Epilogue
“ I ’m getting eaten alive!”
Julianna smacked her calves. It was spring, and mountain mosquitoes in the evenings were already becoming quite a nuisance.
I was lucky and usually the last person to be bitten.
My beautiful wife, however, was always the first to be bitten.
She wore a knee-length, cerulean floral dress, accentuating her dark hair and porcelain skin.
I couldn’t blame the mosquitoes. All that exposed real estate made me want to bite her, too.
She hadn’t known we were coming here, but I was prepared.
I pulled out my pocket-sized insect repellent permanently attached to my work key ring in the center console of the Jeep and handed it to her. She saw the small bottle and smiled.
“I got you, always,” I said with a wink, and a blush appeared on the apple of her cheeks. She walked away from the vehicle a few steps and sprayed her legs and arms while I reached into the back floorboard and pulled out the duffle bag I’d stashed earlier—something she hadn’t noticed.
She looked down at it but said nothing.
We strolled hand in hand across the weathered, cracked pavement of the Mill Creek High School’s auxiliary parking lot. The sun was setting, and the sky was lit up with every color, from burnt orange to lilac. No one else was at the football field, but that’s how I wanted it.
I’d dreamed of this night since becoming head football coach for the Mill Creek Raptors a few months ago.
I didn’t know how or when I could make our fantasy a reality, but since Coach Mayfield handed me the key to the field gate and the coach’s office, the only thing on my mind was getting my wife alone on this football field.
Admitting to others that I wanted to be a coach wasn’t easy.
The sport still brought back so many mixed feelings for me.
But after Julianna and I discussed it at length, she made me realize my passion and talent for football was meant to be shared.
I enjoyed teaching and mentoring. I’d already gotten together a day camp for the following year’s football tryouts, and I’d somehow roped Whit into coming back to Mill Creek to assist.
It was a hopeful thing—a redemption.
Julianna had no setbacks from her surgery, but still, I held onto her like she was made of glass. She claimed to hate it, but whenever my grip on her would naturally relax, she’d lean into me more.
“What are we doing? Breaking and entering?” Her voice was teasing, but I saw a light spark in her eyes at the thought of mischief.
I smiled back at her, charmed.
“Not with a key.” I held it up and slipped it into the padlock. I opened the heavy gate and let her walk in ahead of me. Then I closed it. She looked back at me over her shoulder, her smile wide, and it took my breath away .
How did I get so lucky?
“What’s in the bag?” she asked, pointing to it.
“Things,” I replied without elaboration, again taking her hand in mine. “Come on.”
I walked her out onto the open field, the bleachers rising all around us. The bright lights weren’t on, but the open area and dusk night sky were perfect for my purposes. Dim and shadowed, but with clear visibility.
I led her to the far end of the field, opposite the concessions, lockers, and coaches’ offices.
“It’s dark back here, and you’re taking me away from the gate. Are you going to kill me?” She giggled, and I swung her around and pulled her into me, throwing the bag to the ground.
She relaxed in moments, and I couldn’t keep my hands from roaming as our lips met and tongues danced.
I moved her hair to the side and kissed her neck, and she let out a moan that sent me into a deeper frenzy.
I grabbed her waist roughly and fisted the thin material of her dress.
I tugged the garment upward until it reached her hips.
“Wait,” she said, pulling me off her a smidge to look me in the face. “We can’t. Cameras?—”
“They are nowhere to be found back here,” I finished for her.
“They only face the buildings.” I was being honest, as I wasn’t about to share my wife with anyone.
I’d pointed them out. She looked a little dubious, but she acquiesced.
She stepped back into my reach and surprised me by taking the hem of her dress and pulling it up over her head in one smooth motion.
My breath caught. She was wearing a matching set of black lingerie, my favorite. She put her hand on her hip and let me look her up and down.
“Damn,” I said on a breath, and I reached for her.
“Wait. What about your clothing, sir?” Her eyebrow quirked. She was getting quite good at imitating me .
“I’ll keep them on for now. This is for you.
” I picked up the bag where it had fallen, unzipped it, and reached in, dramatically pulling out my college jersey.
It had taken some digging, but I’d found it.
I was hoping I still had my high school one, but I couldn’t find it, so this one would have to do.
She threw her head back with laughter as I held it up for her to take in.
“Dracula, are you trying to take my virginity on the high school football field?” Her eyes sparkled so brightly in the dim evening that they looked like stars.
“Pretty sure I already took that.” I smirked. “I’ve not seen those journal pages since you took them, but did you think I forgot about the rest of your fantasy?” I gathered the jersey at the neck. “Little did you know, it became mine too, the moment I read those words. Arms up.”
She said nothing and did as I commanded. I slipped the jersey over her, guiding it to cover her body. It wasn’t super long on her tall frame, and the sight of her bare thighs beckoned me to touch her. I put my hands on her hips and pulled her into me, crashing my lips into hers.
Kisses turned to grazes all over her soft body under the jersey. I teased her nipples through the sheer fabric of her black bra and let my fingers slip into the front of her lacy underwear. When I touched her hard clit, and felt the moisture between her thighs gathering, I lost my mind.
“I want to take you here, on this field,” I said breathlessly, sucking on the delicate skin between her neck and shoulder until I knew it would leave marks.
Her desperate moans confirmed she was enjoying the slight pinch of pain as much as I was inflicting it.
“I want to think about what we’ve done every time we’re here next season.
I want this secret between us. How I fucked you?—”
I didn’t finish my sentence before my gorgeous wife tugged me down to the soft grass of the sideline.
And I wasted no time. She gasped when I removed her underwear, then kissed her upper thighs.
She began to murmur my name as I feasted between her legs, doing all the things I knew she loved and all the things I loved doing.
She tugged on my head, removing my swollen lips from her. I looked up at her body until our eyes connected.
“I need you now,” she whispered, her words barely audible.
Like a hungry lion bursting from his confinement, I pounced. I moved so quickly that I can’t remember readying myself, but I remember the moment I entered her.
Heaven wasn’t even the word. It was always different but always the same, like the exhale of coming home after a long day. A perfection made for only me.
I cradled her head as I moved steadily, the friction heating between us.
Her nails dug half-moons into my upper arms, and I peppered her chest with open-mouthed kisses.
I could feel the pressure building up in our bodies.
Her mouth was parted in ecstasy, her hair cascading around her, and she looked so otherworldly in my old jersey under the dim light.
It was more than I could take, and I realized it would all conclude quickly.
I loathed and loved time in that moment, how it both gave me what I wanted more than anything, but also moved too swiftly to be a gift.
“Touch yourself,” I said through labored breaths, unable to do it myself because I was supporting myself over her. She didn’t hesitate. Her enjoyment turned into something more, ecstasy written on every movement of her face. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“I know…it’s in the…past,” I panted, feeling the tightening of my impending release, “and our present…is amazing…but what I wouldn’t give to go back in time…and do this…to you when you were eighteen, Julianna. ”
She shook her head. “This right here,” she whispered with labored breaths, “is perfect.”
We moved rhythmically, and she cried out my name as waves of pleasure ran over her. I couldn’t hold back my praises as I spilled inside her at the same time, releasing as deep as I could manage. I wanted to be inside of her forever.
We remained motionless.
“That was incredible. Thank you,” she whispered, and I kissed her.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” I replied, sliding my hand to cup her face in my palm. “I have one more thing to give you. Well, two more things. If you’re ready.”
She nodded.
I slipped out of her warmth, unable to keep myself from watching my cum seep out of her and onto the football field. I’d never forget that sight, and I didn’t want to.
“Use my underwear.” She laughed, knowing what I was watching.
I used her underwear to clean her up as best as I could, loath to do so but knowing it would make things more comfortable for her. She sat up as I fastened my jeans. Then I reached over and picked up the bag. A smaller insulated bag contained what Kallie had called “the goods.”
“Is this from Kallie’s bakery?” She squealed as she snatched the bag from my hand.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I chided, then gently reclaimed it from her.
“Let me do this.” I reached inside and lifted the covered pie tin.
Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t reach for it.
Carefully, I balanced the tin and removed the lid, revealing the most beautiful and delicious-smelling apple pie I’d ever seen in my entire life.
And, in the middle of the pie, on top of the latticework, lay the ring that Julianna deserved as my wife.
Was it obnoxiously large? No. Because that wasn’t Julianna.
If she’d wanted, I’d have bought her a million-dollar set from Cartier.
But Julianna was unique and intentionally not flashy.
She enjoyed creative yet practical things.
I knew this and so much more about her. She’d shown me so much in the past months by being herself, and I’d taken care not to ignore one thing that made her special.
“Bram,” she said, tears coming to her eyes, words catching in her throat.
I picked up the vintage-style ring from the crust, admiring the clear marquise diamond flanked by smaller diamonds. It was four carats altogether, but she didn’t have to know that yet.
“This,” I said, slipping it onto her finger, “is what you’ve always deserved. Well, you deserve more, if I’m being honest. But I hope you like this one?—”
“I love it so, so much,” she said earnestly, sniffing. It was an awkward and perfect response, something else so uniquely Julianna.
“I’m so thankful you’re my wife,” I said, wiping her tears. “And we can’t forget the pie, can we?” She took her eyes off the diamond on her hand and looked at Kallie’s pie.
“It’s apple,” she observed, puzzled. I nodded.
“I did some digging on the internet for this one. But in Celtic mythology, apples are the fruit of the Gods. They signify immorality and eternity. So, even though it may not be your favorite fruit, I wanted to make a point. As long as you keep me, I will be yours, Julianna Winchester.”
She scrambled to me, pie and ring be damned, and pressed her lips to mine.
“You’re forever to me, too,” she promised.
We held onto each other tightly, our kisses passionate and heartfelt. Soon, however, she reached for something on the ground as my tongue was in her mouth.
“What are you?—”
She pulled back and looked at me sheepishly. “This pie is going to waste. Where are the forks? There’s going to be bugs on it.”
She was half-naked on a high school football field in the moonlight, and she still wanted the pie. I laughed, knowing that forever was no longer a thought, and the future looked deliciously decadent.