Page 123 of Talk Wicked to Me

“Guys are so weird. Trust me, my man is not lacking in any department, and he knows it.”

“Are you still mad that I’m going away?” He didn’t want to think about how fast the days would pass until he left.

“I’m not mad, but I’m sad for Emerson. She loves you so much, and I know she’s strong, but I also know how much I’m going to miss you. You’re not just her bestie. You’re her heart.” She looked toward the dance floor. “Speaking of, here comes your darlin’. I think I’ll go find mine.” She gave his arm a squeeze and headed for Quinton.

Baz couldn’t take his eyes off Emerson as she made her way across the floor, her loving eyes locked on him. He picked up the glass and handed it to her.

She took a big drink. “That hit the spot. Thank you.”

“Did you have fun?”

“Yes. Those girls can dance.”

“So can you, babe.” As she finished her drink, he said, “I’m really glad you and Brennan are here with me.”

“Me too. Your family has found a way to touch so many lives. I knew it was going to be emotional, but it was also uplifting to see all these people supporting one another. I feel supported, and it’s not even about me.”

“Sure it is. It’s about everyone who has ever lost anyone. It’s about you and me, and Brennan, who lost his grandparents, and all the other people here. It’s a reminder to cherish the people you love while you have them and to remember the ones you lost. Do you think you’ll have the energy to make a stop on the way home later?”

“Sure. Where?”

“Ashley’s favorite beach.”

Her expression warmed. “This is the day you talk with her?”

“Yeah, and I’d really like it if you were there with me.”

“I’d be honored.”

The band started playing “Before You” by Benson Boone. “It’s like they’re playing this song just for us. Dance with me?”

“There’s nothing I’d rather do.”

Baz took her hand, leading her to the dance floor, where they gazed into each other’s eyes, and Baz whisper-sang about not being able to remember a time before she and Brennan were in his life.

“You weren’t lost or alone,” she said. “But I was.”

“You weren’t lost, darlin’. You just didn’t know you were on a journey to find us, and you were never alone. Your parents were always with you, and then so was he.” He looked down at Brennan, cradled between them, then lifted his eyes to hers as the song came to an end.

“I hope you’ll join us in singing a very special song, for very special people,” Rod announced, and then the band started playing “Just the Way You Are.”

As everyone sang with them, many belting out the lyrics, Baz and Emerson sang to each other and to the little boy cradled between them. After the last words left their lips, Emerson spoke before he had a chance. “I love you just the way you are, Baz.”

“Charming and devastatingly handsome?”

“Yes, but you forgot pushy.” She laughed softly. “And completely, utterly, perfect for us.”

He brushed his lips over hers and said, “Just as you and Little B are for me, darlin’,” and then he sealed that truth with a slow, sweet kiss.

Chapter Thirty-Five

A COOL EVENING breeze swept off the water as Emerson and Baz came to the end of a gray and weathered rickety old picket fence that was half-buried in sand and covered in tangles of shrubbery, spiny branches reaching and curling between the slats like arthritic fingers. Sticking up in the overgrown greenery were pieces of what looked like an old foundation.

“This is good.” Baz set down Brennan’s car seat carrier and the bag he was carrying and covered Brennan with a blanket.

Emerson took in the narrow rocky beach and cliff-like dunes on either side of the dip in the land where they stood. There couldn’t be more than fifteen feet between the water and the fence. “This was Ashley’s favorite beach?”

“Yeah.”