Epilogue
EPILOGUE
WILLIAM
“ K ids, get a move on!” I shouted. “We’ve gotta go!”
Logan thundered down the stairs first.
“Need help with your tie?” I asked.
“Nah, I got it,” he said as he grabbed his cap and gown off the kitchen island. “Can I take the Stingray?”
“Kris wanted us all to ride together. You gotta ask her.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, smirking. “That’s why I’m asking you.”
I snickered as I took a bottle of water out of the fridge and unscrewed the cap. “Yeah, and that’s why I’m telling you to ask her. I don’t wanna piss her off.”
“Come on,” Logan groaned. “Y’all are basically married, and since she’s my legal guardian and gets to tell me what to do, that means you do too.”
“Nice try.” I chuckled. “We’re engaged, not married. And she’s your legal guardian for two more weeks. You get to put up with her until then.”
It had been a crazy six months since I proposed to Kristin. We settled into an arrangement of school nights at her place and weekends at mine. Spring break was spent at my place. With summer break starting next week, I was excited to hit the beach with the Boyd crew as much as possible.
After late nights of studying and doing as much extra credit as he could convince his teachers to give him, Logan was graduating from high school today.
His eighteenth birthday was right around the corner, and I had never been so happy to buy out a department store’s worth of stuff for his new dorm room.
He got his acceptance letter to East Carolina University all on his own, and I was proud of him for sticking to our bet. Part of me hoped he’d still want to come back and work for me after graduation. ECU was only an hour and a half from Beaufort, but I knew he was itching for independence.
So damn proud.
“Okay, okay! Everyone ready?” Kristin said breathlessly as she rushed out of our bedroom while fastening an earring. “Where’s Kylie? Ky, hurry up! We’re going to be late!”
Kylie closed her bedroom door and floated down the stairs in a light blue dress.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw how short the dress was.
Logan and I shared a look, then simultaneously crossed our arms and said, “No.”
Kylie threw her hands up. “Seriously? One older brother was bad enough. This is just impossible.”
Kristin snickered and shook her head. “You look beautiful, and the dress is fine.” She pointed her last comment in our direction.
Logan shook his head, muttering, “These women…”
“Alright,” Kristin said, clapping her hands together. “Everyone in the truck. We’ve gotta go.”
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The June sun was ruthless as we took our seats on the football field at Havelock High School. The poker club turned out in full force to watch Logan get his diploma.
Steve and Erica sat together at the far end of the row. Aly, their daughter, was on Steve’s lap while Erica cradled their new baby boy, Eli. Maddie and Luca were beside them.
Hannah Jane and Isaac, now engaged, sat beside Kristin. With the craziness of their schedules, Hannah Jane had planned their wedding long before Isaac proposed. It wouldn’t be long before they were walking down the aisle.
Chase sat beside me with Mel to his right. Bridget’s chair was empty.
Hunter, Zoey, and Kylie were sitting in the row in front of us. Kylie’s stalker … Fine —Kylie’s boyfriend , Josh, was sitting beside her.
He kept his hands to himself. I was convinced that was only because I was sitting behind him and kicked the back of his seat whenever I saw his fingers so much as twitch.
Kristin kept shooting me dirty looks. These women were going to be the death of me.
The Pomp and Circumstance Marches played, and the graduates filed in. Kristin smiled like a proud parent and waved like an absolute lunatic as Logan walked to his seat.
I passed her a tissue and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “You did it.”
She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “ We did it. He wouldn’t be graduating today without you.”
And damn if that didn’t make me feel ten feet tall.
Somehow, we made it through the ceremony without getting escorted from the premises—especially when Logan crossed the stage and turned his tassel. It was absolute pandemonium.
The graduation ceremony ended, and we said our goodbyes. Hannah Jane had to run to the inn to check in on a wedding, and Maddie had a cake delivery to make.
Much to Kristin’s dismay, Logan didn’t want a graduation party. So, we let him pick a restaurant and decided to do a fancy family dinner instead.
Sweaty and exhausted from sitting in the sun, the six of us piled into my truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Can we go home before dinner?” Kylie asked. “I’m all gross.”
Kristin and I shared discreet smiles.
“Yep,” I said. “Heading there now.”
Although I wanted Kristin and the kids around all the time, I didn’t want to pull them out of their schools or make Kristin’s commute a pain in the ass. Besides, New Bern pulled her further away from the poker club.
Our wedding was a year away, but we were still taking big steps. Moving during the summer would make changing schools easier for the kids in the fall.
They just didn’t know it yet.
I turned right onto Highway 101 rather than left. The kids were so busy talking among themselves that they hadn’t even noticed when we passed Jokers. I rounded Davis Bay, passing Maddie and Luca’s house.
“Wait…” Logan craned his head around Hunter and looked out the window. “Where are we going?”
Kristin glanced back at him and smiled. “Home.”
When Maddie and Luca told me the lot beside them was coming up for sale, I jumped on it. Over the last few months, the same builder who renovated the DeRossis’ place built ours from the ground up. A six-bedroom waterfront behemoth with plenty of space for the kids.
Kristin and I did the final walk-through a week ago. Chase kept all the kids over at his place one night so that she and I could empty their rooms at my house and move them into the new home. We still needed to empty their trailer, but it wouldn’t take long.
Kylie’s jaw dropped as I slowed the truck to a stop in the new driveway. “Oh my God.” She looked across the truck at Kristin and me. “ Oh my God! ”
I reached across her and Kristin and popped the glove box. I grabbed the bag of house keys I’d stored in there for this moment. One by one, Kristin and I passed a key to each kid—even Zoey.
They piled out of the truck, racing each other to the front door, vying to be the first to see the house. I took Kristin’s hand, lacing our fingers together as we walked up the brick path that led to the door. “We got one graduated. Three more to go.”
She looked down, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Well, maybe there will be one more graduation,” she said softly.
We stopped under the wrap-around porch, listening to the shrieks and peals of excitement as the kids raced through the house. Doors slammed, and feet pounded against the floors. It was music to my ears.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Kristin gave me a sheepish smile. “Well, I talked to Karina. She agreed that if I finished my Bachelor’s degree, she’d let me move up into management at the inn.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Kristin nodded. “I’m going to finish my degree. Online, of course, but I’ve already talked to an advisor and mapped out what I need to do. If I buckle down, I can get it done in two semesters.”
I couldn’t help myself. I kissed her hard and long right there on the porch of our new house. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Sunshine,” I said. “So proud.”
She sniffed back a tear and laughed. “If you had told me a year ago that I’d be living here, engaged, and going back to school, I would have said you were crazy.”
“I am crazy,” I said as I picked her up and spun her around. “Crazy about you.”