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Sophia was panting. He pushed deeper and she arched up, her legs wrapping around his waist. Her nails bit into his ass.

He kept driving into her, and he heard the sounds their bodies made against one another as they thrust and clutched, gasped, and groaned. It was like music.

Then he felt it. The tingle that started at his scalp, that rushed down and gathered at the base of his spine. He had seconds. He looked down at Sophia. Her eyes were the color of sapphires.

“Now, Baby,” he coaxed.

She thrust up against him, and clenched. Then he felt her shuddering wave of release, and he let go. And once again, like a thousand times before, they went flying into a world that belonged just to them.

EPILOGUE

“Jack, thanks for hosting again,” Mason said.

“It’s our pleasure,” Jack said, tipping his head toward Beth. “This was part of the reason she insisted on buying such a huge house; she wanted to play hostess.”

Dare snorted into his beer.

Jack shook his head as he turned the ribs over on the barbeque. “Spit it out, Dare.”

“I thought it was because she wanted to populate half of San Diego.”

“You’re one to talk,” Jack said without heat. “We stopped at five kids. Rylie met you with three, and then you adopted two more. I heard a rumor that you guys were thinking of fostering again.”

Dare’s eyes got wide, and Mason could tell he was seriously surprised. “Nobody’s mentioned it to me. Who did Rylie say that to?”

“Actually, your daughter Tanisha told my Gracey that you were going to adopt one of the girls from their class.”

“What the fuck?” Dare stood up from where he had been sitting and put down his beer. “I adore my daughter, but I’m not going to be fostering another child on her say so.” He started down the stairs of the deck to where the majority of the kids were playing around the pool, the ladies watching over them.

Jack was laughing pretty hard.

Mason raised an eyebrow. “Did you just hand him a line of shit?” Mason wanted to know.

“Nope. Though that would have been pretty funny, come to think of it. But the way my Gracey tells it, there’s this girl, Loretta, who has been placed twice in this same school year and neither of them worked out. She is now with a temporary foster family. Tanisha told Gracey that they were going to bring her home and make her their sister.”

“Holy fuck,” Drake breathed.

Finn looked into the mouth of his Pacifico beer bottle, like he could see into the future. “I bet even money that Loretta will be living with them by the time the next school year rolls around. Any takers?” Finn asked.

Mason looked around the group of men who had once been his teammates and would always be his brothers. Every one of them shook their heads.

“So, Dare is going to adopt another child, you’re a Lieutenant Commander,” Jack said, tipping his head toward Mason, “and I’m not moving to Texas despite my retirement because I’m afraid of my sister-in-law. What else is happening?”

Everybody was quiet.

“Yeah, Drake, what else is going on?” Finn asked.

“My application finally came back approved. In one month I’m going to be working for the VA as a psychologist.”

Mason felt a surge of admiration and wonder course through him. Wonder, because thinking of the journey the man who had been his best friend for twenty-five years had been on to get to this point, blew him away. The Drake Avery he had first known was the least tactful man he had ever met. He inevitably was shoving both of his size fourteen feet into his mouth on a continuous basis. But he had the biggest heart imaginable. Then there was the fact that his parents were two of the worst human beings in the world. Mason realized just how hard Drake had had to work to become the man he was. And now, he had a master’s degree in psychology, and would be helping men and women at the VA.

“That’s amazing, man,” Finn said. “Which VA?”

“Knoxville.”

“Tennessee?” Clint asked. “You’re moving to Tennessee?”

“Yeah. Jasper Creek. I’ll be working in Knoxville.”