Chapter 26

I had to take the red-eye into JFK and then drive two more hours, but I was finally here. Wasn't sure what she would say, but the look on her face had words spilling out of my mouth.

"I don't want to be in Phoenix, I want to be here." I closed the rest of the distance between us, so I was standing in front of her on the porch. "This is where I want my home to be now."

Her head tilted to the side. "This wasn't supposed to be real."

I scoffed. "It's the most real thing I've ever experienced. And I don't want to be half married, I want to be really married."

"That's insane." But the smile on her face said something different. "Isn't it?"

"I've always been the insane one." I shrugged. "I keep telling you that."

A chuckle escaped her lips. "I mean, it's only been a month."

"I don't care how long it's been. I want to be in this haunted house with too many kids and you."

"I want that too."

I stepped towards her, and she wrapped her arms around my neck as I cinched mine around her waist.

"My brother fell in love with Natalie in a week, you know."

She smiled and I stared down into her brown eyes.

"Are you saying?—"

"That I love you?" I smirked. "Damn right, that's what I'm saying."

"I love you too, Finn."

I bent down, molding my lips to hers and drinking her in.

She pulled back with an eyebrow raised. "Have you eaten?"

I shook my head. "Came straight here from the airport."

"Come on." She grabbed my hand and turned toward the door. "I'll make you breakfast."

"I just want you for breakfa—" My sentence was cut short as I ran into the back of Ivy when she froze just inside the house.

I followed her gaze to the table, where her computer sat next to a muffin. A muffin that was currently being eaten by an…opossum? A big white and black opossum.

I didn't think they were aggressive, but just in case, I stepped around Ivy and pushed her behind me. The hardwood boards creaking below our feet.

The head, completely made of white with black eyes, spun toward us before he took off up the stairs. Perfect.

"I think we just found our ghost," Ivy said.

"We probably need to get a trap. We can't live with that thing."

"But we have been. For the last month."

I cringed at her words.

By the end of the night, we still hadn't caught it, but then I heard the screams from upstairs.

"Look, it's the ghost," Kai yelled.

Which was then followed by Blair screaming. "That's not a ghost. It's a big, white rat."

"We should have told them about the opossum." I stood up from the table, glancing over at Ivy, who was in the kitchen making dinner.

Ivy and I had spent most of the day in each other's arms. When the kids came home from school, I witnessed the excitement from each one when we told them I was staying—for good—it was everything I didn't know I needed.

"We didn't want to scare them, remember?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Little too late now, huh?"

She rolled her eyes as we headed for the stairs. I entered Blair and Maia's room to see both of the girls standing on their beds. Kai was down on his knees, looking under Blair's bed while Diesel barked incessantly from the middle of the room.

"It's not a rat, it's an opossum. We need to get a trap."

"You can't trap him." Kai popped up, narrowing his eyes at me. "He's our family, too."

Jesus, I was not getting roped into letting an opossum live in the house. That was where I drew the line.

"Kai, opossums live outside. Can you help us get him back to his family?"

His brows pulled together, but then he slowly nodded just as Shane stepped into the small bedroom behind us.

"What's going on?"

"Can you help Kai open the window so we can get the opossum outside?"

"Opossum?" Shane's eyes widened, looking between Ivy and me.

I sent him a look that said just do it, I'll explain afterward.

He nodded, and then I turned to Ivy. "Can you grab the broom from downstairs?"

"Sure."

She returned as Kai and Shane got the window open.

After three attempts, I got the opossum out from under the bed and onto the roof of the porch below.

Most people wouldn't be smiling after having to remove an opossum from their house, but as I looked around the room at my family, I couldn't help but do exactly that.