Epilogue
Myles
“Is that everything, Sunshine?” I call up the attic ladder to her. It’s been six months since we came home from the hospital. Six months since she moved into our home. Now we’re back at the San Antonio house taking care of one last thing.
“One more! This one’s heavy.” She heaves the box over the lip, and I step up to take it from her.
“Fuck. What the hell is in this?” I grunt as I take the box and set it on the ground.
She climbs slowly down the ladder, and I can’t help the way my eyes trace over every perfect curve of her body. I kneel to open the box, and I can’t help but laugh.
“What is it?” she asks as she kneels next to me.
“It’s our time capsule. We were supposed to bury it out back, but your grandmother beat both of our asses when we dug into her garden.”
I lift the metal box out of the cardboard box. I can’t believe it’s still up there. I run my thumb over the lock. She sees and starts looking through the remaining contents at the bottom of the cardboard box for a key. She huffs when she can’t find it.
“I’m sorry. It’s not in here.”
“I know. It’s on the keyring I gave you.”
Her eyes go wide as she quickly stands to grab the keyring off the dining room table. She sprints back up the steps and tosses me the keys. The worn, black painted key with A.W. and M.L. scratched into the paint. I put the key into the lock and hold my breath. Opening this is hard.
We were supposed to open it together. It was supposed to be our time capsule. The thing we swore we would open when we were fifty. We always joked that when we were old and gray, we had to look back on the stuff that would make us feel young again…Fuck. I miss him.
The lock clicks open as I turn the key. I can feel Mina’s anxious energy next to me matching my own. When I lift the lid, the first thing I see is a photo of Adam, me, and Miss Diana.
“Hey. Isn’t that the lady who owns the bakery downtown?”
“Yep.”
“Are you related to her?” she asks. A small chuckle leaves my lips.
“Not by blood. But that woman has saved me more times than I can count. I went and saw her the first night I met you…After you kicked me out of Badlands.”
“Oh…” It wasn’t that long ago, but it feels like it’s been a lifetime since then.
“Oh look.” I pull out an old, worn-out piece of paper. The edges are frayed. The color has faded to an off-white. I slowly unfold the sheet and laugh.
“What is it?”
“Octavia…Well, what we planned back then. We always wanted to start a security company. Always wanted to protect people.”
She rests her head on my shoulder as she looks at the drawing and notes.
PROTECTORS AGENCY
1. Get lots of money.
2. Hire extra bodyguards so we can have weekends off
3. Build a giant building with a cool, secret, underground lair.
4. Slushy machine
“Slushy machine?” she laughs.
“Of course. Every secret, underground lair needs one.
5. Protect people!
6. Buy an island so we can go on vacation whenever we want! No parents allowed!
7. Be the best protectors agency in the entire world.
8. Get super rich. Marry pretty movie stars. Go to all the fun adult parties.
She laughs at the last one.
“Hey! I loved our plan! It was perfect,” I laugh. I can feel the tears starting to burn my eyes.
“It was. I think you’re missing a few things though.”
“Yeah…My basement isn’t a secret lair…And I don’t have an island.”
“And you aren’t married to a pretty movie star.” She laughs as she stands up and brushes the dust off her shorts. I set the box down and reach into my pocket.
“Not yet.” I turn, still staying down on one knee. I pull the ring out from my pocket and hold it up to her.
Her eyes widen as her mouth drops open.
“Before you say anything, let me talk,” I say with a smirk, and she closes her lips.
“Before I found out you were alive, I was empty. A shell of the man I once was. The day I thought I lost all of you, I lost myself. I lived every day, not caring if it was my last. I kept the promise I made to your father for our plans and built Octavia. I made it into what I knew your father would have wanted, and yet I still wasn’t happy. ”
I take her hand in mine as she stares at the ring. I had it custom-made. It’s a sunburst halo, white gold. The center stone is a ?-carat diamond with twelve pear-cut diamonds around the outside, making it look like a sun.
“When I met you, my entire world shifted. The darkness around me shattered, and all I could see was you. Your beauty. Your light. The warmth from you alone was enough to bring me back to life. I fell for you so fucking hard that night…I wasn’t lying in that note when I said I saw a future with you.
I always have. I love you so much, Sunshine.
You literally are the light of my life. The only thing I need to survive.
I figured with you selling this place, and us starting the next chapter in our lives, I wanted to do things right. ”
I lift her hand and let the ring hover over the tip of her finger. I can feel the small tremors as she tries not to let her tears fall.
“Lumina Warner, will you do me the greatest honor in the world in becoming my wife?”
She stares at the ring again as a single tear falls down her cheek. She looks up at me and smirks.
“Only one problem…” A small laugh leaves her lips as another tear falls.
“What’s that?”
“I’m no movie star.”
“Hmmm…We have two options with that. One, we scratch that part of the plan. Or two, and I really like option two…We go back home and order a new camera.”
Her eyes widen again at my words.
“Yes!” she shouts making me laugh again.
“To which part, Sunshine?”
“Both…” She kneels in front of me and cups my face in hers. “I will marry you, Myles Langston!” She kisses me deeply, and my chest finally remembers how to breathe.
When we break the kiss, I slide the ring onto her finger and let her look at it. It fits perfectly. I made sure of that. It’s perfect, just like her. She tilts her hand letting the sunlight from the hall windows catch on the diamonds. She looks back to me with a mischievous smile on her lips.
“Now…About that new camera.”