EPILOGUE Ronan

Discovery Cove, five days later…

Ronan was in heaven. He floated on his stomach looking down at the coral reef which was teeming with hundred of fish. Swimming together, they looked like an undersea rainbow. He’d bought himself a snorkel and learned how to use it so he could help Everly in the water, but now he was enjoying the experience as much as his daughter.

Everly held Ronan’s hand and pointed excitedly at her favorite fish. A small school of blue tangs swam below them. When they’d passed, Everly pointed toward the sky, her and Ronan’s signal to surface.

Ronan took off his diver’s mask as Everly lifted her head. He helped her take off the snorkel and the two of them swam, then waded to shore. “Dad, this is the funnest thing we’ve ever done. When we come back for February vacation, I want to do this again.”

So far as Ronan was aware, there were no plans to come to Florida when school went on vacation, but he trusted Everly. They would be back for sure. “This is a super fun day,” Ronan agreed. “After lunch, Wolf and Uncle Jude are going to do the shark encounter. Are you sure you want to sit that out?”

Everly took a seat on one of their lounge chairs and wrapped her towel around herself. “I’ll try it if you go with me. Aurora wants to try it too, but she’s a little scared. I am too.”

“Do you know how to stop being scared?” Ronan asked.

Everly shook her head, showering Ronan in drops of water.

“By turning fear into courage. Courage is being afraid of something and doing it anyway. I think you’ve got a lot of courage inside you.” Ronan meant every word. He didn’t know how Everly made it through the day with all the things she saw and heard with her gift. If that wasn’t courage, he didn’t know what was.

“You have courage all the time,” Everly said, resting her head on Ronan’s shoulder. “I know you were scared the other day at Patrick’s house. I saw what happened to him.”

Ronan dropped his head into his hands. The last thing he wanted was for Everly to have seen Patrick get shot. He’d survived, thanks to the quick acting first responders, but Patrick was going to have a long recovery. “You’re right, I was scared, but we needed to do whatever we could to find out who killed Jillian, Shane and Jennifer.”

“Jillian came to see me one last time. She wanted me to say thank you.”

“What about Shane, did you see him?” Ronan was having a hard time dealing with Shane’s death. Even though he’d been killed during a surveillance that Mabel paid for, he still felt like his old training partner’s death was his fault. It was going to take a long time for him to get over his friend’s death.

“No, he didn’t come to see me, but I know he’s safe.” Everly lifted her head to look at Ronan. “What we do takes more than courage, Dad. It takes love. If we didn’t love and care about people, even strangers, we wouldn’t put ourselves on the line to help.”

Ronan thought about Everly’s words for a second. “You’re right. I never thought about it that way. I want to keep people safe and find justice for those who have been hurt or worse, but the root of that is love. You’re pretty darn smart, little miss.”

“No, Dad, I’m wicked smart.” Everly elongated the word ‘smart’ with her New England accent, making it sound like “smaaaaaaaht.”

“Yeah, you are.” Ronan laughed with his daughter. “What do you see for our future right now?”

“Ice cream for lunch!” Everly said.

“Do you really see that or do you just want me to think you see it?” Ronan had a feeling he knew the answer.

“Oh, I see it. You know you want ice cream, Dad. You can’t fool me.”

“You’re right. I always want ice cream.” Ronan knew Everly was having fun with him, but he wished she would have answered his question with information that was a bit further reaching.

“This new year is going to be interesting. There’s gonna be some trouble for you, but I know you’ll find a way out of it.”

“What kind of trouble?” Ronan asked. Trouble could mean all kinds of things. Fighting with Ten. Getting hurt. Doing something that would put Fitz and Jude or their entire family in danger.

“I’m not sure yet, but the good news is that you’ll have me to help you.” Everly offered Ronan a bright smile. “Now, let’s go get that ice cream. I’ll need a full belly if I’m gonna meet a shark.”

Ronan laughed. He handed Everly her beach cover-up and slipped on a Red Sox tee. He put Everly’s prediction out of his head. If trouble was coming for him in the new year, let it. Ronan knew that with his family by his side, he could deal with anything that came his way.

THE END