But I will take whatever we have, because anything less will hurt more. And we both have too much hurt already in our pasts.

From now on, it will only be goodness. It is a vow I know I will keep, because I won’t accept anything else, not when it comes her.

Not ever.

“I don’t think we should tell them,” Kenzie tells me when we pull up outside the hospital later that afternoon. After I let her ride me to her second orgasm, I took over. Giving her one more before I had her hands tied behind her back and fucked her from behind.

“Not yet anyway,” she adds before I can respond.

“Whatever you want, darlin’.” I kick the stand down and wait for her to climb off my bike before following her.

“You’re not angry, are you? That I want to hide it from everyone?” Her hands bunch up at the bottom of her shirt and I know she’s probably been worrying about this on the whole ride over.

“Do you want to hide it because of Brooks and Kelly, or because you’re having second thoughts?”

“Because of Brooks and Kelly. I’m not second-guessing my choices, Beau. I just don’t want to upset anyone. Not when everything is still so unknown.”

“Then I’m not angry. It’s why I love you.” I pull her body to mine and kiss her. Maybe it’s selfish I asked her to marry me when Brooks is dealing with his shit. When her friend, Heidi, is still missing. When we have so much shit to deal with at the shelter. But I don’t care. Because in a normal day, I wouldn’t factor how me asking Mackenzie to be my wife would affect anyone else’s life but ours. I’m not about to start now. Especially not when I’ve worked so hard making sure Kenzie doesn’t either.

“It will just be until things settle down.” She pulls back, still worrying about it.

“Darlin’, I’m not angry. But fair warning, when my ring goes on your finger it’s not coming off.”

“Noted.” She reaches up and kisses me again. This time skimming her tongue along my lips.

Yeah, I fucking need a ring today. No fucking way I am keeping this shit locked up.

“Where the fuck you been?” Nix’s question interrupts our kiss, bringing us back to the hospital parking lot.

“We had shit to deal with for the opening at Missy’s.” I look down at Kenzie and give her a wink. He doesn’t need to know we were off the grid because I needed to fuck my new fiancée.

“Kelly’s awake.”

I look up just as Mackenzie’s body recoils at the news. “Oh my God.”

I reach around Mackenzie, not trusting her to keep standing. “Good news, darlin’,” I remind her as she breaks down into sobs.

“Yeah, it’s great.” We both look up at Nix’s tone, and notice he doesn’t share the same excitement.

“What’s wrong?” Mackenzie beats me to it.

“She doesn’t know who she is.” He rubs his forehead.

“What? What do you mean?” I hold Kenz tighter, not sure this is the news we were hoping for.

“I don’t know. That’s all Brooks could tell us before he went back. He hasn’t come back out. They’re running some tests.”

“Oh my God, Beau.” Kenzie twists to look up at me.

“Don’t think about it like that, darlin’. This is good news. For all we know, it’s temporary.”

“But what if she doesn’t remember? What if she never remembers?” Her mind moves straight to the worst possible outcome.

“What if she didn’t wake up, Kenz? You can’t keep on this track. She woke up. It’s a start and you have to believe it’s gonna be okay.” I take either side of her face in my hands. “She’s gonna remember, darlin’. And if she doesn’t, then we’ll find a way to remind her.” A tear falls down her cheek, but I don’t take this one away. She needs to feel this if she is going to believe it.

It might not have been the news we hoped for, but we’re closer to having our family back, and we have to hold on to what we are given.

Because what is the alternative?

Epilogue Mackenzie

Four months later

“This can’t be happening now.” I look up at my reflection and try to talk myself down. “This is what you wanted,” I remind myself, watching the damn wrinkle crease between my brows. “If you don’t relax, your makeup is going to be messed up.” I nod, feeling myself calm a little. I don’t want to have to ask Holly to fix up my face or my hair. Not when she just spent two hours making me perfect. “You can totally do this. No, you have to do this.” I level my stare at myself just as another wave of nausea has my head in the sink. I pray I don’t bring up my lunch.

“Shit, I can’t do this.”

“Are you okay in there?” A knock at the door pulls me out of my trance and back to the room.

“Err yeah, just give me a second,” I call back, before taking some deep breaths then placing the pregnancy test in my bag so no one finds it.

“You still need to put your dress on, Kenz. Hurry up,” Kadence shouts through the door, rushing me along. Not wanting to run any later, I shake the nervousness off and force myself out of my panic.

“Sorry. I’m here.” I open the bathroom door and step out into the room in front of my friends.

“Come on, everyone’s ready.” Kadence stands from the bed first and rushes toward me.