Page 212 of Broken
“She said yes!” Prescott hollered.
The guests cheered and clapped, but it was Ethan who yelled, “Hurray!”
Jacqueline beamed at Prescott. “Being with you makes me very, very happy.”
“That’s my goal,” he replied. “Make Jack happy.”
“What about the mayhem? Can we stop that?”
“Hell, no, but we can take a break for today.”
She laughed. “I’m definitely gonna need more than a day.”
The band started up again, and they hurried down the stairs and over to Ethan. “What do you think about including Jack in our family?” Prescott asked.
“Our family combine—combineded—with Jack and Loki. Loki will live with us forever! It’s the best day ever!”
“You’re right, Ethan,” Prescott replied. “Thisisthe best day ever.”
* * *
Jacqueline
On Monday morning,Jacqueline opened the email regarding her sister’s background check.
“Our apologies for the delay, but our servers crashed and we had a backlog.”
She clicked on the attachment as Prescott walked into the house from the garage. Loki bounded over to greet him.
“Dogs are great,” he said. “I was gone for twenty minutes and he’s happy to see me.” He kissed Jacqueline hello.
“I’m happy to see you too, babe. If I had a tail, it would be wagging just like his,” she said.
“If you had a tail, I’m not sure how things would have gone down for us.”
She laughed. “You’d love me, even with a tail, I’m sure of it.”
He stole another kiss before pouring himself a mug of coffee. “Whatcha working on?”
“Leslie’s background check came back.”
He sat beside her at the island. “Ethan was telling everyone at daycare that he’s going to have a daddyanda mommy…andhe has a dog too.”
Jacqueline smiled. “That makes my heart happy.”
“We’re taking a day, just the two of us,” Prescott said, tucking a tendril behind her ear.
“I love that.”
“We can spend the day boating, we can lounge by the pool, whatever you want.” He kissed her again before turning his attention toward the background check. “Learn anything?”
“I haven’t looked at it yet,” she replied.
“What the hell?” Prescott blurted. “Look at her name.”
Jacqueline read it and gasped. “No way. That can’t be right.”
Name: Leslie Hartley Maul
