoyed a girls’ night with Rose, Magdeline, and Arlin, and they’d watchedDirty Dancing. Afterward, as they were discussing movies, Rose told her all about how much Dean had loved the drive-in theater as a boy, and how his mother used to make popcorn sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon for him and his brothers to eat during the movie. Emery had gone one better. With all of the hullabaloo around the benefit dinner, she’d forgotten to show Dean what she’d bought for them in the back room of Devi’s Discoveries. Tonight, that edible lingerie would come in handy—and it just happened to be cinnamon flavored. After all, her man did like herhot. A little thrill darted through her with the thought.
“You guys are going to the drive-in?” Jett asked.
Dean nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“Because I called Mom to see if I could swing by and pick up something from the attic, and she said she and Dad were going to the drive-in.”
“I guess old dogs can learn new tricks.” Dean glanced at Jett and said, “You know that land you have overlooking the bay?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Now that things are getting better with Dad, maybe you should consider moving back here. Build yourself a place. Get a real life again instead of living out of suitcases,” Dean suggested.
Jett scoffed. “Getting betteris not exactly good.”
The sound of a car door brought Serena to her feet. “Oh good. Harper’s here.”
Drake pulled her down by the back of her shirt. “Why is she here?”
“I told you she was coming by to talk with me about taking over part-time while I get back into interior design.” Serena swatted his hand away from her shirt and ran toward the fence, waving.
