Sweet and Salty (Marshall My Heart #1)

52. Chapter Fifty-Two

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

J esse

Davey must have seen me, because he squeaks and runs toward me, wrapping his arms around my knees and smearing the backs of my pants with chocolate-scented kringle. I laugh and scoop him up with the arm not holding bratwurst. Rehab is a brilliant invention. I feel practically bionic. “Hey, Davey.”

“Hey, grumpy lumberjack. Auntie Laura missed you.”

Then I don’t have enough arms. Laura rushes toward me and presses her body to mine. Davey squirms so I set him down, hand him the bratwurst, and give my full attention to my beautiful Laura Marshall.

Which means kissing her. Long and deep and obvious enough to gain quite a few comments of “ooh” and “oh, knock it off then” from the rest of the fairgoers.

But it feels too good to be there with her. I wrap my arms around her, sinking into all the familiar sensations I’ve been desperate for over the last two months. “I missed you.”

She sighs happily and rests against my chest. “I missed you too.”

“Did you win the contest yet?”

Laughing, she balances on her tiptoes and kisses the underside of my job. “No, not yet. The judging starts in a few.”

“Perfect. Plenty of time to give you your present. I thought long and hard about it.”

She smirks. “Maybe you shouldn’t give it to me in public then.”

I link her hand through my arm and lead her toward the picnic tables. “There. More private.”

“Jesse, really. You don’t have to give me anything. You’re free. They’re all in jail. Chris is awaiting trial. You’re out of Witness Protection.”

“I am.” I don’t have to pretend any more. I can live the life Grandma always wanted for me. This starts today.

“Then that’s enough.”

“Well, it wasn’t enough for me.” I sit down opposite her and pull a piece of paper from the back pocket of my pants. “This is for you.”

She arches an eyebrow as she takes the paper from me. “I thought it would be of the jewelry variety.”

I shrug. My accounts have finally been unfrozen and I plan to use a hefty chunk spoiling her, but some things are worth more than money. “Read it.”

Shaking her head, she opens the trifold letter, and almost immediately her eyes widen and her jaw drops. A sound usually heard only by wolves and bats escapes her mouth. “Oh, fuck me!”

Everyone within a five-hundred foot radius turns to look at us, but I don’t care. I reach across the table and take her hand. “Do you like it?”

“How did you do this?” She scans the letter over and over, like its contents might change between readings. They won’t. I’ve already triple-checked.

“It wasn’t that easy. But I had a few contacts, and they had some contacts of contacts.” I shrug. “There’s a lot of free time in the safe house. Finding the email address of the producer from America Bakes! prevented me from rethinking my beard for the eight thousandth time.”

Tears well up in her eyes. “I can’t believe you did this. They want me to audition?”

“Yup. I thought the original call might have been from Esme, trying to get information on you and me. She confessed to that, by the way. When they arrested her on conspiracy charges, she explained that was how they tracked me down.”

“I am so sorry that I—“

I stop her by wrapping her in my arms. “You did nothing wrong. She took advantage of you. She is the problem. I wanted to make it right. So I talked to a bunch of people at the show, and when I showed them Frosting Monkey’s gallery, they were beyond impressed.”

“Thank you. No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.” It’s okay. I expected her to cry. I take a tissue from my pocket and hand it to her.

“You deserve this, Laura. And so much more.”

“I can’t believe you did this.”

“A good can’t believe or a bad—”

“Good. Definitely good.”

Then it’s like the last few months and the shoulder injury hadn’t happened because Laura is there to make everything feel like sunshine.

Sweet and Salty winning the Sweets Showcase? It isn’t a surprise, just the icing on the cake.