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“In our house someday. We’d have to have a library, right? And probably a room for all your haunted shit.” She made a face. Stace was still on the fence about my haunted collection.

“Our house?” I asked.

“Yeah. Our house someday. Or did you want to live in an apartment? I always pictured a house, but I can be persuaded.”

“You speak about our house as if you’re ready to put in an offer,” I said. Talk of the future like this still had a tendency to scare me. It was getting better, but I couldn’t change overnight.

“No. Just thinking. Wondering. It’s not serious. Don’t you ever dream about things like that?”

I turned on my side so I could look at her gorgeous face.

“I guess. I was always alone in those dreams, though. I’m going to have to make all new ones.”

Her smile made my heart beat faster.

“I want to be in your dreams, Hunter.”

I kissed a spot right above where her heart beat. “You are.”

That was a lie. She was the dream. The dream I never knew I wanted. But now I had her and I was never letting her go.

I was all in.

Epilogue

“Please?” Stace said as we looked into the kennel at the puppy that was currently trying to break its way through the bars to get to us.

“A puppy? Are you sure?” Buck was enough of a responsibility. I’d never believed my parents when they told me why I couldn’t have a dog, but after Stace moved in with Buck, I understood.

“Just look at her,” Stace said, getting down and opening the cage to bring the puppy out. She was all black and kind of looked like a lab.

Stace picked up the puppy and laughed when the puppy licked her face.

“I don’t know, but I just…I know she’s ours,” Stace said, looking at me. “Like I knew with Buck and I knew when I saw you. I can’t explain it.”

“Really? That’s how you’re going to convince me we need another dog?” I asked.

Stace smiled that specific smile she knew would get me to cave and give her anything she wanted.

“Yeah.”

A second later she dumped the puppy in my arms and then I was getting licked all over. I giggled and held the puppy back so I could look into her eyes. She gazed right back at me and I was hit with a strange feeling.

“Oh,” I said.

“Did you just feel it too?” Stace asked, putting an arm around me.

“I don’t know,” I said. The puppy was quiet now, her tail wagging gently back and forth as we looked at one another.

“It’s okay, baby,” Stace said, and I realized there were tears on my cheeks.

“Dammit, Stace. You knew this was going to happen.” I clutched the puppy to my chest and faced her.

“I wasn’t sure. But something told me you’d love her too.”

I kissed the puppy’s head and held her close.

“I do. Shit. Fine. We can take her home. But I don’t know how to train a dog, so you’re going to have to help me.” Buck had already been trained.

“We’ll go to class together. It’ll be great. What do you want to name her?”

I looked down into our new puppy’s eyes.

“How about Princess?”

Stace tipped her head back and laughed.

“I think it’s perfect.”