Sophie Oak: Once Upon a Time in Bliss

“Nell,” Callie insisted.

“Nell, dear, you really should open your eyes,” her mother’s voice said.

No one would let her dream, it seemed. She opened her eyes. “Fine. What do you need?”

Callie was smiling, tears in her eyes as she pointed toward the parking lot. “Look. Oh, Nell, I’m so happy for you.”

Nell turned, following Callie’s hand. Max was parking his Ford truck and another man was with him, his arm going to the bed of the truck and picking up a backpack and a suitcase.

“Is that who I think it is?” her mother asked.

“I always said he was a smart boy,” Bill replied with a grin on his face. “He makes good choices, that one.”

Henry. He turned, and there was no question who it was. She would know that square jaw anywhere. She dreamed about him every night.

Henry had come back.

“Hey, Nell!” Max screamed across the yard. “I found something you lost. You might want to put a leash on him this time.”

Tears pooled and a cry came out of her mouth. Henry had come back, and that could only mean one thing. He was here for keeps. He was here for her.

She’d prayed for happy endings for her friends. She’d written two little books in the time that Henry was gone, each a hopeful dream for the people she loved, a prayer that the universe would bless them.

But the first real happy ending was hers.

Nell got up, tears clouding her vision, but she didn’t need to see. She just needed him. She took off, not caring who saw.

Henry was here.

He dropped his bags and ran to her, catching her in his arms. “Hello, baby. Do you think there’s room for one more?”

Always . “I think so.”

“I love you.” He squeezed her so tight she was sure she would break, but she just held on that much tighter.

“I love you. I love you so much.”

Henry looked down at her, a grim expression in his eyes. “Nell, I want to tell you…”

She interrupted him, putting her hand over his mouth. She didn’t need explanations. She didn’t need anything at all now that he was here. “Don’t. You’re here. That’s all that matters.”

Relief was plain on his face. He kissed her, pressing his mouth to hers. “I’m here and I’m all yours. I won’t ever leave you again.”

All around her spontaneous applause cracked through the air. She looked and everyone was watching them, but it wasn’t awkward. This was her family, her home, and now it was complete.

“Way to go, Nell,” Callie yelled, giving her a thumbs-up.

Henry picked her up, cradling her to his chest. “Let’s take this reunion someplace private.”

“You do that, Flanders,” Rye shouted out with a grin. “I’m the new sheriff around here, and we have laws about public sex. I need a new desk after all.”

Nell put her head on his chest and let him carry her away.

Present Day

New York City

Seth Stark took a long gulp of his fifty-year-old Macallan and wondered just how much longer he would have to wait.

Georgia had kissed him. She’d put her arms around him and placed those big soft lips on his, and it had taken everything he had not to take her right there in the limo, to peel back those designer knockoffs she insisted on wearing and lay her out.

She was making him crazy. Holding out on that blonde sweetheart was going to kill him.

She was the fucking one. He’d waited his whole goddamn life for Georgia Dawson and he’d been forced to push her away.

He groaned as he looked out at his spectacular view of Manhattan.

Nothing was going the way he’d planned.

He’d turned her down because despite the fact that he loved Georgia with all his heart, it wouldn’t work without Logan. He had no intention of getting married without Logan at his side. He’d known the type of relationship he’d wanted since he was nine and he’d sat at Jamie and Noah’s kitchen table and listened to their mom and dads flirt and argue and live their lives.

He’d known then and there that he wanted to share a wife with his best friend.

If only his best friend hadn’t turned out to be such a fucking nut bag.

Logan loved Georgia, too. He was just being idiotic and stubborn and posttraumatically stressed. It was time for him to get over it, but Seth couldn’t figure out how. Nor could he find a decent reason to haul them all where they needed to be. They needed to go to Bliss.

The hum of his computer changed and Seth turned. His computer was almost always on. He knew its every sound. He’d made a billion dollars off his software, and he’d programmed his personal system with a hundred distinct sounds that alerted him to what was going on.

Sometimes it chimed because it was uploading new data or installing new versions of software. It pinged him when Georgia sent him an e-mail. He handled those first. He told her it was because she was his assistant, but he’d utterly ignored his previous assistant because he’d been a Harvard-trained douchebag. Georgia always came first.

But there was one sound he hadn’t heard since he’d programmed it. A low thud that sounded like doom.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Someone was searching for Henry Flanders.

Someone was going deep. Someone knew something they shouldn’t.

He stared at the computer screen for a moment, panic setting in. After all these years, Henry’s past was catching up to him.

And Seth could use that to his advantage. He picked up his cell and dialed an all-too-familiar number. A gruff voice answered almost immediately, and Seth replied. “Hello, Momma Marie. It’s Seth. I’m going to need your help.”

It was time to bring Logan back to Bliss.

THE END

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