Epilogue
Garett
“Are you ready for the soft opening?” Ruby asks. She’s wearing a sky blue cowl neck dress that cinches at the waist with a knot before dropping to her knees. It lifts up and off with just a pull of a knot. We worked that out when she tried it on last night. Her skin is bronzed from the fake tan she said she needed for opening day confidence. It makes her blond waves glow even more ethereal than usual, especially when naked.
Focus, Garett.
“Rubes, I’ve told you before that it’s called a soft launch,” I reply as I run through the jobs I need to finish before friends and family come for our trial night. The big opening night is tomorrow.
Ruby sidles up to me and pulls me down to her mouth by my blue tie. “But doesn’t a soft opening sound sexier? I bet you’d love to touch my—”
“Put the poor man down,” Amber says as she enters the dining area. Kalen and Iain follow behind, each with a six-month-old baby strapped to them. Amber officially takes over the cookery school tomorrow, at which point Ruby will permanently run her Cloud Nine business and oversee puddings here at the restaurant while doing the occasional class.
Jem ensures all the menus are at the front desk.
“This restaurant was the making of him, wasn’t it?” I whisper.
Ruby smiles, her eyes shining with pride.
“Don’t start crying again,” Jem hollers. “Every time you see me working hard, you and Mum cry.”
“Maybe Mum is still dealing with the trauma of finding out you dropped out of university and spent all the tuition money when you didn’t go to lectures,” Amber retorts.
Luckily, I grew up in noisy, angry kitchens, because the Cloud family resemble a Gordon Ramsay cookery show.
“Whatever. Now, one of you sort out the lights up there. Some of us are too busy working to chat and kiss.” Jem glares at Ruby, and she winks back at him.
“Sorry, no one wants to kiss you, baby brother.”
He glares as he continues sorting things. Jem is so quiet about his love life that none of us know what’s going on. I thought he might date Flora, but nothing is happening with them.
“Leave your brother alone,” Liz calls as she bustles around the room, trying to change our agreed-upon layout.
“Liz,” I warn. “Put the cutlery down.”
She side-eyes me and slowly lowers the fork. I continue to watch her until she steps away from the table.
Iain must sense she’s going to continue to change things as he hands her one of Amber and Kalen’s twins, saying, “You take Iris while I help with the lights.” She was named after Ruby’s grandma. You can imagine the tears in the family when that was announced. The other baby was called Holly because it was the first thing Kalen saw after the babies were born. That will happen on Christmas Day. I bit my tongue and whispered later to Ruby that it was lucky there was no mistletoe or baubles on the ceiling, as they could have named their daughters Toe and Balls. I got a punch and a laugh for that. Totally worth it.
“We’re nearly ready,” Kath announces, bringing in Chrissy from Clive’s former restaurant. All the staff who worked with me there are now part of Every Cloud.
All the wishes I didn’t let myself have when I was kicked out and extra ones I never imagined have come to fruition. Ruby pretends to put her hair in a bun but then lets it drop like ribbons of gold. She winks at me. The woman is non-stop teasing, and I can’t get enough of it.
“Stop flirting,” Jem shouts again. I can’t do anything without this entire family seeing. Well, nearly nothing. I’m on a promise for a soft launch celebration with Ruby in the hideaway later. We’ve sneaked there several times since the snowy night and always with a cheese board. She brings her own cakes for pudding.
“Can I come in? I’ve got Cookie,” Flora says, pushing through the main door. He runs between me and Ruby before settling down next to Flora. We’re allowing him to be part of the soft launch. He’s been part of the journey, although he’s not the face of a restaurant now. He’s just Cookie. “Barry is setting up his camera to film a piece outside. He mentioned Clive.”
“Have you heard from him?” Liz asks.
As much as she couldn’t stand the guy and told him to “go ‘cook’ himself,” she told me during one Cloud Burst that she wanted him to change his ways rather than suffer forever. Then Iain called her a liar and it ended in a jovial argument. That’s how most Cloud Bursts end. I love them.
“Yeah,” Flora replies, bending down to stroke Cookie. “He’s travelling. He messaged me before he left for a monastery in Thailand. He’s trying to find himself and work on not being the bad guy in every story. We’ll see. He said he was proud of me. He knows I was shadowing Ruby and that I’ll run the children’s parties and cookery school with Amber.”
Liz hugs Flora. “As he should be. We’re all proud of you. You’ve made such a difference already, and there’s so much potential for other things, too.”
Flora’s grin reminds me of the day I first complimented her. She didn’t have enough positive role models until this last year. She’s doing great things, although she confessed to me privately that she’s still not found her passion.
I glance around the room. The family and workers surround me. Now’s the moment.
“Ready?” Kalen asks. I nod at him and tip my head to Jem, who points at Iain and nods. All the Cloud men have helped me with this.
Iain hits the fairy lights, and Jem turns off the main ones. Flora passes me the dessert I prepared that morning.
Ruby catches the movement. Her brows are low in a glare.
“Rubes,” I say, getting on one knee. Everyone turns to stare. There are gasps and smiles, but all I see is the beauty in front of me. “From the moment I first saw your bleeding hand and nearly lost my shit–”
“Nearly?” Ruby cuts in.
“Shush, Ruby,” Liz says. “Let him do this.”
“You shush,” Iain says.
I raise my hand before it descends into another family tussle.
“From that moment, I had to know more about you. Every second I’ve spent with you since has shown me that I was missing significant light from my life. You brought this cheeky sunshine that I needed and wanted. No matter what happens, whether we’re a success or if I end up in another God-awful bedsit, I want you with me. Every cloud does have a silver lining, and you were mine at a time in my life when I thought I’d never see sunshine again.”
Liz bends and stares at me. “I think you’ll find we were all that silver lining, Garett.”
“Mum, let him finish,” Jem crows.
“Your whole family changed my life. This means that there is no chance for me to get rid of them. But I love them nearly as much as I love and adore you.”
Iain makes a happy sigh.
“I’m saying, Rubes, will you eat my pudding? I made this crème br?lée just for you. It’s called the Ruby Red.” She eyes me suspiciously as she takes the teaspoon I offer her. “It’s raspberry and white chocolate, but with one special secret ingredient.”
“I’ll never say no to one of your desserts, although can you not say ‘eat my pudding’ in front of my family because it gives me filthy ideas?”
“Ruby,” Iain warns, and Amber laughs.
She cracks the sugar topping in one go—the spoon clinks against something.
“What did you do, Garett?” she asks, but she’s struggling not to turn those beautiful lips into a smile. Using the end of the spoon, she hooks a silver ring that sparkles with rubies. “My grandma’s?”
I nod. “She’ll always be with us, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet her, but this family is as much a part of our future as they are your past. I’m saying, Ruby, will you marry me?”
“I feel we should have given some sort of blessing,” Liz comments.
“I already gave it,” Iain replied.
“But he didn’t ask me.”
“Or me,” Amber adds.
“I’m sorry, Liz and everyone,” I say, although my focus is on Ruby, who still hasn’t answered. Not that her family give her space to. “Can I have everyone’s blessing as I know I’m never getting away from you?”
Liz grumbles.
“Not that I’d want to,” I add with a smile.
“Yes,” everyone says with a cheer.
“Now, everyone, quiet. The man is proposing,” Kalen calls out, pointing at Amber, who closes her mouth instantly.
“Back to Ruby,” I reply, staring at her as she worries her lip. Oh shit. She wishes I hadn’t asked. “I’m sorry, Rubes. Shouldn’t I have done it in front of your family? I know it’s quick, but I—”
She kneels beside me, and Cookie crawls over to sit with us. She plants a kiss on my lips. “It’s a yes. It’s a billion yesses. Of course I love you and I will marry you, and you did everything right.” She kisses me again, and everyone cheers once more. “But did you have to ruin a dessert to do it?”
I scoop a finger of crème br?lée as I remember all the times she’s let me lick the bowl when she’s finished icing cakes. “Open wide, baby,” I say.
“Aren’t we saving that for when we’re in the hideaway?” she replies, making me blush and chuckle all at once.
“Enough of that, you two,” Kath says. “Right, everyone. The soft launch is in thirty minutes for all our favourite cookery school clientele, so we need a meeting in the kitchen and then the last checks. Flora, take Cookie to Garett’s flat upstairs. Jem, do one last visual of the place settings. Liz, step away from the restaurant. I see you changing things. Staff will be in the kitchen in two minutes, and the rest of you get lost so we can welcome you all properly with an opening to remember. Tonight is about making mistakes and learning from them to improve the launch. And if anyone is good at learning from mistakes, it’s you lot.”
I kiss my future wife once more. “Good luck, Rubes.”
“Good luck, you sexy, grumpy bastard.”
And then a voice carries through the doorway. “Where is the famous Garett Kelsey?” Surely, it’s not Mary Berry? It can’t be.