I, on the other hand, put in my resignation two days after I was released from the hospital. I’m not giving up my dreams of being a nurse and someday working in an emergency room. I’m just going to find someplace else to work, where I’m not constantly forced to remember how horribly Hofstadter’s family let me, and fifty other women, down. They had the power to stop him from the beginning, but they didn’t. Instead, they fed into his ego and made him believe he was untouchable. And for a while, he was. I wish I could say I’m sorry for him, but I’m not. He tried to kill me, and if Harlen hadn’t been there, he would have done it. Then he probably would have killed Hadley so there weren’t any witnesses.

“Food will be ready in about thirty minutes. You wanna come with me to pick it up?” Harlen asks, breaking into my thoughts.

I tip my head back to look at him upside down. “Can we ride your bike?” I ask knowing there is no way I can ride on his bike with him. Not yet anyways.

“Baby, we can’t carry pizza and Chinese on my bike,” he says, coming to take a seat on the couch and pulling my legs carefully over his lap.

“Really?” My brows draw together. “Then the first time we hung out, how were you going to get your pizza home?”

“I wasn’t going home. I was going to your place.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t know that at the time.”

“I did.”

“You did?” I frown, and he smiles.

“Saw you, saw you get out of your car and go into the restaurant, pulled into the lot, parked, and followed you in. I placed my order right after you placed yours, and then I made my move.”

“Made your move?”

“Yeah. Evan and Wes had told me that you were in the middle of unpacking, so when I saw you, I knew you probably needed help with that. I figured that would be my way in, and it was.”

“You told me I looked beat.”

“Even exhausted, Angel, you’re still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life.”

“What?”

“Not only do you have brains, which is sexy as fuck, but your body is unbelievable, those tits and that ass, the fullness of your thighs.” He shakes his head then focuses on me, his eyes roaming my face. “Your face is the stuff of wet dreams. Believe me, before I had you, I had a lot of those about you.”

“Oh my God,” I laugh, and he grins, resting his hand on my cheek, his thumb skimming over my bottom lip.

“Even more beautiful when you smile, but the best is when you come.”

“Okay, you need to stop. You’re turning me on,” I tell him honestly, and he throws his head back, laughing loudly. “Glad you find me amusing.” I roll my eyes, and he laughs louder, and even though his reason for laughing is annoying, I know when I hear that sound that we will totally be okay.

Harlen

Sitting on the back deck of the four-story cabin Nico and Sophie rented in the Smoky Mountains I stare into the house through the glass doors watching Harmony play a board game in the living room with her siblings.

“It will get easier,” Nico says pulling my attention from his daughter, taking a seat across from me and handing me a beer. “It takes time, but it will get easier. Soon you won’t be constantly thinking about what happened, what could have happened.” “I hope you’re right.” It’s been over three months and it still feels like it was yesterday. There are nights I don’t sleep. I just lay in the dark holding her, listening to her breathe. Days when I can’t get shit done because all I can do is think about her, worry about her. Even knowing she’s safe, that shit still haunts me.

“Look at my girl,” He lifts his chin to the glass door. “She doesn’t have a care in the world, she knows she’s safe, she knows you made her that way. She knows you have the power to keep her that way.” He says shaking his head, his face softening. “You’ll lose sleep, you’ll lose hours a day thinking about it, but remember when you look at her that she’s good, and eventually you will be too.” He reaches out wrapping his hand around the side of my neck holding it tight, pulling me close. “I couldn’t have chosen better for my girl, you’re a good man Harlen, I didn’t know your parents, but I know they’d be proud of the man you are, proud of the kind of husband you’re going to be to my girl and proud of the kind of father you’ll be to your kids. I know that because down to my fucking soul, I’m fucking proud to call you my son.”

Fuck my throat gets tight and my eyes start to burn as I hold his gaze. Knowing I have no words to give him to express how I feel, I wrap my hand around the back of his neck, and knock my forehead to his like I used to do to my dad. His eyes close briefly and he does the same back to me before letting me go, having no idea what he just gave me.

Epilogue

Harlen

One Year Later

“SHE REALLY IS PERFECT FOR YOU.”

Looking down at my aunt, I see her eyes are focused across the room on Harmony, who’s standing under her dad’s arm smiling at something one of her brothers is saying. Taking her in, my chest gets tight and my stomach fills with pride and possessiveness.

Three hours ago, I made her my wife at the front of a small church, with friends and close family.

Three hours ago, she walked down the aisle toward me, her white lace dress skimming her body and flowing out at her waist.

Three hours ago, I took her hand when her dad entrusted me with her.

Three hours ago, I realized I had been wrong all the times before, because her face right before she became my wife was the most beautiful I had ever seen her.

“So perfect for you.”

My aunt’s words pull me from my thoughts, and I focus on her. “She is,” I agree, as her arms slide around my waist and she tucks herself into my side.

“Your parents would be proud of you, Harlen Alistair MacCabe. So darn proud of the man you’ve become.” Her words wash through me, and I wrap my arm tighter around her shoulders. “You’ve done good for yourself, kid.”

“You had a hand in me becoming the man I am,” I tell her, and her body jolts in surprise. Christ, have I never told her that?

“She’s making you soft.” I hear the tears in her voice, and then see them when she tips her head back to look up at me.

“Probably,” I agree without a shred of regret, and she laughs, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

Looking around the room, I take in all the familiar faces, and then my eyes land on the large photo of my parents. Harmony wanted them with us today. I didn’t know she had it planned, but when we walked into the reception hand in hand, I saw that photo and knew that, even without the picture, they were here. In some way or another, they have always been with me. I still miss them every day, but I know they had a hand in me finding the woman I married and the life I live.

Harlen

Six Years Later

Hearing Ava cry through the baby monitor on the nightstand, and feeling Harmony starting to get up, I place my hand against her round stomach to still her. “Stay, I got her.”

I kiss her bare shoulder then roll out of bed and head out of our room, down the hall to our five-year-old daughter Ava’s room. Seeing her shadowy figure sitting up in bed, I walk across the dark room and flip on her lamp. The base is the head of a unicorn, the shade a soft cotton candy pink that is the same color as pretty much everything else in her bedroom.

“You okay?” I ask my baby girl, picking her up when she holds her arms out to me, and she shakes her head.

“There’s a monster.” She sniffles, and I run my hand down the back of her long, soft hair as she tucks her face into my neck and wraps her tiny arms around my shoulders.

“There’s no monsters in here, baby,” I assure her quietly, feeling her shake.

“There is. I saw it.” She pulls her face out of my neck to look at me, and then points. “It’s in the closet.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.” She nods, and I give her a squeeze then kiss her forehead.

“Okay, let me get my sword.” I go across the room with her still in my arms and pick up the plastic silver sword leaning against the wall by the door. Taking hold of the hilt, I whisper, “You open the door to the closet, and I’ll kill him.”