EPILOGUE
Harper
“Higher! Higher!” Steven calls out.
“You gotta really reach, man!” Maxine adds.
Aiden turns on the ladder and gives my friends a look that could kill. Except we’re all immune to that look and everyone knows the crowd just wants to check out my boyfriend’s butt.
Aiden shifts his gaze to me, pleading for help. I just shrug.
“Why didn’t we hire this out?” He grumbles as he adjusts the head of a skeleton taller than a two-story building.
“Someone taught us to cut costs so as to increase our profit margins!” Shelly says before she, hilariously, plops on the curb with a pretzel in one hand and a caramel apple latte in the other. She takes a sip and sits back like she’s enjoying dinner and a show.
“Harper, Sweetheart, why are we here, again? Don’t you want to be home, walking the beach at sunset?”
“You losers do that every night now, thanks to us,” Max says.
One of the Aunts harrumphs in disapproval. That I left town, that Aiden followed, that we have adult sleepovers out of wedlock. Though, they’ll never know it, but that was a whole ordeal, waiting until my divorce was finalized before taking our relationship to the next level.
And wow. Was it worth the wait. Aiden is bossy and demanding, but it’s kind of lovely if his demands are that I let go and experience mind-bending sex.
Plus, I have a new appreciation for his whole says-exactly-what-he-means habit after hearing him say reverent compliments into my skin over and over.
I blush.
Maybe we should be at home right now…
Steven interrupts my thoughts, “Yeah, you owe us, really.”
“You know dats right!” Tyrone says as he comes out of his shop.
His shop that’s still open. Because Aiden is a softy. Construction on the new extension of Main Street should be done before the new year, then all the stores will move over, right after the Christmas rush. He’s paying penalties for delaying the parking lot. For us.
He snorts above us, “Owe you? I owe you?”
“Hey, not while he’s up twenty feet, guys,” I say. The teasing is all well and good until he turns to fire off some grumpy comeback and falls and breaks a bone.
“Do you people realize it’s barely September?” Aiden grumbles as he turns back to his job of securing the skeleton to the Welcome to Juniper Falls sign that lives above the start of Main Street.
Braxton and his friends pass and he calls up the ladder, “I know Lady B, I told Dad we should’ve started last week.”
“I have not agreed to that nickname!” Aiden tries but everyone just laughs.
Janie looks at me so I explain, “I called him Lady Bridgerton when we met because he looks kind of like a Jonathan Bailey but obviously I meant Lord!”
“Braxton, get up here and do this,” my boyfriend tries to command the mayor’s son. But he’s trained us all too well.
Janie snorts next to me as she watches the teenager cross his arms and widen his stance and say, “I’m available for hire.”
“Bloody hell. What do you want?”
Braxton gets excited, “Well, Seth got this Xbox game that—”
“A thousand dollars,” the grump cuts him off.
Braxton chokes and nods and his friends cheer as he grabs the bottom of the ladder so Aiden can climb down.
“You’re no fun,” Max huffs as Aiden reaches the ground.
“I can be fun,” Aiden says in his sex voice, walking up to me and wrapping his arms around my back. He kisses me once, hard, then pulls back to say, “I missed you.”
“You were up there for like five minutes,” I laugh. He shrugs.
Janie makes a gag sound, “Quit being cute, it messes with my firmly held beliefs that you’re horrible.”
Aiden continues to kiss the crap out of me as everyone heckles us.
I pull away, “Don’t you have a meeting?”
“I do, at the bakery, let’s go,” he says with a squeeze of my hand.
I frown, “You’re meeting your important construction contractor guy at the bakery?”
“Of course. I wanted your coffee.”
I laugh.
He comes in for my coffee every morning, as promised. He wakes up in the wee hours when I do, goes to bed some nights when the sun is still setting, either next to me or on FaceTime with me. He has taken me to Dubai and London so far. He’s done all the things he said he wanted to do.
Except ask me to marry him.
He’s said he wants me to marry him.
He’s said he wants to propose.
Even though it’s only been a couple months, I thought he might propose on the London trip.
In his penthouse flat, overlooking the Times, he turned to me and said, “Tell me you love me.” To be fair, he had said it a million times and I hadn’t yet.
But I still raised my eyebrows at him. He chuckled and said, “Please? Do you love me?” Of course I said yes.
Then he picked me up, kissed me senseless, and had his way with me up against his giant windows.
But no proposal.
We have a trip planned next month to Paris, maybe then.
“You alright?” He asks me as we make our way down the street.
Just wondering when you’re going to propose. “Great,” I say instead.
He tucks me into his side and kisses the side of my head before stepping ahead and opening the bakery door. Janie gags again right behind us.
I smile and inhale the scents of sugar and coffee. It looks the same in here. Sounds, smells, feels exactly the same. Feels like home…with a side of anxiety.
But that anxiety is not mine anymore.
“Hey guys,” my sister smiles from behind the counter.
I guess the anxiety is hers, temporarily. We are hiring more staff and decided to have Madison serve as our General Manager when the shop moves across the street. But Lily and Steven are going to help get her through the holidays this year.
“Hey Park,” I say, meeting her halfway from the register to the door.
She looks…different. Polished and put together, as always, but a bit more relaxed? Hard to say.
“Black coffee for the Dark Lord, anybody else what anything?”
“Hilarious,” Aiden greets her with a side hug. They’ve become fast friends during her visits to see us at the beach. She’s brought me various things from home, despite Aiden’s insistence he can just buy me all new, well, everything. Except the Bronco. It’s one of a kind and I’m keeping it.
Janie and I grab our orders and take a table at the front so we can hop up and help Lily if she needs it. Aiden stands near the counter scrolling on his phone, looking exactly like a billionaire waiting for an important meeting with some other billionaire.
When said other billionaire walks in, it’s obvious immediately. The cafe goes quiet, everyone stares. This man is in a nice suit but with cowboy boots instead of fancy loafers. He has a belt buckle that looks kind of ridiculous but probably cost as much as my new ride.
He walks to Aiden and they shake hands. The owner of the construction company is shorter, not as dark, but undeniably handsome. And there’s something striking about him, he has kind eyes but there’s not a hair out of place. Almost like he’s too perfect?
Weird.
“Coffee here is phenomenal, all the pastries too,” Aiden tells him as he gestures to the counter.
Mr. Perfect steps forward and Lily turns to take his order. She looks up and goes white as a sheet.
“Thomas?” She says.
“You know Tom Bell?” Aiden says.
At the same time that I say, “Thomas, Thomas?”
Then we all watch in shock as my sister says, “Excuse me,” turns, and vomits into a trash can.
The End
EPILOGUE TWO
Wait, WHAT was the secret ingredient? Find out and read Aiden’s swoony proposal in the bonus scene! Get it at
hristmasinjuly
KEEP READING!
One Last Christmas
Out Nov 20th, 2026!
Lily
And like one of those out of body experiences I’ve heard other people talk about but never thought I’d have for myself, I watch myself calmly say, “Excuse me.” I turn away from everyone, grab the nearest trash can, and throw up.
In a blur, Janie whisks me to the back office. I fight the urge to hurl again. Luckily I didn’t eat much this morning. And the further I get from the counter, the better I feel. Janie sits me in a chair and hands me a dixie cup of water.
“You good?” Janie asks me.
“Obviously not!” My sister whispers as she rushes in and closes the door behind her.
“Who is that guy?” Janie asks.
My little sister answers simply, “Her boss.”
The both frown at me. Because why would I see my boss, leave my body and watch it start upchucking all over the bakery?
Harper, still a pro at communicating without words, crosses her arms, raises her eyebrows, and waits.
“Not my boss anymore,” I answer.
Janie waits a beat and pushes me, “Yeahhhh, we’re gonna need a little more than that.”
“You quit?” Harper asks softly, in shock, “You quit your dream job?”
I shake my head, “Not my dream job. And yes. I quit but…I was, um, not gracious about it.”
Janie pulls the dilapidated sofa closer to the chair and leans in, “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“When?” Harper asks.
I wince and tell her the truth, “About a year ago.”
My little sister gasps. Janie watches us both. I muster my strength and finally come clean.
“I didn’t tell you because I was embarrassed,” I blurt.
Sweet Harper is immediately mad and concerned, because why would I ever be embarrassed with her.
I answer her unsaid question, “Because I am better than this! I was supposed to be better. But the truth is…I fell head over heels, pathetically, totally, madly in love with my boss.”
“Thomasssss,” Janie says slowly as the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place.
I nod, “Yeah. And after years of just freaking bleeding out, day after day, I…well, I snapped. I quit over text, over text!” I put a hand to my beet-red face.
“Like a petulant child I texted him, then I packed my stuff in the middle of the night and never looked back. Years of professionalism down the drain. No follow up meeting, no calls, totally cold turkey. I haven’t talked to him or seen him since. ”
“Until he just walked in that door?” Harper squeaks out the question.
“Until he just walked in that door,” I confirm.
Harper reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder, “Wait, so, you don’t have a job? Is that why you came out here? Do you need money?”