EPILOGUE
Raina
Eighteen months later …
“I honestly thought he would have proposed by now,” I said to Gabrielle as we tidied up the tasting room after another very successful event. “He told me he would do it when I was ready, but least expected it.”
“Are you ready?” she asked, carrying a tray of dirty wine glasses to the glass cleaning machine behind the bar.
I gave her a look that basically said, “What do you think?”
She smirked. “So stop expecting it, then it’ll happen. It’s Jagger. He’s like the most romantic man on the planet. When it happens, it’ll knock your socks off.”
I glanced down at my open-toe sandals. “I need to start wearing socks again then.”
She snorted and rolled her pretty amber eyes.
Danica came out from the back room. “Just rough numbers here, but this was one of our most successful private tasting parties yet. Over half the attendees signed up for the yearly subscription box.”
I smirked as I wiped down the counter. “Ah, that coupon code for ten percent off really draws people in. I love it.”
“It also helps that we’ve expanded the box to be an island artisan box,” Naomi said, coming into the tasting room from the small kitchen, and chewing on something.
“Now that we have all the alcohol distributors participating, as well as local artisans and vendors, we’re going to have to create tiers for the boxes and possibly start a waitlist.” She glanced at Danica. “Is this even sustainable?”
Danica tipped her head side-to-side in thought.
“It is , but you are right, we should probably create some tiers. It might increase revenue, since the price point is extremely high. Right now, we’re only serving a higher income bracket of customers.
If we have smaller subscription boxes, or ones they can curate a bit more for themselves, more people might participate, increasing our overall revenue. ”
“I’m on it,” I said. “I’ll add it to my to-do list for the coming week.”
“You should get going home,” Gabrielle said, tipping her chin at me. “We can finish up here.”
I glared at her. “You kicking me out of my own business?”
She exchanged glances with my cousins and all three of them shared knowing, almost sneaky smiles. “No. But you’ve been here since eight this morning.” She checked her smartwatch. “It’s now eleven-thirty. Go home to your man and child.”
Naomi and Danica both nodded, agreeing with our matriarch.
If I wasn’t so dead on my feet, and yawning more than I was blinking, I’d have probed them more for why they were being cagey. But honestly, the thought of crawling into bed at home on the hillside trumped everything else.
“Fine,” I said, twisting my mouth and narrowing my brows, mostly in jest. “But any juicy gossip discussed needs to either be about me, or reiterated back to me tomorrow.”
They all made amused noises in their throats, but nodded.
I climbed into my CRV outside less than five minutes later and drove the ten minutes across the island to Marco and Jagger.
It was Marco’s idea that we move in with Jagger.
We didn’t do it right away, but after about eight months of Jagger and I seeing each other, and sleeping over at each other’s houses, Marco asked if it wouldn’t just be easier for us to move in together.
We saw that as a sign that he was ready.
So we took the plunge in August, and the hillside above San Camanez Brewery and the Sound Bites pub became our new home.
I still saw my cousins all the time, and Marco saw his all the time too. It didn’t feel like too much of a change, and plus, Jagger’s place was so much bigger. I was able to increase my plant family—by a lot.
As far as my brothers and Soloman were concerned, all four were serving time—the twins less so than the other two—for kidnapping, assault, and reckless endangerment. Thankfully, I wasn’t required to be present in court and relive the horrors.
Marco, obviously, struggled with some PTSD.
He still did from time to time. His level of attachment to me and Jagger intensified, and he didn’t like to be anywhere without us, which made going to school a big challenge.
Luckily, we got him an emotional support bearded dragon—Mario—that he was able to bring to class with him in a small portable terrarium, and that helped.
Either Jagger or I drove him to and from school for the rest of the year though.
Which was totally understandable. Marco was also seeing a child counselor online via videochat once a month, to work through some of his lingering fears and worries.
In the eighteen months since the incident, my kid had come leaps and bounds with his fears and anxiety. He still had some of them, but working together, and with a lot of patience and compassion, he was doing a lot better.
Those first few weeks after though, he slept in my bed and would even follow me if I got up to go to the bathroom. He’d stand outside the closed door, and I would have to groggily reassure him that I was still there. Then we’d walk back to bed together.
I went and saw Soloman and Ozais in prison once and I warned them both, as I stared into their dead eyes, that if they ever came after my family again, I wouldn’t hesitate to gut either of them like a fish.
Now, I pulled into the brewery property, the driver’s side window down the whole drive back so I could breathe in that sweet, briny island air. There was nothing like it. If someone could figure out how to bottle it and sell it, they’d make a fortune.
Up to the gate I crawled, leaning out to punch in the code. The gate swung open, and I rumbled over the gravel to the gray house on the end.
Another yawn claimed me before I got to the door. It was open because nobody on the hill ever locked their doors, and I stepped inside, only to find the most incredible, romantic scene of my life.
White pillar candles of every size illuminated the otherwise dark room, and there he was, on bended knee, holding a ring box. He also had something else in his other fist.
My hand flew to my mouth in a gasp.
“Before you say anything, this has Marco’s approval and blessing. He helped me set it all up,” Jagger said. “The pillow was his idea.” That’s when I noticed the pillow under his knee, which just made me smile.
I swallowed.
“Raina Moraine Romney-Aaronson,” I cringed at his use of all my terrible names. The only name in there I liked was “Raina.” The rest could burn in hell. And Jagger knew how I felt about those names, so he said it on purpose.
I blinked a few times as my throat grew tight, and the backs of my eyes burned.
“I’ve loved you for so long, even when I thought I hated you.”
I hiccuped a laugh-sob.
“You challenge me. You amaze me. You inspire me. You encourage me. You give me strength, and hope, and love, and confidence. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ve never met a stronger, smarter, more headstrong woman, and while you drive me nuts, you also make me love you more and more every damn day.
” His chin trembled beneath the luxurious beard.
“Would you please, please become my wife? Become a McEvoy and ditch those other horrible names.”
I laugh-sobbed again, then nodded until my head threatened to fall off my neck. “Yes. Yes, I will marry you.”
“Thank god!” came a voice from upstairs. “It’s about time, you two!”
“You’re supposed to be in bed,” Jagger replied, smiling as he slid the ring onto my finger.
I pulled him up, and he took my mouth with a starved man’s passion and intensity. I fell into his arms, breathing in his exhales and letting him consume me, cradle me, and cherish me the way I always dreamed a man would.
When we finally came up for air, I was breathless and deliriously happy as tears of utter joy slid down my cheeks. Holding my face in his hands, he wiped the tears away.
The crinkle of a package against my cheek had me reaching up and taking it from him. “What’s this?”
I met his gaze, confused why he had an unopened pregnancy test. My eyes flew open.
“You’re over a week late,” he said, the excitement in his hooded eyes undeniable. “You’ve been working so much lately, I bet you thought it was stress. Or that you didn’t even clue in to the fact that you were late?”
I shook my head, because he was totally right. This summer was already gearing up to be our busiest yet, and I was swamped.
“Do you … should I …” I glanced behind me at the two-piece bathroom in the downstairs hallway that led to Jagger’s home gym.
He shrugged. “We could have two things to celebrate tonight.”
“I do need to pee,” I said, nodding.
“Can I come down yet?” Marco called from upstairs.
“Up to you.” Jagger made one of his adorable half smiles.
“Come on,” I replied.
My son thundered down the hall and the stairs, throwing himself at us.
“Will Jagger adopt me when you guys get married? I don’t want to be the only Aaronson.
I don’t want to be an Aaronson at all. I want to be a McEvoy.
” He held an arm around each of us and stared into our eyes.
“Can I be a McEvoy?” Then he spied the pregnancy test in my hand. “What’s that?”
“Uh …”
“Dude, I will absolutely adopt you,” Jagger replied. “I can’t wait to make it official.”
Marco beamed.
I took a deep breath, then pushed it out. “And this is a pregnancy test.”
My child was like the sun bursting through two clouds, the way he lit up the entire room with his smile. “You’re pregnant?”
“I was about to take the test,” I said.
“How do you take it?”
“I have to pee on it.”
He wrinkled his nose. “That’s gross. But go do it.”
Riding a high unlike anything I’d ever experienced before, I took my leave of my men to use the bathroom, taking great care not to pee all over my hand. Then I put the cover on the strip and brought it out to the living room, where Jagger and Marco chatted softly on the couch.
I set the test on the coffee table, then brought out my phone and set a timer for five minutes.
“Did you just put something you peed on, on the coffee table?” my kid asked.
“I put the cap on it,” I replied dryly.
“What are we waiting for?” He leaned forward. “Will that screen say, ‘baby’?”
“It will say ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant,’” Jagger answered. “Since I sprang for the digital version.”
“Ooh,” I teased.
Marco sat between us and both of our knees bounced as we waited. “I hope it’s a girl,” he said. “Silas says May is like obsessed with him. I think it’d be fun to have a little sister.”
“Sister or brother, I think they’d both be madly in love with you,” Jagger said, ruffling Marco’s hair.
“We just can’t get our hopes up too high,” I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “It’s early. So it could be a false negative. It could also just be that I’m late and there is no baby. Also, if there is a baby, we need to keep it a secret for at least three months. In case of a miscarriage.”
“You had those before you had me, right?” Marco asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Two.”
He rubbed my back. “I’m sorry you had those, Mom.”
I glanced over at Jagger as my heart filled close to bursting with just how much I loved both of these men. My son had the absolute best role model of a man in his life, and surprised me every day with his growing levels of compassion, empathy, and thoughtfulness.
The timer on my phone beeped and Marco, with his jungle cat reflexes, grabbed it first. Then he leaped up onto the couch, standing on the middle cushion. “I’m going to be a big brother!”
Jagger’s eyes met mine, a mile-wide smile on his face, eyes glittering in the candlelight. “You ready for our lives to get a lot more chaotic, Rosebush?”
Fresh tears of happiness streamed down my face as I smiled at him and reached for his hand. “Nobody else I’d rather weather this storm, or any other, with than you, McEvoy. We’re having a baby. And we’re getting married.”
“Woohoo!” Marco did a happy little shimmy, then sat back down on the couch, wrapping his arms around us both from behind and hanging his body in between us. “And we’re all going to be McEvoys!”
Then we celebrated with sparkling apple cider from the Twisted Sisters Cidery, and toasted; the three of us, to our new life, our growing family, and the happiness we knew we all deserved.
Life was sweet, but it was about to get a whole lot sweeter.