It was time to go big or go home, so Miles pulled the cigarette from Alex’s lips and stubbed it out in the sand.

“I know what I want,” Alex said. “What the hell do you want, Miles?”

He pressed Alex’s forehead to his. “You,” he admitted.

“Right. For the weekend.”

Miles shook his head. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

There. He’d said it. It was out there.

But Alex sat quiet.

“Look,” Miles said. “This makes zero sense. But I finish my PhD in May, and you travel, right? So…I don’t know. Maybe we see where this goes.”

Alex cupped the back of his neck with his palm.

“I want to trust you. I really do. But you’re a mess.”

Miles nodded. “I know. But that’s the thing about meeting someone who makes you reevaluate the way you’ve been living your life. Kinda makes you want to clean up your shit.”

“Seven!”

Alex sighed. “I was in New York to sign the final paperwork for my new position,” he said. “Head chef. I wasn’t going to tell you because I didn’t think it mattered, but I’m moving to the States.”

“Six!”

Miles felt a release in his chest, like the vise that had squeezed his heart so tight all these years had finally let go.

“Five! Four!”

“It matters,” he said. “It matters.”

Elaina

“T hree! Two! One!”

Elaina rolled onto her back, panting.

“Happy New Year,” Duncan whispered and kissed her soft on the mouth. “Elaina McAllister.”

God, she loved the sound of that name.

Maggie

Maggie shrieked with delight at the first sound of fireworks.

“I told you I had a feeling, Pippi.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

“All in,” he whispered against her.

“All in,” she said.

Noah

“You’re really going to marry me, Brooks?”

She tucked her head under his neck and squeezed him tight.

“Only if you promise to never stop calling me that.”

Noah squeezed back.

“As you wish, Brooks. Happy New Year.”

And then he kissed his fiancée with the broken toe and scarred eyebrow as he cupped her cheek with his equally scarred hand. Though they’d marked each other permanently, Jordan Brooks would never quite know the mark she left on Noah Keating’s heart. But he’d spend the rest of his life trying to show her.

Miles

“We made it till midnight,” Alex said, and Miles nodded, not wanting to do anything but kiss this man who could have written him off but didn’t.

“We made it till midnight,” Miles added.

Alex kissed him—long and slow, each touch of their lips a new possibility.

“Thank you for finding me,” Alex told him.

“Thank you for wanting to be found,” Miles said. “Happy New Year.”

Epilogue

One Year Later

Elaina

Elaina stood in the bedroom doorway, peaceful as a picture, while Duncan ransacked the room. She rubbed her round belly, stifling a gasp at the onset of the next contraction. But even in the midst of his frenzy, her husband noticed, and he was at her side in an instant.

“How close?” he asked.

“Eight minutes. We still have time.”

The hospital was a short ride from their apartment, so Elaina was sure they didn’t have to leave yet. She let Duncan lead her to the rocking chair in the corner of the room, the one where just a couple of days from now, she’d nurse their first child.

She took in a deep breath, shaking as Duncan lowered her into the chair.

“Another one? Already? Shite. I’ll find it, dammit. I’ll find it.”

She shook her head and grabbed his hand before he could pull away. The first tear trickled down her cheek, but Elaina’s smile was unmistakable.

“The next time I sit here, it will be with our baby boy or girl.”

Duncan dropped to his knees and hugged her tightly, planting sweet kisses all over her belly, the same thing he’d done when he found out they were pregnant. Though they’d both decided to throw caution to the wind after the honeymoon, discontinuing any form of birth control and seeing where that led them, Elaina hadn’t anticipated things working so quickly. She laughed now when she remembered how scared she’d been to tell him.

With his head in her lap, Duncan shouted.

“Yes! Sweet mother of God, yes!” Then he scrambled on hands and knees, reaching under the dresser and pulling out the tartan scarf Elaina had worn on her wedding day. “I knew I put it somewhere safe after I washed it. Must have fallen behind the mirror.”

He returned to her with the garment in hand and wrapped it over her shoulders—for her tonight and for the baby upon their return.

He reached for her hand once more.

“Are you ready to make our own luck, Mrs. McAllister?”

She winked at him. “Aye, Mr. McAllister.” Then she swiped her thumb under his eye. “I thought you didn’t like to cry.” She teased him, yet seeing him like this squeezed her heart, a different kind of contraction. She definitely preferred this to what was happening in her midsection.

He shrugged. “Guess I’m not so afraid of what I feel anymore, not with you.”

Elaina winced and sucked in a sharp breath. Another contraction.

“Okay,” Duncan said, glancing at her belly. “Maybe I’m afraid of that.” He squeezed her hand and grinned, and Elaina laughed through the pain. He helped her to her feet, guiding her toward the bedroom door.

And they left as two to return as three.

Maggie

Maggie rubbed the back of her neck as she tried again to get the key in the door. A migraine threatened to work its way up to that spot of blinding pain that would make this night unsalvageable. A quiet New Year’s Eve was all she wanted. And coffee. Coffee would fix all.

The door swung open before she tried the key again, and Griffin stood before her, steaming mug in his hand.

“Tough day at the office?” he asked, and she let her art bag drop from her shoulder so she could first steal a kiss and then the coffee.

“They’re great kids,” she said. “And it was a great party, but I think they’ve zapped my last ounce of energy. I’m probably not going to be much fun tonight.”

Griffin led her to their small living room, set her coffee on the side table, and let her collapse onto the couch. Lucky enough to find a job providing art therapy at a local youth center, Maggie kept hours that rivaled his.

“Smells good,” she said, closing her eyes for just a short moment.

Griffin kissed her on the forehead, then escaped back into the kitchen.

“Pizza,” he called back to her. “The kind with no preservatives.”

She smiled and opened her eyes, the rest and caffeine sure to do the trick. That’s when she saw the UNO box on the coffee table.

“Game night?” she asked, and Griffin popped his head out of the kitchen.

“Pizza needs ten more minutes. Figured you could shuffle and get it set up?”

Maggie shrugged. “You got it, Fancy Pants.”

She grabbed the box and gasped, not prepared for its lack of weight. In fact, the box was practically empty except for whatever made the soft rattling noise inside.

She took a few deep breaths. Whatever was happening, she needed to focus—not on exhaustion or hunger or anything outside this moment. Because her eyes already stung, and her heart might burst from her rib cage. There were no cards in the box, and if the whatever that was happening was the something she suspected—oh my God.

With trembling hands, she opened it, and a small diamond ring fell into her palm. When she looked up, her vision blurred through tears, there was Griffin on his knee on the other side of the table.

“Pippi…I need to ask you something.” He slapped the naked deck of cards down on the table.

She nodded, her whole body a virtual earthquake.