Epilogue One #2
"Yes!" Michaela pumps a sandy fist in the air, victorious, then goes right back to shaping her fortress, as if she hadn't just dismantled hundreds of years of capitalist inheritance theory with a single mixed-up word.
Serena recovers, dragging her towel up to her chin, and grins at me. "I kind of hope you name it Neep-o-Sheepem, LLP. Just to see the petitions you'd get in the mail."
"Deal," David and I say simultaneously, which makes Serena laugh.
"On a more serious note," I say, turning back to David, "what would you need to feel comfortable making the jump?"
David considers this, swirling the beer in his bottle. "A solid business plan. Enough startup capital to cover the first year. And probably some assurance that we won't kill each other within the first six months."
"The first two are doable," I tell him. "The third might require family therapy."
"I can recommend someone," Serena offers helpfully. "Crisis management includes conflict resolution."
"Are you offering to be our business counselor?" David asks.
"Are you offering to be my first legal client?" she counters.
"Touché."
I look between them, feeling something settle in my chest. David and Serena have always gotten along well due to their years working together at Luminous, but seeing them now—planning joint business ventures, trading jokes about anxiety toast—feels different.
More like family than former colleagues.
"So we're really doing this?" I ask. "Kingsley and Kingsley?"
"Kingsley, Kingsley, and Kingsley," Michaela shouts from her sand castle. "Don't forget about me!"
"How could we forget about you?" David calls back. "You're the most important partner."
"I want my name in the biggest letters," she adds, very seriously.
"Done," I promise, then look at David. "What do you say? Partners?"
David extends his hand, and we shake on it right there on the deck, with the lake lapping at the shore and the smell of charcoal still in the air.
"Partners," he agrees.
Serena beams at both of us. "This calls for a celebration."
"We should probably make sure we can actually make it work before we celebrate," David says pragmatically.
"Where's the fun in that?" Serena stands, adjusting her towel. "Besides, the best business decisions are made with a little bit of blind faith and a lot of good wine."
"Is that your official business philosophy?" I ask.
"It's worked so far." She leans down to kiss the top of my head. "I'm going to start dinner. You two can keep planning your empire."
She heads inside, and David and I sit in comfortable silence for a moment, watching Michaela add what appears to be a moat to her sand creation.
"You know," David says eventually, "I never would have imagined this. You, settled down with someone who actually thinks you're good looking. Me, ready to leave the security of corporate law."
I snort. "I know. It's freakish. Sometimes I wake up next to her and still expect her to have bolted in the middle of the night. I check for her shoes by the door before I even open my eyes. Like I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"But not anymore, surely," David says, taking a swig of his beer. "Now you're settled."
"Yeah. I am." I watch through the kitchen window as Serena moves around, completely at home and humming to herself. "I know what I want now. A life, a business, a future. All of it."
"With her."
"With her. With you. With Michaela." I pause. "With whoever else comes along."
David raises an eyebrow. "Anyone in particular you're thinking of?"
I give him a half smile. "Maybe some little Michaelas of my own. Maybe you'll find a Serena of yours."
"Oh god. Don't even?—"
Serena appears in the doorway before he can bemoan the idea of dating again. "Dinner's in twenty minutes. And by dinner I mean grilled cheese and tomato soup because that's apparently all your kitchen is stocked with."
"That sounds perfect," I tell her, pulling her in for a kiss and losing myself completely.
Later, after dinner and after Michaela's been tucked into bed with promises of more swimming tomorrow, Serena and I walk down to the dock. The lake is mirror-still, reflecting the stars like scattered diamonds.
"So," she says, settling beside me on the weathered wood, "Kingsley and Kingsley. I like it."
"Think we can make it work?"
"I think you and David can do anything you set your minds to." She leans against my shoulder. "Besides, you'll have the best crisis management consultant in Chicago on retainer."
"Among other things."
She tilts her head to look at me. "What other things am I?"
"My partner. My best friend. The woman who saved my life." I wrap my arm around her, pulling her closer. "The woman I'm going to marry someday."
"Someday?"
"When you're ready. When we're ready. When the time is right."
She's quiet for a moment, her fingers tracing patterns on my chest. "You know what I realized today?"
"What?"
"The time is always right with you. Everything else—the timing, the circumstances, the practical stuff—none of it matters as much as just being with you."
"Is that your way of saying yes to a hypothetical future proposal?"
"That's my way of saying I love our life, Caleb. All of it. Your family, your dreams, your terrible cannonballs. I still hate the beach, but I love this lake." She laughs softly. "I love that we're building something together. The firm, our relationship, this future we keep talking about."
"I love it too," I tell her, kissing her lightly on the shoulder. "Just like I love you.
I kiss her properly then, soft and slow under the starlight, tasting the promise of everything we're building together. When we break apart, she's smiling that smile that still stops my heart every single time.
"Ready to go inside?" she asks.
Instead of answering, I stand and scoop her up in my arms, making her laugh as I carry her back toward the house. Her arms wind around my neck, and she presses her face into the curve of my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" she asks, but her voice is warm with laughter and something deeper.
"Taking my future wife to bed," I tell her, climbing the steps to the deck. "I have plans for you, Serena Morgan."
"Do you now?"
"I do." I pause at the sliding door, looking down at her in my arms. "Plans that involve showing you exactly how much I love this life we've built."
She reaches up to trace the line of my jaw with her fingertips. "I love you, Caleb Kingsley. More than I ever thought possible."
As I carry her inside, past the kitchen where we cleaned up from dinner together, past the living room where we played board games with Michaela, toward the bedroom where we'll wake up together tomorrow morning, I think about the journey that brought us here.
A little over a year ago, I thought I had everything figured out. I was successful, respected, in control of every aspect of my over-scheduled life. I had no idea how empty it all was until she walked into it—stubborn and brilliant and absolutely nothing like what I thought I wanted.
Now, with her in my arms and our future stretching out ahead of us like an open road, I know the truth.
I didn't know what I was missing because I'd never had it.
Real love. Real partnership. The kind of happiness that comes from building something together, from choosing each other every single day.
Tomorrow we'll start planning the firm with David.
Next month, Serena's business will probably double again.
Someday soon, I'll ask her to marry me properly, with a ring and a plan and everything she deserves.
Someday after that, maybe there will be little feet running around this Lake Forest house alongside Michaela's.
But tonight, there's just this. Her laughter against my skin, her hands in my hair, her whispered "I love you" against my lips as I lay her down on our bed.
Tonight, and all the nights to come.
Finally, I have everything I never knew I was looking for.
I have her.