by Meg Collett
“Am not!” Stevie glowered at him, but it quickly faded into a crooked grin. “Well, maybe a little. But it’s just because your brother is so good with his hands.”
Hale grimaced. “I can’t take it anymore. I really can’t.”
Cade chuckled next to her as he fed her another bite. “We get by, don’t we, baby?”
Stevie leaned into him as he nuzzled her face, his lips on her neck. “Oh, I would say with your good arm, my mouth, and your big—”
“Okay!” Kyra said a little too loudly. “Have you checked your Instagram post yet? The video on my channel already has half a million more views than yesterday.”
They’d posted a video called “The Ultimate Reality Show” at the start of the week, when Stevie was released from the hospital. They’d included Shepherd’s formal criminal charges in the description. The video had blown up as soon as Stevie had shared a screenshot of it on her Instagram and Kyra had posted it on her YouTube channel. It showed Shepherd assaulting her and talking about the blackmail and stealing from the network. They’d only shown bits of the attack that followed, but Emilie’s carefully placed cameras had caught all the action.
Most importantly, the cameras had caught Shepherd’s confession.
Not only was he facing criminal charges for the attack, but also charges brought down by the network. To say he was fired would be an understatement. In the face of the severity of his actions, the network had opted to cancel Reno Reality before its premiere this fall. All the contestants had received stipends for their time, but no one would receive the final grand prize or second place prize.
Even without her share of the one hundred thousand, Stevie had made enough from the stipends and the network’s secret payout to her and Cade for damages rendered by Shepherd to put a down payment on her house. She was now officially a homeowner. She hadn’t bought a car yet, but she had purchased a big-ass surfboard under Kyra’s supervision. She planned on trying her hand at surfing again—once her actual hands were healed.
“Are you still getting comments from people coming out with their own stories of blackmail and sexual harassment?”
Kyra sighed. “It’s mind-blowing hearing what all these people have gone through.”
“A magazine emailed me this morning about doing a shoot with victims of sexual abuse. They’re calling it the Faces of Reality.”
Cade squeezed her shoulder as Kyra beamed. But it was Hale who said, “That’s great, Stevie. You’ll do an amazing job.”
“What magazine?” Kyra asked, eyes wide with excitement.
“Technically,” Stevie said, drawing out the word, “I can’t say because I had to sign a nondisclosure, but it’s a big magazine. Very big. Starts with a ‘V’ and rhymes with . . .” She scrunched up her nose, thinking of a word.
“Rogue,” Cade supplied and kissed her cheek.
Kyra squealed. “That’s so cool!”
“Wow,” Hale added.
Stevie lifted a shoulder, but on the inside, she was a bundle of excitement and nerves, and not just because this was the biggest shoot she’d ever done, or the most important. It was personal and intimate. The rawness terrified her, but she thought she might be ready for scarier things. As if sensing her thoughts, Cade gave her shoulders a squeeze and she nestled in closer to his side.
She was ready for a lot of new things.
From the front of the house, they heard a door open and close, and then a scratchy voice call out, “I found Sasquatch outside.”
A second later, Emilie and Arie walked through the dining room and onto the back porch. Emilie plopped down on the last chair and threw her combat boots up onto the table, exhausted from the latest show she was working on in Atlanta. She was no longer just an associate producer. After the Shepherd debacle, RealTV rehired her and gave her a promotion. And a raise.
Arie looked around the small gathering, and without so much as a hello, he said, “I thought Violet would be here.”
“I guess we’re just chopped liver then?”
Arie lifted his brows at Stevie. “Pretty much.”
He leaned against the porch’s banister, crossing his legs easily, all his weight on his prosthetic. “How’s the new leg holding up?”
“Surprisingly well.” Arie rubbed a hand down his scruffy beard. “But my insurance didn’t pay for it.”
Cade frowned and instantly sat up straighter. Things had changed since the show. Arie was now an employee of Cooper Bros. Contracting, meaning a problem with his insurance was a problem for Cade. “What the hell are they trying to pull now? They were supposed to pay for it!”
“Guess it was already paid for. Since it was made to my measurements, it can’t be returned either, even though I didn’t pay for it.” Arie didn’t reveal much aside from the crinkling of his tanned skin around his eyes. His dark brows lowered. “I thought maybe you and Stevie thought you needed to cover it for me, but you guys don’t have to do that. I can—”
“It wasn’t us, dude,” Stevie said before Arie could go on. She knew he was sensitive about money and his insurance, especially when it came to his leg, and she wanted to spare him the embarrassment.
“Promise,” Cade added when Arie looked ready to keep arguing. “But the insurance really should have paid for it. It didn’t need to come out of pocket.”
“If you didn’t pay for it, who did?”
Everyone looked at one another and shrugged. Stevie wished she could have helped Arie, but she was strapped for cash as it was. Between her house payments and all the other bills it took to adult properly, she was living the working girl’s life these days.
Arie crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled to himself. His narrowed eyes swept out along the beach, following the coastline to the faraway northern spike of bluffs and the tiny dot of a lighthouse perched on top. From his darkening scowl, it looked like he had an idea about who might have paid for his new prosthetic.
Across from Stevie, Kyra suddenly sat up straight on the couch, her eyes wide and her hand pressed against her mouth. “Oh, no,” she mumbled, the words muffled behind her hand.
Next to her, Hale jerked forward. “Kyra?”
“She’s gonna spew!” Stevie cried, pulling her legs out of the way as Kyra lurched to her feet and raced by, blonde hair streaming behind her and tanned legs churning. Hale was right on her heels.
Cade got to his feet and said, “I’ll get the ginger ale.”
Stevie had been keeping it on hand lately.
The retching sounds coming from her spare bathroom and Hale’s murmured comforting words were common occurrences these days.
The doctor said women sometimes experienced more sickness when they were carrying girls.
Hale kept repeating he didn’t care what gender the baby was as long as it was healthy, but Stevie saw the way his eyes lit up whenever Kyra mentioned having a baby girl tottering around. Her toned belly had the slightest bump, and her sun-burnished cheeks were constantly crinkled from her big, happy smiles.
She and Hale emerged a minute later with Hale practically carrying her back to the couch.
“I can walk, you know,” she grumped, swatting at Hale’s hands. He was constantly either rubbing her back, helping her stand, or just resting his hands against her little tummy.
“Just imagine how bad he’ll be once you’re actually big,” Stevie said, smirking at Hale as they went by.
Hale flipped her off over his shoulder before he helped Kyra sit. She batted at him some more.
“Maybe I should go,” Emilie said, already standing.
Stevie rolled her eyes. “Sit down. Pregnancy isn’t contagious. Besides, you can’t bail on me now. You’re supposed to be the entertainment tonight so I hope you brought your guitar.”
Tonight was their big end-of-summer backyard bash. It was also when Kyra was going to tell her family she was pregnant, which probably also accounted for the puking. Kyra was terrified, but things with her grandmother and uncle had been better recently—not
that they mattered. Kyra had already told her real family first, including Annabelle, who would be at the party tonight though her fragile health had started to wane. The additional round of chemo hadn’t done enough.
Cade came back with a cool can of ginger ale and handed it to Kyra. Before she could even lean forward, Hale had it out of Cade’s hand and opened for her.
“Oh my gosh, Hale,” Kyra grumbled, but she was smiling as she took the can.
“Did Violet say she was at least coming tonight?” Arie asked, having not paid a single bit of attention to anything anyone had said since he’d arrived and noticed Violet wasn’t there.
They all groaned. Arie’s crush had been cute at first. Now, his constant pestering of Stevie to invite Violet around was wearing her out.
“Sweet mother of all things holy, if you want to see her so badly, just go see her! And no, she’s not coming. You know the party would be too much for her.”
Arie ignored her, lost in his thoughts again.
Cade drew her attention by wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. Across the porch, Kyra caught her eye and smiled. Stevie winked at her.
The summer had been a hard one for the both of them, but its ending had come with a wave of happiness surrounded by the constant glow of friendship, both new and old.
Everyone fell into a contented silence; the only sounds were the waves on the beach and the ceiling fan whirring overhead. A smooth, briny breeze washed in, rustling Stevie’s hair. She leaned her head against Cade’s shoulder and breathed out a long sigh.
She’d never felt so at home or wrapped up in peace, like a warm blanket tight around her shoulders.
She didn’t need to hide behind anything. No bad things waited in her home to haunt her at night, not with Cade’s arms around her and her best friend right next door if she ever needed to talk.
It wasn’t happily-ever-after because it wasn’t over. Not even close. It was only the beginning. She might stumble some along the way, but she’d never fall.
She took in everyone around her. Kyra and Hale, glowing with their little peanut cooking. Arie’s gaze reaching toward someone along the bluffs. Emilie brooding and picking at her nails, and sometimes, in the special moments, she was actually nice.
And Cade.
She was keeping him for life.
She planned on proposing soon, and he had no idea. Kyra had helped her pick out the ring, a simple silver band with an engraving on the inside. It sat in her pocket, ready for when the moment was right.
We’ve got this, it read.
About the Author
Meg Collett is from the hills of Tennessee where the cell phone service is a blessing and functioning internet is a myth of epic proportions. She and her husband live in a tiny house with three dogs and not enough couches. She’s the author of the bestselling Fear University series, the End of Days trilogy, and the Canaan Island novels. Find out more at her website www.megcollett.com.
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Other Books by Meg Collett
The Fear University Series
Fear University
The Killing Season
Monster Mine
The End of Days Trilogy
The Hunted One
The Lost One
The Only One
End of Days Trilogy Box Set
The Days of New Serials
(an End of Days spin-off series)
Speaking of the Devil
Full of the Devil
Better the Devil You Know
Devil in the Details
Give the Devil His Due
Days of New Complete Box Set
Novellas
Little Girls and Their Ponies
