Epilogue
“You want to explain
to me why there’s a “Sold” sign in my landlord’s front
yard?”
“Really?” Her
cousin’s voice on the phone, deep and amused. “You need an
explanation? You can’t make that deductive leap all by your
lonesome?”
“Michael . .
.”
“Because that would
make you a terrible accountant.”
“Michael!”
“Well, it
would.”
She ground her teeth.
“There was never a ‘For Sale’ sign, so how could it even be
sold?”
“Before you even went
out there, when I talked to Cain and Cain talked to them, they’d
discussed wanting to sell their family home—too big for them for
years—so they could retire more and move to North
Dakota.”
“That makes
no sense.”
“Oh, sure it does,
what with the real estate market being in such a slump. They were
smart not to bother listing until the market began to recover.”
Then, softly, to someone else: “Two minutes, honey. Then Daddy will
push you on the swing. Gotta finish with cousin Rachael.” Louder:
“Lara says hi and she loves you.”
“You know what I
mean, you deliberate goob, and tell Lara I love her, too. And what
is this retire more? And who retires in
any capacity in order to end up, on purpose, in North
Dakota?”
“The way I got it
from Cain—may she rest in peace or burn in hell as long as she’s
gone forever—these two aren’t very good at retiring.”
“They’ve made a lot
of pies in the two weeks I’ve been here,” Rachael
admitted.
“So they wanted to
retire more, and build their dream home
in the most beautiful place they knew, which happens to be in the
state of North Dakota beside the lake where they’d
honeymooned.
“After Cain was out
of the picture and I heard that, I found out what fair market value
was for their home and made a cash offer, which they took. They
never even had to list their house. Which, by the way, is now your
house. So now you can sleep in the turret. Or sell it. Or keep it
and rent it out.”
“Or sleep in the
turret,” she said excitedly. “We can fit a queen-sized bed in
there!”
“Oooh, a shared
turret, I’m impressed. I wasn’t sure Edward was
turret-worthy.”
“Shut up. Stop
calling me. I hate you.”
“You called
me, cousin.”
“Oh, yeah. Right.
Well, thanks for the turret and the house around it.”
“Thanks for
befriending powerful allies and killing a threat to our Pack.” His
voice deepened as all traces of teasing fled. “Rachael, truly. A
house is a poor thank-you for what you’ve done for the Pack, and
for me. But it’s yours, and the title is in your name, so as I
said, if you and Edward want to return to the Cape, you can sell it
or not as you like.”
“I’m not sure the
Cape is ready for our return, Michael, but I’ll keep all that in
mind.”
“I am so grateful for
all that you did, and so sorry for all that you suffered. Two weeks
ago I already owed you more than I could have ever
repaid.”
“We’re family,
dumbass.”
“Exactly so. You
already meant the world to me, and now look! Unbelievable! I am
rich, Rachael, in all things. And I have you to thank for an awful
lot of that. Who besides me has an accountant who can analyze a P
and L statement as easily as she shatters cervical
vertebrae?”
“Gross,
Michael.”
“I’ll want to meet
your mate,” he added thoughtfully. “Happened right in front of him
and he didn’t have a nervous breakdown.
I won’t deny being impressed.”
“He did have one. He
just waited until I was done with mine.”
“Truly, a match made
by the gods.”
“I hate
you.”
“Just sayin’.” Ah!
That was better. Now he sounded more like her cousin and less like
her Pack leader. “So what’s up next for you?”
“Gotta go tell my man
he’s sleeping in a turret for a while.”
“If he’s anything
like you’ve described, he’s probably got his Star Trek posters all over it.”
“Star WARS, Michael, get a clue.”
“Sorry.”
“Well, I hope so!”
she cried. “That’s a pretty big thing to fuck up.”
“Very, very
sorry.”
“Okay,
then.”
“Okay.”
“And
Michael?”
“Yeah,
cuz?”
“It’s possible we’ve
been sleeping in the turret because I sent the son on a month-long
all-expenses-paid cruise vacation with his fiancée.”
The Pack leader
roared laughter and dropped his cell phone. By the time he picked
it up, she was long gone, and in more ways than one.