"Good day?" he asks.
"The best," I tell him honestly. "Every day with you is the best."
"Even when James keeps us up all night? Even when Maya has a meltdown over something ridiculous? Even when I come home exhausted from a long day with the club?"
"Especially then," I say firmly. "Because those are real moments, Carter. Real life. Not some fairy tale where everything is perfect all the time. This is better than perfect. This is ours."
He's quiet for a moment, his hand tracing lazy patterns on my back. "Three years ago, I was just passing through Blackwater Falls. No plan beyond the next meal and the next town. Maya and I were living out of motel rooms and my saddlebags."
"And now?"
"Now I'm home." He presses a kiss to my hair. "You're my home, Alice. You and Maya and James. This house, this town, this life we've built. I'm not running anymore. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."
Tears slip down my cheeks: happy ones, the kind I seem to cry a lot these days. "Me too. You saved me, you know. That first night, yeah, but also every day since. Saved me from believing I was too much. Saved me from settling for less than I deserve."
"You saved me right back," Carter says quietly. "Gave me a reason to stop running. Gave Maya a mother who loves her like she's always been yours. Gave me a family worth staying for."
We lie there in the darkness, holding each other, listening to the house settle around us. Somewhere down the hall, I hear James make a small sound but then settle back into sleep. Biscuit's tags jingle as he repositions himself in his bed.
Everything is peaceful. Everything is right.
"Carter?" I whisper.
"Yeah, baby?"
"Thank you for staying. For choosing us. For being exactly who you are."
His arms tighten around me. "Thank you for wanting me to stay. For loving all of me, the broken parts and the dangerous parts and everything in between."
"Always," I promise. "I'll always want you. All of you."
We fall asleep like that, wrapped up in each other, in our home full of love and laughter and the beautiful chaos of the family we've built together.
This is our happily ever after. Not perfect, but real. Not a fairy tale, but something better.
This is us, Riot and Alice and Maya and James and even Biscuit, somehow, making a life together in Blackwater Falls.
And I wouldn't change a single thing.