Smashwords version Sweet Surrender
Page 12
Viola pressed a Styrofoam cup to her lips and tipped it back, sending ice cold water rushing into her mouth.
“When we searched his apartment, we found a wig and stage makeup and fake bad teeth and all those dirty clothes he wore when he picketed your store. A few months ago, he saw Brian picketing your store, and he figured it was his golden opportunity to get him to do his dirty work for him, so he created a fake identity as a religious fanatic. He and Brian were supposed to be on a holy mission together, to rid the world of sinners. He took advantage of Brian’s mental illness and manipulated him and set up that series of attacks on the bakery.”
“So it’s over?”
“It’s well and truly over.” Rafe bent over and kissed her forehead. “You just have a concussion. They did a CAT scan; you don’t have any permanent damage. You should be able to come home in a day or two, after the doctor clears you.” He pressed his lips against her ear, warming her with his breath, and whispered “And you’ll need all your strength. I have a homecoming celebration planned for the two of us as soon as you’re up for it.”
She felt his hand closing around hers, warming it. She closed her eyes and let herself relax.
The dark cloud of worry that had hovered over her for so long had evaporated. They were all safe now, she could sense it. She had an apartment. She had a job. Viola had the bakery. And she had Rafe, and he’d be there for her forever, she could sense it in every cell of her body, in her soul. It felt so right having him here by her side, like she’d been a puzzle with a piece missing and he was the perfect fit, the piece that made her whole.
His hand tightened around hers and she let herself drift away with a smile on her lips…
EPILOGUE
Rafe and Poppy moved in together in a one bedroom apartment in the warehouse district of Port Rollins, and two months later, Rafe proposed to Poppy. She agreed to marry him as soon as she gets her law degree. She was accepted to the Port Rollins College of Law, and works part time at Sweet Surrender. Rafe tells her all the details of every investigation that he works on. Rafe and Poppy are among Sweet Surrender’s best customers, but Poppy makes Rafe do the actual purchasing, because she’s too embarrassed.
Penelope hasn’t been heard from since she tried to get Poppy to wire her money to an overseas account, claiming she needed bail money because she’d been busted for smuggling drugs in Thailand. Rafe traced the email back to an internet café in England, and embarrassed Penelope by calling the café and having her paged.
With Viola managing Sweet Surrender, the store became so successful that she and Jeffrey ultimately ended up opening a chain of franchises all over the country.
When Jeffrey and Viola got married, they invited all of his friends and her friends, and the two groups didn’t get along with each other at all, and they also invited all of the merchants from the warehouse district, even Henry Chenowith. They naturally ordered a wedding cake designed by their own bakers at Sweet Surrender, with buttercream sculptures so explicit they made Poppy blush, although she still ate two extra large pieces, because it was delicious.
Viola has promised that when she makes Rafe and Poppy’s wedding cake, she will design a respectable smut free cake with no fornicating couples anywhere to be seen. Her fingers were crossed when she promised, however.
THE END