Epilogue
Two months later
“Go on, open it,” Liam urges from his spot beside me on the sofa.
His mother rattles the box as though trying to guess what it is. “It’s not that pasta maker we saw the other day at the shops, is it?”
Liam’s mouth widens into a grin. “You’ll have to open it and find out.”
Dianne unwraps the Christmas paper I spent all yesterday wrapping and beams as she pulls out a brand-new pasta maker.
“Liam! I told you it was too much!” she cries. “You shouldn’t have!”
“Well, now that you’re here in Seattle, you need your own pasta maker so you can make homemade lasagna,” he says, clearly pleased with himself.
“Is this your way of telling me you want me to move out?” she asks, and we all laugh.
After Liam and I landed in London, we spent a couple weeks helping Dianne arrange her affairs before we all decided it would be best if she and Liam’s sister, Felicity, came back to Seattle with us.
While the house is crowded, and Liam and I really wish we had more than two bathrooms, it’s nice to hear Liam and Felicity laughing in the living room, or find Dianne in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of her famous blueberry scones, and I know I’ll miss them when they eventually find their own place nearby.
Liam and his mom have been taking things slowly, getting reacquainted little by little, piece by piece, trying to rebuild their relationship after years of neglect.
Some days are hard, while others feel like massive breakthroughs, but I can see they’re both trying, that they want to repair what’s been broken, the same way Liam and I do.
In addition to seeing a therapist on my own, we’ve started seeing a marriage counselor together.
The first few sessions were hard, and we both spent most of the hour in tears, but with each session, we’ve found new, healthy ways to communicate with each other and build trust and intimacy back into our marriage.
There’s still a lot of work to be done—a lifetime of work, in fact—but we’re doing it together, day by day.
“Roslyn, pass the scones,” Bella says from her spot curled up on Chris’s lap by the Christmas tree Felicity and I spent hours decorating last weekend.
I pass her the plate, and she takes one before handing it to Abby, who is in town for the holidays. Last night Abby told me that she and Jake are expecting, and she mouths eating for two as she takes three scones.
Ben, Jonah, and the kids are far too interested in the laser tag set they opened this morning to pay attention to Grammy and Gramps, who keep trying to get photos of them in their matching reindeer jammies.
Even Kevin is here with his new girlfriend. It must be serious, because Kevin shaved the porno stache, and for once he doesn’t smell like weed.
On the other side of Liam, Bella and Felicity have begun poring over a bridal magazine, pointing out dresses they each like.
The only person missing is my mom. But I feel her presence even when she’s not here. She’s in the photographs on the walls. And the stacks of romance novels lining the bookshelves. Mostly, I feel her in every crack of laughter and infectious smile.
She’d love this, I think as I look from the bracelet on Bella’s wrist to the glow in Jonah’s eyes as he and Ben share a quick peck under the mistletoe Liam insisted on hanging in the entryway.
She’d love the way Jake whispers something in Abby’s ear that makes her laugh, and how tenderly Gramps wraps a blanket over Grammy’s shoulders because she looks cold.
She’d love seeing how happy everyone is, and maybe, even though she’s not here, this is as much her happily ever after as it is ours.
After Dianne finishes opening her gifts, she turns to me. “All right, Roslyn’s turn. You should open your present from Liam.”
When I look at Liam, he’s already standing with his hand outstretched.
“If you want your gift, you’ll have to come to the kitchen,” he says.
A nervous laugh rattles out of me. “The kitchen? It’s not lasagna, is it?”
Liam shakes his head, laughing. “Better.”
Frowning, I take his hand as he leads me through the hall, past the photos of us on our wedding day now back on the wall, and into the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” I whisper. But Liam doesn’t answer. Instead, he digs in his pocket and pulls out a small velvet box before he drops to one knee.
A breath charges out of me. “Liam, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m proposing.”
“But we’re already married, and I already have a ring.” I point to the diamond on my left hand he gave me seven years ago.
Liam shakes his head, eyes shining in the fluorescent kitchen lighting. “When I asked you to be my wife seven years ago, I didn’t have a ring, or a plan—all I knew was that I wanted to be with you. But this time I want to do it right.” He pops open the box to reveal a gold wedding band.
“Not just the proposal,” he says. “But the marriage. All of it. I know I’m going to make mistakes, that I might hurt you and you might hurt me, that we’ll both say and do things we wish we hadn’t, but I promise to keep loving you and fighting for you.
For us.” He stands up, taking my hands in his.
“I want to make lasagna for you and watch rom-coms and celebrate your latest book and get matching tattoos and go on holidays with your family and grow old together. I want to keep building a life, you and me. Whatever that takes, I’m all in. I’m yours.”
Tears prick the backs of my eyes. It’s been a hard year. The hardest of our lives. But standing here with Liam, knowing that no matter what’s next, it will be with him by my side, makes me feel brave.
“Yes,” I tell him through the curtain of now-falling tears. “I’m yours.”
He collects me in his arms, his mouth meeting mine in a desperate rush.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you too.” My fingers rope through his hair, tugging him closer. His, his, his.
After nine years, it’s a tune my heart knows well.
We stay there, wound around each other, our mouths colliding in a steady rush of kisses that would probably escalate to more if our entire family weren’t in the other room, until Felicity calls, “Well, did she say yes?”
Liam’s laugh vibrates against my chest. “I love our families, but I can’t wait until we have the place to ourselves again.”
“You have no idea,” I grumble as Liam leads me back into the main room.
“She said yes!” he cries, raising my hand over our heads in triumph.
Everyone cheers, and even Gramps has what could be mistaken for a smile on his face.
“Good,” Dianne says with a curt nod and that famous British stiff upper lip. “Now you two can take a honeymoon and finally get some time to yourselves.”
Liam frowns. “But I thought you liked being here with us, Mum.”
“I do. But you need your own space.” She gives us a knowing look. “Besides, I’m getting a bit tired of being woken up in the middle of the night by you two.”
“Mum!” Liam cries, his face turning bright red.
She arches a brow. “What? You think I can’t hear you both? You’re not exactly quiet.”
Bella and Abby descend into laughter while Liam and I exchange guilty looks.
Since we have a full house, sex usually happens in the middle of the night when we think everyone else is asleep. But apparently, we haven’t been as sneaky as we thought.
After we finish opening gifts, we drink tea and eat chocolate biscuits that Dianne brought from M we have forever, and I kiss him back, using my whole body to answer.
Forever isn’t long enough when it’s with you.