Epilogue
FOUR WEEKS LATER
Sara
“I haven’t been this nervous since I told Walter I was quitting… But I’m glad we’re doing this,” I say while my foot bounces in the passenger’s seat of our rental car.
After he gave Drew the job he’d promised to me, I knew I couldn’t work alongside Walter anymore. It felt liberating to tell him I was starting a new division within the company to run my proposed sister app, liberating and scary. But still not half as scary as this weekend would be.
“I’m glad too.” Jack’s hand comes onto my thigh where he squeezes gently, the contact instantly soothing me. “But you’ve got nothing to be nervous about.”
I think about how it’s been like this for just over a month. Easy conversations, reassuring subtle squeezes, discussions about the future—Jack’s hand slides higher up my thigh—and obviously, a lot of sex.
We like each other. We really like each other.
And when things are that easy, that simple, it turns out there’s less to be neurotic about. Which is why I decided to take full advantage of Amber’s offer to use her parent’s cabin out in Nantucket so we could perform the meeting of the families ceremony. My parents are travelling up from Florida, while Jack’s grandparents on his late mother’s side, as well as his sister, Georgina, and brother Ty, are coming in from Boston. Telling my parents that I’m dating the boy who traumatized me as a kid was an interesting conversation that took a lot of convincing, and while I know my mom is going to be suspicious of Jack, I have no doubt he’ll win her over before the first glass of wine is poured.
“Amber said the place is pretty old, with creaking floors and apparently there’s a rogue seal that visits every so often and doesn’t leave until you feed it.” I run my teeth along my bottom lip.
Jack waves a hand in front of his face as if summoning an image. “I think you mean, ‘oozes with charm,’ ‘lovingly aged,’ and ‘has plenty of local wildlife to enjoy.’” He smirks. “They’re going to love it. Plus, we’ve got the place to ourselves until tomorrow, so until then, there’s waterfront fires with wine, you wearing those lace things I bought you, and plenty of filthy sex.” Jack works his hand up my thigh again, making my stomach flutter at the thought of all those things.
“Eyes on the road.” I squeeze his hand playfully when he sets his eyes on me for too long. A moment later, we’re taking a left onto a gravel road that leads up to a blue paneled cabin with white trims around triangular peaked windows. The property is over three floors and when we climb from the car, I can smell the water in the crisp winter air. The porch has a bench, two rocking chairs and a wreath on the door.
The place is decorated with white framed photographs of Amber’s family on boat trips and in front of a firepit on the grassy shore outside the house. The walls vary between white paneling, and pale blue and white striped wallpaper, and the entire house smells like salt and cinnamon. In the main lounge, cushions with anchors and lobster print line the cream sofa in the center of room and there’s a wicker basket of soft throws in the corner.
When the fireplace is crackling and our cases are unloaded, we head for the back door, eager to catch the view before the sun goes down.
“Amber says there’s a ton of hikes around here,” I say, taking Jack’s hand and leading him outside. Even though I won’t be joining, I make sure I don’t hold Jack back from doing the things he loves.
“Hiking is the last thing on my mind out here,” Jack says, tugging the waist of my skirt toward him and skimming his fingers beneath the fabric.
My body presses against his chest as my head fits perfectly into the crevice beneath his chin.
“Besides, you’ve been putting off that conversation you started...” he says. “This is the perfect time to figure it out, right?”
When I accepted the position to lead the new app at SB, I didn’t get the sense of fulfillment I thought would. So, that night, I blurted out to Jack, that I wanted to take some evening design classes. Specifically, in fashion design…
He adored the idea, naturally offering to send me to whatever school I had my eye on. I’d told him I’d think about it, and now I guess he’s reminding me of that .
That’s what I love about him. He supports all my ideas, listens to me yap about anything from the most serious to the most trivial of things, even if he has no idea or interest in the subject. He asks questions, hears me out, looks interested, no matter how late he’s done with work. He always makes sure we talk. He never silences me…
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?” I whisper into his neck before my eyes widen. “I mean–”
Jack loosens his hold just enough for him to pull back while keeping me in his cocoon.
“I love you too.”
Jack
Jack felt Sara’s entire body tense up the moment she realized what she’d said. And while she was letting chaos unfold within herself, he allowed the warmth of her words to consume him entirely.
“I love you too.” It came out effortlessly, his body completely at ease because he’d known how he felt about her for some time, waiting for the day he could tell her.
Part of him wonders if he’d known all along.
The first hint had worked its way into his chest the night of the storm when Sara had clung to him through the night. He’d fought to keep her away from him, determined not to give her the wrong impression should she wake and startle at finding him so close.
He’d convinced himself he passed out due to the exhaustion of shifting her back to her side of the tent, when in fact, the word she’d whispered to him as she buried her face in his chest, was the guilty party.
‘Stay. ’
The chill that raked up his spine when she spoke in her sleep made him give up fighting her touch almost instantly, realizing that even if she wasn’t addressing him specifically, staying with her was what she needed.
So that’s what he did.
Stay.
He planned to tell her the next morning, but when he brought up that she’d been talking in her sleep, that warm, aching feeling crept in again, and he lost his nerve. Passing the whole thing off as a joke instead. It wasn’t until they reconnected in the city, each meeting with her evoking a stronger version of the feeling he experienced on their first night together. A pull, a swell, a sense of longing in his chest. Fear and hope rolled into one. It grew stronger with every smile, touch and moment shared. Every single part of her continued to trickle deep into his chest cavity until he was consumed with her entirely. Deeply in love with her beyond irrevocable comprehension.
When the sun has settled in the distance, and Sara’s shoulders begin to quiver, they turn back to the cabin.
“We’re doing it on Amber’s bed by the way,” Sara says, looking up at him from her nook under his arm. “Only because she told me not to.”
He laughs. “My family are going to love you.”
“I’m not too crazy for your grandparents?” She winks.
“They might even make more noise than you.” He squeezes her as they enter the cabin.
“Impossible.” Sara grins.
Then, they’re back inside, the fire roaring, the wine flowing. Just the two of them, wrapped up in each other as they fall deeper under the spell of glittering new beginnings and golden adventures to come.