Epilogue #2
“I wasn’t sure what gift I could give you that would adequately express how much I, and everyone around us, see what you’ve done for us. It took me a while to find the first part and a bit longer to convince someone almost as stubborn as you that you needed your name on what I put inside it.”
He handed me the gift.
“Beckett…I don’t need anything.” I shook my head. “I don’t want anything. I have you.” I ran a finger over his lips and then looked out at the table full of people. “And I have my family. That’s all I need.”
“Just give the man his moment, Maisey,” Fallon teased, “and open it.”
A chuckle ran through the room.
When I tore the paper off it, my heart nearly stopped, and the tears came unabated.
I traced my fingers over the butterflies and hummingbirds carved into the top of the jewelry box just as I had as a kid.
“What? How?” I shook my head.
Beckett brushed at my tears. “Gavin helped me track it down.”
When Gavin had shown up in Swift Rivers, looking for Chelsea the day after her arrest, and heard about the full extent of her crimes, he’d been horrified.
He’d come to Beckett’s house—our house—and apologized for not seeing the truth of her sooner.
I told him a year was nothing. That I’d been blinded for much longer than that, nearly our entire childhood.
And even after I’d known the truth, I’d still hoped there was good in her.
Since then, Gavin had kept in touch with Beckett, checking in to make sure our lives were still going okay.
It was sort of sweet and made me realize there was a lot more to him than the fake facade I’d first encountered at my dad’s house that first morning.
The fact that he’d helped Beckett track down Mom’s jewelry box only proved it more.
“After we finally found it and the woman who’d bought it from the pawn shop agreed to sell it back to me, I checked with your dad,” Beckett said, glancing over at my father, who was fighting his own tears.
“And he said he wanted you to have it. I’m sorry to say we couldn’t track down any of the jewelry.
We’re still not sure what Chelsea did with the pearls, so I put something inside it that might be just as important to you. ”
“There’s more?” I croaked.
“Open the box, my Maisey-girl.”
When I snapped the lid open, it took me much longer than expected to understand what was inside.
It was a certificate. A certificate of ownership.
More tears flowed unchecked.
Beckett had given me back Titan.
He’d bought him from Fallon and handed him over to me.
My friend had never once made me feel like the American Paint wasn’t mine, but I’d still felt the gap.
Still felt the wall between us. Still wanted to pay her and her family back for nearly twelve years of stabling him, feeding him, and exercising him.
For caring for the animal who’d always felt like an extension of myself.
I flung my arms around Beckett, buried my face in his neck, and tried to get a grip on the tears. My body shook, and Beckett’s grip tightened.
“Don’t cry, my Maisey-girl. Don’t cry. It was supposed to be a good thing.”
I pulled back, looked up into his face, and said, “It’s the perfect gift, Beckett. The most perfect gift.”
He kissed me, and the little group of family we’d gathered all cheered and clapped.
“Thank you, Beckett, for showing me love isn’t something that happens to you. It isn’t magic or a miracle, but it is a gift. And I will always be grateful for the gift of you in my life.”
And the other present he’d given me that he didn’t know about yet.
But I couldn’t tell him that now. I wouldn’t lessen what he’d done by overshadowing it. I’d tell him tomorrow, after the wedding, in a moment shared with just the two of us.
“I love you, Fireball. With all my romance-loving heart,” I said, kissing him again.
“And I love you back, my Maisey-girl, with all I am and all I hope to be.”
There’d never been a more perfect happily ever after in any book I’d ever read than this one, simply because this was my happily ever after.
No. It was our happily ever after.
One we got to live every single day.
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Want to know how Beckett responds when he finds out Maisey is pregnant? Catch the entire scene in a free bonus epilogue on the night of the wedding.
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And if you if want a sneak peek at what’s coming next in the Swift Rivers Series, keep reading for a look at Andie and Cooper’s HEA.
The Moments We Chose Love
Andie
LET IT BURN
Performed by Shaboozey
The last of the guests were piling into their cars, and the waitstaff was collecting a few remaining glasses and plates, turning off the faux tealights that glimmered in the antique lanterns tucked into the flower arrangements on each table.
Another successful wedding in the books.
The wooden dance floor and marquee we’d put up by the river near the barns would come down tomorrow morning, and it would look like nothing had ever happened.
Until the next wedding. A holiday-themed one in the middle of November.
I really needed to talk to Fallon about building an official venue.
It might be more expensive in the short term, but it would save the labor of putting up and taking down the tents and dance floor every week during our heaviest season.
And it would mean we could hold weddings year-round without the weather impacting us quite as much.
I had a vision of a large building made almost entirely of glass, so it would feel like the attendees were dancing amongst the trees and fields…
Or maybe a crystal ballroom built in the middle of the lake, so it felt like you were dancing on the water.
Although, that would require boats to shuttle the guests back and forth, so maybe not.
Something would come to me. I needed to wait until I had the plan fully formed before presenting it to Fallon. Knowing her, if she liked it, she’d run full speed with it and miraculously make it happen before June hit.
Her determination, grit, focus, and speed were some of the things I respected most about my boss…my friend.
Four years ago, I never would have expected to say the twenty-something owner of the five-star resort I worked at would become my best friend.
Back then, she’d been in and out of the ranch while attending college, and her mother had primarily been in charge.
Every one of the employees had watched Lauren struggle on and off with a prescription drug problem and had looked to me for leadership.
So I hadn’t exactly been thrilled at the idea of handing over my control when I’d realized Fallon was returning home and staying permanently, intending to take up the reins her mother had wielded loosely.
And maybe if the attacks on her hadn’t started right after Fallon had arrived home, if I hadn’t been overwhelmed with an empathy I’d never express, we wouldn’t have become the friends we were now.
Maybe I would have been bitter about her taking back what I’d essentially come to think of as mine.
But instead, in doing everything to help her weather the storm, it had bonded us.
Over her traumas. Not mine.
To this day, Fallon hadn’t an inkling of my past. And it needed to stay that way.
When I stepped out of the tent, it was to find Vader sitting, wistfully staring in the direction that Beckett and Maisey had disappeared inside the castle-like hotel.
The large black dog still had a cute little bow tie attached to his collar, and a boutonniere to which the wedding rings had been attached.
I ran a finger over the silky fur on his head, and he whined. “Give them a night, Vader. Just a night. They’ve earned that. Come on, we’ll go home, feed your cats, and then you can keep me company if you’d like.”
He followed me toward the parking lot at the back of the castle.
I’d given up my staff room here at the ranch almost a year ago now, buying a house on the same street where Maisey and Beckett lived.
I still got goosebumps whenever I thought of purchasing it.
The house had been a risk. Not only monetarily but because it left a trail that someone could follow if they really wanted to find me.
My mouth went dry, and my palms turned sweaty just thinking about it. I had to force myself to breathe, to relax.
I’d been here eight years now. Eight years and no one had come for me.
I was safe.
If I weren’t, I would have heard from my stepbrother. He was keeping tabs on things. He’d know if there’d been any movement on that front.
I was almost to my mid-sized SUV, when I realized the streetlight above it, the one I always parked under when I was going to be here late, was out.
I had to force myself to breathe, to relax.
It was just a broken light. These things happened all the time.
Maintenance would fix it tomorrow. The dark wouldn’t be waiting for me when I came out tomorrow.
But the shadows now surrounding my SUV still made my pulse race. I opened the back passenger door, and Vader jumped in. I clipped his seatbelt with rushed hands, shut the door, and nearly jumped out of my skin when a gritty, irritated voice came at me from the dark.
“I’m tired of leaving you messages that go unanswered.”
All the air inside me vanished, and my limbs shook violently. I forced myself to whirl around and face him, using the car to steady myself.
The person who stepped toward me wasn’t the villain from my nightmares.
But even knowing that—even recognizing the truth—I couldn’t calm the wild beat of my heart. I couldn’t draw a full breath. I remained winded, chest locked tight as if I’d been thrown from a horse at a dead run.
Cooper Wylee moved toward me, brows drawn together as he studied me with an intensity that rocked me to my core.