EPILOGUE
Thorne
One year later…
Spring came early to Lone Mountain.
I stood on the porch at five in the morning, coffee in hand, watching the sun paint the valley gold. The wildflowers were already blooming in the meadow—the same meadow where I’d picked flowers for a wedding I’d thought was the only way to keep this land. Keep my solitude.
Turned out it was about a lot more than that.
“You’re doing it again.”
I turned. Maddie stood in the doorway wearing my flannel—the same one she’d borrowed that first morning—and nothing else as far as I could tell. Her hair was a disaster, her eyes still sleepy, and she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Doing what?” I asked.
“That brooding mountain man thing. Staring pensively at the horizon.” She moved to stand next to me, stealing my coffee and taking a sip. “What are you thinking about?”
“You. Us. The fact that we’ve been married a year and I still can’t believe you’re here.”
“Sap.” But she was smiling. “For the record, I can’t believe I’m here either. In a good way.”
A year. One year since Kate had orchestrated the most elaborate matchmaking scheme in history. One year since I’d married a stranger who’d turned into my best friend. My lover. My partner in this weird, wonderful life we were building.
We’d never gotten the marriage annulled. Never even seriously discussed it after that day Kate dropped her bombshell. Just kept going. Kept choosing each other. Every single day.
“I need to tell you something,” I said.
She looked up at me, concerned. “That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not. I just—” I set down my coffee cup. “I never thanked you.”
“For what?”
“For taking a chance on this. On me. For showing up to that courthouse even though the whole thing was insane. For staying even after you found out the truth.”
“Thorne—”
“I was hiding up here. Kate was right about that. I’d convinced myself I was healing, but really I was just... stuck. And then you walked into my life, and everything changed.”
She set down the coffee cup and took my hands. “You changed my life too. I was running. From my ex, from my family’s expectations, from every bad choice I’d made. And you gave me a place to just... be.”
“We’re quite a pair.”
“The best pair.” She grinned. “Two slightly broken people who accidentally fixed each other through a fake marriage arrangement.”
“Not so fake anymore.”
“Definitely not fake.” She pulled me down for a kiss, and I wrapped my arms around her, still amazed that I got to do this. Every day. For the rest of my life if I had anything to say about it.
We’d talked about that. About making this permanent. Real in a way that went beyond the legal paperwork Kate had forced us to sign.
I was working up to asking her properly. Ring and everything. Maybe in the meadow where I’d picked her flowers. Maybe right here on this porch where we’d share a thousand mornings just like this one.
Soon.
“Come back to bed,” she said against my mouth. “It’s too early to be awake.”
“You’re the one who came out here.”
“Because the bed was cold without you in it.”
That did something to me. The idea that she noticed when I was gone. That she wanted me there.
I’d spent months learning to be alone. Convincing myself I preferred it.
Turned out I’d just been waiting for the right person to share the silence with.
“Five more minutes,” I said. “I want to watch the sunrise.”
“Okay. But I’m stealing your coffee and your body heat.”
She tucked herself against my side, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
We stood there as the sun cleared the mountains. The creek rushed in the background. Birds were starting to wake up. The whole mountain was coming alive with the new day.
“Hey Thorne?” Maddie said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
She said it casually. Like she’d said it a hundred times before. Which she had. But it still hit me the same way it had the first time—like something essential clicking into place.
“I love you too.”
“I know.” She grinned up at me. “You tell me every morning.”
“And every night. And usually a few times in between.”
“It’s excessive, sure, but I’m not complaining.” She gave me that little grin that I’d come to love so much.
I kissed the top of her head. “Good. Because I’m not planning to stop.”
We watched the sunrise in comfortable silence, and I thought about how different this was from a year ago. How lonely this porch had felt. How the sunrise had been beautiful but empty.
Now it was full. Rich. Complete.
Because she was here.
“We should probably call Kate,” Maddie said eventually. “It’s our anniversary. She’ll want to gloat.”
I groaned. “Do we have to?”
“She did bring us together. Even if her methods were completely unethical and borderline criminal.”
“She lied to both of us.”
“And we’re very happy she did.” Maddie pulled out her phone. “Come on. Let’s make her day.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket to FaceTime my sister, already smiling because I knew Kate was going to be insufferable about this.
Kate answered on the first ring. “It’s your anniversary.”
“Good morning to you too,” I said.
“One year. One year of marital bliss that I engineered. I’m a genius. An evil genius, but still a genius.”
“You’re something,” I agreed.
“Oh shut up. You’re happy. Maddie’s happy. I was right.” Kate peered at the screen. “Are you on the porch? It’s like five in the morning.”
“Thorne wanted to watch the sunrise,” Maddie explained.
“Of course he did. So romantic. See? I knew you two were perfect for each other.”
“The compatibility algorithm knew,” I corrected. “You just lied about why we were meeting.”
“Potato, po-tah-to.” Kate waved her hand dismissively. “The point is, it worked. So, have you asked her yet?”
Maddie looked at me. “Asked me what?”
I glared at Kate. “I’m going to kill you.”
“What? I’m just asking. It’s been a year. That’s long enough to know.” Kate’s grin was pure big sister. “Unless you’re waiting for something special. Like maybe a meadow full of wildflowers? In the same place where you picked her wedding bouquet?”
Maddie’s hand flew to her mouth. “Thorne. Are you—”
“I was planning it,” I said, shooting Kate another death glare. “Before someone ruined the surprise.”
“Planning what exactly?” Maddie’s eyes were suspiciously bright.
I leaned the phone against the porch post, knowing I’d never hear the end of it if I ended the call. I took Maddie’s hand, and suddenly it didn’t matter that this wasn’t the romantic moment I’d planned. Didn’t matter that my sister was watching via phone, probably recording this for posterity.
All that mattered was Maddie, looking at me like I’d hung the moon.
“Planning to ask you to marry me. Again. For real this time.” I pulled the ring box from my pocket—I’d been carrying it around for two weeks, waiting for the perfect moment.
“Not because of some fake inheritance clause. Not because Kate manipulated us. But because I love you. Because you’re my best friend.
Because I can’t imagine my life without you in it. ”
“You had the ring in your pocket this whole time?” she asked.
“I’ve been carrying it around. Waiting for the right moment.”
“This is the right moment.” She was crying now, tears streaming down her face. “Yes. Obviously yes. Did you think I’d say no?”
“With you—"
She threw herself in my arms, kissing me. I could taste her tears and her smile. “Yes, I’ll marry you, again, mountain man. Now put the ring on me before I combust.”
I slid the ring onto her finger—a simple band with a small diamond that reminded me of the wildflowers I’d picked for her. Nothing flashy. Just honest and real and permanent.
Like us.
“I’m crying,” Kate yelled from the phone. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’m a matchmaking genius.”
“You’re also fired from being my sister,” I told her.
“You can’t fire me. We’re family.”
“Watch me.”
Kate stuck out her tongue. “You’re going to need babysitting services, big bro, so watch that tone.”
Maddie laughed, still staring at the ring on her finger. “It’s perfect. You’re perfect. This is all perfect.”
“Marry me?” I asked.
“Already did.”
“Do it again. Properly this time. With your family. My family. Everyone we love.”
“Okay.” She kissed me again.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“And I want wildflowers.”
“Obviously.”
“And I want to do it here. On the mountain.”
“Wherever you want.”
“I want to plan it,” Kate shouted.
“Absolutely not,” we said in unison.
She pouted. “But I’m so good at it.”
“You’re banned from planning anything else in our lives,” I said. “This wedding, we do ourselves.”
“Fine. But I get to be maid of honor.”
Maddie looked at me. I shrugged. She smiled. “Deal.”
We hung up on Kate—who was already making plans despite being banned—and stood on the porch as the sun finished rising.
“So,” Maddie said. “We’re getting married. Again.”
“Looks that way.”
“Think it’ll stick this time?”
I pulled her close, feeling her warmth, her realness, the absolute rightness of her in my arms. “Yeah. I think it will.”
“Good.” She nestled into my chest. “Because I’m not going anywhere, mountain man.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
We went back inside as the sun cleared the mountains, and I thought about how much had changed in a year. How I’d gone from hiding on this mountain to building a life here. How Maddie had gone from running away to running toward something. Toward us.
Kate had lied. Had manipulated us both.
And I’d never been more grateful for anything in my life.
Because she’d been right. We were perfect together.
We just needed someone crazy enough to make us see it.