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I made a noise in nized where the guys that stepped in cauys that I’d done ht I invited Wheeler up to my aparts for no reason The entire world wasn’t out to get me; in fact, there were lots and lots of people that see me, and I was so very thankful for that

"Anyways, I’ll let you rest up and check in on you in a few days Wheeler, I need you and your grandfather to swing by the station and give for away for a long, long tiet to do that for you, Poppy I hated that we couldn’t get to you before your husband hurt you" She shook her head, dark brown eyes going soft and sad "That’s the worst part of the job, wanting to help and not being able to" She pointed at Wheeler again and told hiirl"

Royal left the roo ain If I had a voice I would have asked about the grandfather revelation Royal had just dropped I knew the older guy looked just like uy was a lone wolf … at least he had been until he met me There was a story there I needed to hear, but it wasn’t the one he wanted to tellin my entire life" His breath whooshed out and he lowered his forehead so that it was barely resting against mine "Not when ot bounced from my first foster home or my fifth Not when I met Kallie’s parents the first time or when she cheated on me the first time and I realized there was no way she could love ht a house knowing the wo it for didn’t wantto be a dad Not ent to bed and I realized you were it for oing to behas ever ripped open ot that call" He lifted his head and his eyes lass under the crystal veil of unshed tears "I could have killed hiret over it"

He said that but I kneasn’t true and so did he He was lying with his words but his eyes always told the truth The reason I loved him and had let him in when all I wanted to do was keep everyone out was because he was a man that wanted to take pain away, not cause it I loved hi he wanted to do was hurt anyone, unless of course they were a direct threat to sohter, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t protect as his until his last breath

He used his heart, not his fists, to ars

I couldn’t respond ords, so I reached up and cupped his cheek I tapped the spot where his di until he took the hint and lowered his lips to touchabout what had hurt either of us in the past Those things weren’t changing and there would always be res that s that restored us, that I wanted to focus on froht for it and on

He was my victory and I was his triumph

I couldn’t tell him that I loved him, that I loved that he took better care of me than anyone else ever had, myself included in that I couldn’t tell hi looked like before he came into mine I couldn’t promise hih I kneould be absolutely beautiful because it had ht in the center of it I couldn’t whisper that he was the best I’d ever had, that no one compared in or out of bed to his that the best thing that ever happened tohe could rebuild s because I had no voice, but I knew they were all shining out of my eyes, that he could see the, when I was afraid, when I orried, when I was lost and looking behind , he still found a way to keep his eyes on me It didn’t ht through the at him and I knew that no matter e faced from here on out, ould always, only, have eyes for each other

EPILOGUE

I like the name Royce" I whispered the words into Wheeler’s hair as he rested his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes

It was three o’clock in the o, and all three of theency C-section that brought a perfectly healthy, seven-pound-five-ounce, furiously wailing little boy into the world Royce Hudson Wheeler had ended up breech and nomethods, or old wives’ tales Kallie tried, the baby was stubbornly staying put He refused to flip just like he refused to reveal his sex so that his parents could plan accordingly It was actually Zak who suggested the name Royce One of the first classics he rebuilt and sold was a 1944 Rolls-Royce Silver Phantorandfather’s visits, stating that Royce could work for either a boy or a girl, and surprisingly she agreed

I was happy to playtheir son into the world

Kallie’s mom and dad had shown up shortly after we did and were now in her birthing suite randson Dixie and Church would be on the first flight out of Tupelo to in frootten choked up when I called He was a really nice randson’s He was overwhelh to travel and that she was going to be around long enough to ood people and I hated that Wheeler’sactions had kept hi his whole life It reminded me too much of the way my father had isolated me from the kind of life I kneas out there for all of us, and forced me to live under his tyranny