Ethan heaved the football toward Rusty. Just before it landed in Rusty’s hands, Alec jumped sideways in front of him and caught it. At his back, Rusty muttered, “Show-off.”
Alec turned and pitched the ball toward Thomas. “It’s all talent.”
Thomas laughed.
“Old talent,” Rusty called. “You don’t have the moves you did back in high school, loser.”
No, he had new moves. Alec’s smile widened when he remembered showing Raegan those moves last night in their bed.
“Daddy!” The sweetest voice he’d ever heard echoed around him, followed by chubby little arms encircling his legs and holding tight.
Alec swept Emma up into his arms. The doll his mother had given her this morning dangled from her hand. “Hey, princess.”
“Did you see me on the swing? I’m awbsum.”
He chuckled. “Yes, you are. You’re very awbsum.” His gaze drifted past her to Raegan, who was striding toward him across the lawn. “And your mom’s pretty awbsum too.”
Smiling, Raegan wrapped her arms around both of them and looked up. Love shimmered in her gorgeous green eyes. Love and a trust he was never going to betray again. “That’s because she’s got two awbsum people for parents,” Raegan said.
Alec leaned down and kissed her. In his arms, Emma made a bthbthtbthbt sound and giggled.
Raegan eased back. Around them, the family that had saved Alec from a life of misery laughed and chatted, but all he could see was the woman who’d rescued him from the darkness inside himself. She brushed a hand over his shoulder and down the sleeve of his pale-blue dress shirt. “Are you nervous?”
“No.”
“That’s good, because they’re going to love you.”
Alec really didn’t care if they loved him or not. “Even if they don’t, I’ve got everything I always needed right here. I’ve got you—”
“And me,” Emma piped in.
Alec smiled and kissed his daughter’s cheek. “Yes, and you, princess.” He looked back down at the woman who’d agreed to marry him again today in a simple backyard ceremony, and a wave of love swept through him. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, you know. You never gave up on me.”
Raegan’s eyes went all soft and dreamy. “I never gave up on us. And I never will.”
He leaned down to kiss her once more.
“Alec?” His mother’s excited voice drifted to his ears. “They just drove up.”
Raegan drew back and grinned.
“They’re here?” Emma asked in a high-pitched little voice.
“Yes, they’re here,” Raegan answered with the same anticipation.
“More grandmas and grandpas?” Emma’s blue eyes widened. “Do you think they brought me presents too?” She wiggled against Alec’s hold, and he set her down. As soon as her sandals hit the grass, she tore off across the backyard toward the gate where Hannah McClane waited with a smile.
Alec watched the only woman he’d ever considered his mother swoop Emma up into her arms and thought about the people climbing out of their car on the other side of that gate. It had taken several months, but Hunt had helped him track down his biological parents. His mother had been a fledgling college kid in Idaho when he’d been born, working two jobs and going to school, his parents unmarried, neither with means. She’d taken him to a park with her books one afternoon to study and had fallen asleep in the shade while he played. When she’d awoken, he’d been gone. Alec had no memory of that day. No memory of her. But in the months since he’d found her, he’d gotten to know her through e-mails and texts; and his father too, who’d stuck around even after Alec had been taken.
They’d stayed together through trauma and heartbreak. They’d proved that love never died. It grew and changed and survived. Just as Hannah and Michael’s love had grown and changed and survived when they’d adopted four—correction, five—screwed-up kids from horrible backgrounds, never knowing how it would all work out.
The same way Alec’s love for Raegan had grown and changed and survived, even when he’d done everything wrong along the way.
His stomach twisted. “Okay, I lied. I’m nervous.”
Grasping his shoulders, Raegan turned him toward her as she smiled, lifted to her toes, and kissed his cheek. “About meeting your biological parents, I hope. Not about marrying me again.”
He looked down at her and smirked. “Never about marrying you.”
“Good.” She lowered to her heels, grasped his hand in both of hers, and pulled him with her as she stepped back. “Because I am never letting you go again, Mr. McClane. You’re stuck with this life now, husband.”
He smiled as they moved toward the gate. Partly because she’d called him “husband” again. But mostly because this life, with her and their daughter and his crazy, messy, incredible family was all he’d ever truly wanted.
And he was never letting it go.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © Curtis Almquist at Almquist Studios
Before topping multiple bestseller lists—including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal—Elisabeth Naughton taught middle school science. A voracious reader, she soon discovered she had a knack for creating stories with a chemistry of their own. The spark turned into a flame, and Naughton now writes full-time. Her books have been nominated for some of the industry’s most prestigious awards, such as the RITA and Golden Heart Awards from Romance Writers of America, the Australian Romance Readers Awards, and the Golden Leaf Award. When not dreaming up new stories, Naughton can be found spending time with her husband and three children in their western Oregon home. Gone is the second book in her Deadly Secrets series, following Repressed.
Elisabeth Naughton, Gone (Deadly Secrets Book 2)
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