Epilogue
AND THERE’S THE OOPS
Margot
Snaggletooth Creek at the end of September is a beautiful place.
Rhys, Daphne, Oliver, Bea, Simon, and I spent all afternoon at a local art festival, and now we’re back at the cabin.
With the triplets, of course.
And, to my utter surprise, their parents too.
“Don’t be so loud or the moose won’t come back,” Lucky says to Daphne, who just snort-laughed at a very terrible joke Oliver told as we sit around in lawn chairs while the sun sinks low in the sky.
“You don’t want the moose to come back,” Rhys says. He has an arm around the back of my chair, and both of us keep inching our chairs closer together, which is only mildly bothering Bandit, who’s decided my feet are his favorite place to lie. “It’s a wild animal.”
“It likes Margot,” Lucky says.
“It hates Margot,” I correct. “It’s rushed me twice.”
“I think it was trying to give you a hug.”
“Are you for real?” Decker says. “Dude. Moose don’t hug.”
“How do you know? Have you ever been a moose?” Lucky fires back.
“Definitely not,” Jack says. He’s been letting his hair grow out, and he’s also been getting crap about it all night.
“None of my previous lives were as a moose, and you’ve both shared all of my previous lives with me, therefore, Decker’s never been a moose either.
” He glances at Daphne. “What about you though? Were you a moose in any previous lives?”
“Not according to Madame Petty,” Daph replies.
“Oh my god, stop talking about Madame Petty,” Bea mutters, which makes both Simon and Oliver crack up.
I smile.
Rhys leans over and kisses my cheek. “You’re even prettier when you’re happy.”
“I apparently have Lucky’s sparkly vibe,” I reply.
Oliver chokes on a bottle of kombucha.
I throw a stick at him. “Just because you don’t appreciate my sparkle anymore doesn’t mean it’s not still there.”
“This should be so delightfully awkward, and yet it’s disappointingly comfortable,” Simon says.
Bea’s laughing as she shakes her head at him. “Do not be the troublemaker.”
“Everyone else has got a turn. When’s mine?”
Simon’s still shooting a movie in LA, but he was able to fly in for the day as a halfway point to meet Bea before he has to be back on set tomorrow. Getting all the way to New York wasn’t possible, but Denver was a short enough flight for this to work.
“We’ll see them often?” Rhys asks me as Daphne and Simon start debating if he should get a turn being a troublemaker.
I nod to him. “At least twice a month. It’s already on my calendar.”
“Good.”
“Best kind of family?”
“Best kind of family.”
“I was wrong about you,” Mrs. Sullivan says to me as she takes the open seat on my other side. “I’m sorry.”
“No apology necessary,” I tell her. “Completely understandable.”
“I—” She pauses and looks across the circle at Lucky and Jack, who have joined the argument about who gets to cause the most trouble. And then she smiles softly. “More family is never a bad thing, is it?”
“So long as it’s this kind of family.”
“You didn’t have this growing up.”
“I had Daphne.”
Mrs. Sullivan tilts her head at me. “And it’s really—it’s safe? For my boys knowing…what they know?”
If anyone else asked me, I’d smirk.
But I don’t smirk at my half brothers’ mom.
“It’s safe,” I tell her. “And it wasn’t just me. Jonas and Grey both pitched in with even more layers of lawyers triple- and quadruple-checking that everything’s airtight and my father can’t cause problems for anyone. Your sons are good people with good friends.”
My father has been placed on leave at Aurora Gardens because of the questionable circumstances surrounding my departure and the departure of ninety percent of my staff, and my parents are headed toward a divorce.
Someone supplied my mother with all of the evidence of my father’s affairs over the years, and it’s likely she’ll take him to the cleaners.
And it wasn’t me.
Or Rhys.
I honestly hope I never think about my parents again in my life, but watching the triplets’ parents tonight, knowing they’re navigating through some secrets they’ve each kept from the other over the years, though none as big as the triplets’ lineage, makes me suspect I won’t ever fully succeed.
Someone else’s parents will always remind me of mine.
It’s fascinating to discover I can be happy, sad, bloodthirsty, tired, fulfilled, content, and ready to wash my hands of something all at the same time.
But the one constant—no matter my mood? Rhys is there.
Poking me to talk about it.
Listening without judgment.
Rewarding me for good behavior afterward.
I love him.
I love him so much, in ways I never thought I could love another person.
A loud sneeze shatters the evening, and while half of us startle, the triplets all grin as one.
“Oh, good, the rest of the party’s here,” Jack says.
“What was that?” Daph asks on a gasp.
“You’ve never heard a loud sneezer before?” Decker says.
“Have you even lived if you’ve never met a loud sneezer?”
Theo and Laney round the corner of the cabin to join us, followed by Sabrina and Grey and Emma and Jonas and all of their collective kids.
Bandit barks once, then settles back at my feet.
“Bless one of you?” Daphne says.
“Thanks,” Theo replies.
She squints at him.
Then squints again.
And then nearly falls out of her chair laughing.
“Did your sister—” Rhys starts, then shakes his head. “Never mind. Don’t want to know.”
I meet Daphne’s gaze, and I double over laughing too.
She did.
She subscribed to Theo’s GrippaPeen channel.
“My life used to be really hard, you guys,” Daphne says to the triplets as they all stare at her in horror like they, too, are catching on.
“Now we’re getting to awkward,” Bea murmurs to Simon.
“Marvelous,” he replies with a grin.
I can’t stop giggling.
Even Rhys is chuckling.
It’s one of my favorite sounds in the world. I’ve made a point to try to make him laugh at least once a day, which I’m always rewarded for, one way or another.
Hearing him happy is reward enough, but I love the extra rewards that tend to start with him throwing me over his shoulder and pulling me into the nearest private place.
We eat, we drink, we laugh, and we all get to know each other a little better until it’s too cold, and then everyone slowly packs up to leave.
Simon and Bea are headed to Denver so that he can catch an early flight back to LA tomorrow.
Daphne and Oliver are staying in a supposedly haunted hotel in a nearby town. “We’re doing your research for you in case you decide to add haunted hotels to your new portfolio,” Daphne tells me as she hugs me goodbye.
Oliver lingers a little longer, making one of his exaggerated you people made me do something I don’t want to do anymore faces.
“Archie’s such an asshole,” he says.
“Who’s Archie?” Rhys asks.
“Other brother from another mother,” Oliver replies, which honestly cracks me up.
“Do I need to punch him for you?” Rhys asks.
“No, Daphne’s got it when the time comes.”
This is not where I saw my life taking me, but I don’t hate it. “So what’s Archie done this time?” I ask.
Oliver heaves another of his exaggerated sighs that Daphne finds charming. “He went and had some security company investigated, and now they’re being charged with tax fraud. What a fucknugget.”
Rhys grabs my hand and sucks in a loud breath.
“Fascinating,” I murmur.
“Who cares?” Oliver adds with a twinkle in his eye. “Not like anyone we know has ever been in private security working for a company run by dickweeds.”
The next thing I know, Rhys is gripping Oliver in a massive hug.
Oliver looks at me over Rhys’s shoulder.
I give him a thumbs-up instead of coming to his rescue.
I’m good with my boyfriend getting along with my ex.
Especially when my ex makes my sister so happy and this mountain of a man who holds my heart has shown me that Daphne was right all along.
I did need someone like Rhys.
Or rather, exactly Rhys.
“What’s going on?” Daph sticks her head back out of their rental car. “What did I miss?”
Rhys sets Oliver down—seriously, he was dangling a little—and swipes his eyes as I slip an arm around his waist and hug him.
“Boring business stuff,” I tell her.
“I fucking hate business stuff,” Oliver says. “Especially when people hug me because of it.”
“Then get in the car and away from the people who keep sucking you in,” Daph replies with a grin.
I blow her a kiss. “Be happy and don’t take any shit from this guy.”
She blows one right back. “Right back at you.”
Rhys and I will see them in Athena’s Rest again soon.
But for tonight, we’re staying in the cabin.
Like old times.
The triplets’ parents and their friends have all left, so when Rhys and I return to the backyard, it’s just my half brothers.
They’re whispering and snickering.
Well, Jack and Lucky are snickering.
Decker’s just whispering.
Rhys and I share a look.
He grins, and that happy expression on him makes my heart flutter.
“What are you three plotting now?” he asks the triplets.
“Nothing,” all three of them answer.
I crack up. “Sure you’re not.”
Rhys makes a noise that has me looking up at him, and I realize he’s suppressing laughter.
Or possibly he’s annoyed.
This is a new expression.
I lift a brow at him.
“You getting ready to play Lucky or Decker?” he asks Jack.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Jack’s words don’t match his tone or his guilty expression.
“Are you serious?” Rhys looks at Decker, who won’t make eye contact. “Dude.”
I think I’m catching on. “Is this about that convention Nell talked you into doing?”
One thing I’ve learned about the triplets in the past few weeks—they’ve been tempering their personalities.
They’re even more fun than Daphne, who’s taking this as a personal challenge to top them.
“I don’t people well,” Decker mutters.
“You people great,” Lucky replies. “You just have to trust that people outside our circles will see you for the amazing person you are.”
Jack coughs.
Rhys pinches his lips together like he’s trying not to smile.
“It’ll be fine,” Jack tells Rhys and me. “We’ve all been playing each other for decades.”
“Nell’s gonna make you in five seconds flat.” Lucky grins. “I can’t wait to see how much of a raise Decker has to give her this time.”
Jack rolls his eyes. “She won’t make me. I’m a much better Decker than you are.”
“Bad idea,” Rhys says.
“It’s a brilliant idea,” Jack replies. “I get to see LA. Decker gets to avoid people and probably end up with an even better reputation with his readers than he’d have if he played himself. What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen?”
Rhys and I share a look.
“Daphne thinks it’s a great idea,” Jack adds.
“Okay then,” I murmur. “I’ll get on board. Sure. This is a great idea. I’m sure nothing will go sideways, and you’ll have everything under full control the entire time.”
Decker, Lucky, and Jack all do their silent communication thing again.
Lucky breaks it first. “Dude. That’s almost as bad as trying to curse us again,” he whispers.
“It’ll be fine,” Jack insists.
I have a gut-level feeling that it will not, in fact, be fine.
Based on the look Rhys is giving me, he agrees.
“At least it’ll be entertaining,” I murmur to him.
Something will definitely go wrong with this plan.
Rhys smiles at me. “Truer words. Want me to kick these guys out so we can enjoy their cabin?”
“Ew,” Decker says.
“Hey. That’s my sister you’re talking about,” Lucky says.
Jack holds out a fist for Rhys to bump. “Let the record show that I, the smart one, support you two doing whatever adult activities you want to do.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I found out I had triplet brothers.
But this?
The way they’ve opened their hearts and their homes, welcoming me and introducing me to the most perfect man?
This is what life’s supposed to be.
And I’ll never want it any other way.