“Who was she?” I asked, my voice wavering a little, the temporary indignation draining out of me.
I watched as his eyes softened, every part of his face suddenly transforming. The tension eased out of him, and I felt the pull in his direction again, the need to be right there with him, existing in his space instead of staring at him from across the room.
“If you’ve read the book …” he paused for a moment, the sides of his mouth curving. He knew I hadn’t read it. “You’ll know that ‘grey’ was just a colour to my characters—but to me, it was more. It was a person; the person who inspired my book. The love of my life.” He paused, sucking in a quick breath. “She was Grey.”
STEADFAST: AN EPILOGUE
Four years later …
I was blindfolded, standing in the ‘hang out’ room of the youth walk-in centre I ran with Nicholai. I could picture the space around me, even with my eyes closed. There were couches pushed up against the wall and a few vintage arcade machines we had rescued beside the window. Beyond that, there was a kitchen where we served three meals a day, and several multi-purpose rooms toward the back. The music room was our newest project, built up between the gym and the arts-and-crafts room. In the next building over, we had showers and temporary accommodation, though we could only host a few kids at once with our night-time manager. We were hoping to be able to expand sometime soon, if we received another grant from the government.
“Are you ready?” Nicholai asked, the smooth, deep tone of his voice forcing a shiver down my spine.
“Maybe,” I answered.
I could feel his laugh as he suddenly pressed behind me, his hands on my hips, his lips against my ear. “Stop turning me on,” he whispered. “There are kids around.”
I smirked, and he backed off, raising his voice. “She’s ready!”
Suddenly, the centre kids were all singing happy birthday, and I was being guided by Nicholai’s hands as he gently sat me down in a chair.
“Is the blindfold really necessary?” I asked, after everyone finished singing.
“Obviously it’s necessary.” I recognised Jean’s voice. “How else would this be a surprise?”
“We could have knocked her out,” Marcus supplied. “Drugged her maybe.”
“I’m going to remember you said that next time you have a surprise for me,” I muttered, as several of the gathered kids started giggling.
“Okay, we’re going to give you your present, and you need to guess what it is,” Nicholai told me. “Are you ready? Hold out your hands.”
I held out my hands and he dropped something small and metal into them. I frowned, feeling along the grooves. It was a key.
“A key?” I asked.
I heard Spencer’s snort. “You’re supposed to be guessing what it’s for, kid.”
“A ... box?”
“No!” shouted the kids.
I grinned. “A ... door?”
“Not fair!” one of them protested. “It has to be specific!”
“A ... wooden door?” I asked.
Some of the kids groaned, but nobody answered me.
“Did you guys get me a new car for my birthday?”
“No!” the kids shouted, obviously having more fun with the game than I was.
“A house?” I asked. “Did you guys get me a new house?”
“Yes!” they shouted, and Nicholai laughed behind me.
I froze, the key falling through my fingers, my hand whipping up to the blindfold and pulling it off.
“What?” I asked, jumping up from my chair and glancing around.
“You heard them.” Nicholai shrugged.
I spun on Jean and Marcus—the latter of whom just shrugged, throwing his hands up. “I’m not the one with all the royalties, babe.”
I spotted Clay and Mag standing behind Spencer, all of them grinning at me. I spun back to Nicholai, my hands wrapping around his shoulders so that I could shake him.
“What did you do!” I almost shouted, unsure if I was horrified or excited.
“Are you ready to see?” he asked. “We have the cars waiting outside.”
“You’re insane!” I protested, even though I let him push the key back into my hands and draw me to the doors of the centre.
We had about a dozen kids with us—some of them regulars, some of them new, three of them now semi-permanently living in the overnight quarters. They all piled into the van we had bought for the centre, and Spencer got behind the wheel as Nicholai pulled me over to his car. Jean was already jumping into her girlfriend’s car and Marcus was slipping into the backseat of ours. I could barely speak as we drove, but I managed to force out the question that needed to be asked.
“You bought a fucking house?” I asked Nicholai.
“Well it’s not just for fucking. It can be used for other things, too.”
“I’m still here,” Marcus reminded us.
I laughed breathlessly, turning back to face the front, my mind reeling. “All this time you’ve been spending out of the house with Spencer lately ...”
“We were looking at houses,” he finished. “Yes.”
I fell silent then, because he was driving back toward the bluff, heading in the direction of home. My heart was in my throat already, pounding too loudly for coherent thought. He drove straight by Spencer’s house, and then kept going, right to the end of the road. There was a small property set into the headland, the driveway winding away from the main road. The house was older than most of the renovated mansions along the cliff-top, and it looked smaller, too. A narrow, two-storey weatherboard house.
“No way.” I jumped out of the car, clasping the key that I had been given.
The other cars were pulling up behind us, lining up along the long driveway, but I ignored them all as I took my first step onto the creaky boards of the tiny front deck. There was a small, driftwood wreath nailed to the front door.
“I love it,” I whispered, laying my hand over the door.
I didn’t even want to open it. I wanted to keep this perfect present forever, preserved in its wrapping paper, unabashedly used and beautifully new. Eventually, though, I had to put the key into the lock. I turned it, and opened the door.
The room that I walked into had been decorated with balloons and streamers, a table set up with a cake already on it, along with several other covered dishes. I started crying, and Nicholai was there in an instant, wrapping me up and pulling me into his warmth.
“I love it,” I repeated, finally finding my voice again. “I love it. I love you. Thank you.”
He caught my lips quickly, and I lost myself as I always did, our kiss deepening unintentionally before Marcus cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Sorry,” I muttered, pulling away and quickly swiping at left-over tears. “I’m just really happy.”
“Well try not to get too happy,” Jean muttered, stepping into the room, her girlfriend Camila in tow. “Spence will have a heart-attack if he walks in on you two christening the place.”
I grabbed a piece of candy out of one of the bowls on the table and threw it at her. “Tell the kids the party has started, and there’s a truckload of sugar in here for them to get high on.”
“On it!” Jean spun around again, walking back out, and I quickly dragged Nicholai up the stairs, where the others hopefully wouldn’t follow us.
There was only a single room with an attached bathroom on the top level, with windows looking past the headland and out to the ocean. I opened one of the windows, taking in the familiar view, before turning around and pulling Nicholai closer. His lips were on mine again in a second, his arms banding tightly around my back—pulling me right up against his muscled torso.
“There’s one more present,” he muttered against my lips. “I should give it to you before you distract me too much.”
“Stop giving me presents!” I protested, pushing him away. “Seriously, Nic! A HOUSE!”
He smirked, pointing a finger at me. “Wait right here.”
> He ran back down the stairs, and I waited several minutes until he walked back up holding a pet carrier. I blinked at it.
“He kind of … came with the house,” Nicholai explained, setting it down in front of me. “The owners had a litter right before they moved—offered him to me.”
I opened the carrier with shaking hands, accepting the little ball of fur that immediately scrambled onto my lap, licking furiously at my fingers. It was a puppy—I had no idea of the breed, but he had snowy white fur with brown patches, and his ears were floppy. He was making little yipping sounds, he was so excited.
“Oh my god,” I whispered, gathering the excitable puppy up. He refused to be hugged, wiggling around until I set him down again, and then he commenced licking and climbing all over my lap.
“His name is Blue,” Nicholai told me.
I laughed, turning the puppy onto his back so that I could scratch his belly.
“Hi, Blue. I think you’re going to be very happy here.”
“What about you?” Nicholai asked, glancing at me. He seemed unsure, and that wasn’t an expression I was used to seeing on him.
I was still smiling so wide my face hurt, but apparently, he needed to hear me say it.
“Me and Blue are both going to be really happy here,” I decided. “But you might have to live somewhere else, because your name isn’t a colour like ours.”
His hand slipped around the side of my face, pulling me over to him for another kiss. “That’s where I draw the line,” he admitted. “I live wherever you are. Always.”
The End
Also By Jane Washington
Standalone Books
I Am Grey
The Bastan Hollow Saga
Book One: Charming (Dec, 2018)
Book Two: Disobedience (Jan, 2019)
Book Three: Fairest (Feb, 2019)
Book Four: Prick (Mar, 2019)
Book Five: Animal (Apr, 2019)
Curse of the Gods Series
Book One: Trickery
Book Two: Persuasion
Book Three: Seduction
Book Four: Strength
Book Five: Pain (Oct, 2018)
Seraph Black Series
Book One: Charcoal Tears
Book Two: Watercolour Smile
Book Three: Lead Heart
Book Four: A Portrait of Pain
Beatrice Harrow Series
Book One: Hereditary
Book Two: The Soulstoy Inheritance
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I Am Grey Page 28
