Ip and I bought that ranch where I had proposed to him, and a month later while we were having repairs done on it, I took him to Hawaii for a week to get married on the beach. We got our tattooed wedding rings done there.
When we got back from Hawaii, we moved all of both of our belongings to Tennessee, then went about organizing our wedding reception for family and friends at what we opened as Reverty Ranch in the spring.
Throughout the years, Ip and I fostered hundreds of children, and allowed hundreds more an opportunity to learn various different jobs at our ranch. Tommy and I performed in a smaller capacity with all new band members, only in Tennessee, and only once a month maximum. Periodically I would bring my gorgeous husband up on stage, and as he promised, he would sing with me. Reverty Ranch was registered as a non-profit organization for foster kids, and we later branched out into Reverty Rescue, which helped victims from sex trafficking to rebuild their lives. We built a separate housing facility on our land for that. As foster children grew and learned and graduated high school, several of them did stay on with us and took over management duties at our ranch and the rescue so Ip and I had more down time to relax with whiskey on the porch while taking in sunsets. Rev had died without leaving any descendants but we were making damn sure he was leaving a legacy.
I kept Rev's cabin in the woods and used it as a retreat to write about all the adventures of my previous life, recharge, and relax. Ip knew where I was, and where the house was, but he never stayed there with me.
We were very, incredibly, deeply happy with each other, and satisfied with our life together. There was never a day I wasn't thankful for him, and amazingly, the drama of the first three decades of my life completely disappeared.
Steve built a new, larger, farmhouse-style home on my old land and demolished my old house once they had moved everything over. Ip and I showed up to help them move and to watch the demo. Ip, Steve, Steph, and I drank and cheered as that chapter in our lives closed.
Steve and Steph were married after dating for about a year, and they were incredibly happy together. Steve easily got full custody of the kids. Bre only saw them on her weekends and holidays, and from what I know second hand, she spent years in therapy and eventually became close to the woman she was, but never quite the same. After a couple years Steve allowed her to share fifty-fifty custody of the kids, and eventually Bre re-married an older man who had no children of his own and was apparently a "real douche" according to Andy.
As promised, I was present when Steve and Bre told Charlie about her true lineage. Bless her precious heart, she said bluntly to her mother, "It all makes so much more sense now why Daddy divorced you". Then she looked at broken, tearful Steve and said, "You are my Dad. Nothing can change that". She held Steve's hand while she asked Bre the questions she had a right to ask, then finally she calmly said, "I don't want to see you or talk to you again until I'm ready". That lasted two whole years.
Nieces and nephews grew up, Ip's and mine. Most of them came to stay with us at least two weeks out of every year- over summers, Spring Breaks, or Christmas breaks. Gi and Charlie even came throughout their college years, and those two girls have followed in similar footsteps to Rev- Gi working for the FBI on sex trafficking cases specifically, and Charlie as a forensic psychologist and profiler for the FBI. In fact, all the kids were influenced by his legacy in some way- Luca was a pediatric neurosurgeon who spent loads of time doing mission work in other countries, Ava was a social worker, Ella was a full-time mom and her and her husband also fostered children, Kinsey (who had never even met Rev) was a police officer, and Henry (who wouldn't remember having met him) was an Army Sergeant.
Tommy and I were the only two who remained in the band but we never lost contact with our other original three. We changed the band name simply to Paige Anne.
Clay went to work for Andy, assumed the position formerly held by Brad (and then Zack O'Brian, who was currently serving prison time for conspiring to commit murder and kidnapping), and the weapons contract with the D.O.D. at Jansen Tech moved forward.
Deek was sentenced to life in prison for drug and sex trafficking, murder, and attempted murder for overdosing me. Amber served time for conspiring to commit murder. Luke was promoted for his role in taking down the True Patriots. The first thing he did with his new authority was to hire Logan to work with him. Eventually he convinced Marie to come work with him, also, and those two ended up married.
I forgave, I forgot, I moved forward. I focused on horses, children, family, friends, and my husband.
Eventually all the bad and the hurt was dissipated by the love and positivity in my life. I still missed Drew, and Rev, and sometimes even Brad, but it was more nostalgia than actual pain. It's weird to say, but if I hadn't had so much pain and suffering in the beginning of my life, I don't think I could be as content with the things I have now.
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* Thanks so much for reading my book all the way through! Please look for Logan Long books to come, a book starring Clay, and the fourth in the Fire Whiskey Series, a prequel to Fire Whiskey for My Soul. Much love- Ev *
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Whiskey River, Drown my Soul
Romance*Third in the Fire Whiskey series* With the tragic loss of her beloved Brad, Paige does what Rev did when she cut him out of her life before...she gives herself a mission so large there's no time for anything or anyone else. She ghosts everyone and...
