Epilogue
epilogue
CAIO
“Come on, he hates them. Just look at him.”
“No, he doesn’t! He’ll love them. He just needs to get used to it.”
Marvin looks up at me, and I can see the plea in his eyes.
Help me. Save me.
“Sorry, buddy.” I shake my head at him, knowing that if I’m doing this, he’s sure as shit doing it too.
I look up and catch our reflection in my bedroom window. It’s dark out so I can see us clearly. Too clearly.
Isla and May never really had big family Christmases back at home. I didn’t either until I came here, and the D’Angelo’s showed me how it’s done, making sure to invite anyone else that didn’t have a place to celebrate. This year, it was decided that Isla and I would host.
I was not aware that when I volunteered to host, I also volunteered to wear a matching onesie with Isla and Marvin. She had a special one ordered for him because she didn’t want him to feel left out.
I shake my head as I look at the three of us in the reflection.
“What?” Isla asks, her hands on her hips.
“Nothing, sweetheart,” I laugh.
Her smile threatens to appear as she takes me in, almost as if she knows how ridiculous we look but refuses to admit it. “We had to go all out!” She pulls the hood up on her onesie, making the reindeer antlers bounce around on top of her head.
I pull the hood back off her head so I can feel her skin beneath my hands as I cup the back of her neck.
“I would’ve much preferred if you were wearing that little red dress I saw peeking out of the closet earlier. You would’ve fulfilled the fantasies I’ve had since I first saw you in it, running around in that on Christmas Day.” I press a kiss just below her ear. “Although I might have had to steal you away so I could give you a little gift of my own,” I whisper.
She flinches as my breath tickles her neck, giggling like that’s exactly what she wants right now.
We decided no presents this year. There are so many of us, and we didn’t want to add the extra pressure. But I have a little present for Isla, in a little red box, glittering away in the pocket of the dress pants I was planning on wearing today.
There aren’t any pockets in this onesie, and I don’t know if I want to be wearing it when I make the girl of my dreams the fiancée of my dreams.
A buzz sounds through the apartment.
“Santa’s here! I hope you’re decent or you’ll be on my naughty list,” Leo laughs before the intercom goes silent.
I can’t believe I’m going out there like this. I don’t ever need to give these guys more ammunition. I walk out to the kitchen, pressing to let him up before I sit at the bench to wait.
“Ho ho ho!” He comes walking in wearing a gigantic white beard. “What the fuck are you wearing?” he barely manages to ask between laughs as he sees my reindeer onesie.
“Says the guy wearing my great grandma’s wig for a beard.”
He laughs, but I throw the hood off my head and check behind me to see that Isla hasn’t come out of the room yet.
“What’s with the suspicious glances? Who’d you kidnap?”
“No one,” I whisper shout. “But I’m going to need your help.
ISLA
Laughter echoes off the walls of our apartment as Michael Bublé floats from the record spinning in the corner of the living room.
Our apartment.
It is our apartment now. It’s been over five months since I started living here permanently with Caio, but it feels like so much longer and so much shorter at the same time.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve been here forever, like the routine we live in is something that I’ve always done. It all comes so naturally.
And other times, it feels like it was only yesterday that we saw Ruby Cove for the first time.
The place that I now get to call home, and nothing has ever felt more right.
My parents call every once in a while now, my mom more than my dad. He’s still sour that I ended up being right about Brandon.
My father walked into the staff room a couple of months ago to hear Brandon bragging about how he swindled his way into his position before speaking about me in a less than flattering way to one of his coworkers.
My dad fired him on the spot, but he hasn’t gotten over himself enough to call me and apologize yet.
I’m just happy I don’t groan at the sight of my mom calling me anymore. Me being away has been really good for our relationship. We talk on the phone now almost more than we talked in person when I was at college in New York.
Miles has been to visit a couple times since he left in the summer, but not for long as it’s been in between flights in the major cities. But seeing him at all is better than what I got at home.
We have never talked about the Marina thing. He hasn’t run into her here, and I didn’t want to scare him away from coming back, so I just never mentioned it. And Marina never brought it up again after the fundraiser either, leaving me wondering what ever went on between them, but I know it’s not my place to ask.
I can almost feel the way that that’s going to come back to bite me, but for now, I’m okay with playing dumb if it means spending more time with my brother.
I walk over to the kitchen where Vanessa is pulling her peach and almond crostata out of the oven. Good god, I hope she’ll give me her recipes one day. Her baking is essential to my existence.
“Here,” I say, putting a mat down where she can place the hot tray.
“ Grazie .”
“That smells incredible,” I groan.
“It’s one that I always bring out when everyone’s around. Doesn’t take long for it to be nothing but crumbs,” she winks.
“Is that what I think it is?” Leo walks over to us, his hand instinctively reaching for the crostata.
“Hands off!” Vanessa smacks the back of his hands before he can pull them away.
“Ah!” He quickly retracts his arm.
“That’s what you get! It’s not finished just yet,” she says before walking over to our pantry, but not before pinning Leo with her best I’m watching you look.
He holds his hands up in innocence as I laugh under my breath.
“Aren’t you getting hot in this?” He tugs on the sleeve of my onesie that’s been shoved up my forearms.
“It’s definitely getting warm,” I admit.
“Go change into something else then. Everyone’s had their time to appreciate this.” He laughs as he looks me up and down. “Plus, Marv’s still rocking it.”
I look over to where Marvin is prowling around, weaving between everyone’s legs as he shows off his outfit. I knew he’d love it.
“Alright, Santa. I’ll go change, but if that crostata comes out while I’m not here and you don’t save me a piece…” I point to him as I’m backing away.
He salutes to me. “I’ll guard it with my life.”
I brush my hair down with my hands, trying to tame it into position after the hood of my onesie messed it all up.
I put on the red dress. I couldn’t help it after what Caio said earlier, and the dress is too gorgeous not to wear.
The deep burgundy color is rich against my skin, and the silhouette is just perfect, cutting off just above my knees, with thick straps tied together in bows over my shoulders.
I run another hand through my hair one last time before I walk back out to find everyone sitting around the couch, talking in hushed voices. The crostata untouched on the bench.
“Hey, where’s Caio?” I ask the room.
“He just went looking for another Christmas album. Can you go find him? He’s been ages,” Marina says.
“Sure,” I say, and they all look at me. My stomach tumbles as I walk down the hall to Caio’s study where he keeps all his records.
I knock lightly on the door and push it open. What I see inside sets my heart racing.
Caio turns around as I step inside.
His desk is gone.
His chair is gone.
His couch is gone.
All that’s in the room is my Caio, wearing a three-piece suit and looking at me with nerves shining in his ocean eyes.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi.” I laugh nervously. I feel like I know what’s happening, and I feel like I might throw up.
“I am so glad you picked that dress.” He runs a hand through his hair, a disbelieving smirk on his face.
“Well, you did say you liked it,” I shrug, trying to hold in my smile.
“It’s perfect.”
My heart beats as if I’m running from imminent death.
“Come here,” Caio says, holding his hand out for me. I take it, walking further into the room, and landing right in front of him.
He sweeps a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I’m surprised you weren’t fiddling with this.”
“I don’t think I can do anything right now.” I laugh nervously again, and he chuckles softly, the sound shaky with what I assume are nerves of his own.
“Isla.”
“Mmhm?”
“My Isla, my artist, my love, my reason for being here. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I breathe.
“I can’t believe the way you fell into my lap. This perfect thing, dropped right in my path. I can’t believe I was lucky enough to be the first person driving down that road. To find someone like you waiting for me.”
My eyes flood and I try to hold the tears in, willing them to suck back into where they came from so I can see him clearly. So I can commit every detail of this moment to memory.
“ I never thought I’d be one of those people to find someone who meant so much to me, that I was willing to give everything up for, but here we are. Here you are.
“I would give up the world for you, sweetheart. Somehow you became the only thing that is important to me. The one thing that I can’t lose, the one thing that I want to keep forever.”
He kneels down onto one knee, and I can’t stop the tears from falling.
He reaches up, gently wiping them from my cheeks with a shaky hand before he pulls a red velvet box from his pocket.
I can barely breathe as he opens it. Barely breathe when I see the gigantic diamond nestled into the cushion.
“Will you tell me what I want to know if I ask you?”
I nod and he lets me get away with it.
“Will you marry me, sweetheart? Will you let me keep you forever?”
I nod again, my tears clouding my vision.
“This is one of those times where I think I need to hear it.”
“Yes,” I breathe. “I’ll marry you.”
Hoots and cheers burst out from behind me, and I jump before I turn around to see everyone huddled around outside the doorway. I laugh as I let the tears stream down my face and turn back to face Caio.
He’s standing now and holding out the most gorgeous ring I’ve ever seen in my life. The diamond is so big you could see it from space.
I hold my shaking hand out, and he tries to steady it with his own, but his shaky grip isn’t much help. I let out a watery laugh at the thought of what we must look like as he slips the ring onto my finger.
I don’t get a second to admire it before I’m wrapped up in his arms and swirled around.
Gently setting me back on my feet, he kisses me hard and lovingly before his forehead meets mine. “You’re bound to me now, baby. No take backs.”
I smile wider than I ever have as I say, “No take backs.”