Epilogue
One year later
“Nervous?” Clay asks as he stands beside me, his voice a teasing buzz amid the hum of crickets in the field.
The August sun is high and the day gloriously vibrant with wheat-colored yellows, effervescent blues, and the curl of green in the nearby trees.
Taxi has taught me to look deeper at the colors all around me. The kaleidoscope of our lives.
But one color will stand out above the rest today.
Periwinkle.
I’ve learned what the color looks like and appreciate the subtle mix of blue and white, which makes the soft purplish hue that highlights the features of my future wife.
My wife.
The thought alone might make me nervous, but it doesn’t. It’s something I’ve been wanting my entire life without ever voicing it, without believing it could happen for me.
But Tallulah Alexander is about to become my wife.
Surrounded by our two families and a small gathering of friends, my backyard has been transformed into an intimate space where Taxi and I will vow to love one another forever.
“Nah,” I finally answer Clay. My best man. My best friend. And the best brother. We’ve come a long way from the hungry, angry kids we were, running around this property, causing innocent havoc, and eventually raising our family.
The Sylver Seed & Soil is thriving. Each of my siblings has a partner and children of their own in some form or other.
I’ve witnessed all those happy moments, but today is my turn to celebrate. To promise, before my family and underneath the heavens, to love and honor someone who makes me a better person.
This is the biggest commitment of my life. I’ve avoided this kind of bond in the past but now I look forward to embracing it. I’m ready to race toward a beautiful future.
Taxi already lives with me. The house is our home.
One filled with our entire family every Sunday and intermittently filled with overnight visits with Simon and Hudson.
Occasionally, my other nieces and nephews stay over, giving another couple in the family a deserved break and allowing Taxi and I to play house for a while.
But at the end of the day, we are each other’s home, and we don’t mind the quiet when we are on our own.
A slow smile blooms on my mouth as images pop into my head of all the ways we make our own noises in the absence of others.
The places we’ve fucked and the ways we’ve made love throughout the house I’ve always lived in.
While the minister stands near me, an arch of flowers behind him, I survey the guests assembled to witness our wedding.
Trudy, of course, and Simon, along with our families.
The Haven clan. Emerson Milton, whose secret temporarily derailed my romance with Taxi, but who has now become a good friend to her.
Art Simms, whose maker’s studio provides a regular outlet for Taxi’s creativity and became an additional reason for Taxi to remain in Sterling Falls.
Art introduced Taxi to the Dean of Fine Arts at a local college, who, in turn, offered Taxi a position as visiting professor, fulfilling her desire to teach.
The people present today represent community, something Taxi always wanted for herself. Their presence in our lives strengthens the roots she was ready to lie down. The promise of our future amid these special guests gathered here fills my heart.
However, my attention fixes on the back door of the house, breath held but not anxious. I’m just . . . excited.
Any minute, Taxi is going to walk out that door. Walk toward me. Where we will chase the future together.
First, though, comes Vale. My sister is radiant in her own right. Smile wide and eyes seeking Cortland, who sits in the front row of white folding chairs.
With such a large family on my side, having everyone stand with me was just too much. My brothers are here, supporting me in every way, whether they stand at my side, like Clay and Judd today, or sit among the gathered guests.
Vale winks as she approaches me, her mouth forming words she’s easily given over the years.
I love you, big brother.
The backs of my eyes burn.
Vale has always been more than my sister. She’s been the child I nurtured from birth and my roommate when she had a child of her own. We’re close in ways some might not understand, and yet, I’d never change a single thing about our relationship.
Next down the aisle comes Genie, Taxi’s new best friend.
Her sister from another mister. The one forever friend Taxi never knew she needed.
Their combined love of art and Judd has brought them closer, along with Simon’s help.
He’s been the glue to put so many people back together again.
Genie smiles at Judd, standing on the other side of Clay, as Taxi’s once brother-like best friend.
Taxi toyed with asking Simon to walk her down the aisle. Then, she thought about asking Trudy. But in the end, Taxi wanted to walk herself toward me. Her bridal march making it clear she was giving herself to me and not being passed along by someone else.
“Might even skip down that aisle,” she teased me the other day.
As long as she was coming in my direction, she could cartwheel for all I cared.
Chasing, she’d told me about the adventures her mother had led them on during their nomadic lifestyle.
The only thing I wanted Taxi to chase was me. She wasn’t going to have to run very far. I was willing to be caught.
Taxi’s sisters sit among the guests. Trudy is in the front row opposite where Cortland sits. Her smile so wide, her round face is radiant. Happy tears leak from her dark eyes.
I only needed Taxi’s permission to marry her, but I still went to Trudy for her blessing, knowing how important she’s been to both Taxi and me. To my entire family.
“Your mama . . .” Trudy said, choking up over the remainder of her thought about her long-gone best friend. She didn’t need to tell me my mother would be proud. Be happy for me.
I knew it. I felt it.
Violet was watching over me right here, right now. In the place I’ve always been.
“If you’d all please rise, if you are able,” the minister addresses everyone, and people stand, shifting to face the back of the house, where the door opens.
A door I’ve walked in and out of a million times in my life, yet I’d never focused harder on the opening that would deliver the one woman I’ve been waiting for my entire life.
Taxi.
Her hair is up in an intricate sweep. Only a single curl dangles near the side of her face. She’s as bright as the sun, blinding and stealing my breath like she always does.
Her dress is periwinkle, because why not?
As for me, I’m wearing a beige suit. She told me the color is actually stone brown.
Doesn’t matter to me. She’s the rainbow in my life.
Her eyes are focused on me, and that prickle in the back of my own liquifies. I blink several times, not wanting to miss a single moment of her walking toward me, filling that space that’s been vacant most of my life. The spot right beside me.
“Hi,” she whispers as she nears me. Her mouth curved so big those silvery eyes of hers sparkle.
“You look beautiful,” I greet her, leaning in to kiss her cheek.
She slips her arm through mine as we face the minister. We’ve already discussed how there might be a few things not so traditional about this wedding. We aren’t going to stand with space between us.
And eventually, we share our vows in our own way.
A private joke, of sorts.
With my fingertip, I draw a star over her heart and begin.
“I, Stone Sylver, do solemnly swear . . .”
Taxi chuckles, her eyes suddenly welling with tears.
“To love you. To honor you. To chase the wind with you, but also to hold you steady when the gusts are too strong.”
A single tear drips from her eye, and I catch it with my thumb. She soggily smiles.
When Taxi goes next, she slips her hand into my jacket, spreading her fingers like a special kind of five-point star over my heart.
“I, Tallulah Alexander, do solemnly swear . . .” She chuckles a little despite the seriousness of what she’s about to say next.
“To love you. To honor you. To plant roots with you, but also to dance with you when the breeze blows.”
I lean in to kiss her again, this time taking her lips, sealing our deal, our vows, our promises.
The minister clears his throat. “We’ll be getting to that part in a minute.”
The crowd snickers.
And the rest of the ceremony passes in a blur before he pronounces us wife and husband, because ladies always go first.
Eventually, we travel back down the aisle to cheers and whistles. Our celebration will continue in the yard like a typical Sylver Sunday when there is nothing typical about this day.
This is our wedding day.
And because of it, I steal Taxi away for a few minutes, leading us into my office where I can shut the door and kiss her like I really want to kiss her. Full lips. Seeking tongue. Hands on her hips where they belong.
After a few minutes, she pulls back, resting her forehead against mine.
“I love you,” she exhales. The hum that follows emphasizes how happy she is.
“I love you,” I whisper, cupping her face and forcing her to look up at me, matching the happiness in her eyes with my own.
“Can we leave on our honeymoon yet?” she teases, slipping her fingers into the waistband of my suit pants and tugging me closer to her.
“Already trying to get in my pants, Mrs. Sylver?”
Her smile widens. “Always, Mr. Sylver.”
I hum like she does, taking her mouth again.
We aren’t actually leaving on a honeymoon any time soon. Much to my surprise, Taxi wanted to stay right here.
Deeper on the property is a house. The original homestead, from what we’ve imagined over the years.
A once crumbling shelter, missing a roof, with only one solid stone wall.
When my brother Knox returned from the Navy, he needed something to do, and together, we rebuilt the original structure with bricks and stones.
Ironic considering his nickname and my actual name.
And that small rectangular space with a single door and one window will be our honeymoon retreat.
Taxi said she didn’t want it any other way.
She wanted to spend time with me . . . at home.
A homey-moon, she teased.
“Soon,” I whisper when I release her lips, stroking my thumb over the softness of her skin.
“Don’t make me wait too long,” she playfully warns.
“Never.”
Neither of us will ever have to wait again.
Because she is here. And I’m next to her.
We are home.
Want a little more of Stone and Taxi?
How about the entire Sylver clan?
Check them out ten years in the future here.
Ten Years Later.
Not ready to leave Sterling Falls?
Come on over to Rogue River, the small mountain town next door,
and read the romances of the Havens.
PROMISE
When Trinity Haven’s ex-husband returns after seven years on a racecar circuit, she learns she’s still married to him, but she has a surprise all her own for him.
Read about their later-in-life, second chance, marriage in repair.
Want to read the Sylvers in order?
Start with Sterling Heat.
Sebastian Sylver has always been a bad boy. but when he’s finally on the up-and-up owning the local bakery, the last thing he expected was to deliver a baby of a striking single mom, and then pretend to be the dad to help her out.