Epilogue
“Dearly beloved, we have gathered you together to celebrate the divorce of Madison and Oliver,” Sami announces.
Everyone raises a goblet, bottle, or mug of cocoa to cheer this.
“Thank you, thank you,” I say. “The judge signed the divorce decree today.” It was absolutely the right thing to do, but since getting the notification this morning, I’ve had a touch of melancholy about it I didn’t expect.
“Congratulations, weirdos,” Ruby says. She and Charlie toast a second time with their cocoa.
It’s a neighbor party once again, though this time the temperature hovers around sixty degrees, and we’re all on Josh’s patio, gathered around his new fire ring. It smokes and crackles in the mid-January dark, as the usual suspects hang out. My roommates, their boyfriends, our favorite neighbors. Ahab has told Joey to shut up twice and called him Prince Cootie once, so we’re all in a good mood.
“Now what?” Mrs. Lipsky asks. “I’ve been trying, but I’m having a hard time following the plot.”
“We keep dating,” I say. “We spend as much time as we can together. And we figure things out.”
“Is there much to figure out?” Ruby asks. “You’ve already been dating for…how long?”
“Three months?” Oliver says. “Is that right?”
“Depends on when you’re counting from, but yes, basically three months.” It feels like so much longer in the best way.
“But we’ve known each other for closer to six,” Oliver adds.
“Looks like it’s going well, so why get divorced?” Hugo asks. “I’m not being nosy, by the way. Ahab said he wants to know. He’s being nosy.”
“That was my idea,” Oliver says. “With the way we got together, I didn’t want Madison to have any doubts that my feelings for her weren’t about the money, but that was easy to prove. I also didn’t want her to think it was because I had to spend time with her. I was into her way before that.”
“All of that,” I agree, “but I didn’t need the divorce as proof of Oliver’s feelings. That was more about needing everyone else out of our relationship. My parents, mainly.”
“Also, my parents would kill me if I got married for real without them being right in the middle of it,” Oliver says.
“Now that I’ve met them,” I tell the group, “I can’t believe his mom even agreed to it the first time. I’m lucky she let me come visit.” We’d spent Thanksgiving at Locke Creek Ranch, and I’d fallen in love with all of it. His parents, who were the most grounded people I’ve ever met. So kind and welcoming. His siblings, who gave him so much crap that it was like watching a live comedy show for hours that never stopped being funny. The nieces and nephew and cousins and grandparents. The land. The horses. I can’t wait to bring Katie with me the next time I go.
“Things okay with your parents, Madison?” Mrs. Lipsky asks. It bothers her that we’re not close; she’s always going to her daughter’s house and “fooling with the grandkids,” which means giving them candy and buying them new outfits and stuffies all the time.
“Getting better,” I say. “We went over for Christmas dinner, and no one fought.” Katie and I have found that going home as each other’s backup makes every visit easier, but it’s more than that. My parents are trying. All of us are. On Christmas, no one made any snide comments. My mom had no sudden symptoms. And my dad looked flat out impressed when he asked Oliver about the startup.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Mrs. Lipsky says, and she does look relieved.
“Actually, my dad even told us he wanted us to be proud of our family name, so he gave us each initial necklaces with an A for Armstrong and made a nice donation in our names to a good cause.” Specifically, he’d given us necklaces from Tiffany, and the donation had been huge, all to the Teak Heart nonprofit. So huge, it quadrupled our annual operating budget and made the director cry. She stillhates my dad. But she hates him slightly less now. Katie’s even thinking about joining the Armstrong Philanthropy and expanding its charitable giving to include causes beyond the arts.
“Katie should be here by now,” I tell Oliver. “She said she’d be late, but this is later than I expected.”
“Is that her?” Oliver says, nodding toward the parking lot.
I follow his gaze and spot her coming down the sidewalk—with my parents in tow.
“Why are my parents here?” I ask. “Did you invite them to our divorce?”
“Nope,” he says.
“Madi,” Katie calls when they’re about twenty yards away, “Dad has a question.”
“Madison Leigh, may your mother and I come and visit?” he calls.
I shoot a look at Oliver who has gotten up and opened two folding chairs I hadn’t noticed. “Yes,” I call back to them before asking Oliver, “What is this?”
But Oliver is now sticking his head through Josh’s door. “Come on out, y’all.”
What is happening?
My parents walk in through Josh’s gate at the same time Oliver’s parents walk out of Josh’s house.
My head swings from Marshall and Heather Locke to my parents. My mom pushes my chin up to close my half-open mouth. “You’ll catch flies, honey,” she says before giving me a gentle hug and taking her seat.
“Oliver…”
“You have a question, Mads?”
“I suspect you do,” Ruby says, and Oliver grins.
My heart pounds harder with every beat, trying to leap from my chest when I see his smile.
“I do have a question for you, Madison Leigh Armstrong.” The patio has fallen silent beyond the snapping of the fire. He holds out his hand, and I let him draw me to my feet. “Madi, when I asked you to marry me last fall, while it was for good reasons, it wasn’t for the right reasons. But I haven’t regretted a day of our marriage. I’ve loved watching you step into who you are, watching you peel back layers and letting people see you, going after what you want and what you believe is right. All of that is already on top of the core of who you are. You’re loyal and generous, funny and talented, determined and strong. You’re also brilliant and beautiful. And you understand family in a way that few people get to experience in their life.”
My roommates all put their arms around each other, and the best part is that I know it’s spontaneous.
“I’m still learning about family,” I say, “but Katie, you should be in that mix too.”
Ruby holds out an arm for her, and my friends pull her onto their laps, while Sami and Katie sniffle.
Oliver shakes his head. “More proof that I’m the luckiest man in the world to get to love you. And that’s why, on this, the day of our divorce, I wanted to ask you this again the right way and for the right reasons.” He gets down on one knee.
He. Is. Down. On. One. Knee.
I keep my eyes fixed on his face because my heart is pounding so hard now that I’m not sure I’ll hear him, and I want to make sure I don’t miss it when he says—
“Madison Leigh Armstrong, I love you more every day, and that’s how it’s going to be forever. I don’t care if it’s next week or next decade because I’ll be happy as long as I’m with you, but baby, would you give me the great honor of marrying you?”
I hear crying. So much crying. Roommate sniffles. Oliver’s mom. My mom. Mrs. Lipsky.
Me. The happiness wells in my eyes and spills down my cheeks as happy tears. “Yes, Oliver O. Locke. Yes, on the day of our divorce, I say yes. And I’ll say it tomorrow and whenever we get married which I hope is super soon, and I’ll say it forever.”
Everyone breaks into cheers again, loud and happy ones, as Oliver stands and gathers me to him.
“I love you so much,” he says. “And I do have a ring for you, but I know this was a surprise, so I’ll show it to you later. I want you to have exactly what you want.”
I frame his face in my hands, this face that I can’t imagine loving even more intensely than I do already, and yet I do, every day. “I have exactly what I want already.”
Oliver seals our real engagement with a kiss that only ends when Ahab screeches, “Keep it moving!”
We break apart, smiling, and accept the congratulations of everyone, my roommates piling on me for the first hug, and the Lockes claiming Oliver’s first. Then they swap, and the Lockes sweep me into hugs like the many they gave me over Thanksgiving.
“Thank you for coming down here for this,” I tell them.
“Are you kidding me?” Heather says, smoothing my hair. “We couldn’t jump in the car fast enough. We’re so glad to have you in our family, baby girl.”
“Don’t make me fight you,” says my mom’s voice, and Heather pulls away to meet her. “She’s still in our family, but we’ll take Oliver too.” She doesn’t joke with the same warmth as Heather does, but this is huge for my mom, and I’m proud of her.
I pull her in for a hug. It doesn’t feel natural—yet—but it feels good. “I’m happy to belong to both of these families. Thank you for coming.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” There’s a touch of sadness she’s trying to hide with a bright smile, probably because she knows that I had a reason to doubt, but the fact that she doesn’t hijack it into a victim moment is huge too.
She moves onto Oliver and my dad steps up next. He clears his throat and looks as uncomfortable as he ever lets himself look. I don’t know what to do here. We’ve never been huggers, but it’s definitely even more foreign to my dad than to my mom.
“Oh, for—” Katie says, and she pushes us together. “Hug it out. Now.”
His arms pop up, stiff but open, and I step into them. He closes them around me carefully, like he’s not sure how much pressure to apply. He clears his throat again. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Dad.” We step back and smile at each other.
Another clearing of his throat. “We’re releasing the trust. I’ll get my lawyers on it.”
I wave my hand. “It’s okay, Dad. We’ll have a pretty good dual income.”
“We’re releasing it, and we’re paying for the wedding.”
My spine stiffens out of instinct, and Oliver’s hand is on the small of my back in an instant, proving he’s as attuned to me as always.
“No, thank you, Dad,” I say, which is about the best I can do given that typically autocratic order.
“Gordon…” my mom says with a soft note of warning.
“I meant to say that we’d like to pay for the wedding,” my dad says.
“That’s sweet, Dad, but it’s okay. We’ve got it.” I don’t want them trying to decide all the details. And by him, I mean my mom.
“I understand.” He looks almost…sad? I don’t know. I haven’t seen that expression on his face before. “We’re still releasing the trust. It should have been yours last year on your birthday. We have no conditions.”
“I appreciate that,” I say. “It’ll help pay for the wedding.”
He’s a savvy negotiator who sees it for the compromise it is. “I’m glad.” Then he shocks me by dropping a kiss on top of my head before moving on to shake Oliver’s hand.
After everyone gets in their congratulations—and after my besties lodge their bridesmaid dress requests—the party breaks up, everyone wandering back to their own homes. We make plans with all the parents to get dinner together the next night, and they leave too.
Oliver and I walk back to his place to tell Tabitha and Smudge the good news, and as the door closes behind us, he pulls me in for a fiery kiss that I’m extremely glad our parents don’t witness.
“Thank you for forever,” I tell him when we finally come up for air.
“Too bad it’s still not long enough.”
I smile because even though I’m better at math, he’s right. Forever isn’t enough, so we better use every second of it wisely. And I kiss him again.