Epilogue
One Year Later
“O kay,” Jase huffs. “I think this is it.” He places the last of the moving boxes on the laminate floor.
“It’s a good thing we got a bigger place,” I tease, eyeing up the mounds of overflowing boxes.
Jase raises his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me. Hyla’s stuff takes up the entire kitchen.”
Hyla smiles as if pleased with herself.
I shrug. “Well, to her credit, New York real estate is a hot commodity, so she might as well claim her spot.”
“You’re not kidding,” Jase replies.
I shuffle toward him. “Do you ever miss it?”
He arches a brow. “Sloane?”
“Mhm.”
“What’s to miss? I still co-own the bar and get to do the art, branding, and fun stuff from the comfort of my home with a killer view, I might add, while my best friend does a hell of a job managing the day-to-day on-site. I couldn’t have made a better decision for Firefly than having Jimmy as my business partner.”
“And he’s an even better life partner for Jade,” I chime in. “I … uh, just want to make sure you’re happy here, that’s all.”
He lifts my chin and places a soft kiss on my lips. “Kay, I’m only happy where you are. New York, Sloane, anywhere in between—none of it matters without you.”
“Promise?” I lift my pinkie.
He intertwines his pinkie with mine. “Always.”
“Speaking of happy.” Jase smirks as he pulls our first newspaper out of the back pocket of his jeans, unfolded to Engagement Announcements. “You’ll never guess what I saw.”
I reach for it and smile when Nick and Barista Betty are pictured front and center. She’s in a knee-length white sundress, and he’s in a suit. They’re wrapped in each other’s arms and grinning in a way you only do when you’ve found The One. “Well, would you look at that. Love is in the air.”
“Knock, knock, the unpacking committee is here,” Amy announces as she enters our new apartment, pizza in hand. Her boyfriend, Leo, is right on her heels. “Oh gosh, what did we walk in on?” Amy attempts to shield her eyes with pizza.
I let go of Jase. “Nothing, Ame. Just making sure my husband still loves me after a year in New York.”
Amy all but drops the pizza on the counter. “He better. You’re a catch.”
Jase chuckles. “Trust me, I’m never letting Kay go again.”
“Good. Hey, Leo, do you still have their housewarming present?”
Leo pulls a wine bag out from behind his back. “I do.”
I raise my brow and accept the gift. Pulling a bottle out of the bag, I gasp. “Oh my God.”
“What?” Jase peers over my shoulder. “Oh, you guys, it’s perfect.”
Amy blushes. “We had the label custom-made.”
I can’t stop staring at the intricately designed label with a wedding picture of Jase and me in our gown and tux chasing fireflies down at our spot in Sloane. In a picturesque font, it reads:
Kay-Scato: For nights you never want to end.
I hug the bottle to my chest. “I’m going to save this forever.”
“Well,” Leo says. “Then, it’s a good thing we brought more.”
Amy steps into the hallway and sashays back with three more bottles and a corkscrew.
“You two are ridiculous,” I quip.
“But you love us. Now, which box has glassware?”
Jase escorts Amy to the kitchen as there’s a thunderous thump in the hallway.
What the hell?
Voices of varying volumes leak in through the gap in the door.
I tiptoe to the peephole to check out what’s going on. “What the—”
Nana, Pop, Jade, and Jimmy arguing in the hallway was not on my bingo card.
When I open the door, they hush and throw their arms around me, so I’m enveloped by a large group hug.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“Well,” Jade steps out of the embrace. “We couldn’t get in our normal summer trip since y’all were too busy packing and Amy was focusing on that promotion she just got …”
“Hey!” Amy shouts from the kitchen.
“Sooo, we thought, why not surprise you with a few extra hands to unpack and set up your new home.”
My heart swells as I look at them. They came all this way for me. For us.
“Besides,” Nana interrupts my thoughts. “I’ve got an itch to beat everyone’s asses in a game of Rummy.”
I laugh and move out of the doorway. One by one, they pour into the living room and exchange hugs and hellos with Amy, Leo, and Jase. When things settle down, Hyla makes her petition to be Queen of the house by moving person to person to ensure she’s well-pet.
It turns out, unpacking goes a lot quicker when you have a dozen extra hands to help and everyone has a common goal of pizza and game night.
We’re setting up the table for Rummy when I catch Jase staring at me. “What?”
He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me toward the big bay window.
“I think they’re ready to play soon.”
“Oh, we have plenty of time. Let’s enjoy this moment, just the two of us.” He points to the sun setting in the distance: varying shades of sunshine and cotton candy, with a slight stripe of robin’s egg blue cutting through the center.
I glance up at my husband and see my face reflected in his beautiful, stormy eyes; I can’t help but smile. “I can’t believe we’re all together—it’s so different from the last time I moved.”
He nods. “Better?”
I tear up. “Indescribably. When I left Sloane all those years ago, I never would have imagined we’d find our way back to each other.”
Jase tucks my hair behind my ear. “I never stopped imagining it.”
“Hey Kate, Small Town Boy, y’all ready or what?” Ame calls.
He tilts his head at me and mouths: “Small Town Boy?”
“Inside joke. Come on, let’s go let Nan kick our butts.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replies, tipping an invisible hat and leading me to our seats.
Nana shuffles with a gleam in her eye. “Already, ladies and gents, this here is what we call Rummy night.…”
We play for hours, laughing until we cry, soaking in every minute of it, and all the while, I’m just as grateful for the loved ones who came to help—as I am for my parents staying in Sloane.
A year into therapy, and I’m starting to be strong enough to set and share my boundaries with them. The biggest: to respect my new safe space here in New York with Jase. I still talk to Mama regularly, keep her up to date on my blog, and send plenty of Hyla content, of course, but I only talk to and about my dad when I feel strong enough to do so.
I respect Mama, Nana, and Pop for keeping their relationship with my dad and supporting him through his disease and recovery—and they respect me for letting go of the resentment but protecting my peace. Nothing will ever erase the pain of the past, but I’m moving forward, day by day, with the person who understands and loves me more than anyone else in the world and my our soul dog—and there’s nothing better than that.