“Breakfast is coming up!” Vincent called from the kitchen as we came back inside. I could smell bacon and hash browns, and when I looked into the kitchen, there were multiple bowls on the counter and pans on the stove. He glanced over his shoulder at me with a grin, his long hair messily tied up as he added another pancake to the stack in front of him.

“God, Vince…you didn’t have to…” He held up his hand.

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear a word unless it’s wow, Vincent, you’re the best cook ever and so unbearably charming and attractive.” He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Jess slipped around my side and wrapped her arms around Vince, saying, “Ooh, wow, Chef Vincent, you’re so charming and attractive I might swoon.”

I snickered as Vincent looked at me pointedly. “See? She knows how to do it.”

Jojo had come to sit by my feet, leaning heavily against my legs as she looked up at me and her tail thumped on the ground. No fear, no hatred, no anger. Just her big, goofy smile as I scratched behind her ears.

I don’t know where I’d be without all of them. I wouldn’t have survived this long; I knew that much. No matter what had happened through the years, I’d always had someone to pull me back from the brink, someone to hold on to me when I thought there was nothing left to keep trying for.

When I’d met Lucas, he’d understood me better than anyone I’d ever met. He was a mirror of my own pain and rage in more ways than I’d been prepared for. But he’d been strong when I wasn’t. He’d been there every time I needed him without hesitation, even when it meant facing his own fears to risk being close to me.

And Vincent? God, if he hadn’t been there to bring a never-ending sense of optimism about the shit-show that was my life, I would have wallowed in misery forever. He had the kind of close, loving family I’d always longed for, but that didn’t make him naïve. It made him caring, fiercely protective, willing to do anything and everything for the people he loved.

When we’d met Jason, I’d thought the quiet kid with his nice respectable family couldn’t possibly want to be around losers like us. But I’d watched his entire life be torn into pieces so he could live authentically, all because he dared to stray from the life his parents had forced on him. He’d endured their rejection, all the pain of being abandoned, and not once did I see him falter. He’d been so damn determined to claim his life, to live as he wanted, that it had kept me going too.