EPILOGUE
Jamie – Three Months Later
Iwind my arms around Avi’s waist and press my nose into her waves, inhaling her floral scent and relishing the fact that she’s here—in this place—with me. She melts against my chest with a sigh and I tighten my grip.
“What do you think?” I ask before pressing a kiss below her ear.
“It’s beautiful, Jamie. I can see why you love it here so much.” She winds her fingers through mine where they rest across her abdomen, keeping her gaze locked on the snowy expanse of trees and Tahoe’s tall mountains in the distance outside the window.
“I do love it here, but do you know what I love more?” I ask, trailing my lips down her neck.
“What?” I can hear her smile as she snuggles in against me.
“You. And Nox. And our life on Skye.” I punctuate each of these things with a kiss to her bare shoulder where her sweater has slipped down.
She turns in my arms, looping her own around my neck, and pins me with her brown eyes—full and bright but soft with the love we have for each other. Just as she presses her lips to mine, we’re interrupted by a melodic voice with an Australian accent.
“So it’s not just my parents who are all over each other all the time.”
We pull apart to see Willow, Breck’s daughter, standing beside Nox in the kitchen and staring with looks of disgust on their faces. It only makes me want to kiss Avi more.
“Yeah, they’re insufferable,” Nox scoffs.
I snort a laugh. “Big word there, bud,” I say. “We’re not that bad… Or we usually aren’t, but now? Now I think I’ll be truly insufferable about my affection for your mum.”
And with that I tighten my grip around Avi’s waist, slide a hand into her hair, and dip her low to kiss her senseless. I let it go on just long enough to draw out low groans from both kids before I stand Avi back up.
Nox’s displeased “Ugh, gross, Dad” is the first thing I hear when we separate.
Dad.
It still brings me a rush of pure joy every time I hear the word.
The first time he used it with me was the day Avi and I got married.
I don’t know if it was a conscious choice or just his way of protecting himself, waiting until he knew I wasn’t going anywhere, to let me all the way in.
I didn’t want to pressure him, had told myself I’d be okay if he called me Jamie forever, but deep down I wanted that acknowledgment of who we are to each other more than anything.
Even now, as he chastises me, it makes me feel more than a single word should.
I turn and ruffle his hair. “Sorry, Nox, I just can’t stop myself.”
This earns me another eyeroll from him and a giggle from Willow.
“Stop yourself from what?” Breck asks, joining us in the open kitchen and dining space with Rory in tow.
“This,” I say, and kiss Avi heartily again to a cacophony of renewed groans from the kids and laughs from the adults.
“Oy, yeah,” Breck says with mirth. “I can’t stop myself either.”
And with that, he’s pulling Rory into his arms for an equally passionate—if theatrical—kiss. The kids fall to the floor in exasperation, though I’m pretty sure they’re laughing as well.
“Hey now, it looks like we’re missing all the fun,” Rory’s brother Wes says, pulling his wife Joss into the fray from where they’ve just walked in the front door.
Willow shoots up from the floor, screams, “Uncle Wes!” and runs full tilt, slamming into him and knocking him backward.
“Hey, kiddo,” he says, picking her up and running a hand down her curtain of dark hair. “It’s good to see you.”
“It’s been ages!” Willow says, eliciting chuckles from the adults in the room. It’s been less than six months since she and Breck moved to the States from Australia to be with Rory, but an eight-year-old’s perspective on time is a bit different than ours.
When Wes releases her, it becomes a flurry of movement as hugs and hellos are exchanged, with Breck and Rory taking their turns to welcome the newcomers.
“Big day coming up. You feeling good?” Wes asks Rory, and then lowers his voice to a whisper we can all still hear. “You know if you want to back out, I’ll drive the getaway car.” He shoots a furtive glance at his best friend and nudges his sister playfully.
This leads to Breck tackling him to the carpet in the living room as raucous laughter ensues from all of us watching.
I think for the millionth time that it’s a beautiful thing the way all this worked out.
That Wes went to his best friend in Sydney for solace in a time when he needed escape and found the love of his life in the process.
Then, in turn, Wes put Breck on a plane with Willow to escape to Tahoe in order to heal from his own heartbreak, only for him to fall in love with Wes’s sister.
Turning away from the wrestling match, Joss faces me with a soft smile. “So glad you could make it home for the wedding, Jamie.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. Who else is supposed to officiate seeing as Breck is the groom?
” I say with a glance at Rory, who’s watching her brother and her fiancé tumble around the floor with a wistful, and vexed, smile on her lips.
Bringing my attention back, I pull Avi into my side. “Joss, this is Avonlea, my bride.”
I plant a kiss to the top of her head, and that closeness helps relieve the pang in my chest as I say the words. Words I love to utter as often as I can, but they’re words I learned from a man who’s no longer here to say them to his own bride, and that hurts.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Avi says, pulling out from my arm so she can hug Joss.
“What about me?” Wes interrupts, finally having extricated himself from the headlock Breck had him in. “Haven’t you heard about me? All good things, I’m sure.”
Avi’s melodic laugh breaks out as he pulls her from Joss and hugs her just as fiercely as he did his sister.
“I have—” She continues to laugh. “Mostly good things at least.”
Wes’s bark of laughter echoes off the high ceilings of the living room. He steps back only to have his gaze land on Nox, who looks a little unsure of the dynamics of this group, and then it jumps to me. Taking the two of us in.
“Damn, that is uncanny,” Wes says.
“Wes,” Rory chides at the same time Willow yells, “Swear jar!”
He instantly reaches for his wallet and hands her a twenty.
“Keep the change, I’m sure I’ll owe you at least that much by the end of the night. Seriously though, who’s going to introduce me to the best-looking guy here… And no, I don’t mean you, Jamie.”
I can see Joss restraining herself from rolling her eyes and I think Rory wants to hit him upside the head.
“This is our son, Lennox—or Nox,” I say, my chest overflowing with the pride I feel to be able to call him such.
To be able to claim this amazing kid in front of my best friend and her family, a family I’ve considered my own for a long time.
Avi and Nox are just the newest and most important—at least to me—members of it.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Nox. I’m Wes, or Uncle Wes, if you’d like.”
Nox extends his hand and nods. “Willow told me I should call you Wessy.” He doesn’t even crack a smile when he says this, totally deadpan, and the whole group erupts into hysterics around him. Wes most of all, having to forego the handshake to brace himself on his knees and catch his breath.
When he glances up, it’s with a glare at Willow. “You,” he says.
She points at herself with a look of innocence. “Me?”
He shakes his head and finally stands as the rest of us pull ourselves together. Rory offers Willow a high five, wiping tears of mirth from below her eyes. “That was amazing, oh my god.” Wessy is Rory’s nickname of choice for her brother—much to his chagrin.
“Yeah, yeah, everyone make jokes at my expense,” he says, then turns his attention back to Nox. “I like you.” Then, without preamble, he pulls him into a side hug and ruffles his blond hair, like they’re best buds.
Nox’s smile is infectious, growing wide just like mine, his green eyes alight… just like mine.
I watch my two families collide, and instead of any friction or dissonance, they meld perfectly, with ease.
A little while later, with food in our bellies and drinks in our hands, we sit around the large sectional in the middle of the living room while the sounds of Willow and Nox playing foosball from the next room over carry toward us.
That was a new addition to the condo when Breck and Rory moved in, though most of the decor is the same as when I left it.
Because this is my house. Technically. At least for a few more weeks.
We have a week until Breck and Rory’s wedding.
Then while they go on their honeymoon to Canada, Avi, Nox, and I will stay here with Willow.
In that time, I’ll go through everything I left behind and figure out what I want to take home to Skye with me and what I want to part with, and when they get back, we sign the papers that will make this condo theirs.
“How did your meetings go with your agent and publisher?” Rory asks, drawing me back to the group around me. “Was Aileen beside herself with pride?”
My grin widens. “They went great. It was good to meet with them in person to go over everything seeing as that won’t be easy to do going forward. And Gran… well, she won them over with all her charms.”
“If they had even an ounce of doubt about this story, she would’ve been the one to seal the deal, but they don’t,” Avi says, winding her arms around me on the couch as she snuggles closer.
“You should’ve seen how excited they were about this new direction.
” She lowers her voice and attempts an American accent that I think is supposed to sound like Brent.
“‘The great Jameson L. Murray—from epic adventure to epic love stories—he can do it all.’” She laughs good-naturedly and returns to her normal voice.
“I mean, he can do it all, but it’s funny to see the way they fawn over him. ”
“I can’t blame them, I’m dying to get my hands on this book myself,” Rory says, giving me a very pointed look.