Epilogue
COLE
6 MONTHS LATER
“ I thought we were going to Justin’s house for a barbecue?” Hannah Grace asks as we pass the outer limits of town and head up into the mountains.
“Nope.” I drop one hand from the steering wheel of my truck and wrap it around her where she’s curled against my side.
“So what are we doing?” she asks, resting her head on my shoulder as the country station picks up the remnants of George Birge’s “Cowboy Songs.”
“Spending some time just the two of us,” I tell her.
“You say that like we’re not staying at The Glass Slipper all week.” She smiles and shakes her head.
I opted for the bed-and-breakfast route when we planned to spend the week of my parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary and Fourth of July in our hometown.
“I have no interest in being caught by your dad again. Once was enough.” I shudder at the memory of the look I received when he walked into the living room Christmas morning.
He knew. And I knew he knew. And he knew that I knew he knew.
“He didn’t catch us doing anything,” she argues much the same way she has for the last almost seven months.
“He still knows I snuck into your room that night. Now we don’t have to worry about it for the week that we’re here.” I take the turnoff and we bump along the trail until it flattens out into the clearing that overlooks the town. Maneuvering the truck, I back it up so that we can enjoy our picnic looking out over the view.
“Are you sure you have to leave again next week?”
I’ve been splitting my time since last December commuting between LA and Nashville. I hated when I was away from Hannah Grace, but my job was in LA. But missing her just made coming home all the sweeter.
“Just for a few days. Then I’m coming back to help you finish getting the house packed for our move to LA.”
“Do you think they’re going to like me?” she asks.
“The teachers at your new school?”
“Yeah.” Her fingers twist in the cotton of my T-shirt.
Thumb and forefinger beneath her chin, I lift her gaze to mine.
“They’re going to love you.”
“At least there, none of them know about…”
Zach. She trails off before she can say his name out loud, but his presence is still in the cab with us.
It was the biggest reason she had decided to move to LA rather than me moving back to Tennessee. Everything at her old school as she finished the school year reminded her of the man that had kidnapped her sister and attempted to kidnap her. And the teachers had been so conditioned by him to avoid Hannah Grace, that even without his physical presence in the school, no one approached her.
I’d hated to witness her light dim these last few months. When Sawyer’s brother-in-law West had offered to put in a good word with the school system he worked for, Hannah Grace had jumped at the chance.
“You met a few of them at your interview, right?”
She had flown out for an interview just after school ended here for the summer.
She nods.
“Yeah. Catherine is another kindergarten teacher and Daisy teaches third grade.”
“And?”
“And they seemed really nice.”
“But?” I prompt.
“How did you know there’s a but coming?”
“Because I know you almost as well as I know myself.”
She pushes against my chest, but the small smile on her lips is what I was aiming for.
It fades as her gaze focuses on mine again.
“Look what happened the last time I thought someone was nice. He ended up being a psychopath.”
A psychopath who was spending at least the next fifty years in a Tennessee state correctional institution after he was sentenced a few weeks ago.
“Honey Girl, I promise I won’t let that happen to you again,” I say and wrap my arms around her now that we’re parked.
“I know. And I trust you. I’m just feeling anxious.”
“You still want to move to California, right? If not?—”
Her lips cut me off before I can explain that she can tell me.
Her tongue slides along the seam of my lips and I open, tangling mine with hers as I lift my hands to slide through her hair, cupping her face to hold her to me.
My dick punches at the zipper on my shorts.
“Does that answer your question?” Her words are all but a purr, her nipples poking through her thin tank top, and I struggle to remember what we were talking about.
“Yes?”
She giggles and more blood moves back into my brain.
“Let’s just relax and enjoy the sunset,” I tell her.
Her teeth capture her swollen lower lip and I want to kiss her again. But I hold back.
“What?” I ask.
“Well, I thought we were going to a barbecue and I’m hungry.” As if on cue, her stomach growls loudly.
“Good thing I came prepared then. Wait there. And no peeking.”
I get out of the driver’s door and move to the back only to find her watching me with a grin that’s impossible not to return.
“Hannah Grace.” My smile softens my warning tone, and it takes a moment for her to realize I’m not moving to do anything else until she turns back around and faces front.
Only when I’m one hundred percent sure that she’s not going to cheat do I pull the tarp off the blankets, arranging them and the pillows I brought and putting the picnic basket within reach. Thank God for Elle at The Glass Slipper who was able to pull it together while I kept Hannah Grace distracted.
Satisfied with how everything is in place, I walk around the back to the passenger door, opening it and holding out my hand.
“Ms. Whittaker?” I ask.
She giggles and shakes her head.
“You’re such a goofball,” she tells me and hops down, allowing me to lead her to the back of the truck bed. “What’s all this?”
“I thought we could enjoy a sunset picnic,” I say and boost her into the truck, letting my hands linger on her hips before sliding down the curve of her ass.
Her breath hisses out and she sits suddenly, almost falling against the pillows.
We’ve been here as kids, with nothing more than bikes and sneakers. We’ve been here as teenagers with nothing more than my truck and hormones. But tonight? This is special. Tonight, I have everything I ever wanted, right here next to me as I climb in and settle next to her.
She already has the picnic basket open, pulling out two sandwiches, a bottle of wine, and two plastic cups.
I use the included corkscrew—thank you, Elle—and open the bottle, pouring us each a cup, and she hands me a ham-and-swiss sandwich and takes a bite of her own.
“Do you hear that?” I ask her and take a drink of my wine.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothing. It’s quiet.” LA is never quiet, and even in Nashville, there’s always some small sound near our house.
But right now it’s just her and me and a few sounds of nature surrounding us.
She leans against me and sighs.
“It’s perfect,” she says.
“Perfect,” I agree and brush my lips against her hair.
We sit in the silence, the sun providing a technicolor glow to the world as it sinks down behind the horizon, the shadows of dusk sprinkling the periwinkle-blue sky with flecks of silver.
“Sunset to stargazing and everything in between,” I murmur.
“Hmm?” She lifts her head from where it leans against my shoulder.
“Every moment,” I tell her and press a kiss against her lips. “You know, this spot has been ours for as long as I can remember. Even as kids, it always felt like we were the only two in the world up here alone. But to be honest, whenever we were together, you were the only person in the world for me, Hannah Grace. Even when I didn’t think you were in the picture again, even when I was thousands of miles away, it was only ever you.”
“Almost eight years ago now, I brought you up here and made you a promise. I promised I would love you forever. And together or apart, I held on to that promise like a talisman. My mantra. But I lied.” She sucks in a breath and I have to fight the twitch of my lips. “Forever isn’t long enough, Honey Girl. Forget about me trying to find the words that tell you how I feel. They haven’t been invented yet. Enchanted. Adore. Cherish. All of these and so many more. Every day that feeling grows stronger until I can’t hold it back. I don’t want to. I love you. So fucking much. And those words seem inadequate when I’m asking you to marry me, but?—”
“What?”
“What?” I stop, studying her.
“You’re asking me to marry you?” Her blue eyes—those big, beautiful windows to her soul—are wide as they search mine.
Fuck. I hadn’t meant for that to slip out that way.
“I–yeah.” Reaching into my pillowcase, I pull out the small bag I stashed when I packed the truck and turn it over into my palm.
The sparkle of the diamond catches the last of the light around us, glinting like another star in the twilight.
“Hannah Grace, I promise to love you until the day after forever. And maybe then even after that. Would you do me the honor of marrying me? I want a forever with you claiming my last name. Of babies and watching you walk down that aisle to me in a white wedding dress. Marry me.”
I’ve now asked the question three times, but if it bothers her, she doesn’t show it. Tears line her lashes, turning them to an oceanic blue.
“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
She lifts her hands to my head, pulling me down in a tangle of lips and tongues. To whispered words of love and forever as our breaths mingle under a star-filled sky.
Breaking the kiss, I slide the ring onto her finger, squeezing her hand when it slides on in the perfect fit.
“I think you had another idea for these pillows and blankets,” she tells me with a sly smile.
“What’s that?”
She shifts, sliding into a straddle position against my hips.
“This.” She yanks off her tank top and her breasts bounce free.
“I like the way you think,” I tell her, skimming the tight tips with my knuckles.
My lips capture her laughter, and I spend the night worshipping her body with the stars as witnesses.
**
The bell on the Mistletoe Creek Cafe jangles the next morning as we step inside.
“It hasn’t changed at all,” she whispers to me.
She’s right. The place looks the same, but the people have changed.
I gesture toward the “ Seat Yourself ” sign and lead her to a clean booth on one side.
“Maybe we should have stopped for a shower before getting breakfast,” she says, sliding into the booth and lifting her hands to finger comb her hair.
I reach across the booth, tugging her hands free of her hair and interlacing our fingers.
My finger grazes her new ring, and I lift one set of our joined hands, pressing my lips to where the ring rests around her finger.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her.
“You have to say that. You’re my fiancé. Fiancé. We’re engaged.”
The smile that lights her face takes my breath away.
“We are.” I run my thumb over her knuckles.
“How do you want to tell everyone?” she asks me.
“What can I get you?” A server stops by our table before I can answer.
“Oh. Sorry, we didn’t even look at the menu yet. Coffee?” I ask.
“Two, please,” Cole adds.
“Cream and sugar?” The server scribbles on her pad without glancing up.
“Please.”
“Be right back.” She’s gone as suddenly as she appeared.
“We should probably look at the menu.” She hands me one from behind the napkin holder and takes one for herself.
“Hannah Grace? Cole?” An elderly woman with light-pink hair stops as she passes our table, reversing direction until she’s directly in front of us. “Goodness gracious, I didn’t expect to see the two of you here this morning. Especially together. What are y’all doing here?”
Flora is one of three women who runs everything in this town. I consider it lucky that she’s by herself. They’d never leave if the three of them were together.
“Miss Flora, it’s—” Hannah Grace is interrupted by Flora’s gasp as she reaches for Hannah Grace’s hand—her left hand.
“Oh my, is that what I think it is?”
“Yes, we’re?—”
“I’m so happy for the two of you! I always knew you two were going to find each other again. And now that you’re engaged we’ll be seeing you a lot more. And Cole, I bet your parents loved having you back here for their anniversary party over the weekend. And they must be over the moon for both of you.”
I had forgotten that speaking to one of these three women meant not getting a word in edgewise.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Just wait until I tell Fawn and Merry I saw the two of you this morning.”
An alarm sounds out of Flora’s purse and she pouts.
“Drat. That’s my alarm for my karate class.”
I choke on the breath I take.
“Karate?” I manage to choke out.
“Mmm. I’m a green belt now.”
I share a smile with Hannah Grace as Flora tucks her phone back in her purse.
“It was so wonderful to see the two of you. And Hannah Grace, I can’t wait to see you next summer in your wedding dress.”
“Miss Flora, we haven’t set a date yet,” Hannah Grace says.
“Didn’t you?” She winks at the two of us and leaves just as the server comes back with coffee.
“Did Miss Flora just set a wedding date for us?” Hannah Grace asks, reaching for one of the two cups placed in front of us.
“Did you expect anything else?” I ask and grab my own.
Dorothy was right.
There’s no place like home.
The End