Epilogue
Marshall
A Few Months Later…
“Ican’t believe we’re married now,” Emma said with a happy sigh as I held her in my arms on the dance floor of our wedding reception.
I usually wasn’t a dancing kind of guy, but I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to hold my bride on our wedding day.
So, I was dancing, and Emma wasn’t complaining about my lack of dance skills or the way I was limping through the dance.
Honestly, I didn’t really know what other people thought anymore.
She didn’t care about my lack of skills or finesse on the dance floor, and that was all that really mattered to me.
Yeah, we were finally fucking married, and it had been the longest few months of my life.
I’d quickly arranged the details to get Emma and my daughter to California, and I’d gotten that accomplished in less than a month.
It hadn’t taken long for Emma to become fast friends with my partners’ wives, and Wren had continued on with her friendships here like she’d never left them.
My daughter professed that she loved her new school, and she spent as much time with her grandmother and her friends as she possibly could.
Emma and I had visited her mom soon after I’d put a ring on Emma’s finger.
Okay, I’d been a little nervous about meeting her mom.
I had been the man who had knocked her daughter up and left her alone to raise our child.
Even though she’d known that I’d never known about Wren, it would have still been easy for her to resent me for not being there for her daughter and my child anyway.
I hated it myself, so I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had resented my absence during some of those difficult times for her daughter.
Luckily, her mother had accepted me easily and enthusiastically, without a single hint of displeasure that I’d just shown up out of the blue.
We’d gotten even closer since that initial meeting.
Emma was a lot like her mother, which made her mom a very easy woman to like.
Once Emma and Wren had physically moved, all of the other details had gotten wrapped up quickly.
I’d solved the problem of putting Emma’s house up for sale by paying it off and giving it to Emma as an early wedding gift.
She and Wren would miss the people they cared about in Michigan, so I thought I’d remedy that by spending time in Michigan when we could.
Emma had started planning the wedding as soon as she’d moved to California, but it couldn’t happen fast enough for me.
The guest list had stayed extremely small, thank God.
Wren, Emma’s mother, Sara, my partners, their wives, and the Michigan team were all here at the reception, along with a few other people that we’d wanted to share this special day with us.
Sara had been Emma’s maid of honor, and Wyatt had stood up for me in our simple, short, but meaningful wedding ceremony.
I couldn’t say that I was actually enjoying my time in a tuxedo, but seeing Emma in her ivory wedding gown had made up for any discomfort I was feeling.
Emma had my ring on her finger and my last name now, and that was the best part of this entire day for me.
I had to admit that I’d gotten a little choked up when Wren had asked me if she could take my last name, too.
Wren would be a Marshall soon because she really wanted to be.
My entire life had changed in a very short period of time, and I felt like the luckiest bastard on the planet today.
“We’re married,” I confirmed. “It’s too late for second thoughts now.”
Emma shook her head. “No second thoughts. I like it here, and I love you. Your house is actually starting to look like a home now.”
Fuck! I’d probably never get used to hearing Emma tell me that she loved me, and I knew I’d never take the love and trust Emma had given me for granted.
I’d lived without that for so damn long that it was always going to feel like a miracle to me.
“It’s our home,” I reminded her. “You’ll probably miss your friends.”
Our place was starting to look like a real home.
Emma was starting to put some personality and warmth into the home by adding a lot of pictures and some color into the utilitarian house.
Yeah, there was clutter that I happily put away when necessary, but I had a wife and kid now.
Our home actually looked like a family lived there now, and I wouldn’t ever want to go back to the way it used to be.
I could feel the love and warmth in the home the minute I walked through the door every day.
For a guy who had lived a solitary, lonely life for so many years it was the best feeling in the world.
Granted, I’d never known what I was missing when I was alone, but now that I knew how happy I could be, I was never going back to the miserable asshole I’d been my entire life.
“I’ll miss them,” she confirmed. “They were always a huge part of my life because I had no family in Michigan after Mom left. I’d like to think they’ll all end up as happy as I am right now.
I think there’s someone out there for all of them.
The guys swear they’ll never get married, but I think they just need to meet the right women.
They’re going to have to meet someone who is more important to them than Last Hope and the secrecy and privacy of their lives. They need someone they can trust.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Not that long ago, I would have said that will probably never happen. But if it happened to me at my age, it can definitely happen for them. I thought my partners would be single forever, but all of them found the right woman.”
Emma sighed. “It’s going to take some females who can see through their bullshit.”
“Like you saw through mine,” I said drily.
Hell, I was probably the coldest, unemotional asshole in Last Hope.
If I could end up with a woman like Emma, it could happen for any of the other guys.
Emma pulled back a little and smiled at me. “I always could,” she told me. “I’m not sure why most people can’t see through that big, bad, SEAL commander crap. You have an amazing heart underneath that facade.”
“I’d prefer that everyone else still sees me as a rational leader,” I told her.
Wyatt was the only one who had ever really seen me lose my shit, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“I’ll never tell,” she teased. “The people who know you the best already know the truth. You’re a good man, Colin Marshall. The people who follow your orders at Last Hope without question already know that. It’s a volunteer organization. If they didn’t believe in you, they wouldn’t be there.”
“You don’t exactly follow my orders without question,” I grumbled.
“You don’t need another faithful follower,” she joked. “You need a woman who loves you and isn’t afraid to question you when necessary.”
She was probably right.
I needed someone to call me out occasionally because very few people did.
Her occasional stubbornness made me crazy at times, but it was also one of the many reasons I loved her.
Loving my wife so damn much was a vulnerability for me, and that was something I’d avoided all of my life.
It had taken me a while to realize that sometimes having a few vulnerabilities was worth the risk.
I was willing to do anything to make sure that Emma and Wren stayed safe and happy, and I didn’t give a shit anymore if everyone knew it.
“Are you sure you’re not disappointed that we aren’t having a long, romantic honeymoon?” I questioned.
We were taking a few days to go to Catalina Island, but that wasn’t a real honeymoon in my mind.
“No,” she said softly. “It’s almost Christmas. Every day that we’re together feels like a honeymoon to me, Colin. It will be our first holiday season together. I just want to be with my family.”
“We’re going on a real honeymoon after the holidays,” I grumbled.
“We’ll see,” she said noncommittally.
We were going.
We’d had a small, intimate wedding. Emma deserved a nice honeymoon. She didn’t know it yet, but that was going to be a Christmas gift from me.
Emma had always wanted a Caribbean vacation, and she was getting one after the craziness of the holidays were over.
Yes, we had a daughter to raise, and we were a family. But I always wanted Emma to know that she was a huge priority in my life.
My work and Last Hope were still important to me, but it wasn’t my whole life anymore.
“We have a few days to ourselves,” she said as she tightened her arms around my neck. “I’ve never been to Catalina Island. I know it won’t be beach weather, but I’m still excited to see it with you.”
I’d never been there, either, even though I’d lived close to the tourist destination for years.
“It won’t be as crowded as it is during beach weather,” I pointed out.
“I’m good with that,” she said in a seductive voice. “I can think of other things I’d rather do than go to the beach with you.”
I looked down at her, and our gazes locked.
Her gorgeous blue eyes were full of mischief, love, and adoration.
Christ! I had no idea what I’d done in my life to deserve this woman, but I’d spend the rest of my life being grateful for her and the love I thought would never happen for me.
“Such as?” I questioned hoarsely.
She smiled. “It might be cool outside, but I’m sure I can find a way to get that ripped body of yours naked, hot, and sweaty without the warm weather.”
She pressed her shapely body against me a little tighter.
Fucking hell!
My dick was as hard as a pike in a heartbeat.
“You don’t want to see the water?” I asked gruffly.
Her smile widened. “You made sure we have an amazing water view from the villa. I want to see you. I’ll let you escape once in a while for food and a little sightseeing.”
I grinned back at her. “I’m sure we can find food delivery.”
“Good,” she said with a nod. “Then we can eat naked while we look at the stunning water views.”
“I think it’s time to get the hell out of here,” I said hoarsely.
I wanted exactly what Emma wanted.
We needed a few days to ourselves while it finally sunk in that we were now a married couple.
Emma was mine, and I wanted to spend as much time as possible claiming her heart, mind, body, and soul.
It had been a hectic few months, and neither of us had gotten the time together that we needed.
Emma had been busy planning the wedding and we’d tried to make sure we were there for Wren when she needed us while she was adjusting to her new life in California.
I’d also been a little preoccupied with work.
Prince Nick was safe at the moment, and the situation was getting a little better for him in Lania.
The king’s health was improving, and I’d helped him bust one more person responsible for his assassination attempt, a high official in the government that he’d previously thought was a friend.
I wanted to believe that things would be fine in Lania in the future, but I had a gut feeling that he may still have enemies out there that were going to be outed in the future.
Change wasn’t going to come easily or smoothly for a country like Lania.
But, for now, the only thing I could think about was my wife and making up for the fact that I’d spent way too much time on work lately.
It was time to get this very short honeymoon started.
She nodded eagerly. “I think we can slip out now. Kiss me first, Colin.”
I looked down at her beautiful face and her radiant smile before I finally lowered my mouth to hers.
This woman.
This gorgeous, vibrant, warmhearted woman was exactly what happiness looked like for me.
After a lifetime of being alone, I wanted to savor every second of that happiness.
Emma and my daughter had turned my quiet, highly structured bachelor’s life upside down, but I was gladly going to wallow in the chaos of my new life.
I made sure that my kiss told Emma everything she needed to know, and all of the things that I sometimes didn’t say out loud often enough.
I was always going to cherish what we had.
I was always going to be grateful that my life had changed because she was part of it.
And I was always going to love her like crazy.
Maybe we’d missed our first shot at a future together, but…
By some miracle, we were together after fourteen years of separation.
I knew what real happiness felt like now, and I was going to spend the rest of my life making damn sure that Emma and I never lost each other again.
~The End~