Epilogue
Bonnie
Elijah drove. That should’ve been my first clue that something strange was happening.
Normally if we were going somewhere fancy there was a driver, a schedule, and Mitch hovering nearby with the expression of a man calculating lost productivity.
Tonight, it was just us.
The road out of Deadwater curved along the cliffs, the river flowing somewhere far below in the dark. The breeze brought the scent of pine trees.
I watched the road for a moment before glancing at him. “You realise this is the opposite direction of every restaurant in town.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you told me we were going to a celebration party.”
“We are.”
I folded my arms over the sparkling dress I’d bought with my own money, my payment, generously given, for the groping-rich-men party that felt like a million years ago now.
I’d saved the other half of it to help pay for my first consignment of underwear, planned at last. I’d relented to letting Elijah stock my line in Crowley’s—they owed me after all, and he now owned them—but the hard work had all been my own.
It might have only been a small order to start with, half my designs needing remaking, but it was mine.
“You’re being suspicious.”
Elijah smiled, his gaze still on the road. “Have I ever done you wrong?”
I snorted. “You literally chased me through the streets the first time we met.”
“Technically, you ran first.”
“Details.”
The road narrowed. Grass brushed the edge of the lane. Then Elijah slowed. A wooden gate appeared ahead. It swung open automatically.
I blinked. “What’s out here?”
“Wait and see, Miss Impatient.”
The car rolled through and followed a short gravel path, lit with pretty lights.
Right up to a house. Not some grand mansion in glass and steel perched dramatically over the cliffs.
Just a cottage with an incredible view. Stone walls warmed by lantern light.
Flowering climbers growing up the sides of a wide porch that wrapped around the front with chairs and blankets scattered across it.
Windows glowed gold in the night, and the land stretched around it in gentle slopes of grass that ran all the way to the cliff edge.
I’d never seen anywhere so beautiful.
Elijah parked and turned off the engine. “You like?”
“I love it. It’s as if someone painted this from my imagination. But who lives here?”
He unsuccessfully hid a grin and climbed out of the car, rounding to open my door. “Come find out.”
I took his hand and exited, my heels crunching on gravel.
The wind lifted my hair, and I turned in a slow circle, taking in the view. The warm light spilling from the windows.
He tugged my hand. “Trust me.”
I did, endlessly.
The porch creaked under our steps. The scent of wood smoke drifted through the air. Elijah lifted me into his arms and pushed open the front door, warmth and laughter spilling out.
“You’re here!”
Jessie launched herself across the room and hugged me right as my feet touched the floor.
I blinked. The living room was full. Genie leaned on the kitchen island with a glass of wine, flirting with a tall guy I recognised as one of Elijah’s tech team.
The man appeared equal parts charmed and terrified.
Jessie bounced beside me, grinning like she’d won the lottery, then skittered across the room to join Ethan Westwood near the fireplace. Mitch stood near the sofa with puppy eyes for Melinda, who had to be his date. She smiled and waved. Everyone did.
The room buzzed with easy laughter. Music played somewhere near the kitchen. My friends and his.
My brain tried to catch up. “Is this the party?”
“Yep.” Elijah handed me a glass of wine.
I didn’t take a sip.
I turned to him. “You planned this for me?”
Elijah gave a wolfish grin. “Indulge me a minute.”
He called out to everyone else that we’d be right back, then whisked me once again into his arms and strode through the kitchen, showing me a cosy living room, a sun room with more of those epic views, then upstairs to spacious bedrooms. The cottage was bigger on the inside than it seemed from outside.
And I wasn’t a fool as to why he was showing it to me. I kept my words in, my heart so full.
At the end of the hall, he paused at a door. “Close your eyes, honey.”
I did, earning a kiss on the cheek.
Elijah leaned, and a door clicked, then he set me down. “Open ’em.”
I blinked at the broad space, the two corner walls all glass which in the daylight would make it such a bright space. In the centre was a work table, a selection of items laid out in the centre.
My lingerie from the Crowley’s incident.
I darted to them and touched the satin and velvet I’d cut and stitched then spun around. Tears lined my eyes. All my hard work. The way I’d pined for them, dreaming up the time I’d be able to reconstruct what had been lost. My words came out so shaky. “You got them back.”
He shrugged one shoulder, leaning on the doorframe, but no faked calm could hide how he watched my every reaction as if he needed it to breathe. “As if I’d let any part of you get away.”
God, I loved that line.
I rushed back and kissed him.
Elijah returned my passion tenfold but then broke away, grasping my hand. “One more thing.”
What else could he possibly have up his sleeve? He led me back down the stairs and into the crowd, our friends making space.
“Can I have everyone’s attention, please,” he asked.
The room quieted, and all faces turned to us.
“Bonnie.” Elijah squeezed my hand, then dropped to one knee.
Jessie squealed. Genie slapped a hand over her mouth. Ethan muttered something that sounded like about damn time.
My brain stopped functioning entirely.
The man I loved produced a small box from his pocket and held it up. His gaze never left mine. “The past month has been the best of my life.”
More tears filled my eyes.
“You let me catch you,” he continued. “Argued with me about coffee, planes, and breakfast orders. Won a public confrontation with one of the most unpleasant men I’ve ever met.”
A ripple of laughter moved through the room.
His voice softened. “And somehow made every single day better than the last.”
My heart hurt.
“I knew the first time I saw you that I was all in,” Elijah said. “I don’t want there to be any doubt about how deep in love with you I’ve fallen.”
He opened the box.
The ring caught the light from the fireplace. A red stone, sparkling diamonds surrounding. Tasteful but fiery. So very me. Also entirely terrifying.
“Bonnie Braveheart. Will you marry me?”
My pulse hammered so loudly I could barely hear him.
Jessie whispered, “Say yes.”
Genie elbowed her. Everyone laughed.
“You’re crazy,” I managed.
“About you.”
“You chased me across a city.”
“Worth it.”
“You caught me in a game.”
He tilted his head, so handsome in his tux. “Is that a yes?”
I gazed around the room at our friends and family. This warm cottage perched above the river. A future that had somehow appeared out of nowhere. Then I looked back at the man still kneeling in front of me.
“Of course it is. Yes. A million times over.”
The room exploded. Jessie screamed. Genie cheered. Ethan clapped Elijah on the shoulder when he stood. Elijah slid the ring onto my finger, then pulled me into a kiss that made the entire room disappear.
“I love you so much,” I whispered.
“You’re my world,” he promised back. “And I hope you like the cottage as it’s my engagement gift. The design studio sold it to me. That’s all for you.”
I hugged him, never wanting to let go.
A house. A whole house. I’d guessed he might have rented it for us while walking around, but a little voice in my head had hoped it was ours. Again and again, he gave me exactly what I wanted deep inside.
When we eventually broke apart, I heard congratulations from everyone, including Elijah’s mum who’d travelled with her sister and Ethan, and had happy tears in her eyes along with apologies about meddling.
Including Genie who joked about going into the game herself—she’d heard a rumour about a woman who’d been claimed by not one but two men at the same time.
The logistics widened my eyes, but I’d seen close to that when I’d been in that basement myself.
But she returned to the tech guy with a softer smile than I’d ever seen on her.
In a small pocket of space, I leaned up and whispered in Elijah’s ear, “I have a surprise for you, too. Follow me.”
His brows lifted, but he obeyed. Instinct had me track down a bathroom. I locked us in and slipped the pregnancy test from my clutch, pressing it into his hand.
He stared at it. Then at me.
“We’ll take it together.”
A few quiet minutes later, the result appeared. Two pink lines.
I’d known. Over a week had passed of me waiting every day, but I was never late. I’d been so sure, but to see it on the test was a new level of joy.
Elijah exhaled slowly. He picked me up and spun me around. “Baby.”
I laughed, resting my forehead against his. “Exactly.”
“You’ve given me everything I’ve ever wanted just by existing, and now this?” He put his hand to my belly. “The first of four, right?”
I kissed him. The game in the skeleton crew’s warehouse had given me so much.
A man who chased me. A life that scared me. And a prize worth winning with the best thirty days of my life.
Turned out I didn’t just win the game. I won the whole damn life.
The End.