Epilogue #2
He takes the glasses from me and sets the champagne aside before coming back to me.
The clusters of lights at the top cast a glow over us, making the mist from the falls look like a million particles of fairy dust dancing in the air.
He takes my hand and tugs me closer. I look up at him, breathless and more in love than I ever believed possible.
“This is incredible,” I say.
Because in this moment, he’s the old Kase, the mysterious boy I always wondered about—the one who chased me up the falls to kiss me the way he’d always wanted to, working his way into my heart so thoroughly that I had no choice but to wait for him to come back to me.
As if he’s reading my every thought, he cradles my face in his palms. His eyes search mine. “This is when I knew,” he says. “The minute I touched you, I knew you owned me.”
I cover his hands with mine. “And now you own me too.”
He bows his head until our foreheads touch. I can feel his shallow breaths, warmth mingling with the cool misty air.
“Thank you,” he whispers. “For making every new day the best day of my life. For trusting me when I was too scared to trust anyone.”
My heart is bursting. Aching with pure happiness. Unshed tears sting behind my eyes, but I’ve lasted all day without ruining my makeup. There’s only one way I want to get messy, and that’s with Kase, our bodies entwined, embedded, joined in perfect abandon.
“Kiss me, Kase. More than kiss me. Make me yours.”
With my invitation, he crashes his lips to mine.
No longer tender. No longer teasing and sweet.
He leads a frenzy of desperate touches with his mouth, and then his palms feverishly seek more of my flesh.
He walks us backward to where a couple of cushions and blankets are spread out.
He’d come up here in anticipation of this moment, which makes me want it so much more.
He sits down, guides me so I straddle him, and wastes no time finding his way up my fluffy skirts.
“Fuck,” he groans when his fingertips reach my bare sex.
A secretive smile curves my lips. “You didn’t think I’d make an exception today, did you?
” As soon as the negligée portion of the pre-wedding photos was over and the dress was in place, I’d quickly ditched the satiny panties, hoping that by the time the night was over, Kase would know I’d been this way all day, waiting for a moment just like this.
“I wasn’t about to let you ruin a beautiful pair of panties by tearing them off me like a savage. ”
“Oh, and I would have. They would have been shredded,” he rasps, sealing our mouths in another greedy kiss.
I don’t have to beg or work his cock free from his tuxedo pants.
He’s ahead of me, moving quickly to spread me under my skirts and guide me down onto his length.
He binds us one searing inch at a time before punching his hips up.
Again and again, harder and deeper until my cries of ecstasy fill the night air.
They’re made of the sweetest satisfaction, the deepest love, and every ounce of gratitude that’s collected inside me over the course of this incredible day.
“I love you. I love you so much,” I say, winding my arms around him with no plans to ever let go.
“I love you, June. I will always love you.”
KASE
A year and a half later…
I wake up from a nap and check the clock.
It’s well past noon, and for a split second, I’m in a panic that I’m late to milk the cows.
But now that we’ve downsized the dairy operation, my time is dedicated to the fields.
That and making my wife happy, one special project at a time.
I spent the morning planting more bulbs in the backyard.
In the spring they’ll sprout up around an oak tree that June likes to sit under on sunny afternoons with her lunch.
She said my mother, wherever she is, probably would have loved that spot, looking over the pasture and the fields, the barns and rows of tiny white cottages.
Even though it still hurts, the fact that she left and never came back, June’s rekindled a little bit of hope that love exists inside the absence.
Love and probably fear and regret. But mostly, hopefully, an enduring love.
Wherever my mother is, I hope she knows we’ve made a home for her memory.
I pour a cup of coffee and go out onto the back porch to survey the fruits of my labors again. In the distance, June is walking up from the field, holding an enormous pumpkin to her hip.
“Goddamnit.”
I put my coffee down and sprint to meet her. I’m out of breath when I get to her.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I scoop the pumpkin away from her and she sighs with relief instantly. “Thanks, honey. I found the perfect one, and I knew I’d never find it again in the patch, so I just had to bring it home.”
“Baby, you cannot be carrying twenty-pound pumpkins across fields. You’re carrying enough as it is.
” I caress over the swell of her belly and lean down to kiss her forehead.
She smells like the field. Like fresh country air and fall leaves, all the things our guests come to Falls Edge to experience on their weekends away from the city.
She tilts her head up and finds my lips, pressing herself into me even though her belly keeps us from getting as close as we once were.
Being eight months pregnant with our son hasn’t slowed her down from moving or fussing or working just as much as she used to—a fact that bewilders and infuriates me at times.
“Come on,” I say, taking her hand. “You should get off your feet.”
She frowns. “I’m fine, Kase. Seriously. Plus, I still need to make those apple pies for the farmers market tomorrow.”
I roll my eyes. “I’ll make the pies. You can give me instructions.”
She huffs out a sigh but doesn’t argue. I smile, because for now I’ve got my way.
We walk together toward the house. The oak tree and the lilies and the back-porch swing come into clear view.
Beyond, the mountains in all their quiet wonder frame the picture of our home.
In that moment, with my wife by my side, carrying my future inside her, I know without a doubt that all my dreams have come true.
Thank you so much for reading!