Page 162 of The Finish Line

I try to picture us in her scenario, in the suburbs and it doesn’t at all compute. And I know for certain it won’t be us, not anytime soon.

“So, what will you do now?”

“We’re going back in.” I sip my wine.

“Seriously?”

“With the protection and aid from the government, we’re going after them—all of them. Any we can get to while Monroe is still in office. We’re not going to poke the bear. We’re going to fucking bitch slap him.”

“This is . . . so crazy.”

“I know, I came in somewhere in the middle of this, and it took me years to fully wrap my head around it all.”

“I really should have ignored you and come up to see you anyway.”

“Christy, I had to protect you.”

“I know. I’ll try not to hold a grudge, but it will take some time. But we’ll be fine. You and me, we’ll always be fine. And I’m behind you a hundred percent. But—” she shifts her gaze to me, her tone growing serious—“shouldn’t there be some perks to this arrangement?”

“Like?”

“Think you can get us out of paying taxes?”

We both burst into laughter, and two curious male heads turn our way. Tobias reads my expression and gives me a whisper of a smile before going back to his conversation with Josh.

“What in the world could those two be talking about?” Christy contemplates watching them interact. “What could they possibly have in common?”

I study Tobias, who’s at this point completely at ease in suburbia with a practical stranger. He’s here for me because this family, these people, matter to me—because he loves me. And hopefully, our future consists of more gatherings like this even though our future doesn’t look a thing like the Baldwins.

“You see a refined, nearly impenetrable man in an expensive suit. And he is that, but I don’t see that anymore. I see a boy who started as just an orphan determined to protect his brother. Just a poor kid living on a bad street, intimidated by a world he didn’t understand and determined to change it for himself, for his brother, and for us. I see the man he’s grown into, who’s never forgotten where he came from and how it shaped him, no matter how much he’s evolved.”

“It’s admirable . . . he’s truly . . . he’s some kind of man.”

Tobias’s gaze drifts over to me as electricity spikes in the air between us.

“He is,” I agree.

A true king.

I turn to Christy. “I know I’ve asked a lot of you today, but I need a favor.”

I run my fingers along Beau’s ears, fighting tears. Tobias bends, repeating my movement, his suit jacket brushing the frozen grass.

“We don’t have to leave him here. We can—”

“There’s no safer place than here. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

He tilts my chin up and knuckles away the evidence of my lie. “What hurts you, hurts me.”

I manage a laugh. “You won’t miss him.”

I can tell by his expression that may no longer be the truth. My pooch has grown on him. And maybe one day we’ll be able to give him a home, but he doesn’t belong in our world for the moment. He runs a hand along Beau’s back.

“Are you sure?”

“We don’t know where we’re going to end up. He needs a good home until we figure it out.”

Christy stands feet away, her eyes drifting between us before I walk him on his leash over to her.