Epilogue
EPILOGUE
MIRA
Four Months Later
A nya slid my veil into my hair, carefully fastening the clip before she smoothed the material out around my head and shoulders. I stood in front of a massive, full-length mirror that took up almost an entire wall of the bridal suite at the Jasmine Sky Hotel. I stared back at my reflection and replayed every moment of the relationship that had led me here.
I thought back to the first time I’d seen Logan at Jude and Mickey’s wedding, standing at the bar with that cocky smirk permanently plastered on his lips. The very picture of a rich-ass playboy who was too gorgeous for his own good and knew it.
If someone had told me that night that we’d be here less than two years later, happy, about to get married, and with our first child on the way, I’d have laughed in their faces—and then I would’ve thrown a drink on them.
But here we were, and every word of that was true. Logan and I were getting married today at the same hotel where we’d had our first official date. Our reception was even being held in that very restaurant on the rooftop where he’d made me feel precious and like a princess for the first time.
I felt like a princess again today. More so than ever before as Anya tied a sparkly belt above my baby bump. My dress was a beautiful, flowing lace gown with room for my ever-growing belly and I had comfortable, sparkly flats on my feet.
With the belt as the final touch and the veil now fixed in place, I was officially a bride. God, I look so pretty. I can’t wait for him to see me.
“You look stunning, babe,” Anya said in a hushed voice as she wrapped her arms around me from behind, resting her head on my shoulder and hugging me close. “Logan is a lucky, lucky man. If I had to put money on it, I’d bet that he was going to try to put another baby in you tonight.”
Soft laughter bubbled out of me, softening the intensity with which I missed my parents right now. I was trying really hard not to show it, but it hurt like hell that they weren’t here.
Internally, I sent up a quick prayer and thanked them for raising me to be the woman that Logan had fallen in love with. Glancing up at the ceiling, I imagined them there, smiling and proud of the person I was today.
Then I looked back at Anya and winked. “I think there’s a reason women’s bodies were designed to carry only one pregnancy at a time. Between the excitement and the hormones, I would’ve let him put another baby in me tonight if it was possible.”
She winked at me. “You can always try.”
I sighed as she stepped back, my gaze dropping away from hers in the reflection to take in the fact that I was now a bride and was about to be somebody’s wife . It was still a little surreal, but I wasn’t nervous.
By the time I left this hotel, I would be his wife and Logan Jones would be my husband. That made all the damn difference to me. I couldn’t wait to marry him. Couldn’t wait to promise to spend the rest of my life with my best friend and lover. The father of my child who now smiled more than he smirked and still wore the fancy suits but couldn’t wait to swap them for a pair of sweats as soon as he got home.
Logan had settled amazingly well into our much quieter life and I never worried anymore that he would get bored and leave us. He just wasn’t the type. These days, he claimed that he’d lived that part of his life to the fullest and he was now throwing himself into this next chapter with as much dedication, determination, and ferocity as he had the previous one.
Which meant that this baby and I were in for one heck of a ride with the infamous Logan Jones, former jet-setting, international playboy turned adoring, attentive fiancé and future daddy. I smiled as I smoothed out the dress and nodded at Anya’s reflection. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
She beamed at me and took my arm, leading me to the door where Slate was waiting to walk me down the aisle. My brother was standing tall and looking smug in a charcoal gray suit, but he was also misty eyed as he took my arm from Anya and wrapped his hand around the crook of my elbow.
“I’m proud of you, sis. Mom and Dad would’ve been too, you know?” His voice was gruff and I reached up to hug him, breathing past tears of my own before I gave his shoulder a playful smack.
“This is your last warning. My makeup artist is a serious lady. If you make me cry and smudge her masterpiece, she’ll be coming for you and you definitely don’t want that.”
He chuckled and hugged me back, his chest expanding against mine as he took a deep breath before releasing me and leading me to the elevator. “I guess I’d better not make you cry then, but if you do, I have Kleenex in my pocket.”
“That’s the maid of honor’s job,” Anya piped up indignantly from behind us. Slate’s jaw hardened as frustration rippled across his features, but she couldn’t see it, so she kept going. “For the record, I would just like to point out that I’ve got Kleenex too. Mountains of the stuff. I’ve got you, girl.”
Slate sighed and I laughed. Her crush on my brother had completely soured during the wedding-planning process, which I thought was a good thing. Having spent so much time with him, she’d realized that they didn’t make a good match.
Once upon a time, I’d thought they might, but I’d been wrong. So wrong. They annoyed the hell out of each other.
Slate and I stopped in front of the doors of the ballroom where the ceremony was being held, and my thoughts snapped back to what I was about to do. Music started playing from inside and Anya squeezed my arms before she joined the other bridesmaids, who entered the ballroom on cue from the hotel’s wedding planner.
“You ready?” Slate asked when the woman nodded at us.
I glanced up into his eyes and grinned as I squeezed his arm. “Walk fast, big brother. I don’t want to wait any longer than I have to before we say our I-do’s.”
He chuckled, but then the doors opened again and the bridal march started playing, and everything else just faded away. At the top of the aisle, Logan was waiting for me, and suddenly, it was just him and me—and our baby I was carrying there with me.
Moisture shimmered in his blue eyes as they met mine, a soft smile raising just the very corners of his lips as he watched me walk down the aisle. As soon as Slate placed my hand in Logan’s strong, warm grip, he took his place as best man beside my future husband, but I was barely even aware of it.
I was just staring into the eyes of the man I was about to marry with my heart racing a million miles a minute and my entire being radiating with love. Logan pulled me into his arms, leaning over to brush a kiss to my cheek as he whispered. “You took my breath away, my love.”
“So did you,” I replied on an equally breathy whisper. Then I tightened my grip on his hand and turned to face the officiant when he did.
My heart kept going wild, my side pressed up against Logan’s. I was only aware of him. Only able to focus on the fact that we were getting married and would spend forever together.
When it was time for us to share our vows, he took my free hand as well, holding both as those warm, sparkling eyes met mine. “You know, I, uh, I never thought I would be standing here, about to promise my life to someone. But when I sat down to write my vows, I realized that all that changed the day I met you, Mira. It took me a little while to catch up, but I knew from that very first moment that you were different. I think I even realized that you made me different.”
He inhaled and squeezed my hands, the corners of his eyes crinkling on a gorgeous smile. “What I didn’t realize then was that I wanted to be different. I wanted to be the man who got to come home to you and who deserved to be that man. I thought I knew everything, but it turns out that I didn’t know much at all at the time.”
Chuckles rippled across the crowd, but I didn’t look away from him. I couldn’t, even if I’d tried. “I know it now, though. I know you have brought me a sense of peace and restfulness that I never thought I’d find. I know that I could’ve kept searching the world for a place to belong, and never have found it because it turns out that where I belong isn’t a place, it’s a person, and it’s with you.”
Tears gathered in my eyes, my throat tightening as he kept going. “So today I promise to be your safe place, the place where you belong. I promise to be your rock and your anchor, your peace in this chaotic world. I promise to always be the man you can turn to when you need to rant and rave, and to always take care of you in the aftermath. I promise to stand by your side when you face the hypocrites and the nonbelievers, and I promise to support you while you prove to them just how strong, smart, and incredible you are.”
I managed to smile through my tears, holding them back until he brought our joined hands to the bump. “Peanut in there, I promise to keep trying to make the world you’re going to be coming into soon a better place. I promise to be there for all your moments, big and small. I promise that you’ll always have Daddy on your side, even when you’re wrong, and that I’ll never try to embarrass you in public.”
More chuckles rang out, but in my periphery, I noticed more and more people wiping away tears or dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs. Logan kept his hands on my stomach as he looked back up at me. “I promise to do my best for both of you. Every single day for the rest of my life. I love you. ”
“I’m about to ugly cry,” I warned him quietly a moment before the sobs took over. Not giving a damn if it was proper procedure, Logan wrapped his arms around me while I cried into his broad, warm chest. I was probably getting his shirt soaked and full of makeup, but neither of us cared.
He held me until I got control of my emotions, but he kept me in the circle of his arms as I said my vows to him and only him. “Logan Jones, you are the light and the love of my life. You keep saying that you’ll try to deserve me, but the truth is that you already do. Just like I must’ve done in a previous lifetime to deserve to have your love in my life. We’re a team, baby. There were so many other things I wanted to say, but I just want to be your wife now. No more talking about it. I love you.”
Logan chuckled into my hair and kissed me even before the officiant said he could. Then we exchanged rings and he kissed me again, holding me close and keeping me at his side once we finally left the ballroom.
A couple hours later, my cheeks ached from all the smiling. The makeup artist was going to kick my ass for having cried it all away before the reception had even started, but I’d never been happier. I sat next to Logan at the same table in the restaurant we’d been at that night as Slate and Anya prepared to make their speech.
Since we hadn’t wanted the formalities to continue forever, we’d insisted they make a speech together, and as I watched them jostle for place behind the podium, I already knew it was going to be hilarious. Anya grabbed the microphone as Slate cleared his throat and started reaching for it. Then she smirked at him.
“Too slow, big brother,” she said cheerfully, turning toward the crowd but looking only at me. “Most of you know that this big lug next to me was the last person to come around to?—”
“That’s not true,” he interjected. “I wasn’t the last.”
I giggled, hiding it behind my hand. Logan shook with barely restrained laughter beside me. She rolled her eyes at him, giving him a cold shoulder as she carried on. “I was on Logan and Mira’s side from the very beginning, and let me tell you, watching them fall in love was a spectacular ride.”
I pressed a hand to my chest, melting into Logan when he slung an arm around my shoulders. “Of course, they had their ups and downs, but they’re both exceptionally stubborn people and nothing, not even Slate here, could keep them apart. I firmly believe that they were born to be together and I can’t wait to see Logan deal with spit-up on his designer shirt.”
She pumped her eyebrows at him and he shrugged, giving her that cocky smile of his. “I’ve surprised you a few times, Anya. Prepare to be surprised again.”
She smiled. “I already am prepared, honorary brother of mine. I have no doubt that you two are going to change the world, transform your industry, and be the best parents ever all at the same time, and that you’re not going to break a sweat while you’re doing it. So here’s to making everyone else look bad for the rest of your lives!”
I burst out laughing and no one in the crowd managed to hold it together, joining in on the laughter as they raised their glasses, but then Slate stepped up and glowered at her. “Not so fast, Anya. We were supposed to make the toast together and I still have a few things to say.”
“Of course, you do,” she said sweetly. She stepped aside and handed over the mic but gave the audience an exaggerated wink.
More laughter followed and Slate groaned, but then he shook his head and grinned at her. “I think I probably deserve some of that after everything I did that people perceived as me trying to keep them apart, but let me tell you something, once these two found each other, there was no keeping them apart.”
He glanced between Logan and me. “I think I realized that pretty early on, and I know it took me some time to come to terms with it, but I saw the change in both of them once they got together. They were strong apart, but they were so much stronger and better together. I know that a lot of people painted me as the villain in their story. The thorn in their sides, but I never wanted to be that. I just wanted them to have the conversations that needed to be had so that they would both grow into the people they needed to be for each other instead of simply getting wrapped up in the romance of it all.”
I arched an eyebrow at him, trying to fight a smile when he shrugged back at me. “What? It worked, didn’t it? You guys went through a lot to be here today, but I firmly believe that you’ve been forged in fire. Whatever comes your way, you’ll face it together and get through to the other side in an even better place than you were before. You’re both amazing people, and I love you, and I can’t wait to love your baby too.”
I burst into tears again, and once more, Logan gathered me in his arms and kept me there until it was time for us to open the dance floor. Still feeling sensitive, I pressed my cheek to his as our song started playing. Sighing, I toyed with his hair and followed him around the dance floor.
“Are you okay?” he murmured against my ear. “I know today has been tough on you without your parents, and then the hormones and the?—”
“I’m okay,” I replied softly, smiling. “It has been tough, and it always will be on the big days, you know? But I’m also just so happy that I don’t even know how the grief and joy are coexisting so well inside me right now.”
“That makes sense, baby. You’re allowed to miss them and be happy at the same time,” he said. “I’m the luckiest man in the world to have such a strong, stunning wife. That being said, if you want to get out of here and go cry somewhere private for a while, I’ll come with you.”
“No, I’m okay.” I smiled up at him. “I do love hearing you call me that, though. Say it again.”
“Wife.” A devious grin spread on his lips. “Are you shuddering yet? Is this like Mufasa, but the raunchy version?”
I giggled, feeling some of the weight of longing for my parents lifting from my chest. I kissed him, eternally grateful that he and I beat all the odds that had been stacked against us. As we kissed, we both waved our hands, inviting others to join us on the dance floor, and when we finally broke apart, my eyebrows shot up in surprise when I saw Slate inviting one of my bridesmaids to dance.
“You did tell Slate about the curse, right?” I asked softly.
Logan turned his head to follow my gaze. “Curse? What curse? It’s not a curse, baby. It’s a goddamn blessing. Let them dance. It’ll be nice to have their wedding night to ourselves, since it gives us a good excuse to get a babysitter.”
I laughed. “They do look good together, don’t they?”
Pressing his forehead to mine, he arched a brow at me. “Sure, but don’t get your hopes up yet. If the curse-blessing is in effect tonight, it’s got a hell of a time ahead of it getting them together. Slate isn’t one for settling down with anything other than work, and don’t look now, but Anya’s glaring daggers at him.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, they really have been getting on each other’s nerves. It’s probably for the best, though. She needs someone less married to his career and he needs someone more grounded. I’m kind of glad her crush has run its course.”
Logan spun us so he was looking at the spot where Slate was pulling my friend onto the dance floor. “I guess time will tell, but for now, let’s just focus on us, shall we? I love you, Mira. Thank you for saying yes to me.”
“Always,” I promised as one song faded into the next and he kept sweeping me across the dance floor, making me feel like we were literally dancing our way into our happily ever after. And we were, because from there on out, a happy ever after was exactly what we had.
Even when Logan got spit-up on every single last one of his designer shirts. All the time. For at least the first few years of our marriage. After each one of our beautiful babies was born and our family grew one happy year after another.
***