Samara paused in Journey’s doorway and knocked on the frame. “Hey.”
Journey looked up. “Hey.” She looked like she hadn’t slept all weekend, the circles beneath her eyes almost purple, but she smiled. “Guess you didn’t take the job offer.”
“Journey—”
“No, you’re right not to. I’m sorry if I wasn’t totally graceful about it when my mother fired you. I haven’t exactly been living the highlight reel this week.”
Samara hesitated. “Happy hour on Wednesday?”
“Definitely.” Journey’s smile warmed a little. “I really am happy for you, you know.”
“I know.”
She shooed her. “Now get out of here. Go hunt down that man of yours and celebrate a win.” She raised her eyebrows. “You’re going to have to work a lot harder for the next contract, though. I won’t go easy on you just because we’re best friends.”
“Looking forward to it.” Samara took her time leaving the building, silently saying her good-byes in a way she hadn’t been able to last time. She might be back here at some point, but it would never be home again.
She walked the two blocks over to Morningstar Enterprise and made her way up to Beckett’s office. He looked up when she walked through the door, and his smile had her grinning back. He rose and rounded the desk to take her in his arms. “You were gone too long.”
“It was literally an hour.” She ran her hands up his chest, part of her not quite believing that they’d gotten out in one piece. “Anderson offered me my job back with a large raise.”
“Did he?” Beckett answered carefully, his dark gaze on her face. “What’d you say?” As if he was only distantly curious and not impatiently waiting for her response.
Samara let him wait a little longer. She finally rolled her eyes. “I turned him down. You see, this really gorgeous and great guy offered me a job as COO of his company this weekend.”
“Did he? I seem to remember you not giving him an answer.”
She tilted her head to the side. “I didn’t? Silly me. The answer is yes.”
“In that case…” He released her and stepped back to a respectable distance, his tone going pure professional. “Welcome to Morningstar Enterprise, Ms. Mallick. I believe you’ll be a welcome addition to the team.”
“Looking forward to it.” She managed to hold it together for all of five seconds. “Can you take a few hours? I have something to show you.”
He shrugged. “It’s going to be a late night no matter which way I swing it, but I can spare a few hours now.”
“Perfect.”
“Why did you bring me here?” Thistledown rose like a ghost from his past. Beckett had been able to keep it out of mind for the most part since he’d scattered his father’s ashes, but seeing it now had that loss rearing up to slap him down.
He turned to find Samara leaning against her car, smiling. She moved to him and took his hand. “It turns out that your cousins aren’t as monstrous as their mother, and Anderson is ensuring this ends up back with you.”
Hope flared. He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “That’s amazing news.”
“I thought so, too.” She nestled closer.
Beckett rested his chin on the top of her head and just let himself soak up the moment. The woman he loved in his arms, the future spreading out before them and filled to the brim with possibilities. His childhood home in the process of being restored. His business no longer under imminent threat. His enemy exiled.
He studied the house. “It’s pretty fucking big.”
“Mm-hmm.”
A thought had been waiting at the edges of his mind since Thursday, when Anderson had stepped between Beckett and Lydia. “You know my cousins better than I do. Do you think they’d be amiable to the idea of getting to know their history?”
“What—you mean like here at Thistledown Villa?”
“It’s part of their legacy, same as mine.”
Samara twisted in his arms to face the house. She leaned back against him. “I don’t know if you can fix the harm done by Nathaniel and Lydia. There’s thirty years of bad blood between the branches of your family…” Samara took a deep breath. “But I don’t think that bad blood extends to them the same way it didn’t quite extend to you. They don’t like you out of habit, not because of something you’ve done to them directly.”
“I know there’s no magic fix.” He kissed her temple. “But it’s a start, the first small step in the right direction.”
“Yes, it is.”
It felt right to start to mend those wounds. It might not be something fixed in the next year or two or five, but maybe they could build relationships close enough that the next generation wouldn’t have to grow up separately.
Beckett rocked back on his heels as the image of Samara pregnant with his child formed in his mind. Their children would grow up here the same way he had, but they would have both parents and all the happiness that children deserved. All the happiness that he and Samara deserved.
Not yet. Not for a while yet.
But someday.
He released Samara and led her up to the house. Inside, it smelled slightly musty, as if the week since they’d been there last was closer to a month. Samara trailed behind, but he reached back and took her hand to pull her even with him. “I was thinking of redecorating.”
“Oh?” She sounded amused.
“This was a happy place before my mother died. I think it could be a happy place again—our place. My father clung too tightly to the history before she died. I think it’s time to move Thistledown into the future once and for all.”
“I like that idea.” She touched the drab burgundy drapes that hung in the entranceway. “We’ll liven up the place.”
He loved the way her laugh seemed to fill up the empty halls and breathe life
