Epilogue
OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA – THREE MONTHS LATER
“We can rock-paper-scissors it.”
“Wait, what?” Julia stretched her arms out to the sides and stepped between Natasha’s brother, Gray Chandler, and the mysterious Carter Dominick. “You are not really fighting over my friend, are you?”
“What, I’m not worth the fight?” Oliver cocked his head to the side, clearly amused by what was happening.
“We both want Oliver to join our teams, and we can’t both have him.” Gray’s eyes remained narrowed on Carter in preparation for some ridiculous rock-paper-scissors showdown.
“How about let Oliver decide?” Julia lowered her arms, but the “boys” ignored her suggestion, and Gray and Carter began the battle over her friend.
Gray Chandler had a security company on the West Coast, and although his work wasn’t as intense as Finn’s, it was still dangerous. And Carter? Well, that man was still a question mark.
Julia grabbed hold of Oliver’s sleeve and tilted her head, motioning for him to leave Carter and Gray alone. “They won’t notice we’re gone.”
“Eh, I don’t mind being fought over.” Oliver accepted a flute of champagne from one of the women working the wedding reception but handed it off to Julia. “I honestly can’t choose. They both sound like good guys. Carter’s more of a wild card, but you know I like a bit of excitement.”
Julia sipped her champagne and peered across the backyard of her parents’ beach home (well, now hers since they’d gifted it as a wedding present), where the reception was in full swing.
She spotted her husband chatting with a few of his teammates near where the band played.
He tipped his head back and clutched his stomach, laughing with the rest of them.
My sexy husband. Is this real? She’d almost thought they really would have a triple wedding, but Harper and Roman decided to get married back in June at the same church her parents, who’d long since passed away, had married.
And Rory’s family roped her into a big Southern wedding in Alabama since A.J.
had robbed them of a wedding when he’d eloped with Ana.
When she and Finn decided on a super short engagement, he’d suggested only family and a few friends at the beach house beneath a canopy of stars.
They’d gotten married under the moonlight, barefoot and holding hands as they’d said their vows two hours ago. It’d been the most amazing and romantic moment of her life. She had a feeling there were many more moments to come, including their honeymoon.
They’d be leaving tomorrow for ten days in a water bungalow in Jamaica. They needed that time away.
He’d spun up a few times since he’d dropped to one knee and proposed that stormy night three months ago, and with the help of some of the spouses on Bravo and Echo who lived nearby, she’d successfully navigated those tough waters.
It wasn’t any easier each time he kissed her goodbye, but she doubted she’d ever stop worrying about that man.
She loved him, and she could only pray he’d always come home to her.
Wyatt hadn’t yet been cleared to operate, and the teams hadn’t finalized all of their “draft picks” as they were calling them for Charlie Team, and it had Julia wondering if they were stalling for a reason.
Were they not ready for this next generation of SEALs?
Were they worried they’d take over for them one day, and well, wasn’t that kind of the plan?
“Still can’t believe you’re married.” Oliver stopped walking, his gaze sliding over to Mya talking to Mason, the friend who’d previously been supplying Mya with some benefits between the sheets.
He’d broken up with whatever model he’d been dating a few weeks ago, and Julia wasn’t quite sure what to make of how Mya really felt about Mason.
She wanted her friend happy, though, as happy as Julia now was with Finn.
“She still single?” Oliver asked. “Or are they a sort-of thing?”
Julia looked at Oliver and smiled. How’d he know they’d ever been anything? Oliver had met Mya a few times over the years, but he’d been in the military at the time and hadn’t shown interest in her then. Was he showing interest now? “Why do you ask?”
Oliver shrugged. “Just curious.” He swiped his hand over his beard, keeping his eyes on Mya in her light pink sundress.
Everyone had decided to dress informally for the beach wedding. No dress whites or dress blues for the servicemen, and no shaving beards . . . the guys had thanked her for that one a few times that evening.
She hadn’t worn a traditional wedding dress tonight either.
In fact, it was more of a simple white wrap dress similar to the one Finn had freaked out about back in Egypt months ago.
So, tonight, she couldn’t help but wear it, and she’d noticed Finn checking all of her “angles” at the reception as if ensuring none of his single buddies would be able to admire the so-called view.
Finn had on khaki linen pants and a white linen shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows. He’d looked perfect to her. The entire evening had been absolutely amazing.
Of course, Finn did get himself in a little trouble with Michael and Julia’s dad since he’d dropped to one knee that night in New York without asking for her hand first, but she’d come to his defense explaining why that’d happened. And Michael and her dad forgave Finn.
“Hey, you have a delivery.” Julia discarded the champagne flute on an empty table and turned to see her mom motioning for Julia to head to the house.
“Delivery, huh?” She squeezed Oliver’s arm, letting him know they’d catch up later, and she joined Finn so they could go see why her mother had such a puzzled expression on her face when she’d announced the “delivery.”
“You get me a surprise?” Finn teased while hooking his arm around her back. He took a moment to nuzzle his face against her neck and lightly nipped her earlobe. “Counting down the hours until I have you naked in Jamaica for ten days.”
Her body shuddered from his breath. “Mm. You and me both.” She leaned into him, setting her hand on his wall of muscles. “And no surprise from me, sorry to say.”
“Trust me,” he said while gripping her hip where his hand rested. “I have everything I could ever want and need.”
She followed his gaze to where his divorced parents were chatting with POTUS, which was pretty surreal having the President himself at her wedding. “Together forever,” she said in case his thoughts had gone dark with concerns they’d part ways one day like his parents.
Thankfully, Finn had returned to his therapy sessions with Dr. Logan, who happened to be a friend of Julia’s and her brother’s by way of her husband, Ben Logan.
She firmly believed in talking through problems instead of burying them beneath the surface, and she knew Finn needed to continue seeing the doctor so he wouldn’t let his guilt from the past come back to haunt him again.
No more numbness. She wanted her husband to feel everything. Hopefully only good things, though.
Julia had also started talking to someone every week. For one, it helped her handle her stress about his job. She couldn’t tell the doctor about his real work, but that was irrelevant. But also, she didn’t want to fall victim to blaming herself for Tucker anymore.
“I love you,” she found herself telling him as they walked up the steps to the patio, cutting through the crowd to get closer to her mom to see about the delivery.
“I love you, too, Jewels.” He let go of her hip to lace their fingers together as they went inside the open French doors of the beach house.
Julia stopped in her tracks the second she saw the delivery, then set her free hand to her stomach as a surprised laugh escaped her lips.
“That’s stolen, isn’t it?” Finn said out of the side of his mouth as he lifted their joined hands to point toward the Andy Warhol silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe resting against the couch in the living room.
“Probably.” She released his hand, then went to check for a message.
“That can’t be real, can it be?” Julia’s mom asked, blinking in shock.
“I think it is.” Julia smiled and then found a note stuck to the back of the Warhol.
A Warhol for Warhol. It’s only fair. And don’t worry, the bad guys won’t miss it.
“Um.” Julia handed the note to Finn.
He read it and grimaced. “I think we should get rid of this before its former owner notices it’s missing and comes looking for it. I don’t want any trouble in paradise.”
“We’ll deal with this tomorrow.” She looped her arms over her husband’s shoulders and pulled herself tight to his body. “Tonight is about us.”
“Oh, is it?”
“And after the party, will that be all about us, too?”
She teasingly chewed on her lip before saying, “Hopefully, you’ll be so far deep inside of me there won’t be a you or a me. Just an us.”
He closed his eyes and moaned, and she felt his dick harden against her. “Ugh. Damn. Is your mom still behind me? Can’t move otherwise.”
She peeked over his shoulder to see her mom’s back to them, checking the Warhol as if trying to authenticate it. “You’re good.”
He reset his focus on her face, and his hooded green eyes told her exactly what he was thinking. He lifted a hand to her face and stroked her cheek before cupping the back of her head. “My naughty girl.”
“For you, always,” she whispered before moving in to let him set her on fire with a kiss, the same way he did every time their mouths touched.
The same way he’d “sealed the deal” after they’d said their vows, and he dipped her dramatically to the delight of everyone before kissing the daylights out of her.
She’d just about collapsed from the emotional high of finally being married to her forever guy.
Sure, Julia knew how to take care of herself, she’d proven that in Aswan and Dubai, but there was no better feeling than knowing her guy would always be there for her. He’d always have her six.
When they were back outside with the guests, and she heard a Bryan Adams song being performed by the band, she froze.