“They did not do that.”

“They absolutely did.”

“You said, your family.”

“Yeah. Now I have my own little family within my large, loud, endlessly growing family.”

“I didn’t realize we were now a family.”

“I told you, I’m ready, Daisy. For you, for Bailey, for our own kids. You tell me the moment you’re ready because I’m here waiting.”

“I’m ready,” she said, quickly. I smiled at the enthusiasm.

“Really? I thought you would need more time.”

“No, not even a second. If it’s with you, I’m ready now.”

I spun her to face me, cupping her jaw and pulling her in to kiss me. “I love you, Daze. I’ve loved you, only you, every day since I met you, and I hope you are serious right now.”

“Of course I’m serious. I want everything with you. I love you, too, Kye.”

“Forever this time, no years apart.”

“And no one getting in the way this time,” she said.

“Then I think we need to go talk to your dad, and make sure we’re done here so we can go home and get started on that,” I said with a grin. “And maybe make sure he doesn’t hate my guts enough to threaten you more.”

“He will,” she said. “I don’t know if it will ever stop, but we can stop being around him.”

We headed over to her dad, who was already scowling at me.

“You just tried to arrest him for killing someone when he didn’t do it and your side lackey did, so unless you are going to apologize or tell us we can leave, I don’t want to hear anything from you,” Daisy said.

“Kye,” her dad said, his face hard as he stared at us. “Don’t leave town. We will have plenty of questions to ask.”

“But?” Daisy asked.

“But for now, you can go. I have enough to sort out with Mark, so we can talk tomorrow.”

My eyebrows jumped up, but I said nothing as he walked away. “Did your dad just say that he didn’t want me to leave? Incredible. We are already making progress. Who would have thought it would only take me basically being framed for murder, only to find it was your golden hero of an ex-boyfriend for him to like me?”

“We really could have saved ourselves six years apart had we known this with Dean.”

I laughed, pulling her under my arm and heading back towards the crew and the garage.

“Time to go home. To our home, and our girl.” I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I love you, Daisy. Forever.”

She smiled, her eyes shining with tears. “I love you, too, Kye. Forever.”

EPILOGUEDAISY

I held my breath.

Every turn that he took was sharper than the last. I couldn’t even see the road, the rain and fog so heavy on parts of the mountain that I didn’t know how he would see the next turn coming.

I knew he’d done this before. I knew he said he knew the road, but he was driving up the side of a mountain with zero visibility as fast as he could. I didn’t know how I could be calm about this.

I sat with Bailey, watching the camera that was set up so that we could watch his car pass over the finish line.

My chest eased, and I could finally take a breath. “He made it.”

Bailey yelled in excitement, jumping up to go play with the other kids now.

I watched the camera as he parked the car at the top and got out, walking around the front to the crowd of people.

A girl spun to face him, throwing her arms around him and making my heart stop. It wasn’t that Kye couldn’t hug other women, but watching it happen when I knew he didn’t like many people touching him made my heart sink a little bit.

I waited as the crowd dispersed and Kye disappeared. I knew he would talk for a few minutes, and then make the drive back down to get us, but now I was already impatient to see him again.

Kye had said it could take a while for him to get back to us or get us to him, but it had been close to an hour now. 

“Hey, that’s Kye,” Tara said, pointing to a car coming around the corner. I knew Tara well enough, at least enough through Ash. Her husband was good friends with Kye and on his team to set these races up. She had two amazing kids of her own that were more grown than Bailey.

“Hey, Tara. I’m really sorry to ask this, but could you maybe watch Bailey for, like, thirty minutes? I can pay you, if that helps.”

A sly smile grew on her face. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, I just need to talk to Kye…in private.”

She laughed. “Of course. And pay me? Babe, I have a husband that I still think is the hottest man in the world. How about I watch her now and you repay the favor with my boys when I need to talk to my husband in private one day?”

My mouth dropped, but I didn’t have time to argue. “That’s a deal. Are you sure you’re okay with it? She can be a handful.” We both looked to Bailey, who was playing with her boys.

“She’s nothing I haven’t handled. Two boys is a lot to handle. I won’t underestimate her,” she said, laughing. “Just go. We will be here when you get back.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Kye had made it to us, slowing down and parking, but I jumped in the passenger side, realizing there was barely a second seat in his race car.

“Go somewhere.”

“What?” he asked, looking around. “What are you doing?” He was laughing, but I ignored him.

“Go somewhere else. Go park somewhere private.”

“Oh, fuck. Okay.” He pulled back out. We were halfway up the mountain, but he pulled out to go down. He rounded the corners as people still packing to leave cheered at his car. 

“Is private going to be too hard to find?”