Epilogue

It was a week past Christmas—New Year’s Eve—and so much had changed for both of us.

First of all, I’d found a lawyer, who agreed to take Kitt’s case on a contingency basis until we won it, and Kitt was cleared to receive his inheritance. The lawyer even suggested a reputable psychiatrist he’d worked with before, who was able to clear Kitt’s medical records right away with a few tests and a few sessions with Kitt. He signed documents for the court that declared there was no reason Kitt needed any kind of “guardianship,” and in light of the other circumstances with his brother, the judge had quickly dismissed the hold that Jazz Devlin had on Kitt.

As for me, I’d decided to leave my job for sure. I didn’t blame Lucas—his father-in-law, Ed Colton, hadn’t been the man either of us had thought he was, and his family had been in the dark about what just what kind of person he truly was. I was convinced in the end that Lucas had been taken in by him as much as I had, but Colton had still been getting his information from Lucas on our whereabouts. That and the fact that I had been the one to kill Colton—even though it was in self-defense—changed things between us. He had his family to consider after all. I couldn’t argue with that.

It turned out to have been Ed Colton who had hired the men who attacked us in Arkansas and who were now spending time in the Ft. Smith jail, pending trial. We both agreed with the lawyer that we needed to travel back there and face the music with the cops. We would receive some minor charges for leaving the scene without talking to the police, but our lawyer said he’d be able to work it out if we agreed to testify against them.

From what Lucas could piece together from various texts and emails to Colton, Jazz Devlin had hired him to “take care” of Kitt because he was in deep financial distress, and he was desperate for the inheritance Kitt was set to receive on his upcoming birthday.

Ed Colton, as it turned out, had a shady past that Lucas and the rest of his family had never known about. It included some contract killing. All of that sordid mess was set to come out at Jazz Devlin’s trial later on.

I was looking for another job when Kitt had another idea. He told me he wanted to set up his own detective agency and he wanted to offer me a job running things.

“No way, Kitt. It’s sweet of you to want to help but…”

“You need a job, right? I just got all that money from my mother, and I want to do something worthwhile with it. I need you to help me.”

“If I had the money to buy in, maybe I’d take you up on it, but…”

“So, take out a loan. I can give you very favorable terms, and you don’t even have to pay me back.”

“No babe, it wouldn’t work. I want to marry you someday.”

His face lit up and he smiled. “Then it will be half yours anyway.”

“Georgia’s not a community property state, so it doesn’t work that way.”

“Well, however it works. I don’t care. I have some new clothes I want to buy and I need to get us both some pretty rings—maybe platinum with diamonds. You can pay half of that. But I want to work too, answering phones or whatever.”

“I don’t know, Kitt. It doesn’t seem right.”

“Why not? Would you give me a job if I needed one?”

“Well, yeah, of course, but…”

“But nothing. It’s the right thing to do, Daddy. And I’m good on the phone.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“Then will you shake on it?”

I looked at him sternly. “If we do this—and I’m not saying yes—I’m definitely paying you back. With interest.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“And you’re going to go on an allowance—no blowing all that money on clothes and jewelry. We don’t need platinum and diamonds, Kitten. Plain gold is good enough.”

“Yes, Daddy. Anything you say.”

I looked over at him and smiled. “Why do I not believe a word of that?”

“So can we shake on it then?”

“I think we can do better than that,” I said. And we did.

As time passed and things began to settle down, I realized that I had never gotten around to giving Kitt a Christmas present. And I knew exactly what that present would be.

I went to the local Humane Society to find Kitt a puppy but wound up with a four-year-old charmer of indeterminate parentage, who called out to me with a siren’s voice as I passed her cage. Her big brown eyes got to me when I stopped to pet her, and I found I couldn’t leave her behind.

She came home with me, and the two of us surprised Kitt as he was watching a soap opera and doing his nails because we were supposed to be going out later that night. I was afraid those plans might have to be put on hold.

“I love her!” Kitt said, looking up at me with shining eyes as the dog crawled into his lap and proceeded to lavish him with kisses. I think it was love at first sight for both of them.

“What’s her name?” he asked me, looking up at me excitedly.

“That’s up to you. She’s your dog.”

“I always liked the punny names.”

“Punny names?”

“Yes, like Mary Puppins, or…ooh, I know! Sarah Jessica Barker. That’s it! Doesn’t she look like a Sarah Jessica to you?”

“If you say so,” I said, laughing at both of them.

“I’m taking her to work with us. She can be the office dog.”

He leaned down to accept a big sloppy kiss from the newly christened dog, who apparently approved of her new name. I was still laughing at them both and sat down in the chair next to Kitt to watch him enjoy his present. I realized that it had been a long time since I’d felt so happy with my life. And it was all due to Kitt.

We hadn’t yet addressed the big issue between us. I knew that Kitt wanted a Daddy, and that scared me a little. I’d never been anyone’s Daddy, and I wasn’t sure I could be what he needed. But I was going to try. And since I couldn’t even imagine a world in which anyone else had that title and took care of him, I decided that it had to be me. It was a daunting prospect in many ways, but we could make this work.

He would be trusting me to know what he needed and relying on me to always take care of him. It was a big responsibility. He would be making himself vulnerable to me, showing me a side of his personality that was sensitive and very important to him. Basically, he was trusting me with his whole life. And I was up for the job.

He looked up at me then and smiled, and I wondered how I’d ever gotten so damn lucky. I loved him, and I wondered why I’d been so afraid to admit it before, even to myself. I wanted to be his Daddy and his caretaker and his lover when he needed that, and I had no idea where it would all lead. But as my mother once told me, love didn’t come with guarantees.

He plopped himself in my lap and kissed me.

“Now that we have a dog together and you want to marry me…does that mean you…you want to be my Daddy?”

“That’s exactly what it means. If it’s what you want too.”

His face was always beautiful to me, but just then it was extraordinary. He lit up from within, and I wrapped my arms around him and he and Sarah Jessica were both suddenly filling my lap. I pulled them close. It seemed like I’d taken that first frightening step, and it turned out to be just what I’d wanted and needed all along.

I guess taking it had been the only way for me to get to where I needed to be—right here with Kitt. Looked like Sarah Jessica and I had both found our forever homes.

The End