Epilogue
Eve
Three months later…
“Grace is goingto freak when she sees this.”
I held up my left hand, admiring the cushion-cut diamond Max had placed on it two nights ago.
“You don’t think she suspected?”
“I didn’t suspect it,” I said. “In case that wasn’t clear.”
“If you did, you’re a pretty good actress.”
When Max proposed, I cried so hard I hyperventilated and almost passed out.
“I honestly didn’t expect a proposal.”
“We’ve been discussing how we’re going to split our time between coasts. You don’t think I’d expect you to make an honest man of me to do that?”
I laughed at both the earnest look on his face and the old-fashioned phrase.
“Are you nervous about meeting everyone?”
“No, since we’ve been Zooming and Facetiming, I feel like I know them already. Meeting in person is just icing on the cake.”
We’re flying to Scranton so everyone can finally meet Max and to celebrate Christmas. We’d tried to go sooner, but Grace couldn’t swing a trip home before now, and I didn’t want her to be the last one to meet him.
“I hope they got the shock of you out of their systems so they don’t act like total fools,” I said.
“It’s okay if they do because I’ll probably embarrass myself when I meet Leo Marakis.”
“Leo’s just a normal guy like you.”
“Still, he’s one of my favorite baseball players. He doesn’t even play for my team, but I’ve followed him for years.”
“It’s kind of funny,” I said. “Anjannette is engaged to a Major League ballplayer and I’m engaged to a Hollywood star. What are the chances?”
“Former Hollywood star.”
I shrugged.
“Po-ta-to, po-tah-to.”
Max’s mother made good on her threat and gave an interview exposing where he lives. She even included a new picture. I wouldn’t say his fans swarmed to Seaside, but they definitely showed up. For the most part, they’ve been respectful of his time and privacy. They just want an autograph or selfie and then they leave him alone.
The reporters were a little more difficult to shake, but eventually left when they had other stories to follow. Or as Max says, “They left when they realized how boring my life is.”
“I don’t know why my mother thought telling people where I live would convince me to do a reunion show.”
“I don’t know either, but be forewarned, you’re going to have at least five people trying to convince you to do it in Scranton.”
“They’ve already been trying, especially Sophie.”
“More than the reunion show, Sophie wants me to write our story and have you star in the movie version,” I said. “She’s just so thrilled that she’s the one who predicted it.”
“That is kind of funny.”
“It seems our relationship is a Hallmark Movie cliché,” I said. “The blocked writer and the hot handyman.”
“You’re not blocked anymore.”
“No, not since you ‘got my juices flowing again,’ as Sophie says.”
“I really can’t wait to meet your friends,” he said.
I thought about that final night with my friends all those months ago and shook my head.
“I still can’t believe this is my life.” I blinked until his image wasn’t blurry. “Before I left for Seaside, I told my friends that nothing romantic ever happens in my life. And then I got there and the most romantic thing happened. I fell in love with you.”
He wiped a tear that had escaped from my cheek and smiled.
“And I fell in love with you.”
Leaning forward, he kissed me, then pulled me into his arms.
The captain announced that he was beginning to descend toward Scranton. When I left the city six months ago, I was a divorced romance author with writers’ block. Now I’m heading home with three new books written and a brand-new fiancé. Sometimes life really is better than fiction.
The End