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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

AMELIA

“ G od, why have I never thought to put a Reese’s cup in a s’more before?

Just give me the prize now and bow to my genius.

One of these is definitely not going to be enough.

” Jo lets out a happy hum as she takes a giant bite of her s’more with one hand and holds a roasting stick over the fire with another.

Less than an hour after Jo and Hannah left the room, they came back, faces flushed from the cold like they had been standing outside for the entire time.

They both wore strained expressions, and Jo looked disgruntled, like she grilled Hannah on why she’s in Boston and how she ended up with bruises on her wrists, and Hannah refused to talk.

But now, with Chinese food containers spread all over the coffee table, more margaritas, and a truly impressive s’mores bar set up by the Wyles’ living room fireplace, they both seem happier.

The three of us are sprawled around the fireplace, placing bets on who can make the best tasting and most unique s’more out of the ingredients Pam set out, and there are many of them. The Wyles family really doesn’t do anything halfway.

Hannah shakes her head, her face screwed up in concentration as she assembles a precarious looking concoction.

“I’ll take your Reese’s cup and raise you keeping the Reese’s cup but swapping out graham crackers for chocolate chip cookies.

” She holds up the completed s’more, a look of triumph on her face.

I grin at them both, loving this moment.

It’s always been a fact of my life that making true friends is hard because of my connection to my brother.

But spending the day in the company of Hannah, Jo, Pam, and Cece, and sitting here right now with Hannah and Jo, makes me realize how much I’ve been missing, and how much I hope there are more days like this in my future. “I think we found our champion.”

Hannah gives a little mock bow, taking a huge bite of her s’more. “Yeah, I definitely win the prize. This is fucking amazing.”

“Hannah Evans, what is in your hand right now and how can I get one?” Cooper asks as he drops down on the floor next to us and grabs a roasting stick from the pile by the fireplace.

“Sorry, Coop,” Hannah says, licking marshmallow off her finger. “This is a limited edition.”

“Cookies instead of graham crackers? That’s freaking genius,” Noah says, sitting down next to Hannah and leaning over to take a bite of her s’more.

She snatches it away, giving him a don’t you fucking dare expression. “Make your own.”

He grins at her, chewing the bite he managed before she pulled it away.

“But yours tastes so much better than mine would.” He swallows and winks at her, his grin widening at her scowl.

He has definitely recovered his usual good cheer, except for every once in a while, when his gaze drops down to Hannah’s sweatshirt covered wrists and for just a second his entire body language changes, his spine going ramrod straight and his jaw ticking with barely restrained rage.

I don’t understand what’s going on between them, but whatever it is, it’s definitely something and it doesn’t feel new to me.

“Hey, Mystery Girl, whatcha got there?” Elliot sits down behind me and tugs me between his spread legs, propping his chin on my shoulder. I turn my head and kiss his cheek, my whole body lighting up at his proximity.

God, I am so gone for this man.

“I went with the peanut butter, Nutella, Oreo combo, but I was disqualified for taking too long to roast the marshmallow.”

Elliot laughs and presses a kiss to my neck. “Worth it for the perfectly gooey center though.”

I scoot closer to him, leaning back against his chest. “That’s what I said. Better to be disqualified than eat a subpar marshmallow.”

“Oh, my god, there’s two of them.” Jordan sits down and pulls Jo into his lap. “When we were kids, we would all be on s'more number four, and El would still be standing in front of the fire, determined to roast the perfect marshmallow for his first one.”

Jo settles back against Jordan, licking chocolate off her thumb. “That’s an admirable amount of patience I will never, ever possess. I’m more of an instant gratification kind of girl.”

Jordan dips his head and whispers something that has a sly smile spreading across Jo’s face. “Except for that,” she says under her breath.

Cooper rolls his eyes, but his expression is soft, like he likes seeing his brothers happy. “Please be like eighty percent less gross.”

“No can do, Coop,” Jo says with a grin. “I love way, way out loud.”

“My favorite thing about you, Hurricane.” Jordan reaches for Jo’s s’more, and she pulls it out of reach.

“No way, J. This is a masterpiece and it’s all mine. Make your own.”

Elliot snickers and wraps his arms around me, leaning in to steal a bite of my s’more, and grins at Jordan. “My girlfriend likes me better than yours likes you.”

“Brothers are so weird,” Hannah says, grabbing the jar of peanut butter and digging in with a handful of Oreos.

“No kidding,” I say under my breath, glancing at my phone when it dings, laughing when I see Gabe’s daily how are you doing, is everything okay, do you need anything, when are you coming to visit messages.

“I think my brother forgets on the daily that I’m an entire adult.

But I can’t even get mad at him because then he sends me pictures like this.

” I flip my phone around and show everyone the picture of Gabe and Sophie laying next to each other in his snow-covered backyard.

“Oh, my god,” squeals Jo. “Hallie sent us basically that same picture of Ben and their twins this morning and I just can’t even. I love babies.” She glances back at Jordan with a hopeful grin, and he kisses her cheek.

“I think you forgot some steps there, Jo Jo. We’ve got some things that come before babies.”

Noah grins at them. “You guys have some news to share with the class?”

“Not yet,” Jordan says, sly grin spreading across his face. Jo’s eyes light up at that, and the whole thing is so fucking adorable.

“Ten bucks says they’re engaged by spring,” Elliot whispers in my ear.

The way his warm breath fans across my skin has goosebumps rising on my arms and a shiver of need racing down my spine as I lean my head back to look at him.

From the way his eyes darken and his cock hardens against my back, I know he feels it too.

This thing between us. It’s huge and desperate and oceans deep.

“Ames, I’m gonna need you to stop looking at me like that when we’re sitting in my parents’ living room with my family everywhere.”

I smirk at him and shift slightly backwards, loving the way he hisses through his teeth and tightens his arms around me to lock me in place. “Or what?”

He leans in and kisses me, quick and hard. “Or I’m taking you upstairs and fucking you in my childhood bedroom, house full of family be damned.”

I shiver, my clit throbbing at the visual. “Game on, El. Game so fucking on.”

But before I can shift back against him, my phone dings again. “Jesus Christ, Gabe, get a hobby,” I mutter. Except it’s not Gabe, and what I see when I unlock my phone has me sucking in a breath and leaning forward as I try and make sense of the data on my screen.

“Everything okay, Ames?” Elliot asks from behind me.

“Holy shit, El. I found him,” I breathe.

“Found who?”

I scan the screen, trying to take it all in, but my eyes are moving faster than my brain. I spin around in the circle of Elliot’s arms to face him, my eyes meeting his, and hold my phone out so he can see.

“Henry. I found Henry.”

Elliot takes the phone from me and looks at the screen then back up at me, eyes wide. “Holy shit, you did it.”

I grin at him. “Did you doubt me?”

He brings a hand to my face, eyes steady on mine. “Fuck, no. You’re brilliant, Amelia.” He strokes a finger down my jaw. “My girl is the smartest girl.”

I try not to let it show how much I love it when he says my girl and gets all claimy, but god, I love it so much.

I love him so much. It’s bananas fast, but I couldn’t stop the fall if I wanted to.

This man is mine, and I’m pretty sure I’ve always been his.

I know I fail miserably at keeping any of these feelings off my face when he grins back at me like he knows exactly what’s going through my head.

“Uh, what’s going on over there?”

Cooper’s question and the curiosity in his voice has Elliot and me looking at each other, an entire conversation passing between us. Seems we’re pretty good at that.

“We kind of have something to tell you guys,” Elliot starts, his gaze sweeping around the circle of his brothers, Hannah, and Jo and then landing back on me. I give him a nod and what I hope is an encouraging look before spinning back around to face everyone.

“So,” he starts, reaching around to take my hand, tangling our fingers together. “Back at Christmas, when Mom asked me to go find her Christmas pitcher in the attic, I found something else instead.”

Everyone listens with rapt attention as he recounts the whole story from reading the postcards to me offering to help him find Henry to our night in my office last week.

“Amelia found all the clues in the postcards, and she wrote a code basically creating a program that we could feed all the postcards into, and synced it with all the different databases she uses for her Genesis app. It’s complicated and absolutely fucking brilliant, but the gist of it is, it worked, and she found Henry. ”

He flips my phone around and puts it on the floor so everyone can see the screen. “Henry James Allen, born in London, died in Rockport, Maine.”

Cooper whistles through his teeth. “Jesus, this is some family mystery. You guys are, like, super sleuths. I love it.”

“This is so cool,” Hannah says quietly.