Epilogue
CECE
W e stood at the top of the pyramid, wind teasing at my braid as I turned slowly to take in the view.
The jungle below looked like a green ocean, thick and endless in every direction.
It was dark and I wasn’t going to lie; it was a little spooky being in a Guatemalan jungle at night.
We spent a few late nights working, but that had always been with flood lights and a team.
Grady assured me it was safe and he had a gun in case some nocturnal creature decided to have a late-night snack.
I turned and shot Grady a glare over my shoulder. “I cannot believe you made me climb an ancient pyramid in the pitch black.”
“It’s not that dark,” he countered. “And we have flashlights.”
“You said we had to be somewhere special.”
“We do,” he said.
“You failed to mention I’d be doing vertical cardio at five in the morning,” I said, rubbing my calves. “This is how I die. Not from decompression sickness or pirate ghosts. From pyramid hiking. In. A. Jungle. Do you know what kind of things live in a jungle?”
“You’re not going to die,” he said. “This is living. You said you wanted to experience everything the world had to offer.”
I couldn’t argue. It was pretty exciting.
It was just before sunrise and the rational part of my mind knew most nocturnal creatures had found their beds.
There were slashes of pink and orange on the horizon.
I was looking forward to seeing the sunrise.
Although I would have been perfectly happy looking at pictures of it.
But whatever. It was an experience. One I would definitely remember.
“Okay,” I said. “It is kinda beautiful. I’ll give you that.”
“Kinda?” He gave me a look.
“I’d appreciate it more with a thermos of coffee.”
Grady chuckled, pulling off his pack and putting it down near the edge once we reached the top. “Come here.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gestured around us. “Look at this.”
I took a deep breath, smelling the jungle.
Damp earth and foliage permeated my senses.
We had been climbing up and down the pyramid for a week.
When Grady told me I got the position on the dig, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
I had to earn the job. It wasn’t given. After finally finishing my degree, I thought I might never get the chance to use it.
For now, I was working at a museum, which was fine, but I wanted to be in the field.
Grady’s professor job kept him pretty tied down, but when he got the invitation to return to Guatemala, he put in for a leave of absence. That had been the longest three weeks of my life. He was in Guatemala and I was dusting shelves.
But then I got the chance to join him. Mom and Sophie were back home. I did feel a twinge of guilt about being away for two weeks, but they both insisted I take the opportunity. I couldn’t have imagined anything better.
“See,” he said.
“I don’t have words,” I whispered.
“Good because you’ve been bitching since I woke you up.”
I giggled softly. “You know I’m not a morning person.”
“I woke you up with sex. I thought that might help get your morning started on the right foot.”
I grinned. “It definitely helped.”
I loved waking up with him. Sophie and I had moved into his little house on the beach.
We were actively looking for something bigger, but we couldn’t decide where to put down roots just yet.
Mom was up for anything. I felt untethered in the best way.
We were a family. The four of us could live anywhere and it would be fine as long as we were together.
He kissed my cheek, his muscled arm holding me close against him. The sunrise was slow, making sure we could enjoy every second. Like the sun wanted to make sure it got the proper recognition for the stunning display it was putting on.
Soft light flooded the area. Grady reached into his bag and pulled something out. It was a small, velvet-covered box. Not a ring box.
“For you,” he said.
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
My fingers hesitated, pulse speeding up. I looked at him, then at the box. “Oh my God. Grady—if you’re about to propose to me on top of a Mayan ruin, at sunrise with my hair a mess, I swear?—”
“Would that be the worst thing?” he asked, amusement tugging at his mouth.
“No.” I popped the box open and stared down, not sure I understood what I was looking at. Yes, I did feel a hint of disappointment. “A pendant? Oh wait.”
It was the Roman Promise Pendant. The one from his office. The one I’d stared at too many times when he wasn’t looking. The one I saw that night when we’d first met and I was straddling him.
“I thought you lost this,” I said, touching the worn metal. “When I asked you about it, you said you thought it might have been misplaced during the remodel.”
He grinned. “Nope. I knew exactly where it was. It’s yours. I will always look at that and remember you storming into my world and forever changing me.”
“In the best way, right?” I teased.
“Of course.”
It wasn’t a ring, but it was perfect. It meant something and it was special to us. I liked that only the two of us understood the significance of the pendant. No average Joe was going to look at the thing and understand. It was our little secret.
“I have something else for you,” he said quietly.
Before I could ask what he meant, he pulled out another box. Smaller. Square. Very obviously a ring box.
I froze. “Grady, oh my god.”
“I was going to do this later, when you were slightly less murderous. But I couldn’t think of a more beautiful place to do this.
We’re going to make a lot of memories together and I don’t want them to overshadow this one.
When you agree to be my wife, I want to make sure it’s a memory you are never going to forget.
I want you to remember every detail of this morning. ”
He dropped to one knee. I could barely see him through the tears welling in my eyes.
I couldn’t believe it was happening. We tossed around plans for our future, but we never really talked about marriage.
There just never seemed to be a right time to talk about it and I was happy with him and us as we were.
“I don’t want to waste any more time pretending I don’t know exactly what I want,” he said.
“I want you, Cece. You and Sophie and your mother and your waffles with strawberries. I want all of it. I want us to travel and show Sophie everything this world has to offer. I want to spend the rest of my life showing three of my favorite ladies on the planet how special you all are to me. I want to wake up with you every morning and plan a new adventure. I want to go to bed every night with you in my arms thinking about our tomorrow.”
My hands flew to my mouth. “You’re crazy.”
“I love you,” he said. “Marry me.”
The sun chose that moment to highlight the most handsome man in the world with a yellow beam of light.
It highlighted his dirty blond hair and the scruff on his jaw.
His green eyes looked even greener. I had to close my eyes like the shutter of a camera clicking.
The memory was locked away. The image of him would be there for me to revisit for the rest of my days.
I opened my eyes and looked down at him. I wiped away the tears and smiled, my head bobbing up and down.
“Is that a yes?”
I dropped to my knees in front of him and kissed him. “Of course it’s a yes.”
He slid the ring on my finger. It fit perfectly. Of course it did. Grady was observant. Attentive. He would make sure the ring would slide on and stay on, even while digging in the jungle.
Behind us, the sky burst open in a brilliant display of yellows and oranges. I felt it on my skin and in my very soul.
Grady pulled me close. “This is it,” he whispered into my hair. “This is the moment we’ll remember when we’re old and tired.”
I tilted my head to look up at him, nose brushing his. “I hope we’re never too tired for adventure.”
“Promise me we won’t be,” he said. “You might have to push my old ass around in a wheelchair, but I’ll always be up for anything with you. Promise me you won’t get tired of me and trade me in for a younger model.”
“Sorry, bud, you are stuck with me. And you will not get old. I forbid it.”
He laughed. “Deal. I don’t want to be one of those old guys who just sits around telling stories about the good old days.”
“Oh, you’ll have plenty of stories,” I teased, leaning into him. “But I’ll make sure we’re still making new ones. Even if it’s just sneaking out of the nursing home to go on a midnight dig.”
“Deal,” he said. He kissed me again, slow and deep, and for a moment, the world around us faded away. It was just us.
When we finally pulled apart, he stood and helped me to my feet. “Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “Let’s get back down and get my fiancée some breakfast.”
“Oh, I like the sound of that,” I said.
“Breakfast?” he asked.
“Well, yes, that too, but I mean fiancée. It has a nice ring to it. Just like my finger.” I held up my hand and admired it in the light of a new dawn. “Not a bad way to start the day.”
The hike down wasn’t as terrible. Probably because I kept looking at the ring on my finger. I kept thinking I should’ve guessed it was coming. But as usual, I was focused on making the most of every minute we had together.
“You did good, Professor Stone,” I said as we neared the camp.
“By meeting you? Agreed,” he said with a wink.
One thought kept running through my mind. I get to have this forever.
Felix met us with a grin. “So…?”
Grady held up my hand.
“I wasn’t worried,” Felix said.
I smiled, blushing. “You knew?”
“Please. You think I packed champagne on accident?”
He handed us two flutes, already fizzing. “To Dr. Stone and Dr. Future-Stone.”
We clinked glasses and drank. I couldn’t wait to tell Sophie. She was going to be ecstatic. I knew she loved Grady like a father already, but this was going to make it even better.
***
If you loved this book, don’t miss out…
Check out book 1 in A Wedding Bells Alpha Novel called Say You Do .
My brother is an idiot—he’s getting married.
And I’m in charge of getting things together since our folks are gone.
Lucky me. The guy who thinks love is for the birds and worn-out 80s songs.
I honestly don’t have time for this drama. I run a billion-dollar company, have women to entertain, and am working on my plans to rule the world.
No, seriously.
And yet, when you least expect it, life kicks you in the balls.
The beautiful, snarky woman that runs the flower shop is perfect to help me pull off this wedding.
Just seeing her sends my head spinning with possibilities.
She’s perfect. To play my fake wife for an event I have coming up as a side deal.
My ex-wife will be at the event, and I sure could use someone to show her how well I’ve done since she ripped out my soul.
So my curvy new friend gets my ring and a chunk of my wallet before agreeing to the deal.
Funny thing is, I’m not so interested in taking it back by the end of the adventure.
I’m willing to go all in on what might be the best decision of my life.
And I’m demanding the same of her. No maybes. No I-don’t-knows.
No fear of what might be or might not be.
Open your pretty pink lips and utter the words.
Say you do.
I gotta have THIS