Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Immy flopped down on the sofa next to Etta who was reading her brother Jax a story as he was cradled in her arms. Jax stared up at his sister with wide eyes as she read about dragons and dinosaurs; it was clear he loved her and the feeling was very mutual.
Immy and Xander had been worried how Etta would take to the new arrival, especially as he was a boy and not someone who might necessarily share Etta’s love of glitter and sparkly clothes.
But from the second Etta had held the tiny bundle in her arms, it had been love at first sight.
She’d wanted to help with the feeds, the baths, always wanted to cuddle him and she loved reading to him.
She’d spend hours talking to him or including him in her games, even if he wasn’t that active right now, although he was showing signs of wanting to crawl.
While they had tried to involve her in every step, they had worried there might be tears over how much time they were spending with the baby, but Etta wasn’t fazed at all.
It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Of course, once Jax started moving around and chewing on Etta’s toys or, as he got older, stealing them, things might be very different between them. But for now Immy would enjoy the quiet camaraderie.
It had been just over a month after Etta had run away that Immy had moved in with Xander and Etta permanently.
She had been spending Monday and Tuesday nights with them and they would spend Thursday and Friday nights at Immy’s flat and weekends tended to be a bit more ad hoc, depending on what they were doing.
But one night, when they were packing to go to Immy’s, Etta had got really frustrated about all the back and forth and had made it very clear what she thought about this silly arrangement.
‘I don’t want to keep taking my stuff over there and then bringing it back, why can’t we all just live together if we all love each other?’
And that had been enough for Immy and Xander.
Immy had moved in the next day and somehow it had just worked.
Immy would pick Etta up from school sometimes and she would come into their bed for cuddles every morning before school.
Xander said she’d never had that with him and Brook so it was a lovely novelty for her.
But when Jax arrived, a name Etta had chosen, it was evident fairly quickly that they needed more space, so after Christmas they’d started looking for a bigger place and found a four-bedroom house on the outskirts of Lovegrove Bay.
It had a massive garden and overlooked fields and woods.
They’d already seen a fox, badger and hedgehogs in their garden and several deer just over the fence.
It was a fixer-upper and, ever since they had finally moved in a few weeks before, they’d been painting, putting in new kitchen units and installing a new bathroom, with the help of Xander’s brothers and Alex and Quinn of course.
They’d also built a secret room into the eaves of Etta’s loft room and a treehouse in the towering oak in the garden.
Xander was out there now adding the finishing touches to it, while Immy was painting the lounge and keeping a watchful eye over Etta and Jax.
‘Shall we get pizza tonight?’ Immy said, when there was a pause in the story.
‘Yes! I love pizza, I had pizza on Saturday when I was at Nanny and Grandad’s.’
‘Oh, shall we get something different then?’
‘No, I could eat pizza every night.’
‘I definitely agree with that.’
Etta giggled and carried on reading the story.
Margaret and Tom had obviously realised they’d cocked up massively the night Etta had run away and, after massive apologies, they had really pulled out all the stops to be better grandparents.
They’d converted a room in their house to be used purely for arts and crafts so Etta could use as much paint and glitter and beads as her little heart desired and they would actually join her and make things too, rather than just leaving her to it.
They’d got a dog and they would all go on long walks together.
Every week they would pick an activity from the jar and they’d do that together, whatever it was.
Immy could see their relationship was better because of it, but also that they were enjoying having Etta more too as they’d stopped bringing her back early.
Immy leaned over to read the book that Etta was reading.
It was an old one that Etta had loved at one point but hadn’t read for a while.
Immy seemed to remember it was about a little girl who rode on the back of dragons while she protected and cared for the dinosaurs.
Immy looked at the pictures as the little girl climbed on top of a purple sparkly dragon.
Etta turned the page and continued reading out loud.
‘Fly Jax, fly up to the sky.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Immy laughed in mock outrage. ‘Jax. The purple dragon is called Jax.’
Etta collapsed in a fit of giggles. ‘Yes.’
‘You named our son after a dragon?’
‘A very beautiful dragon.’
‘Well yes, but still when you chose the name and said it was named after your favourite book character, I was expecting someone brave and heroic and kind, not a dragon.’
‘Jax is all those things.’
‘Well, yes, I suppose he is, but he’s still a dragon.’
Immy tickled her and Etta let out a squeal of laughter and even Jax had a little chuckle as if he thought the whole thing was funny too.
Xander came running through the door from the back garden looking spectacularly rugged and sweaty in his t-shirt and shorts.
‘What are you all laughing at in here?’
‘Did you know our daughter named our son after a dragon?’ Immy said.
Xander laughed. ‘I did, but he is a very nice dragon.’
‘See,’ Etta said as if that proved her point.
‘The treehouse is finished if you two want to come and take a look.’
‘Yayy!!’ Etta said. Immy took Jax off her and Etta charged off into the garden.
Immy stood up, hoisted Jax onto her hip and, holding Xander’s hand, she followed Etta to the treehouse.
Jacob got up off the arm chair and followed them.
There were wide stairs leading up to the house that had a splendid, curved banister wrapped in fairy lights.
The treehouse was fairly large, there was a double mattress in the middle, which was covered in blankets and cushions because Etta had said she might want to spend the night in it.
There were fairy lights strewn everywhere and framed pictures of dragons and dinosaurs on the walls.
It had little windows and curtains hanging from them so you could shut out all the light if you wanted.
Xander wanted to drape a sheet from one of the walls and then they were going to watch movies in there together, using the projector.
‘It’s beautiful, Daddy,’ Etta said, in wonder as she looked around. Of course they’d already been in there a few times, but now they had all the finishing touches it looked so much better. ‘I’m going to get some of my toys and books to put in here too.’
Etta ran back out the treehouse and charged off towards the house. Jacob settled down in the dog bed in the corner, perfectly happy with this new room.
‘Come here a moment,’ Xander said, taking Jax off Immy. ‘Lie down, I want to show you something.’
She lay down on the bed and he lay down carefully next to her with their son positioned between them.
‘Look up,’ Xander said, softly.
She looked up into the eaves of the roof to see stars and flowers of all shapes, sizes and colours hanging from the roof, intermingled with fairy lights. Some of the fairy lights had letters on, probably the names of more dragons if Etta had her way.
‘It’s lovely.’ Immy rolled towards him, being careful not to jostle Jax too much. She stroked Xander’s face. ‘I love you so much and I will be forever grateful that you gave me your seed.’
Xander burst out laughing. ‘You make it sound so romantic.’
‘It wasn’t romantic, it was passionate and needy and oh so wonderful but it definitely lacked the romance.
But not only did that night give me the greatest gift you could ever give me.
’ She stroked Jax’s head. ‘It brought you back to me. You and Etta and our son have completed my life in ways I never imagined. I am so utterly happy, I wake up smiling every single day and you did that. So I don’t need romance, or flowers, or chocolates because I have you and my heart is so full of love for you. ’ She paused. ‘Will you marry me?’
His eyes widened. She hadn’t intended to propose to him right now.
They’d talked about marriage and one day having more children but life always seemed to get in the way.
Jax arriving a lot earlier than planned, Christmas, moving house, there never seemed to be the right moment.
But now, wrapped in his arms, under a sea of stars and lights, telling him how much she loved him, now seemed to be the perfect moment.
‘You’re kind of stealing my thunder here,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Look up.’
She looked back up into the eaves again in confusion and then she noticed the letters again, spelling out the words ‘Marry Me.’
She laughed. ‘Oh my god, how did I miss that?’
‘I was going to propose with pistachio chocolate but as you’ve completely gone off anything pistachio flavoured since Jax was born, I had to come up with a new plan.’
‘I’d still have said yes.’
He smiled. ‘I never thought loving someone could feel so damn good but you make it so easy, watching you with our children, how patient and loving you are. You are the best person I’ve ever met and I’m so glad I gave you my seed too, but I would have found my way back to you eventually, I couldn’t stay away.
You make me the happiest man in the world, every day, and if you marry me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as I am. ’
‘You already do.’
‘I will bring the romance every day, the flowers, the stars, the massages, the romantic meals out for the four of us.’
She laughed. ‘I don’t need any of that, I just need you, for the rest of my life.’
‘You have me. I’m yours, always.’
He pulled a ring box from his pocket and opened it up. Inside was a beautiful emerald solitaire with diamonds on the shoulders of a platinum ring.
‘Yes,’ Immy said.
‘I haven’t properly asked yet.’
‘It’s a yes.’
He smiled and slid the ring onto her finger, then kissed her.
There was a thunder of feet on the stairs as Etta barged into the room.
‘Did she say yes, Daddy?’ Etta said, climbing into the bed beside them and happily looking up at the stars too.
‘She did, she agreed to marry us.’
‘Yayy!! Does that mean I get to be bridesmaid?’
‘Of course, we couldn’t get married without you,’ Immy said.
‘Yayy!! I’m going to wear a dress with dragon wings,’ Etta said, climbing off the bed and spinning round.
‘I’m kind of hoping we get to honeymoon without her,’ Xander whispered.
Immy laughed. ‘But where would be the fun in that?’
If you enjoyed The Chocolate Shop on Cherry Lane, you’ll love my next gorgeously romantic story, The Little Museum on Snowflake Street.