by Kathryn Shay
It was a cataclysmic explosion.
Epilogue
* * *
“Hey, Derek. I got PickWits, a new board game we can play.” Mikey had torn off the wrapping paper then looked up. “You gotta match the pictures with the captions.”
Derek moved to him, picked up the instructions. “Hmm. There’s 504 pictures and 144 captions. And four people can play.”
“Or just us, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“My turn.” Mattie ripped open his present, his dark eyes dancing. “I got a game, too. Oh, gosh. It’s Mousetrap. I wanted this.”
“What do you do?” Derek pretended he hadn’t studied up on age-appropriate gifts for the boys.
“You gotta get through machine traps to get the cheese, but you can steal from each other.” His face was devilish. “I’ll beat you.”
“Maybe.”
Derek sent a slanting glance at Alessia, who cuddled up in a corner of the couch, sipping Christmas morning coffee. Then he said to the boy, “I see. Wow, we’re going to have a lot to do.” He’d become a master at games as a way to relate to her younger sons. It had worked to integrate him into the family.
Pete picked up a long, wide gift. His dark eyes were full of mirth, so good to see. “My turn.” He tore at the wrapping paper. “Oh, four more model airplanes. These’ll take hours.” His eyes sparkled at Derek, too.
He’d made model planes when he was young, and when Pete had shown an interest, Derek jumped at the chance. He was getting to know the oldest child through them.
Surprising them both, Pete had also taken Derek aside and told him that he knew all about the presents Derek sent his mom. And deduced that he was groveling. Pete didn’t ask what Derek had done. Someday, when the boy was older and he could tell him the truth, he vowed he would.
“So, that’s it for material gifts,” Mattie stated.
“Yeah,” Mikey said. “Then we get our things to do presents. One to do with Mom, and probably you now, Derek, and one with our friends.”
Derek totally agreed with how Alessia was raising the boys to be non-materialistic. He’d gladly contributed to the concert Pete wanted to go to with Jason, and the movie tickets to their favorite theater. They’d bring a friend each.
The kids ohhed and ahhed over both their gifts.
“Thanks Mom, and Derek.” Pete sounded very grateful.
“Yeah, thanks,” the boys said in unison.
Mattie stood. “I’m hungry.”
“Doesn’t Mom get a non-material gift from each of you?”
The twins gave each other impish smiles. “Oh, yeah, we forgot.”
“Do mine first, Mom,” Pete said.
Alessia opened the wrapped envelope and then read the paper inside. “Six nights of watching my brothers, so you can go out.” He looked at Derek. “It’s for you, too.” He turned back to Alessia, this time his eyes challenging. “You said I could at twelve, right?”
“I did.” Rising, Alessia crossed to Pete and hugged him. She was so grateful for the changes in him since the smoking incident. “Thanks, buddy.”
He held on a bit longer than he usually did, then said, “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.”
Derek knew the declaration was the best present of the morning.
The boys gave him first choice for a month in picking the games they played. For her, they would do the weeding once spring and summer came.
“Wow, that’s great, you guys.” She hugged the twins, too.
Derek sighed.
Alessia couldn’t believe how life had changed for her in the two weeks since she’d gone to his Brooklyn apartment. Derek was on leave and had been at the house every day. He’d won over the boys completely and stolen her heart.
On her birthday, December 21st, he’d given her a beautiful emerald ring, with diamonds on each side. They’d told the kids it was an engagement ring. And yesterday, she and Derek, with the boys, had quietly gotten married at city hall. They planned a honeymoon to somewhere warm as soon as they told her family.
“Breakfast, Mom?” Pete asked.
Derek bolted up. “I’m cooking it.” He held out his hand to her. “Come sit while I fry up some bacon.”
They went into the kitchen and heard her oldest son say, “They’re gonna kiss out there.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s okay.” Mikey put in.
Mattie said, “Yuck.”
But she knew he didn’t mean it.
As soon as they were alone, he took Alessia in his arms, and did indeed kiss her. “I’m so happy you can stay for good.”
“Hmm, me too. I love waking up with you.”
Before the wedding, he frequently bunked with one of her brothers so he didn’t have to drive back and forth to Brooklyn. He said he enjoyed getting to know them.
He glanced over his shoulder from where he stood at the stove. “What are you smiling at?”
“Everything. I didn’t know I could be this happy again.”
“Me, either. It’s something isn’t it?”
“It is. Are you excited about teaching in New York’s new training site?”
Derek had been offered a job teaching recruits and agents about undercover work, but not in Quantico. People were signed up to come from all over the state. They both stayed in Brooklyn two days a week when she had class and Mama took the boys. The other three they would live in Hidden Cove and he’d commute.
“I found I’m liking it very much.” He winked at her. “All those teaching courses took hold, I guess.”
“Good.”
“Not too long till you get your degree.”
“Yeah, next semester and the summer.” She got up, went over and hugged him from behind. God, it had been so long since she could touch and hold a man. She wallowed in it.
He switched off the burner and turned to face her.
“Who would have thought, huh?”
“We are so lucky we found each other, Derek.”
“I know. Promise me you’ll stay with me always.”
“I did yesterday in our vows.”
“Tell me again.”
“I’ll be with you always and forever.”
He kissed her, tenderly, gratefully. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”
“Merry Christmas to you, love.”
* * * * *
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Author’s Note
* * *
I hope you enjoyed this novella. Alessia and Derek’s relationship unfolded easily for me. I like how they get together, even if him attending the wedding and Thanksgiving strained credulity a bit. That he knows it’s unprofessional, and is called to task on it by Grant, shows their attraction simply can’t be overcome—he says he couldn’t resist her and I believed him.
I love Alessia, as I do all the Casellas. She’s been dealt a bad hand in life, and all I wanted was for her to be happy. I wouldn’t have picked her soulmate to be Derek, but that just shows their unbreakable connection, even for me. She’s an unselfish, giving mom to Pete, Mikey and Mattie, but she knows that she has to deal directly with Pete’s issues. (And he sure does come around.) She has more sass than she did in previous books, but it suited her.
I fell head-over-heels for Derek, though I wanted to shake him sometimes, like when he was ready to storm the brothel before everything was in place. And when he turns all macho on Alessia in the bedroom the night he confesses his identity to her. Yep, I wanted to shake him then, even as a tiny part of me enjoys machismo in my alpha heroes.
The subplot in the novella is complicated. The human trafficking situation took up a lot of my headspace. I wrote those scenes many times over, kept adding and deleting, researching locations, putting in more heightened urgency. Some might think it was too much for a novella, and I worried ab
out that. But in the end, I was pleased how the storyline turned out.
This is book four of series, so if you missed any, be sure to get copies of The Casella Cousins: Hayley, Seth, Finn, Alessia, Gideon and Ronan.
Kathy
Visit or contact Kathryn at www.kathrynshay.com
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Don’t miss all of The Casella Cousins
* * *
Six cousins, separated as children, reunite as adults and become intricately involved in each other’s lives.
Available Now—Hayley Casella loves her job as an Assistant District Attorney—everything but facing Paul Covington, her nemesis, in court. She’s fought with him in trials for a year. What will they do when attraction sparks between them one moonlit night?
Find HAYLEY on Amazon
Available Now—Legal Aid lawyer Seth Casella is a truly good guy. Or so everybody thinks. But he has a darker side, that came out with his old girlfriend, Julianne Ford, which splits them apart permanently. Or maybe not!
Find SETH on Amazon
Available Now—Finn Casella, a mild-mannered guy, owns a bookstore in New York. He’s content with a quiet life and casual dating. Until he begins to see his young, sometimes infuriating assistant in a new light.
Find FINN on Amazon
October 20, 2020—Gideon Casella is a top cop in the Hidden Cove Police Department and in line for a promotion. It comes as a shock when the brass gives the position to Anabelle Sanders, a tough-as-nails female detective—and then assigns him to work for her.
Find GIDEON on Amazon
November 17, 2020—Ronan Casella left home twenty plus years ago, abandoning his beloved sister and brother—until now. The mystery as to what’s happened to Ronan in the intervening decade is revealed in book six.
Find RONAN on Amazon
Excerpt
* * *
Take a look at the next book in the series,
GIDEON
On the porch of a mammoth house, Sergeant Anabelle Sanders gave the nod to the Hidden Cove fire department.
“Everybody back.” Captain Nick Evans of the HCFD hefted the battering ram and drilled it into the front entrance. The wood splintered and the door flew open.
Three police officers rushed inside the front as two cops headed to the back with Evans.
The owner wielded a gun at them from three feet away.
“Put the gun down, Mr. Littman,” Anabelle ordered.
“She’s a fuckin’ whore.”
“Mr. Littman, you’re surrounded by police and firefighters outside.” Sanders didn’t call attention to T.J. Masters, who’d gone to stand front of the victim, arms out, to protect her.
Littman picked up a huge vase and hurled it at the police.
Buck Brolin tried to dodge it but the vase hit him square in the chest. He stumbled backward.
Gideon Casella and Radford appeared from the back and they crept up behind Littman. Before the guy knew they were there, Casella raised the ram and hit him square on the back. As Littman dropped, the gun clattered onto the wood of the floor. Radford grabbed it. Casella yanked Littman’s arms behind his back. “Stay down.”
“All clear,” Anabelle said into the radio. “Send in the officers to take Littman.”
A social worker and EMT hurried in first and over to the victim. They helped Mrs. Littman out of the house.
Officers strode in behind and over to Littman, who was groggy and out of it. They carted him away.
Anabelle looked around. Not too shabby for the first call for the Major Incidents Task Force she now led. “Let’s gather outside,” she said to her colleagues still inside.
From the side of their vehicles, they watched the social worker lead Mrs. Littman to the EMT truck. She’d accompany her to the police station if the woman didn’t need to go to the hospital.
“Good job, all. You worked together like a well-oiled machine.”
They mumbled their agreement, and added grumbles about abusers.
“We’ll go back to the precinct and debrief.” She scanned the four of them. “Casella, ride with me. You two go with TJ.”
They got in their respective cars and headed out.
Gideon didn’t say anything as they drove. He’d been trying to adjust to the task force, reboot his relationship with Anabelle, and do the hard work of training for the task force.
“It went well,” Anabelle said. “You used just the right amount of force on Littman.”
“Yeah. Nick Evans did a great as the firefighter on call.”
“He’s a brave guy.”
Gideon didn’t say more.
Finally, she asked, “How’s your back?”
“Healed from rest and stretching. Only a twinge now and then?”
Another silence. Then, “You doing okay with all this, Gid?”
“You can call it what it is, Anabelle. You got the promotion, you’re my boss. I’d rather be leading this task force, but it is what it is.”
“Look, I know you getting hurt in the car crash took you out of the running.”
“Yeah. But I’m still not in charge.”
“Hell, Gideon. Why’d you accept the position? You could have stayed in your old job.” Her tone was exasperated.
“Because only a fool pass on being in the elite Major Incidents task force.” He quoted the press’s description of them. “Would you have passed if I got it?”
“No.”
“I’m trying. I’ll keep trying. Eventually I’ll adjust.” Like he did to his divorce and being a solo parent to his kids. In a surprise to everyone, Lisa, his ex, got a job in London and signed temporary full custody of the kids over to Gideon. He also got his house back.
“I heard your ex left town for Europe.”
“Out of the blue. She never told me she might do that. The kids are upset—I don’t blame them—and we’re all just trying to adjust to our new circumstances.”
“Tough for kids. You have them full time.”
“Which I’m grateful for.”
“Who’s watching them tonight?”
“The whole family’s taking turns. Seth and Julianne are on the night shift.”
“It’s great that you have so much help.”
“Do you have an extended family, Anabelle?”
“I have three brothers, but they don’t live in Hidden Cove. Actually, I’m closer to my ex’s family.”
“Interesting.”
They swerved into the police station just ahead of the others. They all exited cars, ending his talk with Anabelle.
Which was a blessing. He couldn’t get close to this woman again and they both knew it.
About the Author
* * *
A NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Kathryn Shay has been a lifelong writer and teacher. She has written dozens of self-published original romance titles, print books with the Berkley Publishing Group and Harlequin Enterprises and mainstream women’s fiction with Bold Strokes Books. She has won many awards for her work: five RT Book Reviews awards, the Bookseller’s Best Award, Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year and several “Starred Reviews.” One of her firefighter books hit #20 on the NEW YORK TIMES list. Her novels have been serialized in COSMOPOLITAN magazine and featured in USA TODAY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and PEOPLE magazine. There are over ten million copies of her books in print and downloaded online. Reviewers have called her work “emotional and heart-wrenching.”
For notification of Kathryn’s new work and information about her books, be sure to sign up for her newsletter here.
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