Epilogue
OLIVER
One Month or So Later
I’d spent Valentine’s Day crashing a wedding and dancing with the man of my dreams. The dream followed me home for one more day of talking and sharing and spending time wrapped in each other’s arms. I cooked for him, and after dinner, I sent him on his way with a lingering kiss.
Best to distract myself, I thought, so after clearing the kitchen, I went up to the room he had barely used to start the cleaning process.
I found a page that had been torn out of a sketch pad sitting on the corner of the bed. He’d titled it “Gran’s Garden” and had labeled each of the plants.
A note on the bottom, in his neat handwriting, informed me that he had completed a thorough inspection of the property and listed the existing plants that he thought he could salvage as well as suggested replacements.
His phone number, which I already had from his booking, was scribbled in the corner, two small designs drawn on either end of the string of numbers.
One side held a sprig of sea lavender, and though the words weren’t legible, he’d clearly drawn a candy heart on the other.
I texted him that evening, and before the week was out, we had plans for me to visit him in Pennsylvania for the weekend.
I’ll never forget my first sight of him the weekend of our first date. I met him outside his office, and I saw him exit the building before he saw me. What I saw was the brow-furrowed beast I had first met around Valentine’s Day. Then he saw me, and his whole face lit up.
He shared stories about his work that evening but was much more animated when he told me that he had talked to Gus about his project. I already knew this, of course.
We talked for a long time about what it was like to live in a small resort town, and Bryan seemed genuinely interested.
Bryan visited me the following weekend, and we kept putting miles on our vehicles by alternating visits.
I was worried, when the season started, that I wouldn’t be able to find the time to travel to Philadelphia.
A little over a month after Valentine’s Day, Chase was pounding at my door on a Saturday morning. “Gus needs our help at the Spring to the Beach Festival.”
“I know. He told me to be there around noon.”
It had been Bryan’s turn to travel, but he’d apologized and said he would be tied up that weekend. I was disappointed not to be able to share the festival with him.
“No!” Chase countered.
“No?”
“He needs us there right now!”
My friend might have been acting weird, but I trusted him, so I ran upstairs and threw on some clothes. Chase took one look at me. “No.”
“Do you know any other word?”
“That baby-blue button-down with the accent on the collar and the sleeves. Put that on. It will go great with those jeans!”
“Okay,” I said skeptically.
I felt a little overdressed for the festival, but we had fun helping Gus spread awareness for his project.
“Hey, where are the rest of the guys?” I asked. “I thought we were getting the whole Sea-Squad together.” Chase, Gus, and I had a few other friends that we usually hung out with.
“Must be busy,” Chase said noncommittally.
I was in the middle of speaking to an older couple about Gus’s project when Chase yanked me by the arm, apologizing to the couple and insisting that we had to go.
Gus hugged me, really tightly, and said goodbye like he was sending me off to war.
“You know you two are acting weird, right?”
“Don't know what you’re talking about,” Chase answered as he practically dragged me to his car.
Soon, we were back in Jannah Beach.
“Was that Marc?” I said, recognizing our friend's truck heading away from the shore.
Chase just shrugged.
We pulled up behind the Lavender Sea to find an SUV in the parking lot. I panicked for a second that I had a guest I’d forgotten about. My heart started beating, and only then did it register whose vehicle it was.
Chase kissed my cheek while I sat there and stared at it. Eventually, he gave my bicep a friendly shove. “Get out of my car.”
Gran’s garden was fenced in, with a gate leading to the alley. I stood outside it. The smell of freshly turned dirt hit me first. The area had been transformed, the weeds and dead material gone, and new plants, ready to thrive and grow, installed.
As I took it all in, a figure rose from behind some of the larger shrubs, which had been neatly trimmed.
He was wearing a hat like my Gran’s, mud smudges on his smiling face.
He bent to place a tool on the ground and pulled his gloves off as he walked toward me.
Like always, at first his brow was furrowed.
He was in front of me then, the gate between us, wiping a tear I hadn’t even noticed from my eye.
“Is this okay?” he asked, and I tried to climb over the gate to get to him and tell him yes with my lips. He laughed, opening the gate for me. I jumped into his arms.
“I can’t believe you did all this!”
“I had some help from your friends. They’re a bunch of schemers, you know.”
“I know.” I laughed.
“And I don’t generally like to scheme or keep secrets, but Oliver, you deserved a grand gesture, and, well, I hope you like it.”
I did like it, I loved it, but Bryan had been calling me Ollie since we met, answering the phone with, “Hey, Ollie,” and using it in texts.
He’d even sketched a picture of me in a baggy tux, candy hearts raining down on me.
My flower was labeled as if it were one of his professional drawings, and so was I, and I was “Ollie.”
So instead of telling him how much I loved it, I blurted, “You called me Oliver.”
“Shit, baby, you could have told me!”
“Told you what?”
“Your friends helped me with the garden today, and they might have gently mentioned that no one calls you Ollie.”
I kissed him, then assured him, “Well, none of them do, but I really, really like it when you do.”
“Yeah? How much do you like it, Ollie?”
I wrapped myself tighter and kissed the shit out of him, eventually wiggling my way down. I looked around and was prepared to drop to my knees right there behind the shrub, but Bryan stopped me.
“Wait, baby,” he whispered.
“Not an exhibitionist, then?”
“Hadn’t really thought about it. Maybe we can try it after dark? Or you know, go inside.”
“Great!” I grabbed his hand as if to drag him to the house.
“Wait a second. I wanted to ... I have something to tell you.”
I stopped and turned to face him, keeping his hand firmly in mine. It took him a minute to continue.
“I’m just hoping …”
“Hoping?” I croaked. Could I start to hope?
“I have one more surprise. After that, I promise, no more secrets.” Bryan looked nervous.
I cupped his cheek, studying his face, trying to determine if I should worry. I nodded, and he smiled.
“I quit my job.”
“What!”
“You know I’ve been helping Gus with the project, and he talked to a few people down here, builders and some of the big resorts. I think I can make a go of it as an independent contractor. And if Gus’s project gets approved, I’ll have plenty of work to keep me busy when I’m not …”
“When you’re not what, baby?”
“You can say no to this, Ollie.”
“Not sure I’ll ever want to say no to you.” I smiled.
“When I’m not earning my room and board helping out at the Lavender Sea.”
My concerned beast had returned, his brow furrowed in an oh-so-familiar way as his thumbs tried to keep up with the tears flowing from my eyes. His eyes were moist as well when I kissed him again.
“Welcome home, baby. Welcome to the Lavender Sea.”