Epilogue
MARINA
PRESENT
“I did not just see you about to order sushi,” I say as I walk through the doors to Rosemary Cottage. “You can not be serious.”
May slams her laptop shut as soon as she hears my voice, hiding the evidence, but I’ve already seen it.
“May!” Rafael scolds her from his spot in the kitchen where he’s got a new apron on. One that reads ‘best daddy ever ’ written across the front.
My eyes narrow as I take in his new attire. He must catch the look in my eyes because he points his wooden spoon at me. “Do not judge me. I’m being forced to wear this right now.”
“Naw,” I tip my head, “did your innocent pregnant wife threaten you?”
“Innocent my ass,” he mutters, turning his attention back to his cooking.
I just smile before finding a place next to May on the couch. “And how are you, Mama?”
“Craving sushiii ,” she whines .
I just grin as she sinks back into the couch. “Rafael can make you sushi, can’t he?”
May just pulls a face that says I just put my foot in my mouth, and when I peer over to the kitchen, Rafael pins me with a deadly glare. “I’m already making her my deconstructed lemon meringue because she was craving that.”
“But don’t forget the freeze-dried raspberries!” she adds.
“Oh, I won’t forget them, baby. Not after I drove all the way to Sorrento to get the brand that you wanted.”
I just roll my lips into my mouth, holding back a snicker at their arguing, because as much as Rafael will grumble about it, he’d do anything to keep May happy.
She just blows him a kiss from her spot on the couch. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Rafael mutters.
May just smiles widely at him before bringing her attention back to me. “The baby is the size of a banana now,” she says, and a smile pulls at my mouth.
“I swear it feels like only yesterday that you were telling us that you were pregnant.”
At the same time, it feels like it was so long ago that I had those feelings of jealousy because my friend was living a life I had envisioned for myself for so long. Because now I can’t imagine my life any other way.
Every setback, every moment of hurt, led me to where I am today, and even though my journey of getting here didn’t go the way I’d always planned, I’m grateful for the journey I did have, because it’s mine.
“seventeen weeks, the day after tomorrow,” Rafael says.
“And now I’m actually starting to look pregnant,” May says, standing up to show me her tummy. She wasn’t really showing for a while, and she was just waiting to pop.
“Look at that!” I say.
May does a little dance before tucking herself back up on the couch. I can’t help the grin that blooms on my face. She looks so happy, and I couldn’t want anything more for her.
“How are things going for you?” she asks. “How is Miles settling into the new job?”
“He’s doing well.” My grin is stuck on my face. “His boss is obsessed with him, and I think he’s loving the work. He’s enjoying teaching more than he thought he would.”
“Who isn’t obsessed with him?” She rolls her eyes.
I just laugh. She’s not wrong. Emilio offered Miles the job on the spot at his first interview. He said he was perfect for the position and that he wanted Miles to start as soon as possible. He did exactly as I said and charmed the pants off him.
I can’t say I wasn’t surprised when Miles called his boss at Everglades to resign that same day. I know he said he was ready for the change, but I still had to get him to repeat himself when he told me about it.
“I’m yet to find someone,” I laugh.
“He’s still not talking to his parents?” she asks, her tone cautious.
I shake my head. “He’s still struggling with the guilt, but after his last conversation with them, he decided he needs the space.”
I sat with Miles as he called his parents right after he called to resign, wanting to knock out all of the hard conversations at once.
He hung up when his dad, Graham, started telling him what a disappointment he was, and what a mistake his decision to move and start this new job would be. My stomach churned as he spoke with such malice. Y ou’ll come to regret this, son.
I shake my head just thinking about it.
“I don’t blame him,” Rafael chimes in. “Graham is a dick.”
“Raf,” May scolds.
“What? We all know it.” He shrugs. I can’t exactly disagree with him.
“I think it’s been good for him,” I say. “I’m actually supposed to be meeting him soon,” I pull out my phone to check the time. I’ve got thirty minutes until I’m supposed to meet him at the airstrip, “but I wanted to bring you something first.”
“Ooh!” May claps her hands together. “A present? For me?”
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” I reach into my bag and pull out the papers, handing them over to a confused May.
She flicks through the pages, her eyes narrowing. “What is this?”
“The deed to the cottage.” Her gaze jumps to mine. “It’s yours.”
She looks down at the papers, then back to me, then back to the papers before Rafael walks over to us, taking them from her so he can look for himself.
“But…we can’t own it, we didn’t buy it.”
“This place has been yours since the moment you stepped foot in it,” I say.
I’ve owned the cottage for years now, renting it out to vacationers.
But when May moved in, I knew I wasn’t going to let anyone else in here again.
“Consider it a baby shower gift or an early birthday present. Whatever you want,” I say, “but it’s yours. ”
May sniffles as she looks back up at me, tears flooding her eyes. Rafael just leans down to place a kiss on my forehead. “Thank you.”
“Okay, this is more than just thank you!” May clambers over to pull me into a hug. “I don’t know any better words right now though,” she sobs into my shoulder. I should’ve known the tears were coming.
I can’t help but laugh in response. “Thank you works just fine.” I chuckle as she lets me go. “You guys deserve to call this place your own, especially once the little one comes.”
May just shakes her head. “I love you, D’Angelo.”
“Love you too, Whitley.”
The wind tosses my hair behind me as I walk onto the tarmac. The guy inside the front office sent me this way when I asked for Miles, but I can’t see him, I can only see the empty runway.
The water glistens out in front of me, this airstrip sitting right at the water’s edge. Makes it slightly dodgy for anyone who’s learning how to get a plane off the ground in my opinion, but hey, I don’t know shit about flying planes.
“Miles?” I call out, but the wind carries my voice away.
That’s when I see him appear out of a hangar to the left of me. “Hey, princess.”
I can’t help the blush that climbs up my cheeks every single time he uses that nickname, even if he’s been saying it every single day. “Hey, hotshot.”
He smiles wide before capturing me in a hug. I squeal as he lifts me off my feet, spinning me around and setting my heart racing.
I laugh against his mouth as he kisses me when I land back on my feet, his mouth claiming me out here in the open. “What am I doing here?”
“Oh,” he puts me back without letting me go, “you don’t want to see my workplace?”
“No! Of course I do!” I say, looking around. “It’s nice, for a strip of concrete.”
He just chuckles, the sound like a warm blanket over my heart. “No, I did bring you here for a reason.”
“Oh really?” I say, my brows raising as I run my hand through his hair. “And what would that be?”
“Come on,” he takes my hand, “I’ll show you.”
I giggle as I follow behind him into the bunker, my eyes adjusting under the big shadows before I see the plane right in front of us. It looks old, like something you’d see in some kind of movie. It’s beautiful.
Miles looks at me with anticipation, his hands fidgety as he watches me .
“What is this, Miles?” I ask, knowing he’s dying to tell me.
“This, my girl, is a P-51 Mustang.” His voice is laced with excitement, almost as if I should know what that means. I wish I did because the look in his eyes is adorable.
“Okay…”
He steps into me. “It’s one of the planes they used in Top Gun.”
My mouth drops open. “Wait, really?!”
“Really,” he says, half skipping over to the plane. “Tom Cruise flew one of these himself.” He rubs his hand over the aluminium.
“No shit,” I marvel, taking a better look at the plane in front of me. No wonder I thought it looked like something from a movie.
He grins. “And we are about to fly this one.”
“ We what ?” My heart begins racing in my chest.
“I made you a promise four years ago,” he says, coming over to wrap his arms around my waist. “And I’m a man who keeps my promises.”
“I know we said we would do a Top Gun flight, but I didn’t think it would be in one of the actual planes from Top Gun,” I say.
“Well, this one wasn’t actually in Top Gun, but it’s the same model.”
“How did you get this here?” I ask.
He just smirks. “I can be resourceful when I want to be.”
I just shake my head. “I’ll say it again. You have way too much money.” He just shrugs in response.
“Should I be scared? I ask. “'Cause I’m scared.”
He runs a hand over my hair. “No need to be scared, princess. All you need to do is sit there and look pretty.”
“I can do that,” I say.
Miles just presses a firm kiss to my lips, grinning as he pulls away. “You ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I say, shaking off my nerves. I don’t fly very often, never going too far that I can’t drive, let alone in a plane this small .
I follow Miles up the ladder into the cockpit, taking the back seat.
He straps me in, checking the seatbelt before fitting the headset over my full hair.
“Is that comfortable?” I just nod in response.
My knee bobs up and down while he gets in the pilot’s seat, getting himself sorted as the nerves in my stomach double.
I hear the crackle of the headset turning on. “Can you hear me, princess?”
I move the little microphone in front of my mouth. “Loud and clear, Captain.”
I hear the faint sound of him chuckling as I see him shake his head in front of me. “You ready for takeoff?”
“Ready.” I nod, not that he can see me.
“Then let’s go, baby.” He pulls the glass canopy down above us, securing it in place.
I look around his head to see him flicking things and pushing buttons, before the plane rumbles to life. The propeller at the nose of the plane begins to spin faster and faster, a physical representation of the anxiety spinning inside me.
“I’m nervous, Miles,” I say.
“We can stop if you want to, baby. We don’t have to do this.”
I screw my eyes shut. “No, I want to do it, but just tell me we’re not going to die.”
His laugh sends comfort rushing through me. “We are not going to die, I promise.”
“And you’re a man who keeps his promises,” I mumble.
“That’s right, princess. Now open your eyes.”
I do as he says, unsure how he knew they were closed, and I see the runway out in front of us.
“This is Maverick, ready for takeoff,” Miles says and I can’t help the laugh that explodes out of me.
“Cleared for takeoff, Maverick,” someone says from the other end of the line and I squeal. This is the most perfect thing I could’ve ever imagined—even better than what I thought of when I asked him about this all of those years ago .
We start to move forward, the plane picking up pace as we get closer and closer to the end. “All good, baby?”
“All good!” I yell into the microphone. Even if I feel everything but all good. I feel nervous and scared and like my heart is in my ass, but also exhilarated at the same time.
The plane gets so loud as the propellers spin even faster, leading us right toward the end of the runway. It looks like we are going to fall straight off the end. “Oh shit,” I say. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh, fuck!” I squeal as the wheels lift off the ground.
“Oh my god! Miles!” My stomach drops as we rise into the sky, the ground getting further and further away from us with every second.
I watch out the glass canopy as we get closer to the clouds, my heart settling the tiniest bit as we level out, coasting through the sky.
“Wow,” I whisper. It feels absolutely insane to be up here, like nothing else even exists but the blue sky around us. It feels freeing.
“I get it now,” I say.
I can hear the smile in Miles’s voice as he says. “It’s pretty cool, huh?”
“Pretty fucking cool,” I laugh.
“You know what’s even cooler?” he asks, but before I can respond, he’s flipping the plane upside down.
I squeal as my heart drops, holding onto my headset so it doesn’t fall off my head. “Holy fucking shit!”
Miles just laughs through the radio. “When did you become such a potty mouth?”
“When my boyfriend flipped me upside down in a plane!” I yell as he rights us again, throwing my hand over my heart.
He just laughs again, and I swear I can feel my heart jolt beneath my palm. I swear in an emergency his laugh is the only thing I’d need to hear to kick my heart back into action. “To be fair, you’re the one who asked me if I could do it. I couldn’t not show you. ”
I have a grin plastered on my face for the rest of the ride, thankfully, no more flips are involved before Miles eases us back down onto solid ground.
The propellers slow to a stop as Miles drives us up to the hangar before switching off the ignition. It’s then that I let out the biggest sigh of relief I think I’ve ever breathed.
I pull the headset off my head, trying to tame my hair as Miles lifts the canopy, removing his own headset.
A man appears with a ladder so we can get down. “How was that, guys?”
“Terrifying,” I laugh, as he holds out a hand helping me down the steps.
Miles follows behind me, thanking the man before he takes my hand and walks me down the runway. “Terrifying in a good way?”
I use my other hand to grip his firm bicep. “The best way.”
“Good.” He smiles.
“I can see why you couldn’t give this up.”
He stops, holding both of my hands in his. “This is nothing like what I was doing, and I would give that up for this a million times over.”
“Really?” I ask.
He smiles a small smile down at me. “No question about it, princess,” he says. “There’s nothing that I want more than to keep building this life with you.”
Words don’t feel like enough to express the way it feels to hear those words from his lips.
So I just capture his mouth in a searing kiss, letting my lips speak for me as they open up, his tongue tangling with mine in a dance of unspoken words.
Every place where our lips touch is a promise of what’s to come.
I close my eyes as he rests his forehead against mine, breathing him in, reminding myself that he’s here in front of me and that he’s not going anywhere.
“You know, I think all of these years of flying all around the world, I was just searching for one thing, one feeling. I think I was chasing you, and I didn’t even know it.”
I feel my ears lift as a smile blooms across my face. “Well, you caught me.”
“I think you’re the one who caught me, princess. And I think it might just be the best thing that ever happened to me.”