EPILOGUE
HOME IS WHERE THE SUNFLOWERS GROW
2 YEARS LATER
Evie : Where are you guys?
Nate : We’ll be here on time.
Ikram : Give them a break, Evie.
Evie : They can’t be late! I’ve spent too much time organizing everything, it has to be perfect!
Ikram : And it will be.
Ikram : I’ve got sunscreen for everyone, I’ll be right here to pick her up, Prue will be surprised, it’ll all go FINE.
Evie : Not with the sunscreen already.
Evie : Nate, do something.
Evie : Naaaaate
NATE
I kiss the shape of her jaw softly as her legs are tights around my waist. She’s still fluttering around me and her soft moans echo in the small room.
“Do you think we did it this time?” I whisper as I kiss my way to her ear.
“We’ve just got rid of the IUD. Give us some time…”
I chuckle. I’ve been a very patient man since I’ve met her. I guess I can be patient a little while longer. The odds of her getting pregnant on our first try are slim, after all.
“Can I open my eyes now?”
She slaps my shoulder in outrage. “No! It’s bad luck.”
“So, I can fuck you against a closet wall, but I’m not allowed to see you?”
“As far as I know, there are no sayings about fucking a bride before the wedding,” she says. I nip on her lobe softly. She shivers in response. “We really should go…”
I hum softly in approval, but don’t move. I keep kissing every inch of her jaw and her neck, careful not to damage her makeup or hair. “We should, yes.” She giggles when my lips slide over that ticklish spot under her ear.
I pull out from her slowly, keeping my eyes closed. She gasps softly when two of my fingers plunge inside her to push my cum back inside.
“Nate,” she moans, her breath short. “I’m—”
“I’m just making sure no drops are wasted, Sweetness. It might also give you the time to reach the bathroom without tainting the underside of your dress.”
I give a few teasing thrusts before I set her back down on her shaky legs and drop a light kiss on her forehead.
“Will you be okay?” I ask her.
“Yeah. Thank you for helping me take the edge off…”
I grin. “Anytime.”
I feel both her hands cupping my face softly to pull my lips against hers. It’s not a long, deep, or passionate kiss. Just a featherlight touch, strong enough to make each other feel all the love we share.
A simple kiss that still has me smiling as I drive away to the secret place we’re getting married in an hour.
“Everyone stands up!” Evie yells from the back rows. “The car will be here in just a few seconds!”
I keep both my trembling hands behind my back, facing forward, my eyes closed. I’m not facing the aisle so I won’t see her getting out of the car, and yet I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. Because I know the second I’ll see the look on her face when she sees where we are, she’ll start to cry. And then I’ll start to cry. It’s going to be a very teary wedding.
The car stops.
The music starts.
Matthew who is officiating our wedding nods at me to turn around.
With one last shaky exhale, I turn slowly to look towards the sun of my life for the first time since yesterday.
Our eyes meet as she stumbles in shock, just before her gaze gets lost looking around. Around at the sunflower field we’re getting married in. Around at our guests wearing little sunflowers pins over their hearts.
Ikram doesn’t let go of her hand when Evie and Nuri come to her other side. Prudence smiles at them with a sob as they all loop their arms together. At the next row, Scarlett and Claudio join them, both placing a hand on Prudence’s shoulders.
When they finally reach the front row, her biological parents and her two younger sisters join them to take the last steps towards me. Her mother—one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met—wipes her cheeks and eyes carefully.
I wish Jack was here.
Here to see his sister in a wedding dress, escorted by her family. Not the parents that adopted her for the wrong reasons, but Camila and Felipe, the ones who lost and mourned her for years, never being able to forget about her. Claudio and Scarlet, the ones who cared and looked after her like she was their own when she needed it the most. Nuri, who I have to thank later for kicking my ass when it was clear that I was an idiot, and without whom I might never have had the guts to ask Prudence out. Evie and Ikram who’ll never let her get drunk alone or catch melanoma.
Jack would have loved it. But he’s here, in a way. Because when he left, he gave each of us a little piece of his soul and took a piece of ours with him.
I hold my hand forward, smiling. Prue doesn’t hesitate before she places hers on top of it, sniffing with a smile of her own.
I’ll never understand how she could ever think she was only shining because of Jack’s light when everyone can’t help but turn to her. Like we’re all sunflowers drinking her in.
“Hey,” I whisper as she takes her place facing me.
“Hey.”
I’m not sure I even heard anything Matthew said, too enraptured in her smile to even pay attention to anything else. When I’m asked to repeat something, I do. When I’m asked to place the ring on her finger and let her place one on mine, I do.
When I kiss her in front of our friends, our family, I don’t think how it could have all happened before if I hadn’t been such a coward from the start.
I belong here, with her, and she with me. With all of us. She is the sun and we’re her sunflowers.
Because her home is with the family she chose. The family who cared about her. About Jack.
Her home is where the Sunflowers grow.
THE END