“Was kind of hoping we’d see what Zeke could do with Uncle Vince’s Smith & Wesson. I’ve never seen him hand over his gun, have you?” Spenser said.

Naomi smiled at me. “Nope.”

Trex leaned over and patted my shoulder. “Pretty honorable of you to offer to go with them peacefully. Stupid, but honorable.”

Everyone tried not to laugh, but failed.

“What are you going to do now?” Harbinger asked.

“We always need people on the fire brigade,” Spenser said. “Just a couple of actual firefighters on the squad. The rest are volunteers.”

Kansas nodded. “They’d be happy to have someone experienced.”

“Then that’s what I’ll do,” I said, a surreal feeling overwhelming me. I’d somehow gotten back what I loved twice over. The nightmare was over.

“We’re engaged,” Naomi blurted out.

Everyone erupted in celebration, and Kitsch stood and pulled me with him to encompass me in a hug. That started a line, including Spenser and Kansas.

My brain didn’t work in ways that planned out and executed military strategy, yet I didn’t feel like an outsider. I was one of them. “I didn’t dream that?” I asked, stunned.

Naomi covered her mouth and chuckled, the others laughing too. “Is that good or bad that you’re not sure?”

“No, it’s good. It’s fucking perfect,” I said. She crawled into my lap, and everyone cheered again when she planted a kiss on my lips.

With Naomi’s hands cupping my jaw, her mouth on mine, and her friends and family patting my back and shoulders, I felt like I belonged. I’d found a loving home near the beach after spending my childhood in Hell, then spent most of my days in the mountains with my brothers and loved every second in both places, but it was in the middle of the desert where I’d finally found my family.

other books by jamie mcguire

Crash and Burn Series

From Here to You (book one)

Beautiful Series

Beautiful Disaster (book one)

Walking Disaster (book two)

A Beautiful Wedding (book three)

The Maddox Brothers Series

Beautiful Oblivion (book one)

Beautiful Redemption (book two)

Beautiful Sacrifice (book three)

Beautiful Burn (book four)

Something Beautiful (book five)

A Beautiful Funeral (book six)

Providence Series

Providence (book one)

Requiem (book two)

Eden (book three)

Sins of the Innocent, part one (book four)

Sins of the Innocent, part two (coming soon)

Red Hill

Among Monsters

Happenstance Novella Series

Happenstance (part one)

Happenstance (part two)

Happenstance (part three)

Stand Alone Novels

All the Little Lights

Apolonia

about the author

Jamie McGuire is the bestselling author of the Beautiful series and The Maddox Brothers series, which have sold more than three million copies in seventeen languages. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her three children, and German Shepherd, Hazel.

Learn more at:

Twitter: @JamieMcGuire

Facebook: Author Jamie McGuire

Instagram: @thejamiemcguire

acknowledgements