Epilogue 1
F our Weeks Later
“You seriously won’t tell me where we’re going?” I ask grumpily, my arms folded over my chest, though I don’t think I’m fooling anyone. I think both Stella and Landon know I’m not the least bit put out over whatever surprise they have planned for me.
“Patience, love,” Landon says, reaching over and pulling my hand away from my body so he can play with my fingers. “We only have another five minutes before we get there. Do you think you can manage that?”
I glare at him, but again there’s no heat to it. “I’m not a child.”
“You’re way more impatient than I am, and I’m still considered a child.”
“That’s because you’re a breed of your own, Stella. We cannot all have your grace and perfection.”
She snorts from the back seat, but then follows it up with, “That’s probably true. Justin Thomas told me I’m a queen and should start acting like one. That if I choose, with my beauty, brains, and breeding, I could not only rule the school but the world.”
“Is that because you stood up to Mercedes Smart?”
I glance over my shoulder in time to catch Stella’s shrug, but she’s grinning with pride.
“Probably,” she muses. “I don’t think she expected me to sit down with her and explain that her words didn’t bother me anymore, and that I believed them to be a reflection of herself and that because of that, I was worried about her.”
It was a shining moment, and I’m still so proud of Stella for it. Mercedes broke down into tears and told Stella how she was just jealous of her because all the boys secretly had crushes on Stella, and Stella is a Fritz, and yada, yada, yada. Now they’re quasi friends.
Landon and I exchange quick glances. “Did he ask you out?” Landon asks after a quiet beat.
“He did, but I told him he wasn’t my type.”
I snicker. “Did you tell him just who your type is?”
Stella laughs. “No way. The look on his face at being rejected was far too precious.”
“You’re evil, Stella. And I think I like it.”
“Me too,” she agrees. “But only because he makes sexual advances on you at school.”
“He does what?” Landon barks out, his head whipping in my direction.
I roll my eyes and cock a brow. “He’s fourteen, Landon.
He’s pushing boundaries and testing limits because clearly he doesn’t get a lot of those at home.
He’s entitled, but he’ll learn. His mother was useless when I tried to speak with her about it at fall conferences.
I got the boys will be boys response, which just encourages rape culture.
Anyway, for every inappropriate comment, I deduct a point from his final grade and give him a detention. ”
“Do I need to talk to his father? I know his father. He’s a mental and physical weakling. I can crush him with very little force.”
I squeeze his hand. “Slow down there, Thor. I can more than handle a fourteen-year-old boy.”
He grunts in dismay but doesn’t argue further.
He knows I can more than handle myself. He saw me go postal on my parents in my yard, and when I told him about my conversation with the infamous Giancarlo, he was impressed.
And annoyed I didn’t talk to him about it first, but truly, it wasn’t his battle to fight or win for me.
My father came out of surgery well and after five days was discharged from the hospital. After that, I have no idea. I haven’t heard from any of them. Not David. Not Cat or my parents. That’s my old life, and I’m done with it.
But after everything went down, I decided I needed to talk to the school about my relationship with Landon.
And Stella, since she’s not just the daughter of the guy I’m with.
She’s so much more than that to me, and I needed to make my position on it all known.
Bridget was worried about it. Even offered to come with me as moral support, but if they were going to fire me over that, then so be it.
I can always find another job.
I can’t always find another Landon and Stella.
No one gets you for the crime, they get you for the cover-up, and that’s not what I wanted to have happen. I needed to be the one to tell them before they inevitably found out. Not much was done about it. Not as much as I thought would be anyway.
Stella is already an A student in all her classes, and I offered to have any tests, papers, or assignments I’ve graded reviewed by another teacher. They declined and just told me as long as I don’t show favoritism to her, then it should be fine.
I never have, and I never will. At least not at school.
Landon takes a turn off the road and suddenly we’re bumping along a gravel path that’s cut deep into the woods. “If you’re taking me here to kill me, you should know I don’t go down without a fight.”
Landon throws me a quick wink, but then releases my hand so he can safely steer us down the road that winds its way along until we reach a massive clearing with a bunch of orange flagged stakes stuck in the ground. He parks the Range Rover off to the side, then pivots to me.
“We’re here.”
Only he sounds a little breathless, his suddenly guarded eyes holding mine.
Stella hops out of the car, and Landon does the same.
I unbuckle my seat belt, then Landon is opening my door for me, helping me down and retaking my hand.
Most of the trees are bare, their leaves scattered across the earth, my boots crunching into them as we follow after Stella, who’s running around, weaving in between sticks.
“What is this place?” I ask, no longer able to contain my curiosity.
“It’s going to be our new home,” Stella screams in delight, casting her face up to the fall sun that doesn’t provide a lot of warmth in the cold air.
“Your new home?” I survey the sticks that, now as I examine closer, seem to outline a boundary. A seriously huge boundary at that.
“These are the foundation sticks,” Landon tells me. “When they start digging, this is where they’ll do it. Then they’ll build the house over it.”
“It’s…” I’m at a loss for words as I release his hand, walking deeper into the space and looking around.
There isn’t much out here, but we’re also not far from the town we live in.
Maybe a ten or so minute drive. “You bought this land?” I spin back around to find Landon watching me intently.
He gives me one short nod. “How many acres is it?”
“Twelve.”
My eyes widen. Holy hell. Twelve acres here?
I know what the house I rent is worth—what land is worth in this part of the country—and I cannot begin to fathom what he spent on it.
The soft sounds of a forest surround us, and if I listen closely, I catch the gurgling and splashing of running water in the not too far distance.
A brook or stream likely. It’s quiet and peaceful and the air is fresh and sweet.
“This is the house you designed? Your dream home?”
Another nod.
“When do you break ground?”
“Next week. I want them to get the foundation done before the ground freezes. Once that’s done, they can do the framing and everything else over the winter. But, well, there are other things to consider.”
He swallows the distance between us in five large strides, joining me in the center of what will one day be a house.
“What are the other things?” I ask, my mouth going dry at the intensity in his expression as he stands tall over me.
“What the kitchen should be like. You know, since you and Stella like to cook so much. If we should have a second office. One for you. And then other things. Things like what you’ve always dreamed of having in your dream home.”
“You want to know the things I want in my dream home for yours?” My eyebrows hit my hairline.
He takes my hand, pulling it away from my trembling lips. “Yes. Because Stella and I are hoping that when it’s finished sometime in the late spring, you’ll move in with us. And then it won’t just be my dream home or Stella’s. It’ll be ours. All of ours.”
My breath catches. “What if I want a wraparound front porch?”
“Done.”
“And a four-season sunroom in the back that looks out into the woods beyond with a wood burning fireplace so we can watch the snow fall and stay extra cozy warm?”
He grins at that. “Also done.”
“Landon…”
“I mean it, Elle. I want this to be our home. I want this to be the start of us.”
“And I want a pool. And siblings,” Stella calls out to us as she continues to run and dance along the sticks. “A younger brother and possibly a younger sister, but I’m undecided on that last one.”
“You don’t get to decide what they are. You get what you get.”
“But Uncle Carter said that sometimes people can decide what gender they want their child to be.”
Landon groans, rolling his head over his shoulder and catching her eye. “If Elle and I ever try for a baby, I’d like us to do that the natural way, which means no choosing gender.”
“Ewwww!” she cries, covering her ears and closing her eyes. “Gross. TMI, Dad. Just ew.”
I laugh, sinking my teeth into my lip when Landon turns back to me.
“Are we going too fast for you?” His eyes beseech mine. “I know this is a lot to take in. But there’s no pressure, and the house won’t be done for about six or so months, and then you can dec—”
I cut off his rambling with a kiss. Climbing up on my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips to his. I kiss him so he knows I want this. I kiss him so he never doubts again that this is my dream too. A home with him and Stella. One day babies—boys or girls or both.
All of it.
“I want at least two kids. One day, but not yet. And I like the idea of my own office.”
He smiles against me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
In the next second, he’s sweeping me off my feet, swinging me through the air until we’re both breathless with laughter. He tugs me into his chest, his lips planted in my neck.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I love you too. Today. Tomorrow. Always.”