Bonus Epilogue
Drew
Seven Months Later
The spring air carried a refreshing breeze as Drew walked beside Bri on a dirt path.
He rubbed her hand in a circular motion with his thumb. It still made him smile that he was free to shower her with affection after years of suppressing his feelings whenever he was around her. Now that he was her husband, Drew would never tire of showing his breathtakingly beautiful wife how much he loved her.
“I can’t believe you waited so long to use your coupon for a moonlight hike planned by yours truly,” she said, swinging their arms with their hands joined together.
Drew smirked. “I planned it this way.”
“You planned to wait ten months to use the coupon?” She wore a dazed look of bewilderment he had to focus to see in the glow of the moonlight. “It’s practically your birthday again. Why’d you wait so long?”
He gently pulled her to a stop and wrapped his arms around her waist. Leaning down, Drew pressed his lips to hers in a lingering kiss—a promise of what the rest of the night would hold. “Because now that you’re my wife, we can try out the one-bed trope you rave about. Only, we’ll be testing it out with one tent. Let’s just call it an extension of our honeymoon.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Bri flushed under his gaze. “It is a chilly night. I guess that means I’ll need my husband to keep me warm.”
Even though they’d already been married for about four months, Drew’s heart still pounded in his chest every time Bri called him husband .
“We can just skip the hike and go to the tent part,” he said with a shrug, a playful smile on his lips.
She shook her head. “You know I’m not the biggest planner, and I took the time to organize this whole date for you. I’m not wasting it.” Bri wrapped her fingers through his again and pulled him forward onto the dirt path. “Come on. It’s a clear night, so we should be able to see everything when we get to our destination.”
“Anything for you, Bri Bear.” He pulled her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm.
The farther they walked from Glencrest Palace, the harder it became to see in front of them without any illumination from the palace’s lights.
“Hold on a second.” Bri stopped Drew with a hand to his chest before moving behind him and pulling at the zippers of the backpack she’d packed but he’d insisted on carrying. A minute later, he heard her zipping it shut, and she returned with a headlamp on and a matching one in her hands for him to wear.
“You thought of everything.” He accepted the light, pulling it on so it rested on his forehead.
“Anything for you, Drew Boo,” she quipped back as they continued walking.
He laughed. “Now that’s a new one.”
“Anything’s better than Andy, though, right?”
Drew nodded emphatically. “Yes, but I truly don’t care what you call me as long as you still call me yours.”
“That might be the mushiest thing you’ve ever said to me.” She squeezed his fingers.
“Trust me, I’ve thought way more sappy things in my head over the years.”
“When do I get to hear them?”
He nudged her shoulder with his. “Now that we’re married and you’re stuck with me forever, you get to be the lucky recipient of all my lovey-dovey words for the rest of our lives.”
“I suppose that’ll have to be enough,” she teased.
They walked the rest of the way to their destination in comfortable silence. Drew’s mouth fell open when he saw the camp Bri had arranged for the palace staff to set up for them.
A blue tent with a mesh roof was pitched in the middle of a grassy clearing. A small bonfire and an outdoor couch were positioned near it. Several yards away, he noticed a giant telescope ready for them to get a close-up look at the spectacular world above them.
“Do you like it?”
“ Like it?” Drew laughed incredulously. “This is amazing.” He pulled Bri in for one of his signature bear hugs and pressed a kiss to her temple. “ You’re amazing. Best birthday present ever.”
They dropped off their backpack and headlamps in the tent and made their way over to the telescope.
He looked up at the sky in wonder. “This might be the prettiest view of the stars I’ve ever seen.” He pointed above them at the long, thin band of light stretching across the night sky. “You can even see the Milky Way.”
“I know.” Bri smiled proudly. “I scouted every night for a while with Bastian until I found the perfect spot for you to see the solar system you love so much.”
“I love you so much.” He kissed her again and then looked longingly at the telescope.
“Go ahead. I know you’re dying to look.” She laughed. “Just don’t move it. I had the staff angle it right where I wanted.” As he looked through the eyepiece, Bri said, “You know how you named a star after me last year?”
He murmured his affirmation, “Mm-hmm.”
“Well, the series of stars you should see right now is a new constellation as of last week. It contains the star you named Brielle after me and one I had named Andrew after you. In the middle of them is another star I named Eternal Love , so now we’re forever connected in the night sky by a symbol of love as infinite as ours.”
Drew stepped back from the telescope and peered at his wife in awe. Awe that he somehow landed the most gorgeous woman on the planet. Awe at how thoughtful she was. Awe at how deeply and truly she knew him. Awe that he got to spend forever with the love of his life.
He grabbed her face and kissed her with every ounce of passion he felt in that moment. He cradled her cheeks and tilted her head back to deepen the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.
Each press of their lips reaffirmed their love for each other. When they finally parted, their lips were swollen, evidence of how thoroughly he’d kissed his wife.
He moved to stand behind her, encircling his arms around her waist as she took a turn looking through the telescope eyepiece.
Under the glittering night sky, with Bri in his arms, there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be.
Drew always wanted a love story so real and beautiful with Bri that it would be written in the stars. Now they had a constellation of their own—one that could act as a symbol of love for generations to come, exactly like he’d always dreamed of.
They spent hours examining the night sky and talking about their dreams for the future. When they finally retreated to their tent, Drew and Bri proved why the one bed—er, one blow-up mattress—trope was so effective in all the romance movies she loved so much.
He fell asleep holding his wife—his best friend, his person, his everything —with a satisfied smile on his lips, and he didn’t dream at all that night because real life was finally better than any fantasy he could ever conceive.