Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(137)

My phone dinged, and I pulled it out of my pocket, quickly reading the message from Maren. My jaw went slack. “Give me a second.” I crossed to Dex, an incredulous look on my face. “What did you do?”

Dex’s brows rose. “What are you talking about?”

“Maren said all of Vincent’s accounts were drained.” And that was on top of the fact that Vincent was currently in prison, and I’d already received a settlement from the courts, along with sole custody. But I hadn’t wanted Vincent’s money. So I’d divided it between a college fund for Owen and a trust he’d receive at age thirty. But this was more.

A knowing smile spread across Dex’s face. “Hmmm. I wonder what happened.”

“Dex,” I pressed.

That grin widened. “I felt like some nonprofits needed a little extra funding. One for single parents starting new businesses or going back to school. Another providing educational support and scholarships for kids from single-parent homes. And at least a dozen women’s shelters across the country.”

“I can’t believe you,” I whispered. But I could. Because Dex used any darkness he had for good and only that.

Dex’s hazel eyes heated. “Justice.”

“Vigilante justice,” I corrected as I leaned into him.

His lips twitched. “Potato, potahto.”

“I love you,” I whispered against those lips.

“More than I thought possible.” Dex’s hand slid into my hair as he kissed me.

I lost all sense of time as his mouth took mine, but I still tried to identify the kiss, classify it. It was still one of my most cherished pastimes. Just like this particular kiss was still a favorite—a blend of heat, comfort, and home.

“Sick,” Owen called out, cutting into my blissful haze. “And not the good kind!”

Dex chuckled against my mouth as he pulled back.

“It’s romantical,” Skylar argued as she wrapped her feather boa around her neck and draped it over the back of her T-shirt that read If you think I’m scary, you should meet my uncle.

Owen’s face screwed up. “Hard pass.”

Mav chuckled. “Trust me when I say, you will be rethinking that in the future, my man.”

Aster rolled her eyes as she turned to me. “You might want to watch how much time Maverick spends with Owen. Bad influences and all.”

“Ouch, Ice Queen. That hurts,” Mav shot back.

“Truth hurts, Satan,” she retorted.

Before they could devolve into a bickering fight that could easily get out of hand, I turned to Owen. “Even though we’re totally sick in the gross way, do you want to go get Dex’s present?”

Dex’s hand slid beneath my hair and squeezed the back of my neck. “I said I didn’t need any presents.”

I shot him a look. “Too bad, so sad, Buttercup.”

Owen snickered as he ran to retrieve a wrapped box from Dex’s 4Runner. A second later, he was setting it on the quilt. He stepped back, looking suddenly nervous. “I hope you like it.”

Dex’s expression shifted in that way that said he was paying a little closer attention. “You help pick it out?”

“I helped make it,” Owen said softly.

“Then I’m gonna love it.”

God, Dex was a good man. The best Owen and I could’ve ever hoped to find.

Dex deftly unwrapped the robot wrapping paper, revealing a shoe box beneath. He frowned for a moment, then opened the lid. His jaw dropped. “My own custom Converse?”

A grin tugged at Owen’s mouth. “I drew a computer and Yeti and your energy drink. And your glasses.”

Dex lifted a shoe to hold it up for the group and immediately went about switching his boots to the sneakers. “The best gift ever.”

“Really?” Owen asked hopefully.

“Really. Now we all match.”

I kicked out my own Converse that Owen had decorated, as Owen put his foot next to mine. “Perfect,” I whispered.

“Not quite,” Dex said. “We need one more thing.”

I frowned as he shifted and pulled something out of his pocket. There was no box or anything for the ring, but the diamond caught the light as he lifted it. It glowed, the large gem in the center surrounded by countless tiny ones, making it seem like it was floating.

Dex’s hand slid to the side of my neck. “Want to move into this house as a family in every way. Marry me, Hellion. Plant roots with me. Carve a big, beautiful life with me.”

Tears filled my eyes as I took him in, as I felt the family we’d built all around us. “Yes.”

It was the only answer.

I locked gazes with those dark-hazel eyes as he slid the ring onto my finger. “I love you. I trust you.”

“Love you forever,” he whispered. And then Dex’s eyes moved to Owen, who looked a mix of excited and unsure.

“Does that mean—will you…will you finally be my dad?” Owen asked.

Dex’s throat worked as he swallowed. “That gift…way better than even custom Converse.”

Owen grinned huge and leapt on us. We caught him in a pileup that Yeti soon joined with a gleeful bark. And I didn’t miss Nova looking on, that new smile stretching across her face.

I knew it then: Nothing was better than this. And it was all the sweeter for everything we’d battled to get here.