Page 1 of Final Shift
Chapter
One
Happiness was sunshine on a cool, late summer morning, drinking coffee with someone you love. I tilted my face up to the sky and took a deep breath, content to bask in the warm golden light peeking from the horizon.
Rowan and I were on the back deck watching the sunrise. We'd been married for almost four months, and the bloom still hadn't worn off. Based on the happiness I felt every time I laid my eyes upon him, I thought it never would.
He was everything I never knew I wanted and everything I thought I didn't deserve.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we're going to have to start the morning over.”
His low, heated drawl made the hair on the backs of my arms stand up. I leaned closer and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Would that be so bad?”
Rowan's slow grin made my fingers tighten around the mug I held. How did he make me feel so desired with just a simple smile?
“No, but in about two minutes we're going to have company.”
I groaned. “Who?”
“All of your friends. They just left their apartments and are heading this way.”
I loved my friends, but they had the timing of food poisoning on an international flight. “Raincheck?”
“Always.”
“Let's just sit here until they come.”
Rowan turned his head and pressed a kiss to my temple.
Moira was the first to arrive. She grinned when she spotted us. “Tess and Ash are right behind me. You two up for breakfast? There's a new brunch place in town we've been wanting to try.”
I glanced at Rowan, who shrugged. “Hungry?” he asked.
When was I not? I nodded. “Let me change. Meet at the vehicles in twenty?”
“Good with me.” I sighed and didn't get up.
Moira snorted. “How about we leave, and you two meet up with us when you get moving?” She gave me a meaningful look, which made Rowan laugh.
“Be gone, hag,” I pronounced with a dramatic wave of my hand.
Tess and Ash popped into view. Moira turned and pointed at the vehicles. “Come on. Lady Evie and her husband want to haverelations.”
Ash chuckled. Tess let out a warbly sigh. Moira jogged over and ruffled the banshee's hair.
Once they were out of view, Rowan let out a groan. “Should we go to breakfast or back to bed?”
Both sounded equally great.
“If we eat first, we'll have the energy to drag ourselves back home and go back to bed.”
Rowan grinned. “I like the way you think, Lady.”
His words warmed me. The adjustment from everything I was to Rowan's wife and the Keep's Lady had been somewhat jarring but Hope and Declan had guided me the best they could.Garrett and Simone had also stepped in when they saw me faltering.
Leadership had never come naturally to me. I preferred leading a quiet life in the background, though life had not complied with my wishes lately. Being thrust into the spotlight made me uncomfortable, but with Rowan's people, things were different. They'd never made me feel less. Not like…
I tried very hard not to think about Caelan these days, though I knew I needed to make a decision about him soon. When he tried to kill Rowan, I'd gone a little crazy and had basically put a fairytale curse on him, one neither he nor his people could break unless I allowed it.
