Epilogue A Nod to Nora Ephron
Six months later ...
Summer pushed through the side door of her bookstore into Between the Chapters, the new coffee house that connected BookLand to All Things Cupid. The warm aroma of roasted coffee mixed with the spicy scent of pumpkin muffins wafted around her.
It was nearly closing and still the place was hopping. If you asked Wes, he’d attribute the shop’s unprecedented success to quality products and exotic coffee beans, but Summer knew it was the welcoming atmosphere of buttery leather sofas, barrel chairs, local art hanging on the walls, and framed bookcases filled with that week’s bestsellers, which whispered to sit down with a great book and stay a while.
In addition to the main door, there were two additional doors to the café—one led to Summer’s shop and read HAPPILY EVER AFTER , while the other led to Wes’s and read LET YOUR ADVENTURE BEGIN .
Tonight was Tuesday, which meant it was date night, and every date night came with its own unique meet-cute. Tonight, they were going with a nod to Nora Ephron with a blind date, so Summer had come with a book in hand— Pride and Prejudice , the enemies-to-lovers, opposites-attract classic by Jane Austen, to be specific.
Summer smoothed down her fuzzy sweater, took a seat at the furthest table, opened her book and delicately laid a single daisy on the spine, and waited patiently. She was ten minutes early, but she couldn’t help it. Even though they’d been doing this every week for the past six months, she always got nervous butterflies in her belly the day of. It was the surprise and sweetness of it all, because Wes planned every detail of every night. He said that he wanted to check off every meet-cute and romance trope in her Cupid’s Guide to Love . So far he’d checked off so many boxes she could barely believe it. He’d even come up with a few she hadn’t thought of. He was as creative out of the bedroom as in.
A double Cupid’s ping echoed as a familiar British voice asked, “Excuse me. Is this seat taken?”
Summer couldn’t believe she’d ever thought his tone to be stodgy. It was smooth and silky as velvet.
When she looked up, she had to blink twice. Not only was he holding a book in his arm that held a single white daisy acting as a bookmark, but he was wearing a tuxedo. Cufflinks, shiny shoes, and all. And it wasn’t a rental either, it was too fitted to his muscular frame not to be custom.
His lips tilted up at the corners. “Unless I got the wrong table. You are Summer, aren’t you?”
He was going with the whole role-playing thing. He knew how much she loved a little role-play—clothing optional.
“Oh, you got the right table. I was just thinking I got the wrong memo. I seem to be underdressed.” She smoothed her hand down her fitted jeans.
He looked her up and down and flashed that mega-watt smile of his that had the power to make her panties melt off. “You look ravishing to me.”
“That’s a bold statement for a blind date.”
“According to my app you could be my soulmate.”
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
He hooked his foot around the chair and in a very manly way pulled it out and took a seat. “I do now.”
“Is that just the app talking? For all you know I could be some crazy-stalker chick.”
“For all you know I’m into crazy-stalker chicks,” he said with a wink.
“What did you think of the book?”
“I think that Darcy was misunderstood. I felt for the guy. It took Elizabeth three hundred pages to realize that he wasn’t some stuck-up prideful wanker.”
Summer gasped. “He was rude to her.”
“It was a bad first impression. To be fair, the poor guy didn’t want to be there with all those women wanting him for his money. So they had a meet-ugly—you have to cut the guy some slack. We’ve all been there.”
“Okay, you have me there. And he did figure it out first that there was something between them.”
“Oh, I think it was love at first sight for him.”
And there went those butterflies again. “How do you know?”
“Because a man knows these things.” He took her hand in his. “It might take him some time to figure these things out, love. But when he does, he is certain.”
“Give me another example,” Summer whispered breathlessly, as he wove their fingers together.
“Okay. When I walked in here tonight and saw you sitting at the table, before our phones even chimed I knew you were my soulmate. In fact, if I weren’t being such a stubborn wanker, that first time I met you I would have admitted it was love at first sight.”
“I didn’t think you believed in things like love at first sight.”
“I didn’t until you. With you I believe in a lot of things I didn’t used to. For example—”
Wes got off his chair and knelt in front of her on one knee and she clasped her hands over her mouth, while her heart did a nosedive straight into her belly then shot into her chest like a champagne cork.
“I never truly believed that forever could really exist for a guy like me. That someone could see past my arrogance and pride to the man beneath who wants nothing more than to be loved.”
Summer cupped his cheeks. “You deserve all the love in the world.”
“You also make me believe that. And I want to give you that, even more, in return. Which is why...” He pulled the daisy out of his book. “You have made me happier than I’ve ever been and I can only imagine how happy the rest of our days together will be. So, Summer Russo, will you marry me?”
He held out the daisy and that’s when she saw it, the glittery square-cut diamond in an antique setting and surrounded by dozens of smaller diamonds. It reminded her of the stars in Mystic’s night sky.
He slid the ring off the stem of the daisy and held it up to her finger. “Will you be my wife?”
“Yes! With all my heart yes!” she said.
He slid the ring all the way on her finger and, just like them, it was the perfect fit.