Epilogue
EPILOGUE
HAILEY
Four Months Later
“It’s a secret, Quinn. You can’t tell a single soul.”
An exasperated, very unladylike sound comes from her throat. “What the hell would I tell people anyway? Oh, hey, my best friend and her boyfriend blindfolded and kidnapped me and won’t tell me where they’re taking me?”
“She’s kidding,” Luke says to the driver from the front seat of the rideshare we’re all in. “We didn’t kidnap her.”
“That really kind of depends on your definition of kidnap, now, doesn’t it?” she retorts with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. “You guys realize it’s our second night in Vegas, and the only thing I want to do is go out with everyone else and party it up, right?”
“Which we’re going to do,” I reassure from beside her in the backseat. “We just have a pitstop first.”
“A pitstop which made me leave the pool an hour and a half early to get ready, only to find out I got bamboozled by you two,” she grumbles. Suddenly she sits up in her seat and leans towards me and the front where Luke is. “Wait. Are you guys taking me to some weird sex club? If you wanted a threesome, all you needed to do was ask.”
“Quinn!” I admonish.
“I’m sorry, but the answer is no. I love you both, but I can’t fuck either of you. We work together and it would upset the balance.”
“She’s kidding,” Luke tells the driver again, running a hand through hair that has completely grown back to what it was like when we first met. Long enough I can run my fingers through it and hold onto it when he’s?—
I need to hold thoughts like that at bay until later. Much later. Easier said than done on any given day, but so much harder when I’m ovulating and he’s looking like a delicious snack I want to fill me.
It’s not like we’re trying. We aren’t. We’ve talked about kids, and we both want them, but after losing so much time together, we want to enjoy each other for now. One day in the future, though, we’ll have them. Not that my body understands that decision, especially when I’m at this point in my cycle. It just wants him. All. The. Freaking. Time.
Then again, so does the rest of me.
“We are not taking you to a sex club,” I hiss at her, rolling my eyes as I cross my arms over my chest. “Can you just relax for a second? You’ll understand when we get there.”
“Let the record state that I hate driving around Vegas not being able to see anything,” she says with another huff, but falls back against the seat.
With Quinn quiet, finally, I lean forward and slip a hand over the shoulder of the front seat where Luke is sitting. My fingers move along his soft, button-down shirt. It’s a green-blue color that matches his eyes, and I couldn’t love it more.
Luke turns his head, glancing over the seat to me, flashing me his dimpled smile. Taking my hand, he lifts it slightly to look at it, his thumb running over the ring on my left hand. The one I’ve worn since that day in the hospital. Our promise to each other.
How that was only four months ago, I have no idea. It seems like another lifetime. Priscylla wound up in jail on a wealth of charges. Stalking, attempted murder, arson. It sounds like she might take a plea deal, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Luke and I have settled into a good routine since then. I had to take some time off work for my mental health, and because of the concussion, and while I still get headaches here and there, I’ve been back to work for a couple months now.
With my house destroyed by the fire, I ended up moving in with Luke. Our group of friends has joked that we wanted to be just like Savanna and Nate, but I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. They’ve done well for themselves in the year they’ve been together, especially considering we’re in Vegas for their wedding.
“Here we are,” the driver says, and I glance out the window at the building before us, my stomach filling with butterflies.
“Awesome, can I take the blindfold off now?” Quinn grumbles from the seat next to me.
“No, just wait,” I respond, opening my door while Luke ensures the tab is taken care of. I want to fully experience and appreciate Quinn’s reaction when she finds out what we’re doing. Getting out, I run around to the other side, not wanting to keep her impatient butt waiting. Pulling her door open, I take her hand and help her out of the car. “Watch your step.”
“Really, Hails? Watch my step?” she grunts with a snort.
I bite my lip to keep from laughing as she steps out of the car, adjusting her dress that has to be at least six inches shorter than mine. Quinn is dressed for a wild night in Vegas. Me, on the other hand, I’m dressed for a different kind of Vegas night in a midnight blue dress with silver sequins that glitter like stars. One that includes the man coming around the car to help me with Quinn. Not that I need the help, but it’s who Luke is, so I don’t object.
The three of us step onto the curb, Luke on one side of Quinn, me on the other. Despite her insane four inch heels, he can still see me over her head, and his eyebrows rise in question.
Are you sure?
Smiling as bright as the sun that still hasn’t quite set over the mountain, I nod, mouthing, “I love you.”
“Oh god, both of you knock it off,” Quinn complains. “I can feel you making googly eyes at each other and I want no part in it. Please, can we just find me a man with a monster cock to fuck?”
“Dang, Quinn,” Luke mutters.
At the same time I say, “Jesus, Quinn.”
“What? We’re in Vegas! It’s the city of sin, baby! And I am itching to sin,” she croons, dancing in her spot to some melody only she can hear.
“Okay, okay. You can sin later. For now…” I say while pulling the blindfold off.
Luke steps around her, joining me at my side as Quinn blinks against the brightness of Las Vegas in the daylight, and slowly takes in her surroundings. The creamy yellow building in front of us. The huge sign with “Viva Las Vegas”. The one beneath it that says, “Themed Weddings” and “Married by Elvis” on it. And of course, the one lit up above the door that says “Wedding Chapel”.
Quinn looks from the building to us, back to the building, and then all around the street, doing a full three-sixty turn. “What’s happening? Did Nate and Savanna decide to elope instead?”
Luke and I exchange a glance, biting back our laughter before I shake my head, and say, “No. Not Nate and Sav.”
Her eyes dart back and forth between us, the wheels turning, putting it together. Honestly, I thought she’d figure it out instantly. “You two? You’re eloping? You want to get married? Now?”
“Yes, but quietly.” My hand slips into Luke’s to keep our contact, but I step toward Quinn, taking her hand in my other. “We don’t want to steal Nate and Savanna’s thunder, but we also don’t want to wait anymore. No one can know.”
“Oh my god,” she breaths, her hand slapping over her mouth as her violet-colored eyes widen. “You were serious about not telling a soul.”
I nod.
“Oh my god.” She looks from me to Luke, and I feel like there’s some kind of silent conversation that passes between them where she both gives her approval, and threatens his balls if he ever hurts me. Then she’s throwing her arms around my neck, bouncing up and down on her toes and jostling me all around. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! My best friend is getting married!”
Laughter erupts from both Luke and me, his hand falling from mine so I can hug Quinn back. After we decided—on the plane on the way here—to elope, we talked about who we’d want with us. I knew we couldn’t have everyone here, so we didn’t take away from the wedding festivities this week for Nate and Savanna, but I didn’t need everyone.
The only person I truly needed was Luke, and we thought about it only being the two of us, but last night after we both got back from Nate and Savanna’s bachelor and bachelorette parties, I think he realized it would be more special if we shared it with at least one of our people.
Well, we tried to make it two of them, since Luke has gotten so close to Liam in the last few months, but we couldn’t track Liam down. He wasn’t at the pool with the rest of us today. Coincidentally, neither was Jordan.
My mom will be disappointed she wasn’t here, something else Luke and I talked through. We’re still not on the best terms, and while we’re working on it in therapy—both together and separately—I decided I don’t want to share this with her. Maybe one day Luke and I will decide to have a party and renew our vows and she’ll be there for that.
This moment belongs to us.
Once Quinn finishes hugging both of us, we all head inside. Luke and I came by yesterday after we arrived in Vegas, before the parties, to look into how everything worked, and what we needed to do. With the preparation done yesterday, and the chapel expecting us today, we breeze through the pre-ceremony stuff quickly.
Quinn and I are taken to a little side room to get flowers, and for them to put a little veil in the back of my hair, and then we’re ready. Simple. Easy. Effortless.
“I’m really proud of you, Hails,” Quinn says when we’re standing just outside the room Luke and I chose for our wedding. She turns to me, fixing the veil that’s fluttering in my periphery. “For opening up your heart and letting him in. For finally choosing to live your life.”
I throw my arms around her midsection, squeezing her tight. “I’m proud of me too. Thank you for encouraging him not to give up.”
We hug each other fiercely for a long moment. Then she lets me go and steps back. “Okay, okay. Before I start crying and getting all fucking emotional, let’s get you married.”
When I give the signal to one of the chapel workers, music starts to play, and they open the door to the chapel. Quinn takes a gasping breath, and I smile to myself, already knowing what she sees.
The space is full of plants and flowers, the colors of the setting sun dancing above with skylights through the entire room. Fairy lights twinkle all over the space and create an elegant, magical glow, filling the room with love and hope and everything I could have asked for.
Including the man waiting for me at the front.
From here I can see the wobble in his smile, his dimples flashing and disappearing, flashing and disappearing, as he struggles to keep himself in check. His eyes dance with delight, a sparkling sheen in them that has my own prickling with overwhelming love and emotion.
This man. My hopes and dreams. From the past to the present to the future. He is everything.
As I walk towards him, Quinn already having made it to the front, he scrubs a hand over his face, and I can see the moisture streaking across his skin. He’s had to wait for this moment, just like me, and I know exactly how he’s feeling now that it’s here.
“Hi Dimples,” I whisper when I reach him.
He holds his hand out to me, a smile so dazzling it’s nearly blinding meeting me as I take his hand, handing Quinn my bouquet of flowers. He squeezes my fingers as he says, “Hi Freckles.”
The next five minutes disappear as the officiant goes through his spiel, but I’m not sure I hear any of it. Nothing exists except for Luke and those green-blue eyes that I fell for the first day I met him. When he took me to the top of the Double Drop and told me he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
“Do you have the rings?” the officiant asks, and for some reason, those are the words that break us both out of the trance we found ourselves in.
“Oh, uh… Yes,” Luke says, digging into the pocket of his black dress pants to pull out the rings.
I gave him my promise ring prior to heading into the room with Quinn, and he took to wearing a black rubber band a month after I moved in. Letting all the hose hunnies know he’s a taken man, even if we weren’t married. He slips his ring into my hand for when I need it, and then takes my left hand in both of his, his fingertips caressing my palm.
Good god, my heart is beating wildly in my chest, and I’m trembling from head to toe. Not because of nerves, but because Luke is about to be my husband, and after everything we’ve been through, that’s almost unbelievable.
“I’m usually so good with words,” Luke says with a shy chuckle, glancing down at our hands. “I’ve never had a huge problem convincing you to do anything, giving you whatever I know you need in a moment. But dang, right now, I’m so frickin’ nervous that everything I planned to say to you has emptied from my mind.”
I bite down on my bottom lip, a blush creeping into my cheeks. “You’re nervous?”
“Heck yeah, I am. It’s a good thing you already agreed to marry me,” he says, and Quinn, plus the man marrying us, laughs. “I want everything to be perfect for you. And that’s not to say we’re going to have all perfect days and perfect nights, because we won’t. We’re going to argue, and it’s going to be work. But I promise that I will always put that work in, especially on the hardest days. But on the good ones too.”
The ring in his hand starts to slide onto my finger, and he takes a step closer to me. “I’m full of thrills and risks. I’m not the safe option, and I never will be. But I promise, with me, you’ll always be safe. I will do whatever is in my power, each and every day, to guard your heart, your mind, and your body. In this life and the next, and the one after that. Never ending, Freckles. It’s you and me.”
Tears roll down my face, starting somewhere between thrills and safe, and haven’t stopped. His ring sits all the way on my finger now, and I glance down at our hands, gasping when I realize it’s not my promise ring sitting there. A new ring rests on my finger, sparkling bright in the light of the room. A larger diamond sits in the center, not rising too high off the band, with two other diamonds set on either side of it, and for a moment I can’t breathe.
“I told you one day I would upgrade the other ring, and you’d have both to wear,” he says, bringing my attention back to his face. The way his dimples pop at me makes me feel weak in the knees, and I almost swoon straight into his arms when he throws me a wink.
“Luke,” I whisper, shaking my head in wonder. The man is full of surprises. Taking a deep breath, I look down at our hands again, at the ring on my finger glittering, and my heart feels so full I don’t know how it’s possible it’s still in my chest. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to follow that.”
“I believe in you,” he murmurs, and I laugh, taking his left hand in both of mine.
“It’s funny that on a day I thought I would be nervous, and you wouldn’t be, we’re completely the opposite,” I laugh softly, biting down on my lip before continuing. “Today doesn’t scare me, not like so many other days have in the past. Today makes me brave. Brave enough to say I would do anything for you, Luke. From now until eternity. And I know,” I pause, raising my eyebrows for a second when his eyes flare at the idea of anything, “That anything is all encompassing. But I also know you’d never ask me to do something that wouldn’t be in my greatest good. I trust you.”
“And I promise to trust you for the rest of my life, and beyond. I promise to fight for you, even when others won’t, because we fight for what we believe in. And I believe in you. I will always believe in you, and I will always give you the benefit of the doubt. In this life and the next, and the one after that. Never ending is just that, Dimples. You and me.”
Luke doesn’t wait for the officiant to tell us we can kiss. The second the ring is on his finger he’s grabbing my face and hauling me towards him. Sealing our promises with a kiss.
Forever.