Epilogue
DELANEY
“Talk about déjà vu,” I said, glancing around the log cabin where it had all started.
Like that first time, it was snowing outside, but this time, just lightly.
Thankfully not enough to cancel the trip, especially for Cole, who’d come in for the weekend.
And it was his colleague, after all, who’d loaned us the place.
“With one major difference.” Pia lifted up her iced tea.
Mason made a face that said he was thankful it was Pia, and not him, who couldn’t drink.
“The sacrifices you make,” Beck called from the great room. He was still “warming up” by the fire despite the fact that we got here a half hour ago.
“That’s enough from the peanut gallery,” Pia said. “Where did Cole disappear to?”
“He’s checking on the hot tub.” Parker smiled at me. Was he remembering our first time in that tub? Most likely. I definitely was.
“When the two of you are finished eye fucking each other, can we talk about dinner?”
“I said,” Parker countered, “either is fine with me.”
More accustomed now to Mason’s blunt nature, I didn’t take offense. “Same,” I said. “Let the preggo girl decide.”
We had all been shocked when Pia and Mason told us.
Although they’d been planning for a small wedding at the inn, the surprise news had them moving up the date from October to June.
Apparently, although they hadn’t been trying for a baby already, they hadn’t been actively trying to avoid getting pregnant. And, voila.
If we thought Mason was protective before, he was downright vigilante now. Just the other day he’d found her using Windex and hired the inn’s cleaning lady to start doing the house portion of Heritage Hill too, despite the fact that Pia insisted using it was safe for the baby.
“Pizza,” Pia declared. “And breadsticks. With marinara sauce.”
“Do they have breadsticks?” I asked, pulling the takeout menu toward me.
“Doesn’t matter. Mason will find them either way,” Parker teased. “He’ll drive back to Cedar Falls if necessary.”
It had become a running joke, Mason’s… vigilance with Pia.
“Fuck you,” Mason said.
“Love you too,” Parker responded.
A typical exchange on a typical Friday night, except we were in a multi-million-dollar ski chalet, celebrating. “Oh, shit,” I said, thinking of that. “I was supposed to bring champagne. It’s on my kitchen counter.”
“Luckily for you, I remembered how forgetful you are and re-checked the kitchen, and bedroom, before we left. I’ve got it. And your toiletry bag too, which was sitting on your sink.”
Jumping off my stool, I went over to him, kissing Parker on the cheek for his thoughtfulness. At least, I tried to kiss him on the cheek but he turned his head. Not wanting to full-on make out in front of our friends, I broke it off with a whisper of, “There’ll be more where that came from later.”
“Yeah, there will,” he said back, earning an eye roll from Mason. “Why wait,” Parker said as Cole came back inside.
“It’s cold as balls out there,” he said. “But the hot tub is on.”
“Another thing I can’t do,” Pia said, pretending to be sad. Or maybe she was actually sad, though I doubted it. She was so thrilled with the baby that all of us had been on pins and needles until she hit three months.
“I can think of something we can do instead.” Mason to the rescue.
“And you bust my ass.” Parker pulled me into his side. Apparently I wasn’t going back to my stool.
“You’re all ridiculous.” Cole went to a cabinet and began pulling out champagne glasses. “No time like the present,” he said, putting them in a row before taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his sweater.
“Can we order food first?” Mason asked.
Everyone ignored him. I managed to disengage myself from Parker and headed to the fridge. “Beck,” I called as Cole popped the bottle and poured each of us a glass. Except poor Pia, who got Sprite instead.
“Come on, Beck,” Pia called. Once everyone had a glass, she did the toast.
“To the last day of work for you both,” she said to Parker and me.
Neither Parker nor I had planned to quit our jobs before spring, but as we both became busier and busier with the new businesses, it was apparent something had to give.
We’d each gotten a loan which would carry us into the summer for income, and so we coordinated it, yesterday being both of our last days on the job.
A bittersweet ending to my short career as a pharmacist. On one hand, I was so excited to begin a new chapter. On the other, it was still scary as hell, a little less so because I had someone on the journey with me.
“To endings and new beginnings,” he continued. “Bound by life’s ride, here’s to the journey.”
“Here’s to the journey,” we all repeated, drinking. Except, while I finished my champagne, Parker got off his stool. It took me a second to figure out why.
He was down on one knee next to me.
“Delaney Thorton,” he said. I looked around at each of the faces, and none of them seemed surprised. They’d all known it was coming.
I glanced back at Parker, who had an open ring box lifted up to me. Inside, an absolutely beautiful emerald-cut engagement ring.
“I asked Pia how to do this to make it special. We thought of all different ways, and clever scenarios. But in the end, what really matters are the people. Everyone in this room loves us both and wants to see us happy, so it made sense to ask you with our second family surrounding us… will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
By the time he’d finished, tears streamed down my cheeks. “This weekend,” I managed, thinking about how it had all come together.
“We’re celebrating our engagement,” he said. “If you say yes.”
I’d forgotten to say yes. My mind was a jumbled mess of happiness. “Of course. Yes, yes, yes,” I said as Parker slipped the ring on my finger and everyone cheered and clapped around us.
“We’re getting married,” I whispered to him as Parker stood and hugged me.
“Yes, we are, cupcake. Thank you for making me the happiest man in the world.”
“Ditto,” I said, wishing I could have been more eloquent, like him. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was the smiling faces all around us, even the two guys who still didn’t believe in love. Hopefully, like Mason and Parker had, someone would come along to change their minds too.