Epilogue
Tallus
Call it instinct or a vibe or witchiness, but the minute Diem came home from his fishing trip, I knew. Whatever wall he’d erected was gone. His thoughts flowed through the air, whispering profound secrets.
Was this what Kitty saw when she predicted the future?
Diem dropped his bags at the door and glanced around. I could practically hear the drumming of his heart.
“Is Darcy here?” he asked.
“Work. Just left.”
“Good.”
It was in his eyes. In the way he held his shoulders and carried his weight. It was in the way his chest rose and fell with shallow inhales and exhales. It was in the quiet flutter of his pulse under his jaw.
How had I not seen it before?
“I need to shower. Are you… Do you have plans?”
“On a Sunday evening?” I smirked. “No, Guns. Junk food and TV. Do you want to join me?”
“Yes.” It was in his nervous laugh and the way he wiped his hands on his pants.
He showered.
I sat on the couch but kept the TV off as I waited, tucking my feet under my ass. A comfortable calm enveloped me. I tugged Boone’s ring from beneath my shirt and polished my thumb over its surface.
“It was enough for me, D.” But it wasn’t enough for him anymore.
When the water cut out and the shower curtain rang on its rod, I tucked the ring away.
Diem landed on the couch beside me a few minutes later. “I thought you were watching your shows.”
“Changed my mind.”
“How come?”
“I want to hear about your trip.”
“Oh.”
It was in the way he turned his focus to a loose thread dangling from the hem of his T-shirt. It was in the tremors that made him fidget. It was in the way he wet his lips.
“Did you catch anything?” I prompted when he didn’t speak.
“No.”
“Did you have fun?”
He nodded.
Diem carried more emotions than his oversized frame could handle.
Some people might say he felt too little, but the struggles he encountered in life were a result of feeling too much.
Too much anger. Too much despair. Too much fear and heartache and love.
For Diem, those emotions were hard to process and even harder to express.
I’d always been adept at reading his body language, the subtle things people missed. I heard all he said in the spaces between words, and I listened to his silences.
When he took my hand and looked at me the way he’d always looked at me, I knew. He didn’t have to say a word.
I waited because Diem needed patience.
He wet his lips but remained silent.
He took in a great lungful of air but expelled it again. Silent.
He stroked his thumb over mine. Silent.
He trembled.
“Should I just say yes and put you out of your misery?”
He chuckled, knowingly. “Shut up, Tallus. Stop reading my mind. Let me do it.”
“Okay, D. I’ll wait for as long as you need me to.”
And the night fell.
And the moon rose.
And the stars came out somewhere beyond the pollution that hung over the city.
I waited.
Darcy came home, and for the first time in the history of ever, he read the room and vanished into our bedroom with Echo.
Hours passed.
Diem held my hand and breathed. He traced patterns on my palm. He feathered his fingers through my hair. He wrapped me in his arms and kissed my head. We lay on the couch and snuggled.
We did all of this in silence.
A lifetime of promises and a future of possibilities within our grasp.
It took until the first hint of morning light shone through the balcony door before Diem spoke. He shuffled to face me, took my hands in his, and gazed into my eyes with such raw emotion, my throat tightened.
“When we started dating, I told you I wasn’t a good bet.”
“I remember.”
“You bet on me anyway.”
“I always will.”
His lips quivered as he reached out and brushed his fingers over my cheek so delicately it was like he feared I might break. “I told you I wasn’t the marrying kind.”
“You often say things about yourself that simply aren’t true.”
His chuckle came out wet. “I’m learning.” With a shaky breath, he continued. “I don’t have a ring.”
I touched the one I wore around my neck. “You already gave me a ring.”
“Does it count?”
“You know it does. You promised me forever.”
“I want to give you forever.” His storm cloud eyes overflowed. “You always choose me, and I will always choose you. Marry me, Tallus?”
I wiped his tears and kissed his quivering lips. “I already said yes.”
“Say it again.” He pressed my hands to his cheeks and rested his forehead against mine. “I want to hear you say it again. Please.”
“Yes, Diem. I’ll marry you.”
Then he kissed me with the heart of a man who knew exactly what it meant to love.
***
Wait… did someone say Costa Ruiz had a baby? Tallus visited, right? Were Aslan and Quaid around? They were!! This gets better and better. Did Diem go with Tallus? He did!
Last question… Did Diem hold the baby?