Epilogue
Tori
One year later…
The kettle whistled, the cockatoos screeched in the trees outside and Kai hummed off-key in the shower. Somehow, miraculously, this had become my normal.
Somehow, this place — this life — felt like it fit.
I used to think the most unhinged thing about my life was Gran. Then I stupidly and recklessly fell in love with a man who was built like a tank, kissed me like I was his oxygen, and for good measure, moved to Australia with him.
So yeah. Turns out my life had room to get even crazier.
Now, instead of cafeteria bleach and fluorescent misery, my days smelled like sea salt, sunscreen and were filled with a kind of freedom I’d never known before.
It took two months for my student visa to be approved, and even less time for Gran to receive a spectacular offer for her little old house. It turned out Gran had greatly downplayed just how much the developers wanted the plot of land on which the house was built.
She signed the paperwork before our visas were even approved, claiming she was manifesting. I’d blame any of the gray hairs that would inevitably appear on my head sooner rather than later on this woman.
Kai had really put his money where his mouth was, supporting me every step of the way. He helped me fill out all kinds of forms until the ass crack of dawn after I got home from work, helped me figure out which university and course to apply for, and set up a financing plan for me.
Even though Gran had more money than she could possibly spend — especially since she was going to die soon, as she still kept on insisting — money wasn’t technically an issue anymore. Yet it still went against all my principles to just let her pay my way.
And Kai … he knew me well enough to realize I could never live with myself if I accepted, so he pored over a cost plan for days and calculated realistic instalments to set up a repayment plan.
My eyes stung suspiciously when he presented the whole plan to me, beaming with pride. This man loved me and cared deeply about my wishes, working tirelessly to honor them.
His actions spoke volumes, and he couldn’t have been clearer if he tried.
Kai had shown up for me, over and over again — and not just him. His entire family accepted us into their fold from the outset, whether it was picking us up at the airport, helping me with the paperwork for the partner visa, or keeping an eye on Gran when I couldn’t.
Having such an extensive support system was something new for me, and at times I was still hesitant to bother them or accept their help. As the weeks turned into months, however, they’d proven they weren’t going anywhere.
Funny how you sometimes find what you weren’t looking for in the last place you’d expect.
I sipped my coffee on our tiny balcony, watching surfers wobble toward the waves like newborn deer. My occupational therapy textbooks were spread across the café table, their pages lifting in the ocean breeze.
I wasn’t just studying because I had to anymore; I was studying because I wanted to. It turned out when given the chance to actually pick something I was interested in, it wasn’t all that hard.
Understanding how people rebuilt their bodies and their lives made something in my chest glow.
The sliding door rattled behind me.
Kai emerged, his hair still damp from the shower, shirt casually draped over his shoulder, shorts slung low on his hips. Fat droplets of water dripped from his dark locks onto the wooden planks.
“Hey, Love,” he rasped, leaning down to kiss the top of my head. “Lectures went alright?”
“Probably better than practice went for you.” I eyed the fresh bruises forming like constellations along his forearms.
He glanced down, lifted one shoulder. “Occupational hazard.”
“You’re the hazard,” I muttered, taking another sip of coffee.
Kai grinned in his usual bright, carefree way — a little goofy, but in the most endearing way — and I couldn’t help but smile back.
Every day with him felt like proof love didn’t have to be a struggle. It could be light, consistent, something holding me up instead of dragging me down.
Sure, we were dramatic and a little unhinged, but we were also unbreakable. It was the kind of steadiness rooted in choosing each other on the best days and the worst ones.
As I reached for my bag, a panicked shriek came from outside.
“What are you doing?! Janet! Stop! Turn this thing back around!”
Kai's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
I closed my eyes.
“Lord … grant me strength.”
We thundered down the stairs and out into the sunlit street, just in time to see Gran tearing down the cul-de-sac on a bright-pink mobility scooter. Two elderly women clung to the back like they were auditioning for a geriatric remake of Mad Max.
“Go, Janet, go!” one shrieked.
“Step on it! I haven’t moved this fast since they confiscated my license” yelled the other, her hair streaming behind her.
Gran spotted us, lifted one hand in a regal wave, and hollered, “Best country I ever invaded!”
Kai lost the battle with gravity and laughter, bending over like he’d been gut-punched.
I just pressed my hands to my face and prayed for the earth to swallow me.
Half the neighborhood was out, watching Gran’s spectacle. I thought she’d been a handful when she was on her own, but I was so wrong. When we moved her to Australia, we were thrilled to find an open room in a house down the road where she could live with two other ladies.
A blessing in disguise, and not in a good way. Gran had corrupted those two shrews faster than I could blink, and they’d been terrorizing the neighborhood ever since.
“She’s your family,” Kai reminded me cheerfully.
“She moved here for the weather,” I corrected. “And the wine.”
“And for you.” He kissed my temple in a way that made my knees wobble.
Eventually, the scooter stuttered to a halt in the middle of the cul-de-sac, its engine dying with a final death rattle. It came to a wobbling stop as if it had finally remembered it was built for gentle grocery runs, not senior-citizen drag racing.
Kai and I jogged over just as Gran kicked the little kickstand down with surprising agility.
She climbed off dramatically, hands on her hips, windswept curls and cheeks flushed with triumph. The two elderly partners in crime peeled themselves off the back, their legs shaking and their hair standing on end, looking like they’d survived a carnival ride operated by a drunk fairy godmother.
“Why, Gran?” I shook my head exasperatedly. “Just why?”
“To feel alive, darling,” she announced, lifting her chin proudly. “Besides, Margo said her hip felt stuck, so we were trying to unstick it, so to speak.”
Margo — white hair sticking straight back as though electrocuted — nodded enthusiastically, “It did help. I think my arthritis shifted.”
Before I could reply, a small electric patrol buggy with an amber light silently whirring rolled into the street.
Oh no.
The council ranger stepped out, a clipboard tucked under one arm, his expression somewhere between exhaustion and fascination.
He must have been on his usual route through the neighborhood — he had started passing by Gran’s house multiple times a day — and the sight of a stolen hot-pink mobility scooter doing forty in a twenty zone had clearly caught his attention.
“Afternoon,” he greeted warily. “Ma’am … did you borrow this from your neighbor again?”
Gran patted the scooter affectionately. “I prefer the term ‘test drive.’ This baby has potential.”
The ranger pinched the bridge of his nose as though he were fighting to hold on to his sanity for dear life.
Same, buddy. Same.
“We’ve talked about this.”
Gran leaned forward, squinting at his name tag. “Elliot, dear, it’s far too hot for that much uniform. Are you trying to bake yourself alive?”
“Madam.” Elliot sighed. “Please just … keep your hands off the scooter.”
“Sure, sure. Yes, absolutely, I will,” she promised, raising her hand like a boyscout, with a wrinkle-nosed smile that clearly meant absolutely not.
He looked at me and Kai with the haunted stare of a man who had previously had to deal with my grandmother and her accomplices and who might need therapy because of it.
Kai saluted him in sympathy.
When the ranger finally drove off — muttering something like “I’m too young for this job” — we walked Gran and her merry disaster squad back to their house at the end of the street.
Gran kept talking the whole way, waving her hands wildly as she recounted the “emotional benefits of high-speed cardiovascular chaos.”
“Joyride while your knees still work!” she declared, pointing to the sky. “One day the universe will repo these bad boys and I refuse to leave any miles unused!”
Kai choked on a laugh behind me.
“Just do me a favor and don’t get arrested before Mom comes to visit next week, okay? I really don’t know how I’d explain that to her.” I paused, then snorted involuntarily. “You know what? I take it back. I absolutely know how to explain that to her.”
“Don’t worry, darling. They aren’t going to arrest a sweet old lady.”
“Let me know when you find one of those, will ya?” I quipped.
Kai snorted and Gran shot me a pointed look.
She pointed at me. “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone, darling.”
“Yeah, I will.” I huffed out a laugh. No matter how much she drove me mad, I couldn’t imagine life without her.
We finally left them at their driveway, where Gran was already plotting ways to modify the scooter for “better torque” and had declared it was now “wine o’clock.”
“If she keeps going like this, she might actually outlive us,” I mused, shaking my head in disbelief.
Kai
The door shut behind us with a soft click. For a moment, I stood and watched her.
I took in the rise and fall of her chest, the sun glowing in her hair, and the faint smile still gracing her lips, despite her attempts to hide it with an exasperated groan.
Christ, she was beautiful.
Not just in the obvious way, but in the way she lived so unapologetically — terrified and brave all at once.
There had been a time when rugby was the only steady thing in my life, a time when I held onto it so tightly my knuckles went white.
I still loved the game. I loved pulling on the Gold Coast Rip Tide jersey and hearing the crowd swell when I broke the line. The American football drills that had once seemed tedious — acceleration off the mark, blocking mechanics in tight contact and split-second reads — now gave me an edge.
But now steadiness looked different.
It looked like a small house near the coast.
Like dark hair streaked with red spread across my pillow.
Like walking into my parents’ kitchen with her hand in mine and realizing I’d brought home the one person I never wanted to leave behind.
The true miracle was getting to bring this girl home — my girl — and watching my mum fall in love with her within about three seconds. It was her letting me prove not everyone walks away. Letting me prove I’d stay. Letting me prove I wanted to.
I still loved the game, and always would, but I didn't need it the way I used to.
I had something better to come home to.
Tori leaned back against the kitchen island, arms crossed, with the kind of challenging spark in her eyes that always undid me.
“You need to stop looking at me like that.” I blew out a harsh breath, stepped between her knees and braced my palms on the counter behind her.
“Aww, is someone needy?” she drawled, hooking a finger into the waistband of my shorts like she owned the place, like she owned me. “You’ll have to catch me first, Pretty Boy. There's no reward without a little effort first.”
In an instant, the adrenaline from practice, the chaos left over from Janet’s rampage on the street and the chaos of my day all melted away. All that remained was her, looking at me as if I were hers to ruin.
My breath whooshed out of my lungs in a rush in a single, low sound. “Oh, you really want to play, huh?”
Tori’s full lips quirked into a slow, wicked smile as she walked her fingers up my torso, the muscles tensing under her touch.
“And you’re dying for me to scratch your back open again, aren’t you?”
A low groan rumbled through my chest as I rested my palms on her hips, my thumbs stroking slow, deliberate circles on her skin. The air thickened between us in a warm, teasing, familiar way.
Tori pressed up on her toes, her lips brushing the edge of my jaw, sending bolts of pleasure zapping down my spine.
“If you catch me before I make it to the bedroom, I’ll let you choose everything for the rest of the night … but if I make it there first, you’ll edge yourself for me. As long as I want you to.”
I chuckled darkly. “Wrong move, Love. I’ve got you. Every time.”
Her teeth grazed my throat. “Prove it.”
Gathering her hair in my fist, I yanked her head back and sucked hard on her neck.
“Run.”
Tori whirled around, the sound of her bare feet slapping against the hardwood echoing through the room and sending my blood pumping. Her delighted laughter bounced off the hallway walls … and the chase began.
We had weathered the storm and made it beyond. Life with her was wild and wonderful, and although no one can predict the future, we were embracing it together, hand in hand, without looking back.
As long as we had each other, we could face everything.