EPILOGUE
ITWASSTRANGE, Theo reflected eight months later. For a man who’d once claimed to not want family, he now had quite a lot of it. Strange—and wonderful.
“Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”
Eyes stinging, Theo looked down at his sister in her white gown. “I do.”
Placing Sofia’s hand into her bridegroom’s, Theo returned to sit with his wife in the front row of the whitewashed Greek church.
Looking up with a tender smile, Emmie put her hand over his. Her emerald-cut diamond, now back in its rightful place on her left hand, glinted in the dim light. His heart swelled as he thought how much he loved her. He was the luckiest man on earth.
When the ceremony ended, Theo watched as the newly married couple kissed, then left the tiny church hand in hand. Fifty-odd guests followed them, walking the half mile to the new house that had been built in Lyra, over the ashes of Theo and Sofia’s childhood home.
Well, not exactly. The new house had been built in a slightly different location, closer to the beach, their favorite place to play as children. On the spot where the old house had burned, where their mother had died, they’d built a garden, to remember and find peace, and they planted the roses their mother had once loved.
It was a lovely June morning. Walking with Emmie along the cliffside path, Theo breathed in the sea air. Emmie was wearing a soft, lovely dress, and he was dressed in a suit to match, pushing a top-of-the-line baby stroller.
At ten months, Bear was making happy la-la-la sounds, grabbing his own feet, his adorably chunky thighs sticking out of dapper blue shorts. The baby hadn’t quite figured out how to walk yet, but the kid was so energetic, Theo fully expected once he learned he’d be running within the hour. There’d be no stopping him.
Just as there was no stopping his wife. Theo glanced at her as they walked. Even the beauty of Greece couldn’t compare to Emmie’s soulful, gorgeous voluptuousness. Her honey-blond hair tumbled over her shoulders, lit by the golden sun. Her violet eyes outshone both the vivid blue sky and sapphire-hued Aegean.
At four months pregnant, her belly was barely starting to show beneath her dress, but her breasts were already in full bloom. His gaze lingered on her breasts, then her exquisite pink lips. After a year of marriage, he still couldn’t get enough of her body, her beauty and, most of all, her soul. Emmie was the heart of their family, which meant for Theo she was the heart of the world.
Emmie’s extended family, her brothers, her brand-new sister-in-law, her father and even her father’s new girlfriend were straggling behind them on the cliffside path, laughing and teasing each other. Theo had had to get a bigger private jet to bring them all here. He smiled. His jet was now their minivan.
But he found he liked the happy chaos of Emmie with her four brothers. Five children sounded about right. He hoped this second baby would be just the start.
Ahead of them, Honora and Nico were walking with four-year-old Kara in her flower-girl dress, pushing their toddler Ivy and baby Jack in a double stroller. The Ferraros were now their neighbors. Theo and Emmie had sold the penthouse and bought a brick town house in Greenwich Village on their friends’ small street. Their new house had seven bedrooms, a rooftop terrace and even—most luxurious of all in Manhattan—an actual backyard. Emmie was already hinting about getting a dog. As if there wasn’t enough mayhem already, he thought ruefully. But now he knew there was always room for more. There was always more to love.
Though Theo occasionally still traveled for work, unless there was serious reason, he was always home every night at six. He often visited Paris to check progress but allowed his extremely competent employees to oversee the day-to-day project. That way, Theo was able to have dinner with his wife and son, read Bear bedtime stories, and give Emmie a break, a little shoulder rub and ask about her day before they fell passionately into bed.
He enjoyed his business. He loved his family.
Theo’s life had changed so much. He no longer tried to be cold to avoid hurt or the possibility of loss. Those were just part of the package with feeling love and joy. They all went together.
So he embraced it. All of it. It was the bravest thing he’d ever done. And the hardest. And the best.
Control was an illusion. Love was real.
Dancing with his wife at his little sister’s wedding reception, held in a big white tent beside the Aegean, Theo laughed with delight as they swayed ineptly to the loud, raucous music of the French rock band his sister and her new husband adored. Surrounded by the newlyweds’ young, cheering friends and the even noisier cheering of Theo’s big new family, he felt his heart was a million miles wide.
“Are you crying?” Emmie whispered.
He rubbed his eye. “Got some dirt in my eyes.”
By her knowing smile, she wasn’t fooled, which was fine, because he didn’t intend her to be. Theo wanted his wife to know him, both the good and bad, and for him to have the gift of knowing the good and bad of her. Though, as he teased her, he had yet to find any bad. But when it came, he would accept it with open arms, as she’d accepted him.
Emmie had given him a second chance, when he hadn’t really deserved a first one. He would love her till the end of his days.
Nuzzling her neck on the dance floor, he whispered, “You’re the most beautiful woman here. Anywhere.”
“Oh, stop.”
Theo looked down at her tenderly. “I mean it.”
She blushed, looking down, hiding a smile. “You have to say that because I’m your wife.”
“I have to say it,” he said and stroked wonderingly through her long blond hair, “because it’s true.”
And as he lowered his head to kiss her, right there on the dance floor, surrounded by people they loved in the big reception tent, Theo knew Emmie had given him more than family. She’d given him his life.