Chapter 27

Maddie was sohappy to be home.

She threw open the doors to Vale"s Flowers and inhaled the beautiful fragrances that had been a part of her heart for so long. "Welcome home!" she called out, throwing her arms out to the sides.

Lucas laughed and walked in, carefully checking all the corners, doors, and windows. "Do the flowers hear you?"

"They do. Can"t you hear them?" She walked over and picked up a vase of white roses that her friends had put together in her absence. "Listen. They"re saying that Piper, Tori, and Keira took such good care of them, but that they"re so happy to have us back."

She crouched down and let Violet sniff them. "They"re saying, welcome back, Vi."

Violet wagged her tail, licked Maddie"s face, and then set about inspecting the store, just like Lucas was doing.

Her friends had done incredible work handling all the flowers arriving, but there was still so much to catch up on.

"Looks like the security system Dylan"s team installed is working." Lucas checked out the controller by the back door, scrolling through the screen. "No one has tried to get in." His gun was on his hip, visible.

She was also armed, and she was wearing sneakers and leggings, giving her full mobility to fight or run if she needed to. "It"s weird, coming into work ready for war. Flowers and guns. What a combo, right?"

He looked over at her and smiled, making her heart turn over. "Life puts together some funny combos sometimes."

"Like us? West coast boy and east coast girl?" She"d had the best sleep in his arms, better than she"d slept in years. Full and complete surrender, trust that she was safe.

She still felt safe with him there, even though she knew she might not be. Lucas settled her, and it was magical. She spun around, holding out her arms, her heart wanting to dance. "Meeting Jacob was amazing," she said. "I was so scared, but it was so healing for me. All this fear I had about my past turned into love and safety."

Lucas grinned. "I"m not going to lie. I was a little jealous of your bond with him."

"You were?" She stopped spinning, surprised. "Seriously?"

"Yep." He walked over to her, caught her hand, and then pulled her into his arms. He began dancing with her, to music that only he could hear.

She laughed and let him lead, loving that this man was one who would dance with her to music that wasn"t playing. "Jacob"s my brother. Not the same thing."

He spun her around. "Can you say that he"s the brother of your heart? Since he"s my brother, it doesn't feel right that he"s your brother. That just gets weird when I start thinking about you naked."

She giggled. "I didn"t even think of that. That"s so funny. I don"t care about biological ties when it comes to family, but now that you point it out, three cheers for Jacob not being blood related to either of us."

"Well…to me, at least."

Her amusement faded. "You really think I"m biologically related to him?"

"I don"t know. There"s some facial similarity." He spun her around, and then dipped her, his arm strong and supportive. "But we may never know, unless you want to do DNA testing."

"DNA testing? No way." She locked her hands around his neck. "I don"t need to revisit my past, or this Les guy. I feel ready to live my life now, and to let that go."

"That sounds like a great idea." He dipped her, and Maddie giggled.

How they were having fun when they were both armed and a sociopath could be stalking them, she had no idea, but they were. Maybe it was because they"d both learned to live with shadows, that they both knew they had to decide to thrive in whatever moments they could find. Find joy in the darkness. Hear laughter in the silence. Be the light.

Lucas pulled her in for a slow dance, and her laughter faded into a sensation of peace as she tucked herself against him, resting her cheek against his chest. "Do you like flowers?" she asked.

"I do." He kissed her gently.

"I figured you did when I saw all the gardens around your house." She paused. "Want to run my flower store with me?"

Lucas tensed. "What?"

Oh…crap. She shouldn"t have sprung the idea on him like that. It had just seemed like such a perfect fit when she"d had the idea earlier. She quickly moved on. "My dad told me this morning he"s retiring." She still couldn"t believe it. She was terribly sad not to have her dad involved with the store, but she was absolutely thrilled with what he was doing instead. "He asked Dylan if he could help out with his detective agency, and do some local work."

Lucas grinned. "Dylan told me. Your dad will love that."

"I know, right?"

"Dylan also asked me to tell you that he won"t let your dad do anything dangerous."

Maddie laughed. "If Dylan doesn"t let him do anything dangerous, my dad will get mad."

"Let him get mad. He"s your dad. We have to keep him safe."

Maddie felt the sudden tension in Lucas"s body, and she pulled back. "You"re still not okay with my dad?"

Lucas shrugged. "We haven"t really connected. He"s focused on Jacob and his family, and on you."

Maddie sighed. Her dad was her world. It would work with Lucas only if he and her dad could connect. "Have you tried talking to him?"

Lucas shrugged. "We"ve been friendly."

That wasn"t enough. She knew it. Lucas loved fiercely. He could never be all right being simply friendly with her dad. He wasn"t built like that. And he knew how close she was with her dad. He"d always feel on the outside, and he deserved more than that.

Her dad was stubborn, and he"d been burned by Adam. Why would he trust Lucas?

Lucas had been burned by a dad a long time ago.

How did she bring them together? Because she had to do it, if there was any chance of Lucas wanting to stay.

A week later,Maddie knew she was in trouble.

She was in love with Lucas. One hundred percent.

He"d fit perfectly into her life. He loved working with flowers, her friends loved him, and his presence in her life felt like home.

If he decided to leave, she would be crushed.

She"d tried a thousand times to imagine leaving home and moving to the Hart Ranch, and every time, she"d started crying.

It was impossible for her.

But Lucas spent a lot of time on the phone with his family, and she was beginning to suspect it would be impossible for him to give up his life for her.

Could they do a part-time relationship? What would that even mean?

She looked over at Lucas as he drove. They were on their way to her dad"s for dinner, as she always did on Sunday nights. He was relaxed and singing along to a song by his brother-in-law, Travis Stockton, who was as famous as Tatum, his brother Brody"s wife.

Lucas was so loyal to his family, both Hart and Stockton. He"d talked a lot about the Stockton clan, and how he wanted her to meet them. They were a family of nine brothers and one sister who lived in Wyoming on a ranch much like the Harts.

They, too, had had a shared traumatic childhood, and the bond they had as adults was like the Harts. They sounded like an amazing family, and she was sure she"d love them.

But first, she and Lucas had to figure out their own situation. "Lucas."

"Mmm…?"

She was going to ask how he liked being there with her. What he thought. But she swallowed her words, afraid to ask, afraid to get an end to the story that was just beginning.

She wanted a next chapter.

But before anything could happen, they had to be able to get back to living a normal life, and not hiding in the store or her house, always vigilant, always watchful, always on edge. "Any word on Les?"

"Nothing." He paused. "Dylan has to pull the guards tonight. He works with a woman named Eliana, who helps women escape from bad situations, usually domestic ones. She"s got a big situation happening, and he had to give her resources. I told him we would be all right."

Maddie tensed, and put her hand on her hip, where her gun rested. Violet sat between them, wearing the bullet-proof therapy dog vest that Lucas had ordered for her. "We"re ready."

But as she spoke, she felt her tension rise. Having Dylan"s men watching out had given her the ability to relax. But suddenly, once again, it was just them.

"They"ve cleared all the areas around your house, your dad"s, and the store. There"s been no sign of anything since that first night."

"You think Les has moved on?"

"Honestly? No." Lucas looked over at her. "I think he"s waiting. I think he"ll move tonight."

Her heart started racing. "What"s the plan?"

He pulled into her dad"s driveway. "I have Declan outside watching. We"ll hunker down inside and let them come in." He looked over at her. "You ready?"

She nodded. "Ready."

He leaned in to kiss her. "Maddie," he whispered. "I love you. I would ask you to go back to the ranch and let me handle this, but I know you need to be here."

She closed her eyes, breathing in his kiss. "I do. Thanks for understanding that."

"Let"s end this tonight."