Page 147 of Contentious

I need to find him a good therapist.

Yes, for sure. We have a list of people we recommend at work.

I’ll take that list.

We’ll get him through this.

Yes, we will. It’s a huge relief that Marlon is in custody. There’s no chance they’ll release him, is there?

I don’t think so. He’s facing numerous felonies and is an obvious flight risk.

It’ll be nice to not have to be afraid anymore.

Definitely. Better days ahead.

I can’t wait for that.

Me, too. See you soon.

She replied with heart emojis.

Rather than worrying about Julian, he ought to be more concerned about how it felt almost unbearable to be separated from her for only a couple of hours or how he couldn’t wait to lie in bed with her, to hold her and kiss her and get back to where they were before Marlon’s madness interrupted them.

“How do you hold on to lightning in a bottle?” he asked, not intending to say the words out loud. But now that he had, he was interested in what Julian would say.

“Not sure I know the answer to that, other than showing up every day and trying to be the best partner and father figure you can. I’m figuring that out as I go, but so far, having me around seems to make them happy, which is the only thing that matters.”

“Does your own happiness matter?”

“It’s the strangest thing how their happiness creates mine. I never would’ve believed it could come from someone else until I experienced that every day for weeks, and now… I’m completely addicted to the high I get from being with her—and the kids. That’s another interesting development. If you’d told me before that I’d look forward to spending time with two very young kids every day, I would’ve laughed. But they’re awesome and adorable and so sweet. I never get tired of being with them.”

“And you don’t worry that you’re going to wake up someday and just be like… nah?”

Julian laughed. “Not at all. The best way I can think to describe it is that they’re my power source. They fill me up with everything I need, and every day, I just want more of it. I wish you could have seen them up at Ojai. They were so cute chasing the goats and chickens around, and they love the dogs.”

“I bet Ty would love it up there, too.”

“He would for sure. We should all go together sometime.”

“That’d be fun.”

“Do you think you might love them, Carson?”

“I’m pretty sure I do. When we were in that car and he was holding a gun on us… All I wanted was to get them out of there so we could go back to the plans we’d made. Ty’s waiting for me to teach him how to surf, and I still need to take Cresley on a real date that doesn’t include dealing with my family’s latest scandal.”

“If you love them, truly love them, do everything you can to make it work so you don’t have to spend forever with regrets.”

“My head is spinning from the one-eighty my life has taken in recent weeks.”

“Trust me, I get that, but once you’ve made that turn, there’s no going back to who you were before. You can’t undo this, and if I had to guess, you probably wouldn’t even if you could. So you may as well enjoy the hell out of it.”

“That’s the plan.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Carson’s phone rang with a call from Griffin that he accepted on the Bluetooth. “Hey, what’s good?”

“That’s what I’m calling to ask you. What the absolute hell, Carson? Two near-death experiences in one week? Since when are you such a fucking drama queen?”