26. Epilogue
Epilogue
Nine months later...
I t was time to leave...
And Lily wasn’t ready to catch her flight. Her stomach was filled with what felt like a hundred butterflies. And she couldn’t focus. She’d packed, unpacked, and repacked.
She thought this moment was never going to happen—for so long it had been nothing more than a dream. Now at last she was about to travel to New York City for her very first gallery showing.
Thanks to Bluestar’s art festival, where she’d won the competition, she now had a couple of contacts in the art world. In fact, she even signed with an agent. Every time she thought of how far she’d come over the past, well, not quite a year, she was astonished.
“Are you ready to go?” Tony came to a stop next to her.
“No. I can’t decide which shoes to take.” She held up black heels, silver flats, and sandals.
“Who knew traveling required so many decisions?”
He put his arms around her and drew her close.
She let the shoes fall from her fingertips.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Even after being together for nine months, he still made her heart race.
And when he stared into her eyes, like he was doing at that particular moment, she felt like the luckiest woman.
“You will look beautiful in anything.”
“You always know the right thing to say.” She lifted up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.
His arms tightened around her, drawing her closer. She let her fingertips run over the short strands of his hair as he’d just gotten a haircut because he was accompanying her on this trip. It was their first trip together. She had a feeling it was the beginning of many firsts for them.
He pressed his lips to hers. They were warm and smooth as they moved over hers. Worries about shoes drifted to the back of her mind as she let herself enjoy his kiss.
When he pulled back, he said, “Do you feel calmer now?”
She sent him a pouty look. “I feel like you should kiss me some more.”
“We’ll have time for that later, but right now we have to get you packed. If we miss that flight, we’ll have to drive. And if we drive, we’ll miss your meeting with your agent. You don’t want that to happen.”
She sighed. He was right. “Fine. I’ll just take all of the shoes.”
He arched a brow. “Are they all going to fit?”
She thought about all of the clothes she’d stuffed into her suitcase.
There were clothes for touring New York City.
There were business clothes for meeting her agent.
There were evening clothes for the gallery showing.
And then there were extra clothes in case she spilled something on an outfit and needed to change.
She wanted to have all of her bases covered.
Then she sighed again. “No. They aren’t going to fit.” And then she got an idea. “Can they go in your suitcase?”
He shook his head. “Mine’s full.”
“Full? But you’re a guy. You aren’t supposed to need a bunch of clothes.”
“My suitcase is about half the size of yours.”
“Oh. So, in other words yours is a carry-on.”
“Pretty much.”
That didn’t help her in the least. She tried on the sandals. They definitely didn’t say evening wear. She needed something that was versatile. The silver ones were cute, but they wouldn’t go with all of her outfits.
That left her black heels. She looked closely at them. They’d definitely seen better days. But it was too late to replace them now.
She slipped them on. They fit, and they were comfortable. She looked up to ask Tony what he thought, but he was no longer in the living room. She moved to the doorway and found him on the porch with his phone pressed to his ear.
She followed him out onto the porch, but as she crossed the threshold, her heel landed on an uneven spot. Her ankle twisted, and she fell with a thud and a yelp.
The next thing she knew, Tony was by her side. “Are you okay?”
Pain radiated from her ankle. Oh no. She hoped it wasn’t anything serious. She was not missing her flight. It wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“We’ll see about that.” He moved so he could look at her ankle. “It looks all right. I’m going to touch it, okay?”
She nodded as she braced herself for more pain. Yet as his fingers moved gingerly over the area, she was relieved it didn’t hurt.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness I didn’t break anything.”
“Not so fast.” He slipped the shoes from her feet. “Let’s see if you can stand on it.”
He stood and held his hands out to her. She smiled. Everything was going to work out. There was power in positive thinking. She firmly believed it.
She placed her hands in his, and slowly, she got to her feet. When she put her full weight on the injured ankle, she found she could stand on it.
She smiled. “See. I didn’t break it.”
Tony still had that concerned look on his face. “Take a few steps.”
And so, she did. There was a slight twinge but nothing serious. Then she smiled at the love of her life. “See. Everything is all right.”
He bent over and picked up her shoes. “Not quite everything.”
Her gaze moved to see the broken heel in his hand. “Oh no! I was planning to take those. Black goes with everything.”
“Take a different black pair.”
“I can’t. Those are my only black dress shoes.” Already, her mind was racing to find a solution.
“We’ll find you something in New York. But right now, we really have to get to the ferry.”
“Fine. Can you put my suitcase in the cart?” She reached for the phone in her back pocket as she entered the house to check and make sure that she’d turned everything off. It startled her when her phone started to ring.
She pressed the phone to her ear but before she could get a word out, Jenna said, “Hey Lily, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to stop over before you left for New York.”
“I didn’t leave.”
“What? Wait. Why not?”
“I’m having a shoe emergency.”
“Okay. What can I do to help?”
“Do you have some black heels that I could borrow?”
“Uh, sure.”
Before her sister could say more, Lily asked, “Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll be right there.” Certain she’d turned everything off, she slipped on a pair of sandals before rushing to the front door. She locked it and hurried to the cart. “We have one stop to make?”
Tony frowned at her. “If we miss the ferry, we’re going to miss our flight.”
“Then you better get this cart moving. We have to stop by Jenna’s place.”
He started the cart. “Now, I know we’re never going to make the ferry.”
She gently elbowed him. “Just drive.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His hand found hers as he pressed the accelerator. His fingers laced with hers, and then he glanced over and smiled at her.
And just like that, everything was once more right in her world. In fact, it was better than right. It was full of love. And it didn’t get better than that.
When they reached Jenna’s beachfront rental, there was no parking because someone had taken up two parking spots to unload a bunch of boxes.
Tony double-parked while she ran to her sister’s place.
The mess of boxes extended to the porch.
It looked like someone was moving into the other half of Jenna’s duplex.
Her sister must have been watching out the window because she came rushing outside with shoes hanging from her fingertips. “Which pair do you want?”
The first pair were platform heels. To Lily, they looked like an accident waiting to happen. The other pair had kitten heels. They weren’t exactly what she had in mind, but as her mother would say, beggars can’t be choosers.
She reached for the ones with short heels. “I’ll take these. Thank you so much.”
Honk. Honk...
Lily rolled her eyes. “That’s Tony. He’s afraid we’re going to miss the ferry.”
Jenna stepped forward and gave her a quick hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thank you. I’m so nervous. I keep feeling like I’m forgetting something.”
“If you did, you can get in the city.”
Thud!
“Sorry about that,” a male voice said.
They both turned to see a tall man with blondish-brown hair that kept falling into his tanned face. He was smiling, but Lily noticed it wasn’t her he was looking at.
Lily glanced at her sister, who was frowning. “I hope you know that you have your stuff on my side of the porch.”
The man’s smile broadened. “I was just trying to gain your attention.”
Color filled her sister’s cheeks. “Just clean it up.”
“I’m on it.” He picked up a box and turned to carry it into his place.
Once he was out of sight, Lily lowered her voice. “He’s a cutie.”
Jenna frowned and shook her head. “Annoying is more like it.”
Honk. Honk.
Lily moved to the steps. “I’ve really got to go.” And then she had a thought. “Maybe you should invite your new neighbor over for coffee or maybe dinner.”
Jenna directed her frown at her. “Bye.”
“But he’s so handsome.”
“Go. Now.”
Lily laughed as she made her way back to Tony. Something told her that if the new guy was interested in her sister, he was going to have his work cut out for him.