Suddenly Engaged by Julia London

2017

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Author:	Julia London
Genre:	Contemporary Romance
File Name:	suddenly-engaged-by-julia-london.epub
Original Title:	Suddenly Engaged (A Lake Haven Novel Book 3)
Creator:	Julia London
Language:	en
Identifier:	ISBN:9781477848616
Publisher:	Montlake Romance
Date:	1500912000
File Size:	537025.536

Single mother Kyra Kokinos spends her days waiting tables, her nights working on her real estate license, and every spare moment with her precocious six-year-old daughter, Ruby—especially when Ruby won’t stop pestering their grumpy next-door neighbor. At first glance, Dax Bishop seems like the kind of gruff, solitary guy who’d be unlikely to offer a cup of sugar, let alone a marriage proposal. But that’s exactly what happens when Ruby needs life-saving surgery.

Dax showed up in East Beach a year ago, fresh from a painful divorce and looking for a place where he could make furniture and avoid people. Suddenly his life is invaded by an inquisitive munchkin in sparkly cowboy boots—and her frazzled, too-tempting mother. So he presents a practical plan: his insurance will help Ruby, and then they can divorce—zero strings attached.

But soon Kyra and Dax find their engagement of convenience is simple in name only. As their attraction deepens, a figure from the past reappears, offering a way out. Can Kyra and Dax let go so easily, or has their sudden engagement become something more?

Table of Content

1. Unnamed
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3. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Text copyright © 2017 by Dinah Dinwiddie All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781477848616 ISBN-10: 1477848614 Cover design by Eileen Carey
4. Contents Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Epilogue About the Author
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6. Prologue The pregnancy test kits were lined up in formation like a marching band on her bathroom counter. Seven of them in all, one for each day of the week, four digital wands in the back row, three nondigital wands in the front. Kyra watched Brandi closely as she stared down at the sticks. “You’re pregnant,” Brandi announced. “Maybe it’s the brand,” Kyra suggested hopefully. “Maybe I should try different brands just to be sure.” Brandi gave her a side eye. “You’re pregnant, Kyra.” Kyra swallowed down a swell of nausea. What was that, morning sickness? Or was she just sick with worry? She couldn’t be pregnant. There was no room in her life for pregnant. “Maybe I should try the test in the middle of the night. You know hormones fluctuate at night.” Brandi didn’t bother to respond to such inanity. She turned around and walked out of the bathroom. Kyra reluctantly followed. Brandi draped her supermodel-thin body over Kyra’s secondhand couch, then flipped her blonde Brazilian Blowout over
7. Chapter One Seven years later July Leave it to a female to think the rules did not apply to her. The little heathen from next door was crawling under the split-rail fence that separated the cottages again. Dax, who already had been feeling pretty damn grumpy going on a year now, wondered why she didn’t just go over the fence. She was big enough. It was almost as if she wanted the mud on her dress and her knees, to drag the ends of her dark red ponytails through the muck. She crawled under, stood up, and knocked the caked mud off her knees. She stomped her pink, sparkly cowboy boots—never had he seen a more impractical shoe—to make them light up, as she liked to do, hopping around her porch several times a day. Then she started for cottage Number Two, arms swinging, stride long. Dax watched her from inside his kitchen, annoyed. It had started a week ago, when she’d climbed on the bottom railing of the fence, leaned over it, and shouted, “I like your dog!” He’d ignored her. Two days ago
8. Chapter Two Kyra went in silently, like a shark, quietly circling around the two women bent over their wineglasses, sliding in to collect the check so she could get the hell out of here. The women had been at the Lakeside Bistro since two o’clock, giggling and whispering across the table, ordering glass after glass of wine, showing no signs of going anywhere, which meant Kyra had to wait it out until the night shift showed up. This was not how her day was supposed to go. But when did it ever go as she’d planned? Had anything gone as planned since Brandi met Kyra at Planned Parenthood and Kyra had realized she couldn’t end her pregnancy? As much as she hadn’t wanted to be pregnant, as much as she’d hated that unexpected and catastrophic complication in her life, she just couldn’t go through with it. She’d had a breakdown in the lobby instead, and Brandi had gently steered her in through another door—the intended pregnancy door—where they verified Kyra was indeed pregnant, loaded her up
9. Chapter Three The next morning, with his latest creations secured in the bed of his truck, Dax backed down the drive of Number Two. He glanced at Number Three as he turned onto the main road. There was no pickup this morning, no slamming of doors. The Subaru was sitting in the drive, the loose books he’d placed on its hood still there. There was no sign of life in that cottage, which, in the short time the Coconuts had been there, seemed unusual. Dax wondered if he ought to be concerned, then thought the better of it. If he was concerned, he’d need to have a look. If he had a look, either Ruby Coconuts or her unacceptably attractive mother would come to the door, and there would go his day. So Dax drove on to East Beach and to the Green Bean coffee shop, where he had a morning joe and a bear claw as he perused the local paper. To say there wasn’t much happening in East Beach would be an understatement. This town was supposed to be the place to be in the summer. There were a lot of summ
10. Chapter Four Her neighbor might not be a pervert or a nerdy ax murderer, but Kyra was beginning to suspect he was a Number One Ass. Okay, yes, no one knew better than Kyra that Ruby could be a pest, and the kid had gone across the fence again in spite of being told more than once she was not to do it. But she was six, and that man was very judgmental, and Kyra did not like judgmental people. She’d had her fill of them, thank you, since the moment she’d gotten herself knocked up and endured all the side eyes as her belly grew. She was tired of whispered speculation about the sort of person she was. Today was her day off, for God’s sake, and she was entitled to a drink if she wanted one, but she hadn’t actually had anything to drink! She’d brought the wine out here and set it on the railing, then had made the mistake of lying down in the hammock. The breeze was soft and cool, the leaves of the maple trees were rustling, and the perpetual exhaustion that seemed to surround her every day h
11. Chapter Five Ruby was still asleep when Mrs. Miller arrived the next morning. The woman was not the best babysitter in the world by a long stretch, but at least she was punctual. She walked into the cottage with her black handbag over her shoulder, a lunch box in one hand, a big plaid thermos in the other. “Good morning,” Kyra said. “Morning,” Mrs. Miller said and stalked past Kyra on her way to the kitchen. She put her lunch box down on the countertop, opened it, and removed a sandwich and some fruit, which she shoved into the fridge. She turned back to zip up her lunch box and eyed Kyra. “What are you standing there for? Don’t you need to go to work?” “I do. I wanted to ask if you could keep a close eye on Ruby today.” Mrs. Miller’s head came up, her expression unhappy. “I always keep an eye on her.” Well, no, she didn’t, but Kyra didn’t want to argue. “It’s just that she’s been sneaking over to the neighbor’s cottage and he’s not happy about that.” She winced apologetically, and she
12. Chapter Six In his kitchen, Dax unwrapped the cookies and tossed one in his mouth—and then immediately spit it out into the sink, coughing. Otto began to wag his tail furiously. “What the hell?” he asked, holding the rest of the cookies up to have a closer look. “That’s the worst crap I’ve ever tasted.” Was it a joke? It was all salt and something else, something truly awful. He glared out his kitchen window. He could see her at her kitchen window, working at the sink. Maybe the kid really had made them by herself. He bent over, opened the cabinet beneath the sink, and pulled out the trash can. Otto instantly thrust his nose into it. “Get out,” Dax growled. “Even you can’t stomach these.” He tossed the rest of the cookies into the bin, then shoved it back under the sink. When he straightened up again, Kyra had disappeared. She had some very pretty eyes, he mused. And some perky breasts. Not that he was looking. Well, he’d glanced. He couldn’t help but glance because there they were, po
13. Chapter Seven Kyra was surprisingly happy that she didn’t have to listen to the constant sound of that screen door slapping shut, but she realized very quickly that now she didn’t know when Ruby went in and out. When it came time for supper, she thought Ruby was in her room but found her in the newly planted rosebush beds Mr. McCauley had installed last week. Ruby was burying some of her Little People. “Why?” Kyra demanded irritably as she dug them up and tried to repair the mulch. “So someone can find them,” Ruby said. That made no sense to Kyra but seemed plainly logical to Ruby’s six-year-old brain. Ruby was in bed now, and Kyra was, as always, beat. She wondered how those single moms with three children did it. She thought about Taleesha, Ruby’s friend. Kyra had taken Ruby into the city to attend Taleesha’s birthday party today because Ruby missed her so much. They’d practically grown up together in the day care where Kyra had worked. But Taleesha’s mother had three more children,
14. Chapter Eight “Can you work a double?” Randa Lassiter asked when Kyra showed up for her shift Friday. “Yes!” Kyra said instantly. “Well, I think—let me call my babysitter.” “Okay, but do it quick. If you can’t, I have to find someone to cover Nyree’s shift tonight,” Randa said as she returned her gaze to some paperwork she had spread on the bar. “I’ll be back in two shakes,” Kyra said and hurried back to the area where the staff stored their things during their shifts. Deenie was there, primping before the mirror. “Hey,” she said. “Randa asked me if I could work a double!” Kyra almost squealed. “I just have to convince Mrs. Miller to agree.” She dug her phone out of her purse and held up two crossed fingers to Deenie. Deenie responded by crossing her fingers, too. Mrs. Miller answered after the first ring. Kyra could hear the TV blaring in the background. The day started with Good Morning America, then slid into soap operas, then the Judge Judy–type shows, and of course Dr. Phil, and t
15. Chapter Nine Dax thought he was dreaming when he heard the tap tap tap on his door. He lifted his head and blinked and then looked around. Everything was as it should be—Otto snoring at the foot of his bed, the light from the streetlights near the lake weakly filtering in through his curtains. He’d imagined it. He punched his pillow, then resettled. The knock came again, only this time it was loud and insistent. Otto leapt from the bed, barking and sliding across the hardwood floor as he tried to get out of the room and head for the front door to rip someone’s head off. The pounding came again, and Dax felt a slight panic. No one came knocking on a person’s door in the middle of the night except the police or home invaders. What time was it, anyway? He glanced at the clock. Half past twelve. The knocking came again, and he shouted, “Just a damn minute!” He groped around, trying to find something to clock this person with. Finding nothing in the bedroom, he marched through the kitchen,
16. Chapter Ten As far as bad days went, this one ranked near the top, and God knew several had already crowded up there. Add the awkwardness of having kissed Dax—what sort of temporary insanity was that?—to her humiliation in having to accept his offer to fix her car because she was, as usual, broke, and now the news that Deenie’s friend Phil had passed on the offer of meeting Kyra, she was batting a thousand. Talk about feeling like the scourge of society. “He doesn’t want to even meet me?” Kyra asked Deenie again, just to make sure she understood correctly. “It’s not that he doesn’t want to meet you,” Deenie said, although she’d said, He said thanks, but he’d rather not meet you. “It’s just not a good time for him.” “Wow,” Kyra said. “Wow.” She was sort of hoping. Actually, hoping was too soft a word. Since last night, she was praying for any alternative that would keep her from doing things like banging on Dax’s door after midnight and then kissing him like a desperate head case who ha
17. Chapter Eleven He had to stop kissing that girl, that’s all there was to it. Now, because he’d kissed her, and he’d kept thinking about kissing her, and he’d been off his game, Dax had managed to get himself stuck hosting a small barbecue. He’d rather guide a canoe over Niagara Falls, but that’s what happened when a woman distracted a man—he said and did dumb things. It happened the day after that kiss. He was up early. He hadn’t slept well because he’d been thinking about it all night. And he had some furniture to deliver that morning and was worried the varnish hadn’t dried. He stopped in at the Green Bean to devour a bear claw and read the morning paper, starting with page one and then concluding with the MLB box scores, none of which he retained thanks to Kyra and her lips, then headed over to John Beverly Home Interiors. He pulled around to the back just as Wallace was arriving at work in his red roadster. Wallace was wearing bright yellow pants today with a pink polo shirt, a bel
18. Chapter Twelve It figured that the one time Dax would host a barbecue, it would rain. It rained all day, on again, off again, and kept him guessing whether he’d have to cram five people into Number Two. It felt a little as if God was messing with him. At three o’clock, miraculously, there was a bit of sunshine over the lake and a break in the clouds. Maybe God had had his chuckles for the day and was going to cut Dax a break. Dax went outside to make a picnic table. He spaced three sawhorses, then laid a couple of planks of pine across them and nailed those together. He was unrolling the felt when he heard a small coconut shout, “Hey! What are you doing?” He looked over his shoulder; she was hanging upside down on the fence. “What are you doing?” she shouted again. She must have thought he was deaf, because she was always repeating her questions in a very loud voice. “Making a table,” he said. “Does your mom know you’re out here?” “No. I’m not supposed to get off the porch.” There was
19. Chapter Thirteen Kyra was stuffed full. She usually didn’t eat so much, but she’d been more than a little disconcerted by that unexpected, sexy, surprising interlude in her kitchen with Dax, for which she’d been totally on board until she remembered all the people waiting for them to return. And then she’d come back to Dax’s cottage and reality had seeped in, and she didn’t know what that interlude had meant, or what a “moment” was, and she’d never been the type of girl who could politely nibble her way through stress. Nope, she was an all-in kind of eater. Now she could hardly breathe in a dress that had not been too tight only an hour or so before. No one showed any sign of going anywhere—they all seemed to enjoy a claustrophobic baked-burger-and-hot-dog barbecue—but Kyra decided it was time for her and Ruby to go. “So soon?” Wallace asked. “I’m working a brunch shift tomorrow,” Kyra said. That was the polite excuse. The real excuse, besides being on the verge of exploding, was that
20. Chapter Fourteen The night went by in a whirl—the bistro was so crowded that people waiting in the bar area spilled into the dining area. It was one of Kyra’s most successful shifts yet—she made enough money that if she did have to miss work this week, it wouldn’t ruin her. That only strengthened her resolve to get on night shifts . . . which, she realized, was in direct opposition to her equally strong desire to be home with her daughter. But she couldn’t help thinking of what she’d be able to do for Ruby if she doubled or tripled her tips on a daily basis. She might even start saving for a house. Kyra was exhausted by the time the bistro closed for the evening, and drove home yawning most of the way. When she pulled into the drive, she noticed her front door was open and soft yellow light was spilling out of the screen door. She gathered her things, locked her car, and walked up to her cottage. As she climbed the porch steps, she could see Dax and Ruby at the kitchen table. What was
21. Chapter Fifteen At half past three in the morning, Dax sprang up the steps of his cottage with more energy than was reasonable. Otto was lying outside the door, and he lifted his head as Dax approached. He did not, however, wag his tail as was his habit. “Don’t get your panties in a wad,” Dax said and opened the door. Otto slipped inside and halted just at the threshold so that Dax had to step over him. “Look, I know you don’t like it, but I’m entitled to be a man every now and again,” Dax said and bent down to scratch the dog’s head. Otto wasn’t buying it. He sashayed off in the direction of his dog bed. Dax went into the kitchen for a glass of water. He was parched after that magnificent romp. He looked out his window at the tiny bit of light glowing through Kyra’s kitchen window. He’d left her in her bed, wearing a T-shirt and some thong panties that she’d pulled on at the last minute. Her hair was all over the place—thick, rich, black Greek hair. He didn’t know if she was actually
22. Chapter Sixteen Megan yelled at Kyra twice in the course of her shift for not picking up food. Even Deenie was frustrated when Kyra dropped a ketchup bottle and it shattered all over the wait station. “What is the matter with you?” she asked as she wiped off her shoes. “I just bought these!” “I’m sorry,” Kyra said, fighting back invisible tears. She was sorry, so very sorry. She was sorry she’d dropped the ketchup and she was sorry she was a marginal mom at best. Deenie noticed Kyra’s despair as she threw the paper towel she’d used into the garbage. “What’s wrong?” “Just having a bad day,” Kyra said and avoided Deenie for the rest of the shift. She didn’t want to talk about it, not yet. If she did, she might collapse with grief and guilt and worry. Her tips were lousy, which came as no surprise, seeing as how she’d forgotten things, dropped things, left people waiting. She couldn’t focus—all she could think was that her daughter, her beautiful, spirited daughter, was probably growing a
23. Chapter Seventeen It was amazing to Dax—a man who had eschewed society and women and life in general for the last year or so—how quickly he and Kyra came together and fit into each other’s lives. The few days following Jonathan’s birth were some of the best of his life. He could actually say that—they were the best of his life. He had a son. He had a girl. He had a coconut who made him smile every day, a feat he would have thought impossible just a few short weeks ago. For the first time in months, Dax forgot his heart was broken. Ashley was great about sending him pictures and texts about Jonathan. He hadn’t asked for that, and he truly appreciated it. He wanted to be there with his son in the worst way, and he went to visit as often as he could. But he had to finish the massive table he’d been working on for Wallace, and there was Otto to take care of. But when he wasn’t working on that table, he was staring at pictures of Jonathan or listening to the fanciful theories presented by R
24. Chapter Eighteen On a bright morning more than a week later, Kyra kissed Ruby good-bye, waved at Dax, then got in her car, and drove to work, giggling. Giggling. She didn’t know when or why the giggling had started, but she couldn’t help herself. She still couldn’t believe this had happened to her. She couldn’t believe that the guy next door had fallen into her lap and she was now falling for him—and hard. She was falling so hard she was going to splatter in one big, gooey, heart-shaped puddle when she landed. Even more amazing was that Dax was falling for her. He hadn’t said it in so many words, but he’d said things like, “I’m crazy about you two, you know it?” At times she would catch him staring at her, and he would have this dreamy look in his eyes . . . oh, yes, he was totally into a broke single mom with a six-year-old who wouldn’t stop talking. This was not some one-sided, Kyra’s-desperate-again kind of relationship—this was real. She marveled at how perfectly it was all working
25. Chapter Nineteen Ruby Coconuts wanted to stop at McDonald’s on their way back from Teaneck. “Mommy never lets me go there,” she said, pouting. “Maybe next time,” he said. “But we always go to McDonald’s when we visit the baby.” Dax snorted. “Your math doesn’t add up, Coconut. This is only the second time you’ve seen Jonathan. You haven’t gone enough times for always.” Ruby didn’t say anything, and Dax glanced at her in the rearview mirror. Her gaze was fixed on the window, but she was holding her hand up at her chest, and the fingers were fluttering. Dax wondered if it was his imagination that the seizures were growing more frequent or if he just noticed them more now. She suddenly looked at him. “Can we go to McDonald’s?” “McDonald’s, huh?” It was odd, he thought, how sometimes Ruby stepped back in time after a seizure instead of picking up with whatever she’d been doing. That didn’t seem to fit with what he knew about absence seizures. “We always stop at McDonald’s when we visit your
26. Chapter Twenty Dax was right, Kyra decided. She couldn’t spend another moment beating herself up with bad-mother guilt. For Ruby’s sake, she had to focus on the positive. So she picked herself up and clung to the fact that Dr. Green was still optimistic. That was her new mantra—optimism in all things. But privately Kyra couldn’t stop comparing Ruby’s situation to her mother’s. She even called her dad one night, needing to commiserate with someone else who understood. It had been months since she’d talked to him—they’d drifted so far apart over the years that now their only communication seemed to come around the holidays. “Haven’t heard from you in a while,” he said when he answered the phone. For the record, Kyra hadn’t heard from him, either. “I have news,” she said. Her dad was silent as she told him about Ruby: the seizures she didn’t know were seizures. The tests, the tumor. When at last he did speak, he asked, “Is it hereditary?” “I don’t think so. The doctor said probably not. B
27. Chapter Twenty-One There had to be another pair of pink cowboy boots in the universe, and Dax was determined to find them. Ruby’s toes were sticking out the ends, and one of the boots had stopped lighting up at all. So one afternoon he piled his trusty sidekick into his truck—the two-legged one instead of the four-legged one—and headed to Black Springs to find them. It turned out that pink cowboy boots with lights were not as common as Dax had assumed. But he did manage to convince Ruby that a pair of tennis shoes with Velcro straps and lights might be a suitable substitute. They walked through a very long aisle of pink and purple shoes, none of them acceptable to the coconut until she suddenly gasped, screeched, “Elsa!” and begged for them. Elsa, Dax learned, was a character in the Disney movie Frozen, and Ruby seemed more than a little perturbed that he didn’t know it. He reminded her that there were a lot of things that she didn’t know, either, and he didn’t hold that against her. S
28. Chapter Twenty-Two Kyra was getting married. She still couldn’t believe it, and sort of floated through the next day, marveling at how her life had spiraled and flipped and somersaulted into this engagement. She was equal parts happy and worried and confused and certain . . . but she could not deny that after last night in Dax’s dark room, when he’d made love to her so tenderly that it made her heart ache with longing, she’d felt something inside her move off center. She couldn’t pinpoint the moment when she’d changed her mind about his offer, or what had made her kiss Ruby’s forehead while she slept and then slip out of the cottage last night. But it had happened during her conversation with Mrs. McCauley. After Dax had left yesterday afternoon, Kyra had walked up to Mrs. McCauley’s to fetch her daughter. Mrs. McCauley was marginally aware of the issues with Ruby’s health, and she’d asked why Ruby was talking about doctors. Kyra told her landlord the truth, spelling out certain words
29. Chapter Twenty-Three Dax drove Kyra and Ruby to Black Springs for Ruby’s second MRI. On the way home, he pulled into McDonald’s, because Ruby said that’s what they always did when she went to see a doctor. This Friday, Dax and Kyra would be married on the lakeshore by a lay preacher whose wife would witness the ceremony. On Monday, Ruby would start first grade. On Wednesday, Kyra would take her real estate exam. On the following Monday, Ruby would have her surgery. Dax was feeling optimistic about things in spite of the looming surgery. His adoration of Ruby had only grown. And even though things had been a little tense from time to time, he thought he and Kyra were good. Solid. He believed they’d come to a mutual understanding of how their relationship was unfolding. Whenever he felt a distance from her, it would magically disappear when they were in bed. Yessir, their sex life was magic as far as Dax was concerned—they’d had some mind-bending experiences together, and every one of th
30. Chapter Twenty-Four This was what insanity must feel like, Kyra thought, a bewildering state where a person was so at war inside her own thoughts that she couldn’t make a decision on even the smallest things. Kyra couldn’t seem to grasp how to do the smallest things. As evidenced by the fact that Deenie had just pointed out her work shirt was inside out. Kyra looked down at herself. “Wow,” she said, startled by that. She’d put on makeup, put up her hair, and looked at herself in the mirror, but she’d been so distracted she’d never noticed the shirt. “You’re losing it,” Deenie decided. “Tell me about it,” Kyra muttered. “Are you nervous about the big day?” Deenie asked and nudged Kyra with her shoulder. Kyra supposed she meant her wedding and not Ruby’s surgery, which was the Really Big Day in her book. At least Deenie had come around since their talk at the park. She’d even apologized for being judgmental. “I should have been more supportive,” she’d said. “I just wish you’d asked me be
31. Chapter Twenty-Five Dax couldn’t sleep. As loath as he was to leave Kyra, he couldn’t just lie there beside her with the splinter of his heart cracking in his head. As painful as it was for him, he really did understand Kyra’s decision—what parent wouldn’t? But it hurt in a way he’d not expected. There was a moment, a very brief and panic-inducing moment, when he’d almost blurted that he wanted to marry her no matter what. But he caught himself, and he didn’t say it, because it wasn’t exactly true. There was a part of him that was relieved that he wasn’t swearing to honor and cherish until his dying day a woman he’d known a little more than a month. He wasn’t certain about anything about the two of them, other than he believed he did love her, and he loved Ruby, and he was devastated by this sudden turn of events. He returned to Number Three early the next morning. He was leaving, but not without speaking to Ruby. The coconut was eating cereal, her feet swinging beneath her chair. Kyra
32. Chapter Twenty-Six Ruby’s surgery was a success, although Kyra found that hard to believe when her daughter came out of the recovery room with tubes coming out of her and half her head shaved. The surgeon had come to the waiting room where Kyra, Liz, and Josh were waiting and said, “We got it all.” He said a lot more than that, but all Kyra could hear was that they got it all, and the results of the biopsy would be available within a few days. She texted Dax at some point during that very long day: Surgery over. They got all of it. A moment later, her phone pinged. Thank God. I want to come and see her. Okay? Okay? It was more than okay. It was the best news Kyra had heard since we got it all. It filled her with happiness. And hope. And longing, such indescribable longing. Yes. Yes, yes, Kyra texted back. I’ll be there Thursday. Thursday! That was only a few days away. She wished she didn’t look so puffy with all the carbs she’d been stress eating, but it didn’t matter—Ruby would be so
33. Chapter Twenty-Seven A few days after Dax returned from Indianapolis, he got a text from Kyra with a huge smiley face and the word benign. He was so overcome with emotion at the news that he fell into a chair in his kitchen and buried his face in his hands . . . until Otto began to lick them. Two weeks after he returned from Indianapolis, he got another text. This one included a picture of a gap-toothed Ruby. Her hair had been cut short to match where they’d shaved her head for the surgery. Kyra wrote, Ruby returned to school today and told everyone a pirate had scalped her. She attached a GIF of a woman drinking from a giant wineglass. The coffee tables Dax made were so good that people were wanting copies. And then they wanted more—hutches, craft tables, dining tables, headboards. He was busier than he’d ever been. He never went to the Green Bean anymore, either—he went to Teaneck to spend time with Jonathan. He’d scouted out a few houses in Teaneck, a couple of workshops he could re
34. Epilogue The following July Fourth holiday It was only the second barbecue Dax had ever hosted. He still didn’t believe in barbecues, but Ruby had made friends with the O’Reilly children in Number Six, and she was desperate to show off her new backyard fort. The McCauleys had put it up for their grandchildren, but Ruby had full use of it. Or rather, she had full use of it when Otto didn’t walk up the plank and make himself at home. That old dog liked to lie there with his paws hanging out the door, his head propped against the side, watching the comings and goings on the lake. Dax had bought a house in Teaneck over the winter, one near enough to his boy so he could see him every day, but one close enough to East Beach that he could see the coconuts every day, too. He still hadn’t proposed, as the timing had not yet been right, and neither of them seemed in a hurry. He and Kyra had committed to each other, and that’s what mattered. They were taking the time to know each other like a cou
35. About the Author Photo © 2010 Carrie D’Anna Julia London is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than forty romance novels. Her historical titles include the popular Desperate Debutantes series, the Cabot Sisters series, and the Highland Grooms series. Her contemporary works include the Lake Haven series, the Pine River series, and the Cedar Springs series. She has won the RT Book Club Award for Best Historical Romance and has been a six-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award for excellence in romantic fiction. She lives in Austin, Texas.