We were quiet for a moment, just enjoying the closeness and the peace. Griffin toyed with a lock of my hair. “I want you and the kids to move into the farmhouse permanently.”

I froze. I’d held onto our little yellow house for so long. It was like a security blanket. For a long time, I’d thought if I just had that house, we were safe. But with Griffin, we’d found a whole new life. One that was even better than the one we’d created for ourselves in that little yellow home. I tipped my face up to his. “Are you sure this isn’t just sex endorphins? You did say it has been a while for you.”

Griffin grinned and cupped my face. “Move in. Make this a real home. If you don’t, I’m just going to come live in that tiny-ass loft with you.”

I giggled at the image of Griffin climbing the ladder up to my bedroom loft. “Okay.”

His eyes widened. “Okay?” I nodded. “I really thought I was going to have more of a fight on my hands.”

I shrugged. “I like to keep you on your toes.” I pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “We’re happy here. Even with all of the horrible things that have happened over the past few months, we’re the happiest we’ve ever been. And isn’t that what everyone hopes for? To have joy amidst all the trials. You give us joy, Griffin.”

His gaze burned into me. “You have no idea the joy you give me. You made this wrecked palace a home.”

47

Griffin

“We have additional cameras set up now. They’re placed at regular intervals over the entirety of the fence line. Now, you’re going to get a fair number of false alarms from wildlife. Likely deer jumping over your fence. But we can adjust the cameras once you’re not at a crisis point.”

Crisis point was putting it mildly. I didn’t think I’d slept for more than a few minutes last night. Even with a deputy in a car outside the house. I’d take a million false alarms if it allowed me to know what was happening on my property. “We can deal with that,” I told the security expert, wrapping an arm around Caelyn.

Cain nodded. “Good. All the alerts will go straight to your phones. You’ll be able to see live camera feeds and also rewind to see what triggered the alarm. There’s also a button in the app that you can press to alert the sheriff’s department immediately of an emergency.”

Caelyn let out a shuddering breath. “Thank you. I hope we don’t have to use it. But I appreciate knowing it’s in place.”

I reached out a hand to Cain, shaking his. “Thank you for hustling to get this all done so quickly.”