Epilogue
Grace
I exhale nervously.
Writing a novel is the hardest part, and the rest of it is supposed to be easier. But honestly, the idea of meeting my fans is feeling like the hardest part right now.
My first novel was more of a success than I thought it would be, and the second one—the one I wrote inspired by my life with my Alphas—has a highly anticipated debut coming up. My former boss, who’s become my publisher, has arranged for me to do a meet and greet with fans where I’ll read a sneak peek of the second book and sign copies of my first.
“You look amazing,” I hear Jesse say from behind me.
I turn around. “I’m just not sure about the color,” I fret. “Maybe I should’ve chosen something other than yellow? You sure it doesn’t make me look like a big squash or something? Maybe I should go with blue…”
“If you’d picked blue,” Jesse points out with a chuckle, “you’d be saying that you look too much like a whale and you needed to change to green.”
He walks over and kisses me. “You look beautiful. And yellow is your favorite color. That’ll help with the nerves later.”
“I’m having nerves now .”
“And you have no reason for them,” Hendrix says, coming in with Easton and Cade behind him. “You look lovely, and your fans are excited to see you. They’re going to be so happy.”
“They traveled all the way out here…” I start, but Easton interrupts me.
“Because they want to accommodate your needs and not stick you on a plane like this. It doesn’t mean you’re obligated to make it worth their while.”
“Sometimes I hate that you all can hear my thoughts,” I say, laughing.
“Liar,” Hendrix says with a smile.
Cade crouches down and rests his cheek against my stomach. He adores doing that. All of the men already adore the babies of course but this is Cade’s special thing. I run my fingers through his hair and idly wonder what the babies will look like.
We just found out they’re twins, after all. Maybe they’re fraternal, and maybe one will look like one Alpha, and the other will look like another. I don’t know. But I do know we’ll all love them no matter what.
“Did you hear?” Hendrix asks as Cade gets to his feet and offers me his arm so they can get me downstairs. “The McAllister auction is set to go.”
“Oh, wow, that’ll be interesting,” Jesse says. “I’m sure a lot of people will turn up for that.”
With all of the ways the McAllisters hurt people over the years, getting a piece of their ranch for cheap is good revenge and a good way to recoup losses. During the whole process of prosecuting them for the arson a lot more petty criminal charges were discovered, and a lot of people came forward with their own stories of how the McAllisters had treated them.
Of course you can’t send someone to jail for bullying you, but it didn’t help the situation. I think the McAllisters will be in prison for a long time, and good riddance.
“People have been asking if we’re going,” Easton says as we make our way downstairs.
“You’ve told them fat chance, right?” Jesse says.
“I put it more politely than that. I didn’t want anyone thinking we would judge them if they went.”
We chose not to go. We don’t want to have anything tainted by the McAllisters. Other people can have that.
“Are you sure?” I pause in the front doorway. “Is this a good idea?”
Jesse takes me by the shoulders and smiles at me. “They’re going to love you. Just like we do. Let them see that shining personality behind the book they already adore.”
“Remember the whole town loves you,” Easton points out. “And you had no idea.”
They’re right. I thought for years people didn’t care about me, and I was wrong. I take a deep breath and nod. “Okay, let’s go.”
The meet and greet is being held at an independent bookstore in the city, so that people didn’t have to drive too far when they flew out here. I wanted to support a local business.
It’s a lot, I have to admit. I definitely won’t be doing this again while I’m pregnant. But I have a lot of fun. It’s wonderful to meet all my lovely readers, and see their enthusiasm and love for my book.
My Alphas stand behind my signing table the entire time, beaming with pride and fetching anything I might need. They get me another chair to put my feet up on and take my shoes off after a while, and everyone coos over the fact that I’m having twins.
Toward the end, Easton gets into the other chair and puts my feet in his lap so he can massage them. I grin at him, knowing that we probably wouldn’t be able to get away with this if I wasn’t pregnant. The upside to all the changes your body goes through while having a baby—or two babies, in my case—is that people will pamper you.
Or maybe that’s just my Alphas, and I’m just that lucky.
We’re getting to the end of the line, and another reader comes forward. She’s younger, about college age, and gushes to me about what an inspiration I am as a writer and how much she’s enjoyed my books.
“I love that your next book is inspired by your relationship with your Alphas,” she says, grinning widely and taking in all four of my mates. “Any idea when you’ll start working on the next book?”
“Depends on the twins,” I tell her honestly, then sign her book before she moves on with a smile.
I feel Hendrix lean in and whisper in my ear, “I guess we’ll have to give you a lot more inspiration then.”
I shove him playfully. “We’re in public.”
He snatches my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I meant with the romance too.”
I melt. “I know,” I tell him, and I mean it.
My four gorgeous mates will keep giving me reasons to write about love for a long, long time.