Epilogue #2
I chuckled. “Poor Nick probably thinks this is the start of something.”
“She’s never getting married,” Jules said.
“She will if Boone has any say. Pretty sure that only made him fall harder.” I cracked my neck to one side. “Who else do you see?”
“Laney and Theo, also dancing.”
Theo gazed down at Laney, all doe-eyed. But Theo had been gazing at Nova the exact same way five minutes ago.
Speaking of Nova. She was scowling at Laney from beside the food table. Her date—a B list actor whose name I couldn’t remember—was so busy peppering Ford with questions that he’d hardly paid any attention to Nova all night.
There was no need for Nova’s jealousy, though. Laney was oblivious to Theo’s adoration and treated him like a brother.
As if on cue, Laney pulled Theo’s face down and went for a blackhead on his nose. He jerked back, then smacked her hand away.
Which made Nova smirk.
Jules pursed her lips. “She doesn’t want him, but she doesn’t want anyone else to have him either.”
I grunted because… pretty much. “Who else?”
She sighed. “Bowen and Maggie, Cash and Charlie, Liam, James and Willow.” Who was adorably dancing on the toes of James’s dress shoes. “Your parents, Blue and Anna, Granny and Gramps, your aunts, uncles, the rest of your cousins, Grandma Lisa, Blue’s Mom, Madden and Persephone and their crew.”
“Laney’s parents,” I said quietly. “You can’t forget them.”
“Of course I can’t,” she said in a hush.
“Was that your favorite part of the day?” I asked. “When Mr. Lannister walked you down the aisle?”
“No.” She smiled softly, watching the Lannisters talking with my parents. But she said nothing else.
“Having all your friends here as your bridesmaids?” I prodded.
Fallon, Briar, and Riley stood in a circle, chatting like excited schoolgirls.
Though the trial was on the horizon, the judge had already declared their DayGlow contracts null and void.
Fallon lived in Seddledowne now and worked side by side with Peyton and Jules at DoubleTake Beauty.
Briar and Riley had both been given contracts with some other brand that Jules wholeheartedly approved of—headquartered in South Dakota, of all places.
So this was the first time they’d all been together since everything went down.
I smiled. “I’m pretty sure you set a world record on the number of bridesmaids you had.” Fallon, Briar, Riley—even Laney—and every unwed Dupree and Bishop female stood beside her while she said her vows.
“Maybe. But that wasn’t my favorite part either.”
“Then what?” I asked.
She turned to me. “You really don’t know?”
“No.”
She licked her top lip. “The part that comes next.”
“Next?” I asked, afraid to believe we were finally there.
“Hmm.” She tipped her head to the side. “Maybe after another slice of cake.”
“Don’t tease me like that.” I smacked the table, making her laugh. “I’ve been waiting a year and a half. Do you have any idea how long that is?”
“Yes. It’s a year and a half.”
“Maybe for a woman it’s just a year and a half. But for a man, it’s like dog years.”
“So I’ve waited a year and a half, and you’ve waited…” She looked up, doing the math. “Ten and a half years.”
“No, longer—turns out it’s fifteen dog years to every human year. Anna told me that the seven-year thing has been debunked. So really, I’ve waited twenty-two and a half years.”
Jules clicked her teeth. “That’s a long time.”
“It is. So again, don’t tease. I’m a man on the edge.”
She threaded her fingers through mine and looked me in the eye. “No teasing,” she said, agonizingly slow. “No cake. And no more standing on the edge. It’s time… to jump.”
“Oh, heck yes.” I scooped her up in my arms and shot to my feet. “We love you all!” I shouted. “Thank you for coming! Goodnight!”
I jogged through the crowd, and Jules laughed into my shoulder.
“He sounds like you on our wedding night, Blue,” Anna said somewhere in the crowd.
Blue grunted. “Waiting is not for the weak.”
No. No, it is not.
“Oh, hold on,” Jules shrieked as I bolted past my parents. “Weston.” She pointed back to our boy. “We need to say goodbye.”
I made a reverse beeping sound, engineered a three-point turn, and jogged over to Weston.
He giggled, already half asleep on my dad’s shoulder. “Dada cawy Mama.”
“Mama had a big day,” I said.
“Very tired.” Jules patted a yawn, closed her eyes, and pretended to sleep. For Weston’s sake.
“Mama go nigh-night.” He pointed to himself. “Wes-sin stay Bampa and Gwammy.”
“Yes,” Jules said. “You be good.”
He flopped over, head on her chest, and hugged her.
She squeezed him back, eyes closed, her smile massive. “Love you, sweet boy.”
“Lu you.”
Then he reached over and wrapped his arms around my neck so tight it felt like he was trying to pop my head off.
I pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Love you, dude.”
“Lu you,” he said.
We hugged my mom and dad. Or Jules did. With my arms full, I mostly got hugged.
“Bye!” Weston waved, looking perfectly happy in my dad’s arms.
“Sounds like a green light to me.” I made a vroom-vroom noise and sped off again.
Ten minutes later, we pulled up to our corner of what everyone was already calling the Dupree KOA—our camper a solid step above Cash and Charlie’s hooptie, a laughable five steps below Liam’s mansion on wheels—
And gaped.
Jules clapped her hands. “Wahoo!”
“No,” I growled. “They did not.”
“They did.” She beamed at the words LEGALLY LICENSED TO HIPPITY DIPPITY IN ALL 50 STATES written in bright red across the side of our abode.
“We are not driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway like that.” We would leave in the morning; final destination: Asheville, North Carolina.
“Oh, yes, we are.” She grabbed my face. “Pranks and shenanigans already, Griff. Pranks and shenanigans.”
“They should’ve given us a grace period. That had better wash off.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, a hand pressed to her heart, eyes soft like she was about to cry. “This is what families do.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
But then she whimper-squealed, pointed… and burst out laughing.
Because right there in the passenger’s seat was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Granny peering out at us, finger pointed—complete with a bubble caption that said, I’m watching you.
My jaw clamped. “Oh, heck no.”
Jules rubbed her hands together like a cartoon villain. “Time to break out the glitter bombs.”
“Now?” I yelped. “I thought—no, you said—” I thrust my hands at the Hippity Dippity Express.
“Please.” She clasped her hands together in a prayer pose. “It’ll take less than five minutes to set them up.” She waggled her brows. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Fine.” It would take at least ten. But what was ten minutes when she’d been waiting her whole life to retaliate in a family prank war?
It took fifteen.
But it didn’t matter. Because forty-five glorious minutes later, I lay on my back staring up at the ceiling over our bed, a stupid grin on my face.
Jules’s hand shot out, gripping my arm. “Did you hear that?”
Sure enough, tires crunched over gravel outside. Which meant my cousins were home.
“Quick,” she hissed. “Get dressed so we can watch.”
We hopped up. While I tugged on a pair of jeans, she shrugged my dress shirt over her head. Just my shirt.
“Yeah.” My gaze dropped to her legs and back up. “You can wear that anytime.”
She smiled, eyes soft as she buttoned. “I’ve always wanted to wear my husband’s dress shirt.” She pulled up the collar, inhaling. “Ah, it smells like you.”
We heard car doors shut.
She jerked her chin toward the hall as if she were running an op, and I followed. The two of us tiptoed into the “living room.”
Carefully, I eased the RV door open. We peeked through the crack to see Cash and Charlie chatting with Liam in hushed voices.
“I’m surprised we didn’t get hate texts from Griffin,” Liam said.
Cash chuckled. “Probably didn’t want to waste the time.”
“He was too busy tearing off Juliette’s dress,” Charlie added.
Jules snickered.
“Well, I’m sure we’ll wake up to an earful,” Liam said.
They wished each other a goodnight and split up, heading to their respective “homes.”
Jules gripped my hand, sucking in a breath.
I held perfectly still.
Cash unlocked the door to their RV and gestured for Charlie to go first.
“Such a gentleman.” Jules giggled.
“Oh, he’s going to regret that,” I whispered. “Right about—”
Charlie screamed, and a cloud of our finest revenge billowed out into the night.
Cash shouted an obscenity that women should never have to hear. “Grif-fin!”
Not one second later, we had a perfect view as Liam got blasted right in the face. “Y’all are going down!” he roared. But then he coughed and sputtered, his hand sweeping through the air, trying to break up the sparkly fallout. “Later.” Another cough. “I’m too tired tonight.”
Charlie yelped. “Granny?”
Yes, we’d propped the cardboard cutout on their couch, so Granny would be the first thing they saw when the glitter settled.
“That’s what y’all get!” I shouted. “And don’t be messing with us anymore tonight. We’ve got the paintball guns loaded and ready.”
“And we’re not afraid to use them!” Jules yelled. “We love you!”
Then we shut the door and locked it.
Jules sighed happily. “Families are the best.”
“The second best,” I said, cocking a brow. “Hippity dippity is the first best.”
“The first best.” She snorted. Then she winked. “It is. And lucky for you, I’m feeling refreshed and ready.”
She hooked a finger through one of my belt loops and led me back down the hall.