Epilogue #5
I made my way over to Stella who sat next to my mother in the living room, her shoulders tight and her purse clenched in her hands. Mom caught my entrance before Stella did and gave me the best reassuring smile she could as Stella turned over her shoulder to see me.
“Alice.” Gah , her voice was as stiff as her posture. “I was wondering when you’d find your way over to say hello.”
Subtle scrutiny in the first three seconds. Lovely.
“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Black. How was the drive?”
“Oh, not too bad at all. I got to know Astrid over there. She’s a striking character, isn’t she?”
Was that a compliment or an insult? Only Stella had the ability to make me consider such a question.
“I love her. I’m so glad they found each other.”
“Yes.” Stella hummed, steering her strangely acute gaze back towards where Mary and Astrid last were. “I am too, surprisingly.”
Surprisingly indeed.
“Well—” My mother garnered the focus as she stood, smoothing out the wrinkles on her sky-blue pants. “With how much you’ve talked up this woman, I think I’ll have to go meet her myself. Excuse me.”
If my eyes could have jumped out of my head as I watched my mom go, they just might have. I didn’t want to be alone with Stella. Sure, Ethan and I had lunch with her last week, but Ethan made sure to never leave me at the table with her once.
The familiar ball of anxiety bounced around my stomach again, my fingers twisting together as I stood in awkward silence in front of a woman who was far from my biggest fan. At lunch last week, she was trying her best to be cordial for Ethan’s sake, but it was a strain for her throughout the meal.
“Do you want anything to drink?” I asked to break up the silence.
She turned her nose up at me. “Ever the bartender, I see.”
As best as I tried not to let it, I felt offense drop the muscles in my jaw and raise them in my forehead. I didn’t even risk breathing through the moment following, sure I’d breathe out a frustrated string of words right under my breath.
Stella made a noise that drew my stare, finding a troubled look sinking down her eyebrows. She fidgeted in her seat only for a moment, conflict splashed like dewy raindrops across her expression.
Finally, she spoke. “I didn’t mean that to be serious.” Her eyes dropped to fiddle with her wedding ring. “I’m afraid that was a poor attempt at a joke.”
Against all odds, a smile crept up my face at her honesty. “That’s okay.”
I waved her off, hoping to ease her back into whatever mood she felt comfortable enough to try for humor between us. Joking Stella and mean Stella were deceptively similar in their delivery. “I make bad jokes all the time. Like, really bad.”
She peered up at me, a peculiar consideration dotting her eyes.
“You really are just a nice girl, aren’t you?”
Again, I failed to control my facial reaction as my mouth parted, eyes rounding in my head. Ducking my stare down, I pushed a strand of hanging hair behind my ear.
“I try to be.”
I locked my arms around myself, struggling not to pinch the skin of my back arm to check that this moment was real. When I peeked back up to Stella, she was still watching me, and the tiniest of smiles was pursed on her lips.
“A glass of chardonnay would be lovely, Alice. Thank you.”
Oh my god.
I’d extended an olive branch, and she actually took it.
I nodded vigorously, dashing off to the kitchen before she could change her mind and declare momentary insanity for being nice to me.
My steps were fast through the house, like I was floating on quick-flowing air.
There were only a few things that could have pulled me to a pause on my mission to tend to Stella’s rare kindness, and standing at the end of the hall next to my father’s study was one of them.
My feet faltered, skidding to a stop at the hands of the two men down the hall, both of which I loved dearly and deeply. They were speaking in hushed tones, faces serious and bodies poised in stances of dominance.
Ethan nodded, and my father did too.
They clasped hands and shook just once before my father peeled away down the hall and landed a swift kiss on my cheek. Stunned, I simply stood there as my dad left me and Ethan alone, my brain firing in a million different directions.
Heavy boots vibrated the hardwood beneath me as Ethan neared, and for once, I had no earthly idea what he was thinking or feeling. His expression was blank and hard-set, ocean blue eyes sinking me under waves of apprehension that sent a chill up my spine.
“What was that?”
Ethan settled in front of me, my head bowing back to keep eye contact as he loomed over me. That sobering severity chiseled into his face cracked with his slow-rising smile.
“I’m on a trial run.”
I blinked, shocked. “You two talked about—”
“We did.”
“And he shook your hand,” I said in awe.
Ethan nodded, sliding his hands along the expanse of my waist until they locked together behind my back, bringing us flush. Head hanging just above mine, the stars in his eyes burned bright enough to blind everything else around us.
All I saw was him.
“He said that watching us dance together reminded him of he and your mom.”
Ethan dragged his thumbs in slow lines along the small of my back, his mouth twitching upwards. “Also mentioned something about you cursing at him about us and fate?”
I clamped my teeth over my bottom lip to hold down my rising smile.
“Maybe…”
He teased a breath over my lips, watching my eyelids flutter under his heady scent. “Our love made believers out of two people tonight. Who knows what else it can do.”
“God, I want to kiss you,” I breathed.
“Tonight, Slim. Your rules.”
A strangled whimper crept up my throat. “I really hate my rules.”
Ethan dipped his face low, nose brushing against mine as he brought his mouth to do the same over my lips, touching just barely. “And I really love you.”
Staring directly into the shimmering stars, I whispered truly.
“With all my heart.”
Ethan and I made our way back to everyone, a glass of wine in hand for Stella. Another hour went by of civil, and at times, actually enjoyable conversation between us all before dinner was served.
When Ethan pulled his seat out next to me at the table, I thought back to just last year when he was made to move away—refused to love me even in secret. Just last year, a love between Ethan and I seemed as impossible as flying; we couldn’t even get a running start off the ground.
Now, he sat next to me without having to shield the adoration owning his eyes or the content crease on his mouth as he brushed his fingers over mine, holding my hand openly on the dinner table.
The people we loved around us spoke and laughed and shared food like families do, and there wasn’t a hint of sadness to be found.
No more tears. No more heartache. No more secrets shared in dark corners and stolen moments.
It was just us.
All of us, sharing and loving and laughing as freely as we were always meant to.
I would still argue that every person on Earth has a moment they can pinpoint in their lives as The Great Something. More than ever before, I was sure of it.
As it turned out, in the end, and all along…
Ethan Black was my Great Something.