Epilogue
A month later, at that same courthouse, Charlotte Calamity Pax married Kieran Sullivan Byrne.
The happy couple went out for dinner afterward with all of Charlie’s sisters and their various and assorted men.
Due to her court-ordered ankle bracelet, Jane wasn’t able to leave the house to join them, which everyone except for Jane appreciated.
“A toast!” Molly announced in a voice loud enough to cut through all of the laughter and chatter. “To Charlie and Kieran—may they bring in all the skips and fight all the fires—respectively—but, most importantly, may they be very happy together.”
Everyone’s cheers almost—but not quite—drowned out Molly’s tiny sniffle, but Charlie was relieved to see Cara hop up to pull their oldest sister into a consoling hug.
Even though it was her wedding and her fault that Molly was overtaken by happy tears, Charlie was never a fan of hugs, and she’d already been bombarded by too many of them by her sisters since she’d married Kieran.
Fifi stood next, a wicked grin on her face, and Charlie knew the next toast would be as brutal as one of her little sister’s workouts.
“Nope,” Charlie said, standing up. “My turn to make a toast.” When Fifi opened her mouth to object, Charlie pulled her trump card. “My day, my rules.”
With a mutter of “Bridezilla,” Fifi sat down.
Charlie blinked, realizing that she had to actually make a toast now that she’d foiled Fifi’s plan of embarrassing her.
“Okay, so here’s to keeping Dad’s house and having it officially belong to all of us.
” Everyone toasted, and Charlie was tempted to call it good and sit again, but it felt…
incomplete. Other things needed to be said.
“It’s been an awful few months, but I knew we’d win in the end.
That’s what we Pax sisters do. So here’s to my wonderful and annoying sisters, and all the men who make them happy.
You’re like the brothers I never wanted. ”
Everyone laughed as John, Henry, Bennett, and Dash lifted their glasses to Charlie.
Molly and Cara were full-on bawling, and Charlie sat quickly before anyone could hug her.
A heavy arm dropped over her shoulder, and a warm little shiver tripped up her spine as Kieran whispered in her ear, “Don’t I get a toast? ”
“You know, the longer I’m standing, the higher the likelihood of a long, drawn-out group hug, right?” When he just smirked at her—her third favorite expression of his—she heaved a huge sigh. “Fine. But if you get tackle-hugged by one or more of my siblings, it’s on you.”
This time, he left his hand on her lower back as she stood, and she reveled in the feeling. Even in this, he was watching her back.
“Finally, since he won’t shut up about it…
” Charlie peeked at Kieran and saw that he was grinning at her.
She rolled her eyes even as her insides turned to warm goo.
“To my husband. That first time I met you, when you screeched your truck to a stop so a fluffy squirrel could safely cross the street, I knew I’d eventually marry you.
In this, like so many other things, I was right. ”
There were a few uncertain toasts to Kieran but more confused looks from everyone except her new husband.
“Of course I wouldn’t run over a squirrel,” he said, his brows furrowed at the thought. His scowl smoothed into a smile as he looked up at her. “And you are right about almost everything.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“It’s one of the things I love about you.”
Charlie felt her stomach dive and soar as, to her horror, her eyes started to prickle with tears.
“Okay, okay. I love you too. Now let’s shut up about it.
” She went to plop down in her chair before she started all-out bawling, but Kieran grabbed her hips and directed her to land in his lap instead.
She was perfectly happy with this new plan.
Their food arrived before anyone could make any more toasts or declarations of love, to Charlie’s relief.
She forked up a bit of pasta, but before she could get it into her mouth, Fifi jabbed her in the side.
The bite of food almost went flying from the force of Fifi’s elbow poke, and Charlie glared at her sister.
Fifi was staring across the room, so she didn’t even notice. “Isn’t that Jim Jabsen?”
Norah turned around and peered at the man in question. “Yes. That’s him.” She turned back around and started eating again.
With an excited chortle, Fifi slipped out of her seat. “Well, don’t just sit there,” she said to Charlie. “Let’s go get him.”
“He’s a skip?” Charlie felt a bit miffed she was out of the loop. She’d been a little preoccupied with Kieran for the past month, but she hadn’t been that oblivious. Had she? She automatically got up with Fifi, trying to spot who her sister was looking at.
“Here.” Norah held up her phone, showing the mug shot of an average-looking middle-aged man with pale-blue eyes and a snub nose. “He skipped out on a five-hundred-thousand-dollar bond.”
“What’d he do?”
“Domestic assault.”
Taking a mental picture of the mug shot, she turned to Kieran, who was calmly eating. “Go ahead,” he said with a smile, making a shooing motion with his fork. “Be safe. Have fun. I love you.”
Since that was pretty much word-for-word what she told him when he was went out on calls for his new job with the Langston Fire Department, she grinned back at him.
“Love you too. And you know this’ll be fun.
” Bending down, she smacked a kiss on his cheek and then scanned the room, spotting Jabsen at a table in the corner.
“Give us a holler if you need help,” Molly said, taking a sip of wine.
“We’ll be fine. The smug ones never expect us,” Fifi assured her before looking at Charlie and grinning her anticipatory shark’s grin. “Ready?”
“Always.”