Last Love

LAST LOVE Juniper Springs Book 3 MELISSA SCHROEDER Edited by KELLI COLLINS Edited by MARYBETH LEE Photography by WANDER AGUILAR Cover by SCOTT CARPENTER Model CLEVER HULLER Harmless Publishing Copyright © 2023 by Melissa Schroeder All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Created with Vellum Also by Melissa Schroeder The Camos and Cupcakes World Camos and Cupcakes The Fillmore Siblings Juniper Springs Melissa Schroeder’s Instalove Collection Dominion Rockstar Romance Mafia Sisters Faking It The Fighting Sullivans Single Titles The Camos and Cupcakes World Camos and Cupcakes The Fillmore Siblings Juniper Springs The Santini World The Santinis Semper Fi Marines The Fitzpatricks The Harmless World The Harmless Series A Little Harmless Military Romance Task Force Hawaii Check out the rest of Mel’s books by: Interest Series Entire Backlist Contents Chapter 1 LIV Chapter 2 MASON Chapter 3 LIV Chapter 4 MASON Chapter 5 LIV Chapter 6 MASON Chapter 7 LIV Chapter 8 LIV Chapter 9 MASON Chapter 10 LIV Chapter 11 Mason Chapter 12 MASON Chapter 13 LIV Chapter 14 LIV Chapter 15 MASON Chapter 16 LIV Chapter 17 MASON Chapter 18 LIV Chapter 19 MASON Chapter 20 MASON Chapter 21 LIV Chapter 22 LIV Chapter 23 MASON Epilogue 1 LIV Epilogue 2 AVERY Acknowledgments About the Author For Les, because you are always there supporting me even during the long dark year. I could not ask for a better partner in life. Chapter One LIV I stare into my sister Avery’s big brown eyes and wonder if there are any kind of genetic mental disorders in the family. Avery has always been a little bent, and well, the whole family is a little crazy except for me. So maybe there’s something in our blood. And of course, that makes me wonder about my own children, but I push that worry aside and focus on the problem at hand. Compartmentalizing is my superpower. Avery. “What do you think?” I bring her back into focus. She’s smiling at me, her chin length brown hair a little poofier than usual. Another sign of something crazy about to happen. And no, I’m not the one who came up with that. Cora, the oldest sibling, is the one who did. She always says that Avery’s level of insanity can be gauged by how big her hair is. I push aside that line of thought and concentrate on Avery’s current insane idea. If I don’t talk her down, I’ll end up on a plane to Vegas. “I think you’ve lost your mind.” She rolls her eyes and steps around me. Houdini, our golden retriever mix, follows hot on her heels. He adores the insane energy Avery brings to my household when she’s here. Everyone does, except me, because I’m always cleaning up after the mess she creates. But it is something that makes her a good social media coach. She teaches people who hate social media to love it—or pretend they love it. “You need to pack. We’re going to have a blast. We’ll be like the Taylor Swift song.” I’m trying to follow along, but I wasn’t ready for this invasion. “What Taylor Swift song?” “22. That’s gonna be us in Vegas. We’ll recapture our youth. I mean, you will. I’m not that far away from being twenty-two. But first, we gotta pack.” “I don’t need to do anything but get ready for my move,” I say, scrambling after her. Since Avery is the eccentric of our family—which is saying a lot—I need to make sure she doesn’t get into my things. I have no idea what she’s up to, but from the sparkle in her eyes, it’s only going to turn out badly for me. She’s not the most book smart of the O’Bryans. She’s worse. Her street smarts make her a dangerous adversary. “I’m not about to go to Vegas.” She doesn’t even look at me when she answers. “Of course, you are.” “Avery,” I say once I catch up to her. Houdini is sitting on my bed next to my suitcase. The damn dog is smiling at me. He is yet another layer of stress I added to my life recently. Yes, my kids convinced me to adopt a sixty-pound escape artist golden retriever mix. When the shelter had named him Houdini, I should have known there was something up with him. But he’s a sweet golden and he has a weird mohawk. I just couldn’t resist him, or my kids. I don’t have time for a dog, but the kids used emotional blackmail, and I fell for it. I felt so guilty for making them move down to Juniper. Sue me. Really, please don’t because I don’t have the money. Thanks. Still, I couldn’t say no. Both kids were having adverse reactions to moving. Sammy started having nightmares every night. Callie had been borderline hostile to me. Houdini doesn’t stop all of it, but Sammy sleeps through the night with Houdini in his room. Callie is still being a brat, but it goes with the territory since we are approaching those wonderful preteen years. I shove those thoughts to the side and zero in on my sister. She’s in my lingerie drawer digging like she’s a Goonie in search of buried treasure. She holds up one of my plain white panties. “You can’t wear this in Vegas. It’s just not allowed.” “They have panty rules in Vegas? I thought Vegas had no rules.” I blink, trying to focus. I know what she’s doing. She starts an argument that diverts me from my cause. “Stop packing my things.” My house is already a mess. The kids and I are moving in a few weeks, so I’ve been doing a bit of spring cleaning. There are boxes and junk all over the place, which is driving