Epilogue II
AVERY
The day has been perfect. We had the smallest sprinkle of rain as Jo walked me down the jetty to Rhett.
Everything we’ve been through—the highs and lows—my heart has never beat so fast as the moment he took my hand, and with Rowan officiating, we promised each other forever. Hands down the best moment of my life.
Well, I think with him there isn’t only one great moment.
Rhett makes every second of every day feel like a lifetime of nothing but the warmest sunshine.
I look down at my hand and smile at my mother’s rings.
I wasn’t sure why Dad left them to Nora, and a part of me was devastated by his decision.
But I think he knew that one day I would have everything I wished for and dreamed of, and the only thing that would make it even more special was having him and Mom with me.
Mom never took these rings off her finger till the day she died, and my father took them off himself. And it’ll be the same for me. I’m going to love, cherish, and adore Rhett until my very last breath.
“That’s quite the sight, huh, sugar?” Jo nudges me as I watch my husband dance with our daughter.
“The most beautiful sight.”
“Just remember, I told you he was a good one,” she chuckles as I wrap my arm around her so that her tremors don’t make it so hard for her to stand beside me.
Even with her stick, it’s getting harder for her to stand on her own.
It’s why it made sense for us to build on the land Rhett bought from her.
We wanted to be close to look after her the way she looked after me and Iris when we were nothing but strangers.
“The best,” I tell her as my gaze catches on his and he gives me that grin that makes the butterflies in my belly go crazy.
He winks, and as I make my way to him, I help Jo to one of the chairs overlooking the makeshift dance floor he and Rowan put up over the rocky shore of Duke’s cove.
Twinkle lights and wildflowers decorate the picket-like sides they put up to keep the kids safe, and while Nora insisted on hiring proper tables and chairs for our wedding picnic, there are odd rugs, blankets, and cushions patched over the wood slats keeping us above the water.
It’s beyond perfect, and there isn’t a single person here that shouldn’t be. It might be the smallest wedding ever, but it’s ours and only ours.
“How’s my wife?” Rhett grabs me by waist when I’m within reach and pulls me flush to him.
“Happy, Dr. Reynolds,” I reply as he sways us to the snappy tune that comes on.
I’ve never heard it before, but the melody is familiar, and when he hums it in my ear, I smile at the familiar sound that he hums me and the girls to sleep with almost every night.
The warmth in my chest becomes impossibly brighter, and as his hand slips down to the curve of my ass, I press myself as close as I can while I tell him, “I’ve never been so fucking happy. ”
“Say that again?” The words are something between a rasp and groan, and as his hand slips lower, I whisper, “Fucking.”
His mouth comes down on mine hard, pressing our lips together so that his light stubble scratches over my jaw and our teeth knock together as his tongue slips over mine.
A hum vibrates from him as the hand holding mine falls to meet the other at my ass, and I roll onto my tiptoes so I can wrap my arms around his shoulders, holding him as flush to me as he is crushing me to him.
“God, I love your potty mouth, Mrs. Reynolds. You do things to me,” he growls, his hands anchoring at the juncture of my thighs as he lifts me onto my tiptoes. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”
“Only every chance you get.”
“Not enough, then,” he laughs, and the low gravel of it makes my already thrumming heart beat a little faster for him as we stop in a small shadowed, rocky nook away from our family and friends.
His lips ghost over the side of my face to my ear where he murmurs, “You are the most magnificent creature I’ve ever known. Always is not long enough to love you. You deserve so much more than that.”
“Rhett…honey…”
“You got something old,” he says, lifting my hand and kissing my rings. When he looks up at me from beneath his lashes, he adds in that funny voice he reads to the girls in, “I mean me.”
A laugh builds up in my chest that I can’t contain. While I’m chortling to his quip, Rhett pulls out a small box from his cream chinos while I tug at the suspenders that bring the smart to his casual.
“Something blue and new,” he breathes over my hand, pressing another kiss to it before he opens the box to reveal the faintest blue oval earrings that glint in the soft light ebbing from the dance floor.
“I was meant to give them to Iris this morning, but I didn’t want to take away from her moment.
Besides, now I can put them on you myself. ”
I found it strange that Callie insisted on me not wearing earrings today, even when Nora suggested my grandmother’s diamond or pearl studs. It makes perfect sense now as he threads the earrings onto my lobes.
“Something to fill that last space in your music box. Like you’ve completed me, sweetheart.
” Nudging the tip of my nose with his, Rhett twists one of the curled tendrils of my hair around his finger.
“I had no idea how much I needed you until that day I walked into Rowan’s house and saw you.
And I know that life isn’t always going to be this perfect, but I can withstand anything with you by my side.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that we can endure whatever life throws our way, so long as we’re together.
Side by side… we’ll always hold, even against the tide. ”
“I love you, Rhett Reynolds.”
“I love you, Avery Reynolds.” He brushes a kiss over my lips, and I know that there isn’t a better moment to tell him than right now.
And as I’m about to speak, he flattens my palm to his chest and says, nodding to the party, “There would be none of this without you. No girls…nothing. You’ve made life so full… so very full…”
“Not too full I hope,” I tell him, taking his hand and flattening it to my stomach. “You’re going to need room for one more.”
I can see it all sink in slowly but surely, and that grin I love flashes brighter than ever.
“Maybe you’ll get your boy after all.” It’s something Rowan likes to tease him about.
“I love my girls,” he marvels, stroking over the slight curve of my belly that refuses to flatten since the twins.
“Even though you’re always outnumbered?”
“Absolutely,” he snickers, nipping at my lips with a happy hum.
“Do you know how many boys you’re going to have to warn off?”
“Rowan won’t let me forget. Karma, remember?” Pulling me to him, he hoists me up his body and spins us on the spot with a contagious laugh that has my entire being vibrating with pure unadulterated joy.
“I call it happiness,” I tell him when he stops, keeping me pressed to his chest so that I’m looking down at him. “Pure, fucking bliss.”
“There she goes again, making my heart run away with itself.”
“You know what they say, don’t you?” I waggle my brows at him before I answer my own question, “Pregnant women are sex fiends.”
A loud burst of laughter bursts from him as he takes me back to the dance floor where Iris and Poppy are dancing together while Rose is sitting next to Jo, the two of them clearly grumbling at each other.
“You’re certain it’s only one this time?” he asks, shaking his head at the two of them.
“Unfortunately, that’s not something the pregnancy test ruled out,” I reply as he spins me into his chest.
“Oh fuck.” Rhett levels me with a wide-eyed terrorized stare. “The twins are great, but I don’t know that I could endure that again.”
“You just said we can endure anything together.”
“I didn’t know I knocked you up again.” Rhett sways us exaggeratedly to the music, bopping his shoulders along to the beat.
“You really should learn to keep it in your pants.”
Spinning me out, he shakes his head and catches the girls when they find us as I twirl back to him.
“Not when it comes to you, sunshine, and definitely not when we get to have all this.”
“No more after this one.”
“Didn’t you say that after the twins?” He picks Poppy up and puts her on his shoulders as I perch Rose on my hip and Iris cuddles into the both of us.
“I mean it this time…” I think.
THE END