Epilogue
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
Theo
If Laurie didn’t love the rain so much, I’d be absolutely sick of it! In fact, I was sick of it. I hated the fact that it was nearly June and wouldn’t stop raining. Where was my sunshine and summer vibes? I wanted to wear my pretty sundresses and eat ice cream with my toes in the sand.
Technically, I could do those things at any time of year and was, in fact, doing them right now, but that was different.
I wanted to do them under clear skies and beautiful sunshine that made the sand golden and the sea bright and sparkling, not under a miserable sky full with thick clouds which refused to do anything but drizzle constantly, making everything damp and gross.
The beach was empty except for a few brave sods walking their dogs, who didn’t seem to care the sea was cold and grey, and Laurie and me sitting in our beach hut.
Well, I was sitting. Laurie was decorating.
I’d attempted to help him with the painting, and I’d been doing a good job, but the hut was only six foot wide and six foot deep, which didn’t exactly leave a lot of room for two grown men to move around each other.
We’d started at opposite ends but had somehow managed to end up on the same wall, which had only led to frustration and grumbling.
So I’d made the sensible decision to leave Laurie to it and get ice cream instead.
I’d bought him one too, because I wasn’t so mean that I’d just buy myself ice cream to eat in front of him, but Laurie had taken his inside so he could make a mental plan for what to do next while I sat on the doorstep and kicked off my shoes.
Even though we’d bought the beach hut together, I was very happy to let Laurie do most of the planning and decorating.
I knew he’d sensibly plan everything out and let me come and add a few pretty cushions and some beach-themed taxidermy at the end.
With the space being so small, we really needed to make the most of it.
Which was why Laurie had spent many hours on Pinterest and Instagram researching options and carefully measuring things out.
Luckily, the local council didn’t have very strict rules about the colours we could paint the outside as long as it was in keeping with its surroundings, which meant they were fine with us keeping the outside a beautiful primrose yellow with cornflower trim.
We’d managed to get that done a few weeks ago during a burst of late spring sunshine, and now we just had to get the inside finished.
I’d told Laurie we could paint the inside black if he wanted, or something like a dark red, but he’d declined at first, saying it would make the space look too small.
But trying to think of ideas for a gothic beach hut when all the options we’d found online were white and bland and boring as fuck was harder than I’d anticipated.
In the end I’d said we should at least paint one wall black and make sure we found lots of pretty skulls and bones to decorate it with so we’d know that it was ours.
So that was what we’d done.
And I thought it looked awesome.
The rest of the walls were white, but I was hoping we could cover them up as much as possible with pictures, bookshelves, and trinkets.
We were planning on running some shelves down one wall with a small sofa beneath it and also adding things like a teeny, tiny kitchenette in one corner with cupboards above it so we could make drinks and store snacks.
We’d also found a vintage steamer chest in a junk shop that needed restoring and we were going to bring it down to store towels and blankets and other stuff in.
We wanted the whole place to feel snug and cosy—our miniature home away from home by the sea.
“Do you need a hand?” I asked over my shoulder as I finished the last of my cone, fishing in my bag for the travel pack of wet wipes I kept in there because I couldn’t seem to eat ice cream without making a mess of myself. Even at nearly thirty-three.
“No,” Laurie said, his boots clicking on the wooden floor as he walked over to me.
“We need to wait for everything to dry before we can do any more. And I need to talk to Lane about the shelves and the cupboards. Will offered to give us a hand as well, especially since the shepherd’s huts the farm has aren’t a huge amount bigger, and he and Lane squeezed quite a lot into those when they refurbished them several years ago. ”
“Perfect! Then hopefully we’ll get some nice weather so we can enjoy it.”
Laurie chuckled and sat down beside me, looking out at the rain. It was coming from behind us, and we were just under the edge of the roof, so the drizzle only hit us about twenty percent of the time. “This is nice weather. And we virtually have the beach to ourselves.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Only you would be happy with endless amounts of rain!”
“Surely you want it to rain a bit so the lawn grows?”
“Well yes, but then I need it to be sunny so Morticia and Wednesday can actually enjoy it,” I said. My beloved guinea pigs weren’t fond of the rain either and were very happy to squeak about it. “It’s not like I can get them little raincoats and wellies!”
“No, I suppose not.”
I leant against his shoulder. “Maybe we can compromise? The summer can be half sunny and half rainy?”
“If you can make that happen, then yes, we can do that.”
I laughed and looked up at the sky, clapping my hands demandingly.
“Did you hear that, weather people? We want half sunshine and half rain, please! And we need it to start right now, not in August, and it needs to last until the start of September at least. Then we can have all the spooky weather again.”
I waited for a second, hoping the clouds would magically part and the sun would shine, but no such luck.
“Fucknuggets,” I said. “There goes my plan.”
“I guess you’ll have to take your duck umbrella with you wherever you go,” Laurie said, kissing my temple. “Or you can stay snuggled up at home with me.”
“Mmm, I like that plan. You give good snuggles.”
“And once we get this place finished, we can cuddle up here as well, as long as the weather isn’t too bad.”
“All the cuddles, everywhere. Forever.” I tilted my head up and looked at him, taking in all the beautiful details of his face like I was seeing it for the first time all over again.
The past seven months had been the happiest of my life, and every day was better than the one before.
Even on the bad days when I had nightmares about my past or felt sad and the heavy weight of the world pressed down on my shoulders, Laurie was always there to scoop me up and take care of me.
He made every day better, just by being there.
And while every day with him had been amazing before we’d started dating, now we were together it made them even more special.
“You know,” I said, one hand sliding down to the pocket of my dress and reaching inside. “When I say forever, I really mean it. I want forever with you, Lor.”
“I know,” he said softly as he leant down to kiss me. “I want the same.”
“Good…” My breath came out shaking as I pulled the little box out of my pocket, a flurry of nerves suddenly rising up in my throat.
“Then… will you marry me? I want our forever to be official, to be ours… I want to marry you, Laurence Winchester, and spend every single day with you until we’re nothing but dust. And then I want us to be together after that too, forever and forever, until the universe ends.
Because I can’t imagine ever being without you, Lor, and I want to marry you so you’ll always know.
I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone else, and I want this to be our forever. ”
I held the box up and flicked it open, revealing the ring I’d had custom-made for him. It was silver with a blood-red ruby set into the centre, with a black diamond on either side.
Laurie was staring at me, tears welling up in his perfectly lined eyes.
“Well, Laurence Winchester? Will you marry me?”
“Yes…” His voice cracked as he nodded. “Oh, my darling Theo. Of course I’ll marry you.”
Joyous laughter bubbled out of me as he held out his hand for me to slide the ring onto his finger. His hand was shaking and I was worried for a second the ring wouldn’t fit, even though I’d carefully measured both his finger while he slept and his favourite rings for comparison.
As soon as it was on, he reached for me, pulling me into a deep kiss as the rain started to get heavier.
We kissed for a while, the rain drumming on the roof above us and splattering our legs. But I didn’t mind getting wet. Not this time.
Because this moment was perfect, and nothing could change that.
When we broke apart, our hands interlaced on the wooden floor as we looked out across the beach, watching the waves dance in the wind. I sighed happily and rested my head on Laurie’s shoulder.
Truly happy, truly loved, and truly at peace.
It was all I’d ever wanted.
The End