EPILOGUE
Rivers’s leg bounced under the war room table in a rapid, restless rhythm. Even though Caryssa glanced at him several times with a questioning expression, he couldn’t make himself stop.
He’d been this way for three days, jumpy and distracted, checking his phone for a shipping notification. Cannon had already shot him two suspicious looks during the briefing, and Caryssa’s brows pinched whenever she looked his way, clearly clocking that something was off.
He deflected with a mumbled excuse of high-test coffee giving him the jitters.
Just when he thought he’d have Cannon breathing down his neck again, the door swung open and Rorke entered with the latest supply run, boxes stacked chest-high in his arms.
Rivers leaped out of his seat and rushed him, stripping away box after box and dropping them to the table in his search for one particular package.
He spotted it and snatched it off the stack, then hurried out of the room, leaving a stunned silence in his wake.
“What the hell?” Cannon’s voice followed him out.
“Reid?” Caryssa.
“Just a minute!”
Murmured questions came from the room as he tore open the box. He already knew what was inside, but when he opened the box and stared down at the object, his heart slammed into his chest.
He had a single thought in his head, and it propelled him down the corridor at a dead run toward the kitchen, where he knew Jolie and Stina would be sharing afternoon coffee.
They looked up in alarm when he burst through the door.
“I need you two,” he said, breathless. “Now. War room.”
They jolted to their feet.
“Is everything okay?” Jolie asked.
“Everything’s about to be perfect.” He was already turning, moving, and they scrambled after him, tossing each other a look.
At the war room door, he stopped dead. Drew a deep breath.
Then walked in with the ladies behind him, the box clutched in his fist.
At their sudden appearance, the entire room silenced. Every set of eyes fixed on him, and he knew someday he’d laugh at how they must see him, hands shaking and a flush climbing his neck.
Across the table, he caught Caryssa’s gaze, and the air shifted.
Before he could make a move, Cannon’s rough voice boomed through the room. “Absolutely not. No girls in the war room. We’ve been over this.” He gestured at Jolie and Stina as if the breeze from his hand would wave them back out the door.
“I’m a girl,” Caryssa reminded him dryly.
“I asked them to be here,” Rivers blurted. “They’re helping me.”
Cannon eyed him. “With?”
“This.”
He crossed the room in three long strides, straight to Caryssa. He reached for her hand and pulled her gently to her feet. The whole room held its breath around them.
And then he dropped to one knee on the cold concrete floor, fumbling the box open with fingers that had never been so unsteady in all his years as a medic.
He’d rehearsed this. In the last week between case updates and late, late nights with Caryssa in his bed, he’d rehearsed an entire speech—something about six years and second chances and how she’d walked back into his life, and now he couldn’t think about living another day without her.
All the words scattered the second he looked up and saw her staring down at him, hand pressed to her mouth, eyes swimming with tears.
“Ryss.” His voice broke. “I don’t have the pretty words I planned to say. All I’ve got is the truth.” He held up the ring, hand shaking for everyone to see. The guys were never going to let him live it down.
He searched her eyes and found the only words that mattered. “I love you. I don’t want to spend one more day without making you mine. Marry me.”
She let out a broken sound, both hands pressed to her mouth now. “Yes.” The word came out muffled. “Yes.” Clearer now. “Yes!” Louder yet. “Yes, yes, oh my god, yes!”
The room exploded.
Rivers swept her up in his arms, kissing and whirling, barely registering Younger’s whooping noise or Rorke fist-pumping the air. Townie let out a war cry.
Rivers bent Caryssa over his arm and kissed her senseless, not giving a damn about their audience.
When he finally let her up for air, they were breathless. He slid the ring onto her trembling finger, and she stared at it, tears streaming freely down her beautiful face, laughing and crying at the same time.
Still holding her against his side, he turned and settled his gaze on Cannon.
“Cannon.” He grinned, reckless with joy. “Will you marry us?”
He groaned, dragging a hand down his face in mock exaggeration. “I guess so.”
Laughs rounded the room.
“Right now.”
Caryssa gasped, eyes flying wide. Jolie and Stina stood at the end of the table, mouths hanging open.
“Now?” Cannon asked.
Rivers turned to Caryssa. “If you’re willing.”
Her eyes brimmed. “Willing? Reid, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.”
He took both her hands and stared into her eyes. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.” One little sentence didn’t begin to hold six years of longing.
Cannon herded them both in front of the wall screens. A gasp sounded from the table, and they both twisted to see O had projected a beautiful garden across all the screens for their backdrop.
O gave them a thumbs-up and in a loud whisper said, “Wedding gift!”
More laughter.
Then O handed Cannon a tablet, and he began to read off it.
Rivers kept his gaze fixed on Caryssa the entire time, watching years of grief replaced by love and hope and peace.
“You may kiss your bride,” Cannon finally said, sounding equal parts relieved and moved.
He didn’t wait for a second invitation. He grabbed his bride and crushed his mouth to hers as their first kiss as man and wife. Joy burst inside him, and she made a sound of emotion so deep he’d never forget it as long as he lived.
Around them, the room descended into full chaos.
Jolie and Stina were both crying and hugging Caryssa.
Rome and Rorke thumped Rivers hard enough on the back to leave bruises.
Younger was already shouting about needing champagne they definitely didn’t have on base.
Townie and O each pulled him in for a bro hug before enveloping Caryssa in their arms like she was their own sister.
She was now.
The team had somehow, against every rule Blackout had ever operated under, built themselves a family.
Rivers let the moment wash over him, soaking in every second of the noise and joy and the impossible truth that Caryssa Lane was now Caryssa Rivers. His wife, officially, with no more separation between them.
He scooped her up bridal-style, and she issued a startled laugh as he rushed for the door.
“Hey!” Cannon called after them. “Where do you think you’re going? We’re still in a briefing.”
Rivers threw a grin back over his shoulder. “You guys can get along without us for a while.”
Laughter chased them down the corridor, but he barely heard it, already lost in the sight of his wife’s face—tear-streaked and radiant.
His steps slowed and he lowered his lips to hers in an unhurried caress filled with promises of their future.
“I love you, Mrs. Rivers.”
A soft sob escaped her, and she pressed her lips to his. “I love you so much, Reid. My forever.”
He’d spent six years as a dead man. Holding her now, he’d never felt more alive.