Epilogue
Kenzie
“I love lake days,” Jessa sighs contentedly beside me.
“Me too. And I love iced caramel mochas.”
“Mmm! I should have gotten that,” Avery says. “I got a tea.”
I sit up. “Tea? It’s blistering hot out here.” Taking an extra long swig of my mocha right in front of her face, she swats me away.
“You’re telling me,” Avery grumbles as she lays back down. “Whatever, dude.”
“Wanna go on the boat, Avery?” Graham calls out, holding up a life jacket. Nolan stands next to him with a smirk on his face.
“Ya. Sure. Gotta cool down somehow.” She scoots up and brushes off some sand before taking off with him.
“What about you, Jessa? Are you in?”
“No thanks.” My bestie doesn’t even spare him a look, and Nolan just laughs it off.
When the three of them leave, I turn to Jessa. “Okay. Avery and Graham. Just friends?”
“As much as I’d like to think otherwise, I don’t see Avery repairing that ginormous chip on her shoulder any time soon.”
“You’re probably right. And you’re the hopeful romantic.”
“Oooh, what are we chatting about?” Summer asks excitedly as she and Sierra plop down on our towels with us.
“Just Avery and Graham.”
“Is there something going on there?” Sierra asks with a glimmer in her eyes.
“Not that I know of,” I say.
“What are you girls gossiping about?” Finn joins us, expanding the circle even more.
Not wanting to repeat the dull news, Summer pipes up. “I’m going to photograph a fireman calendar for the fundraising efforts. We can sell it mostly online but also at the event.”
Finn busts out a laugh. “Good luck getting Eli to agree to that.”
“Why? He’d love it.”
“Nuh uh. He’s surprisingly prudish.”
“What? Eli? No way.” I watch her eyes scan the beach for the object of our conversation. “That guy?” Her voice is incredulous. “The shirtless one?”
And she’s not wrong. Eli is definitely shirtless. And hot.
Not as hot as Finn, but still super edible. At that moment, Eli looks over at us and waves.
“He’s on a beach,” Finn explains.
“Well, maybe I’ll just photograph him on a beach then.” Discreetly—but not that discreetly—she grabs her phone and snaps a shot of him.
Not sure if Eli noticed, but he did give us an odd look at the same time Summer took her shot. Then she turns back to us.
“Okay. We’ll sort that out later. Now. About you two. When can we expect babies?”
Finn barks out a laugh and says, “First, she’s got to get accustomed to her new job.”
“You got the job?” Jessa squeals.
“Ya. We had a chat with the chief. And all three of us decided that I would be a good fit.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Jessa reaches over and gives me a quick hug.
“Thank you. I’m super excited.”
“Yup. The job is all hers, and I couldn’t be more proud of my karaoke-singing-firehall-dancing-safety-first queen.”
I giggle at his outlandish description of me. But I guess he’s not too far off. I have definitely grown.
“Right. So job first. Then we move in together. Then we get married. Then we have babies.”
“You guys are so conventional. Where’s the fun in that?” Summer teases.
“It’s all fun,” I say, and press a soft kiss against Finn’s jaw. I can’t believe I get to do that. He’s all mine. I can kiss him whenever I want.
“I agree. It’s all fun. And I love it.”
“Me too.”
***