Epilogue
EPILOGUE
F our years later…
“You’re here!” I had heard the honk of the van, but didn’t even get out the door and down the stairs before Fliss was bursting in and throwing herself into my arms.
I hugged her tight, pulling back to see she was still not one for make-up, still wearing her hair in a scrappy knot, but was maybe a bit taller than when I’d last seen her. Taller than me now, anyway.
“How was the flight? How was New Zealand?” I asked.
“Good. Oh my gawd.” She broke away to move through the doors I’d opened between the living room and huge veranda. She hung her mouth open as she stared at the surf curling toward shore. It wasn’t right below us, but it was an easy walk down a well-worn path and a few flights of wooden stairs.
“Technically the bank owns more of it than we do,” I hurried to remind her. And I ran it like a hotel, so it didn’t always feel like ours, but we had no regrets.
This property in Margaret River had been showing its age when we’d driven here two years ago, taking a rare day off from opening a T&B shop in Perth. Fox had been acquainted with the owners through Shane and we’d only stopped in to say hello literally because we were in the neighborhood.
The owners, former pro surfers, had been sweet, but were getting on. This had been their retirement plan, but they had mentioned wanting to downsize and move closer to their grandchildren, but they were reluctant to sell to just anyone.
The house had a full suite downstairs and there were three bungalows tucked into the trees on the hillside. The place was a bit of a fixture, being so well-situated to the beach and well-known enough by serious surfers that it rarely had vacancies for anyone else.
One thing led to another and we made an offer that afternoon. We’d actually lived in one of the bungalows ourselves while the main house was updated. Each one had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths and a loft.
Everything was done and dusted now and I had booked a full week for my family and Fox’s to stay with us.
“Ryan! I’ve missed you, mate.” I hugged the eight-year-old who walked through the open door. He grinned and hugged me like he’d missed me, too.
“Where’s Fox?” he asked.
“Here.” Fox came out of the bedroom with our six-month-old daughter, Penny.
Okay, so, funny story. I swore I wouldn’t have a baby without planning for it, but around the time we’d bought this place, my IUD started giving me issues, feeling like it was trying to migrate into my left kidney. I had it removed and started using a birth control patch. We’d been in the middle of opening the shop and buying this place, not to mention flying back and forth to Sydney every few months to keep everything afloat there. It was definitely not the right time to start a family.
But one day I realized I’d lost my patch in the surf. You’d think it was an oil spill, I was that upset at littering in the ocean, never imagining I’d actually lost it two days before that, in the shower. By the time we found it and realized what was going on, we’d been using condoms for a week, but it was already too late.
Because I was late.
We’d both been goofily happy, though.
Penny was blinking awake from her nap, but already kicking with excitement when she saw me. She let Fliss hold her thought, when Fliss flexed her greedy hands at her.
He gave Fliss a quick hug and said to Ryan, “Let’s help your old man with the luggage. Oh hey, Whit.” He came up short at the door. “Asleep?” he asked in a softer voice, nodding at two-year-old Jayden hanging lax against Whit’s shoulder.
She nodded, both arms wrapped under the boy’s bum.
“How’s he been going?” I asked as she gently settled him on the sofa.
“I can’t say I’m looking forward to the flight home,” she said wryly. “But it was worth it to be here and see you.” She held out her arms to hug me. “How are you? And where— Fliss. Tsk.” She dropped her arms and frowned at her daughter. “I called dibs.”
“You should have been faster up the stairs,” Fliss said, unrepentant as she nuzzled her nose against Penny’s cheek.
“So it wasn’t me you were in such a hurry to see,” I teased.
Fliss lifted a shoulder and kept cuddling my baby.
Whitney stepped outside to squabble with Fliss over Penny. I left them to it and trotted down to where Fox was pointing out the bungalows.
“Gary and Stephanie are in that one. Vicky and Mitchell have that one. We thought we’d let the kids take over the suite downstairs, unless they want to bunk with their parents. You guys get that bungalow and Joanna, you’re upstairs in the guest room again. Does that work?”
“That sounds good— Oh, there you are.” Mom hugged me and so did Oliver. “How are you?” Mom had flown out to be with me when Penny was born, so she was less agog at than everyone else. “You look good,” she added with a critical eye.
“I am. My iron’s back to where it should be. How was New Zealand?”
“Really good. Lots to see. I wish we could have stayed longer, but next time.” Mom talked like that now, like flying around the globe was a thing that was normal for our family because it kind of was.
Whitney met me at the door with a squawking Penny. “She’s hungry. But I get her next.”
“Yeah, she’s been up a whole five minutes and my boob isn’t in her mouth. That means I’m clearly starving her to death .”
Penny curled her fist into the collar of my shirt and bobbed her head, complaining rather loudly that I was, in fact, guilty of human rights violations.
“All right. You’re going to wake your cousin. Shush.” I sat and hurried to get her latched.
As she settled to suckle, I stroked her curly hair. Fox’s hair and Fox’s eyes staring up at me while her little baby nails scratched lightly against the swell of my breast. God, I loved her.
“Water?” Mom asked.
“Thanks.”
Mom moved to the kitchen while Fliss came and sat on the sofa near Jayden’s feet.
“Okay, be real,” Fliss said. “Are we here for a surprise wedding?”
“Ha! No. And you’re not the first to ask.” I had chatted with Izzy a week ago, telling her about this family reunion we were hosting.
Don’t you dare get married without me , she had warned.
Same , I had said of the woman she was living with. Her parents had met her girlfriend, but I hadn’t. Izzy had promised to come see us as soon as they could line up their vacations.
“Fox and I actually talked about it a few times, but we just don’t have the bandwidth right now. And we can’t do it without Izzy and Shane.” He was Fox’s first choice for best man.
“Shane’s still with Gillian? How’s she doing?” Whit asked, scooping up Jayden as he stirred and crawled grumpily into her lap, eyeing me and these unfamiliar surroundings with suspicion.
I smiled at him, then answered Whit.
“Continuing with her world domination.” T&B had sponsored Gillian when she’d first gone pro a few years ago. She was twenty-five and killing it on the Championship Tour—which was awesome for T&B from a marketing and publicity standpoint, but it put even more eyes on the company.
That meant T&B was growing like mad while Shane was personally managing her, ensuring her support team was the absolute best from coach to equipment manager to photographers to nutritionists. They were also a couple and yes, she was a little too young for him. Or he was a little too old for her, but maturity-wise, they were very evenly matched and they did seem to actually adore each other so Fox and I were very happy for both of them.
But Shane’s traveling meant Fox was the man on the ground here, keeping the business running. T&B had a lot more managerial staff now, but we were still really freaking busy all the time. It was all nice problems to have, though, so we didn’t complain.
“How are things with Josh?” I asked Fliss.
“We broke up a couple weeks ago.”
“Oh, hon.”
“No, it’s okay.” She grimaced, but pushed her mouth to the side, kind of resigned. “I mean, it was gross at school. Everyone kept asking me about it, but...” She shrugged, then looked to the windows. “I thought, um, Fox’s brothers and sisters were coming?”
So subtle, but I didn’t tease.
“Vicky and Mitchell took them to see some friends up the coast who moved here a while back. Gary and Steph took their kids to Perth for the day, but they all got here yesterday. Look at this photo I took.” I reached for my phone and showed her Fox sitting with Penny on his knee, his five brothers and sisters around him. “That’s the first time Fox has ever had all his brothers and sisters in one place at one time.”
“Really? Aw. Look how happy he is.”
“I know.” He hadn’t stopped grinning.
“Michael’s gotten taller,” Fliss noted.
“He has.” I kept to myself that Michael had asked me if Fliss was going to be here.
My family had met Vicky and Mitchell and their children when they’d come to Sydney two Christmases ago. Michael was two years older than Fliss and very academic, like Fliss. He also loved gaming and was funny as hell. He wasn’t hard to look at, either.
By dinner, everyone was back. Fox was on the veranda flipping burgers on the barbecue. I was setting out salads and buns. Our parents were chatting in the shade, Vicky holding Penny. Oliver and Whit were enjoying some quiet time in their bungalow while Mom and I kept an eye on Jayden who was building a puzzle I’d got for him. Ryan was downstairs with the teens. Music and laughter were coming from that direction, assuring us they were all getting along.
“We’re really lucky, aren’t we?” I said, nudging Fox with my elbow.
“Couldn’t have done it better if we’d planned it.” He flipped the last burger then switched the spatula to his other hand, drawing me into his side and giving me a kiss. “Do you wish we were getting married this week?”
“I don’t... I mean, I don’t not want to marry you. But the only reason I would want a wedding is this. Getting everyone together.” I nodded at the way Mom reached forward to help Jayden turn a piece to make it fit. “It’d be nice to have another excuse to do it, I suppose. Something to consider for next time.”
“Okay, so, um, let me be more specific.” He closed one eye. “If I offer you a ring later, in front of everyone, what are you going to say?”
“Oh.” I couldn’t help the grin that was spreading across my face. My heart began to swell with all the swoony feelings this man still effortlessly provoked in me. “Are you really planning to do that?”
“Is it too corny?”
“It’s exactly corny enough. I will say yes. I promise.”
“ And go through with the wedding?”
“Pinky swear.” I held mine out to him.
He caught it with his, then brought it to his mouth so he could kiss my knuckle. “I love you, you know.”
“I love you back.” I hugged his waist and kissed his chin. “I love my life with you.”
“Same.”
And when he called everyone together later, and went down on one knee to offer me a very pretty solitaire on a platinum band, everyone made gasping noises of surprise except me.
Until he began to speak.
“Ash, I love your big, brown eyes and your laugh and the way you let down your hair only to twist it up again when it was fine in the first place. I love that you’re brave enough to try new things, even beetroot on a burger or driving on the left. I love the way you walk on your heels after you’ve painted your toenails and that you can make a joke and take one, but will stand up for yourself if it goes too far. I love hearing you sing in the shower and talk to your family and I love being a parent with you. I love that after all this time, you still fail so spectacularly at the Aussie accent. I love that I get to spend the rest of my life learning what else I love about you. Will you marry me?”
My eyes were wet. I had to blink and blink to see him. My cheeks hurt, I was smiling so hard.
I cupped his face, thinking back to a long ago conversation we’d had about marriage.
“I feel like I have to. Not for Penny or a big wedding or a piece of paper or any reason except that I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Yes,” I said, voice shaking as my love for him welled in my throat and chest and against the backs of my eyes. “I would love to marry you, Felix Wiley.”
He rose and we hugged and pressed our smiles together while everyone sighed, “Ahh.”
Except Ryan, who said, “Will they get married in Hawaii?”
And we all cried, “ No .”
The End