“Nope.”

“Not the Endicott merger?”

“No.”

“Not the Sacramento conference?”

He tightened his fingers around hers. “I’m thinking about our life together. And I’m thinking about how we need to get right to work on that.”

“You’re the boss.”

He shook his head. “No. We’re a newly announced partnership. One that’s going to take the world by storm.”

She pushed herself up on tiptoe and brushed her lips over his. “I’ll prepare the memo at once.”

“We’d better make it a PowerPoint demonstration,” he told her. “This is going to be big.”

Hunter nodded with pleasure. Everything had turned out the way he’d hoped. The possibilities had been there, of course, but his friends had been the ones to take the right steps.

Last he turned to Meri, his sister. He’d missed her, but he was proud of the woman she’d become. It had taken her and Jack far too long to find each other, but at last they had.

He eased close, wishing he could hug her and tell her how much he loved them both.

“There’s something about the house,” Meri told Jack. “All these people falling in love. It’s almost scary.”

“You scared to be in love with me?”

She smiled. “Never. I’m used to it. I’ve loved you a lot longer than you’ve loved me.”

“Have not.”

“Have to.”

Jack grinned. “Are all our fights going to be this mature?”

“I hope so.” She leaned close to him. “I love you, Jack. I think Hunter would be very happy to know we’re together.”

Jack nodded. “I agree. I know it’s strange, but there’s a part of me that thinks he wanted this all along.”

If Hunter had eyes to roll, he would have done it. Then he cuffed his friend on the shoulder. What else would he have been talking about when he’d made Jack promise to take care of his sister?

It had all worked out in the end. For each of his friends. When he’d known he was dying, he’d vowed to find some way to make sure they stayed together-brothers. He’d been afraid that guilt and time and distance would pull them apart. On a sleepless night weeks before his death, the idea of the house had been born.

Now, ten years later, he was content. His sister was finally where she belonged and his brothers had become the men he knew they could be. He would tell them everything…eventually.

He smiled at them. His work here was done. He would wait for them on the other side, in a better place than they could begin to imagine. Hunter turned then, moving into the light…this time to stay.

SUSAN MALLERY

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