As I scanned the faces of my family, I had to admit, I found my own sense of peace along with a shift I had yet to place. It’d been years since all of us were able to get home for a holiday, years more since we were in permanent residence. And now we were home, banded together with a sole purpose—save Longbourne.

I had the feeling it would take everything in us to do it. But if I had faith in one thing in the world, it was the Bennets’ ability to tackle every obstacle in our path like the feral, determined dogs we were.

And we wouldn’t give up the fight until we won.

4

Let Her Be Wild

TESS

“Daddy, I’m home!”

The door closed with a snick, and I flicked on the light in the apartment where I’d grown up.

There was the same old couch, the same dated table. The same old wallpaper Mom had loved so much and the same faded curtains that matched said wallpaper so exactly, you could barely tell where one stopped and the other began. It was a time capsule, left unchanged for fear we’d lose another piece of her to memory.

I dropped my bag by the door and made my way through the living room, setting my flowers on the kitchen table as I passed. “Daddy? You here?”

“Back here, baby,” he said, his voice dulled by walls and a hallway.

I wandered down the hall and into his office where I found him sitting at his table under the harsh light of a lamp, painting a tiny soldier under a magnifying glass.

He smiled up at me, his eyes warm over the top of his reading glasses. “Heya, Pigeon. How was work?”

I sighed, stepping into him to press a kiss to his forehead. “Terrible,” I said cheerily. “Luke Bennet showed up at the flower shop and made a mess.”

“Nothin’ new there.” He frowned, the effect wrinkling his forehead and echoing his days as a sergeant. His sergeant face was the kind that scared boys off and made men prepare for a long, painful set of push-ups.

I flopped down in an armchair with another sigh. “He’s working the counter and deliveries. Came back from California to help save the shop. Fat lot of good he’ll do. He’s such a train wreck. I wouldn’t put it past him to accidentally set the place on fire.”

At that, Dad smirked. “Well, I knew the boy was good-looking, but I didn’t think he was so handsome he could combust.”

“Oh no—it’d be from setting off Black Cats in a bucket or mixing something dangerous with the fertilizer.”

He made a noncommittal sound and turned to dab paint on the soldier in his hand. “Just keep your head down and ignore him.”

“That happens to be my specialty, but I’m a little out of practice after five years,” I huffed like a brat, and annoyed with myself, I changed the subject. “Did you eat dinner?”