Epilogue
RYAN
NINE MONTHS LATER
“This is the life,” Claire says softly, closing her eyes and lying back on the soft sand. Beside her, I rest my head in my folded hands, murmuring my agreement without saying any words.
We’re back in Maui for summer break, and we’ve decided this will be our tradition. Every year after graduation, we’ll head out to Maui and spend a few weeks here. From there, we’ll travel to Costa Rica, Mexico, Tahiti, Fiji—the list is endless, really. As long as it has a beach, I’m happy.
Actually, as long as it has Claire, I’m happy. If she wants to go hiking in the Alps, I’ll do that, too.
I’m a complete sucker where Claire is concerned, and I’m not ashamed of it.
So we lie here on the sand, the summer sun warming our bones, somewhere between awake and asleep.
“Are you happy?” Claire’s voice brings me back to the land of consciousness.
I blink my eyes open and turn my head to face her. “Of course I am. You know I am.”
She sits up, resting on her elbows, and shakes her head. “I guess happy isn’t the right word. What I’m thinking is more…fulfilled. Do you feel fulfilled?”
I furrow my brow at her and mirror her position, sitting up on my elbows. “Why are you asking?”
“That’s not an answer,” she says, tilting her head.
I laugh out loud. “Yes, Claire! I’m fulfilled. I’m happy and content and grateful to be here with you right now. I couldn’t ask for anything more. My life is good.”
“Okay.” She looks back out at the ocean and is quiet for a minute. “I just wonder if you’d be happier here.”
“Here, like Maui?”
She nods and looks back at me. “I saw a change in you last summer, and as soon as our plane landed today, it happened again. You’re so relaxed.”
“I’m on vacation,” I reply, running the back of my hand down her smooth arm.
“I love it here—I won’t deny that. And I love being close to my mom.
But it’s not my home. Life on the island can be difficult, especially for someone who wasn’t raised here.
So I’m happy in Coastal Vista. That’s home for us.
I’m also happy to come back here and visit whenever we can. ”
She seems satisfied with that response and rests her head on my shoulder. “It really is magical here.”
“I think so.”
We’re quiet again, her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her waist. I wonder if she’s thinking about her book. Querying didn’t work out, so she’s been researching the self-publishing path, and she’s excited about it.
“Do you think the height of the waves follows some kind of polynomial function?” she asks, breaking the silence.
Apparently, she was just thinking about math.
“I love when you talk nerdy to me,” I say with a chuckle. “And I think it’s a trigonometric function.”
“Oh, duh. Sine waves.” She shakes her head, lifting it from my shoulder. “Just like your shirt.”
I grin at her, remembering the first time I wore that shirt to help her move into her current apartment. That shirt has become a regular staple in my wardrobe since then.
“I was hoping you would tell me to break up with Zach,” she says. “That night on the balcony.”
“I had a feeling,” I reply.
“Why didn’t you?”
I think for a moment, then shake my head.
“I don’t really have a good reason. Too chicken, I think.
” I pause. “But I also wanted you to figure it out for yourself. You were always wanting to make everyone else happy without thinking about yourself, and in that moment, I think you were just trying to find out what would make me happy. I didn’t want to get lumped in with everyone else. ”
She twists her lips to the side. “Yeah. I guess that’s true.”
“But then you realized you couldn’t live without me,” I tease. “And here we are.”
She snorts a laugh. “Yeah, here we are.”
“Tied together forever.”
“Forever, huh?” She giggles. “Well, maybe one day.”
“Oh, that’s right. We’re not married.” I smirk and smack myself on the forehead.
“I guess I forgot to give you this.” I reach into my pocket and pull out the ring I’ve been holding for the last year.
It’s simple but elegant—a small, quality diamond, encircled by a thin, delicate band of white gold that wraps around the top and bottom of the stone.
Oh, and I’ll emphasize that it’s real. Finding out that Zach’s ring had a fake stone answered a lot of my questions about her engagement.
Claire’s eyes dart between the ring and my face, shock on her expression. “You’re… This… You’re proposing?”
I nod. “I am. This past year has been the happiest of my life. And I know it’s only the beginning.
” I swallow hard, preparing to say the words I said to her a little over a year ago, but the emotion encasing it all is so different.
Because this time, I’m not desperately trying to convince her of my feelings.
This time, I’m just reinforcing the love she already knows exists.
“I want to bring you coffee in bed every morning. I want to be the one who takes care of you when you’re sick.
I want to make pretty babies with you—” She snorts a laugh.
“I want every minute of every day with you. Because I want you, and I love you.” I cup her cheek with my hand, soaking in the adoration coming from her gray-green eyes. “Please say you’ll be my wife.”
Her eyes brim with tears, and she nods. “Yes.”
The second the words escape her lips, my mouth is on hers, kissing her with all the love I have in my heart. We break apart, and I slip the ring on her finger.
“It’s perfect,” she says. She looks up at me, eyes shining, and says, “Thank you.” She bites her lip and adds, “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.”
I shake my head. “I would have waited forever.” I run my thumb over her cheek and give her a teasing grin. “My love for you is infinite.”
She chuckles. “Is it a countable or uncountable infinity?”
“Does it matter?”
She tilts her head. “I guess not. Love isn’t like math.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are no rules, no algorithm to follow. You just have to know when it’s there.” She scoots a little closer to me. “And I know it’s here.”
“Yes, it is.” We settle in again. This time I’m holding her tight, and we’re watching the waves roll in and out.
“I have my dress,” Claire suddenly says.
I look down at her. “What dress?”
Her cheeks are a little pink. “My wedding dress.”
It takes a minute to process. And then I get a flash of remembrance. “Not the dress…”
She bites her lip and nods. “You don’t think it’s a problem that you’ve seen it already, right?” Her words come out rushed. “But it was really the perfect dress, and you loved it, so after we started dating, I decided I might as well buy it to have it and—”
I press a kiss on her lips to get her to stop talking. When I pull back, I say, “There’s no way it’s a problem. We’re meant to be, and that dress is what convinced me to fight for you. So it’s only right that it’s the dress you wear when we finally become husband and wife.”
She grins, and her body relaxes. “Okay, good. I’ve been a little worried about that for a while.”
“Any other secrets you want to share?”
“Hmm.” She puts a finger to her chin and taps it. “I like to read romance novels.”
“Already knew that.”
“And sometimes I sing Disney songs in the shower.”
“Did not know that. But that’s cute.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I fell in love with a guy at work. He was my best friend for years, and I didn’t know he was in love with me, too.”
I lean my forehead on hers. “Now that, I did know. Because my story is similar.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. A girl at work completely stole my heart, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get over her.”
“So what did you do?”
I hold her chin gently between my thumb and forefinger. “I fought for her. And then I won her over.”
“And now she’s yours,” she breathes.
“And now she’s mine,” I confirm. “And I’m never letting her go.”
With one more kiss, we seal our infinite future.