Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Relationships were an odd thing. A man she once felt like the sun and the moon rose from his butt crack was now no more than a footnote in the margin of Amber’s story. A catalyst that led her to the future she now inhabited. The one she once thought she’d never have. Reconciled to having a child on her own, and chasing her dreams solo, she’d been steadfast in her wavering. Now, she rested on the shoulders of a man who would bring her the stars. A man whose muscular forearms would grapple the sky, climb the clouds and drag the moon down on his broad back. Just to make her smile. That was Tyler. Her best friend, her lover. Her everything. God, she was sappy nowadays.
‘What’s up with you?’ Tyler smirked down at her. ‘You’re looking at me like you want to nibble me.’
His big arms came around her, his stubble nuzzling that sweet spot on her neck he knew she loved.
‘I was just looking; you were in my line of vision,’ she lied, a matching smile across her face as she breathed him in. ‘And you need a shave.’
He huffed out a laugh. ‘You love my stubble, and you know it. ’
‘True.’ She grinned. She had been looking out of the window, marvelling at how good it was to be home. Even now, the thought took her breath away. Even as their child Samuel slept in his room, even with her name above the door on that little plaque she never thought would exist.
‘Bar all set up?’ he asked, sensing as always just what she was thinking about.
‘Yep, Ben got the kitchen covered?’
He moved to her collarbone, dipping his head lower and pulling her tighter against his hard chest. His arms came up her sides, fingers bumping up her ribs until he reached the underside of her chest.
‘Uh-huh,’ he murmured back, distracted in his pursuit of her nipple under the neckline of the tight, black dress she was wearing. He drew across the curtain, shielding her from the street.
‘Always the protector,’ she breathed as his fingers pinched one, making it bud harder against the lace of her strapless bra. ‘Sharon will be up in a minute.’
His fingers paused, and she felt his groan. ‘Spoilsport. Do me a favour: never talk about Sharon again while I’m trying to feel you up.’
‘Deal,’ she laughed, checking the baby monitor on the coffee table for the tenth time. ‘Do you think…’
He hooked her around the waist, taking her jaw in a huge hand and lifting her to look into his gorgeous eyes. ‘Nope. Not a chance, Cherry. We have not had a date night in so long. Auntie Sharon is babysitting; the bar and kitchen are both covered. We,’ his eyes dropped to her lips, ‘are going out. Out out. To a place without menus that you colour in, or ball pools filled with child pee and skittles.’
‘Oooh. You had me at child pee. ’
‘Filthy woman,’ he growled, stealing a kiss. ‘You look beautiful, by the way.’
‘Thanks, bestie,’ she teased. Just to get one of his grumpy eye rolls.
‘Bestie my arse,’ he pretended to grump. ‘Wait till we get home; I’ll show you what a best friend can do.’
She pushed him away, feeling the blush of attraction rove through her.
‘Sounds like I’m on a promise.’
He shrugged on the jacket he’d slung over the couch. ‘You bet your ass you’re on a promise. I have been slaving away in that kitchen for weeks. My boss is a real slavedriver.’
Pushing on her heels, she padded over. He was trying to escape from his tie noose. Reaching for it, she pulled it a little, making his eyes widen. ‘Really? Bit of a bitch, eh?’ Loosening the silk material, she re-tied it straight, and a little looser. ‘You should quit.’
He pretended to think about it, sliding his hands up her thighs and resting them in the small of her back. ‘I would… but it’s kind of a live-in situation. You know, room and board.’
‘Ah. So she’s a controlling wench, too, eh. Bet you have to…’ she pushed her fingers under his jacket, enjoying his shiver as her hands roved over his abs. ‘…fluff her pillows,’ she breathed.
His eyes darkened as he gripped her tighter. ‘Oh, she makes me fluff everything.’
‘Ah-huh.’ A throat clearing behind them froze them in their tracks. ‘You have a reservation in thirty minutes. And try not to dry hump in front of the babysitter, eh?’
Tyler released her, his fingers lingering until the last minute.
‘Hi Sharon,’ he monotoned, straightening his already perfect tie. ‘Thanks for looking after the champ.’
The pair of them turned to see a very uncharacteristically smiling Sharon, standing with a familiar-looking contractor. They were holding hands.
‘Oh,’ Amber had to prise her gaze from their entwined hands. ‘Wow. Sorry about the PDA there.’ Tyler was standing open mouthed at the side of her, and she jabbed him in the ribs to bump him out of his stupor. ‘Nice to see you again…’
‘Reservation,’ Sharon squeaked, looking at them both with wide eyes. She mouthed, ‘Stop bloody staring’ at them both, and Tyler made a coughing sound that sounded suspiciously like a covered laugh. She never spoke about him, though they all knew that she was seeing him. Matt and Tyler were actually good friends, but from the look on his face, he didn’t know he’d be coming tonight either. It felt like a bit of a milestone.
‘Right,’ they both said together. After staring at each other for what felt like hours, Tyler clapped his hands together and swept Amber across the room with him.
‘Okay! So, Matt, Shaz… ron, we won’t be out too late. I have my phone, little dude should be fast on for the night. Remotes are on the coffee table…’
Sharon was glaring at him now like she was wishing her eyes were lasers.
‘And… have a good night!’
They were in the car before either of them spoke again.
‘So, that happened.’ Amber couldn’t help but laugh. She was happy for her friend. It looked a lot like she’d found her partner. ‘How long have they been official? I knew she was still seeing him, but it’s the first time she’s brought him out. Wow. Our little Sharon’s in love.’
His eyes were shining in the dim light, his surprised smile lit up by the passing lights as they drove towards the restaurant. ‘He never said a word.’ Tyler laughed. ‘Good man. They are definitely doing more than knocking boots. ’
‘I know! Did you see them, holding hands?’
‘I know,’ Tyler breathed, tapping the steering wheel in his excited little Duracell bunny way. ‘It was disgusting!’
He took his eyes off the road long enough to lock eyes with her, and they both lost it. Tears streaming down their face, overjoyed and shocked by their friend. Amber managed to stop herself first, dabbing her eyes to avoid walking into their date looking like a panda.
‘Aww, the little sister you never had. Seriously, though, what the heck? I swear, she never said a word to me.’
Tyler’s smile was all knowing. ‘I think we can guess why. He’s important to her.’
‘I know that feeling,’ Amber grinned, wrapping her hand over Tyler’s as it rested on the gearstick.
‘Of course you do. That’s why we fell into each other’s arms the second we met.’
‘Hey!’ She pretended to swat at him at the same time as clenching his hand tighter in hers. ‘We were best friends first; that’s better.’
He didn’t look entirely convinced, a shadow of something crossing his features. She’d seen him pull that face before, and every time she wanted to kiss it right off his face and dispel it forever. ‘Yeah, we were.’ He bit at his lip. ‘I still wish I’d punched Bradley in the face the second he looked twice at you though. Could have saved a lot of hassle.’ His face was stormy now, but it lifted quickly. ‘We wouldn’t have our little champ though, so fate wasn’t so cruel.’
His expression was pure love now. Calm, content. Her favourite Tyler look.
When he came around to open her door in the restaurant car park, she changed her mind when she saw his dark eyes, lips curled lustily. Okay, so my second favourite. He half pulled her out of her seat and into his arms, his palms settling on the small of her back. ‘It doesn’t matter how long it took to get here.’ He kissed the tip of her nose, then one corner of her mouth. Pulling back with that settled, happy, love-drunk expression on his gorgeously kissable face. ‘I loved you before you knew it. Before you saw me coming. I was like a little stealth love ninja. Feeding you up with cherry pastries.’ He looked at her mouth, his eyes doing that thing they did when he was thinking about her naked. He kissed the corner he’d not tasted yet, slanting his lips to cover her mouth. Take her breathy moan into him like it was oxygen itself. He kissed her hard, deep. Closing the car door with one hand as he gripped her around the waist with the other. She felt the hard surface of the car door as he pushed her against it. ‘My Cherry,’ he groaned as he pulled back. ‘Sweet and juicy.’ This. This was her favourite face on him. The look of pure, unadulterated devotion that shone out of him. Like he would carry the world on his shoulders to protect her. Crush any enemies she encountered. Burn the settlements of her foes and carry her off on his shoulders while everything smouldered around them.
His brows knitted together. ‘You having that lumberjack-carry-you-off fantasy again?’
She giggled before she could stop herself. ‘Nope.’
‘Liar.’ He smirked. ‘What was I doing this time?’
‘Burning my enemies.’
He growled theatrically. ‘The enemy of my woman shall be crushed underfoot.’ His voice was so deliciously low, she felt it rumble throughout her body. Right down into her core. ‘The rivers will run red with their blood as I take my lady back to my mountain lodge for a bit of plundering.’
‘Oooh,’ she laughed against his chest, smelling him as she always did. ‘I do like the odd plunder. ’
‘I know,’ he rumbled. ‘You’re smelling me again, like a dachshund would a squeaky toy.’
‘You’re my favourite smell, aside from our baby.’ She curled her fingers into his hair. ‘I swear, I’m about to dry hump you in this car park.’
That elicited another loud groan from him. Releasing her like it was the last thing on earth he wanted to do, he reached for her hands and dropped another kiss on her lips. A chaste one this time. ‘We’d better go in then.’ He released her only to offer her his arm. ‘Shall we, my lady?’
She puffed out a breath, willing her libido to subside enough to enable her legs to walk in a straight line. ‘We shall, my brave protector.’ He held her to his side as if he could sense her shaky legs. ‘I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this.’
They left the car park, both of them coming to a stop together outside Bradley’s latest venture.
Imaginatively named Sloane’s Eatery, it was just how she’d imagined it to look from Brad’s descriptions of his plans when they were together. She didn’t feel a pang, or anything really other than happiness for him. She had her life; he had his. Her dreams had come true and more. Thinking about her and Bradley together now felt like a bit of a bad dream. Like it had been someone else’s life. Someone else’s path. Life was too short to hold grudges. She was done looking back. Bradley was the guy before the guy, and she didn’t take anyone on that journey for granted. Hebblestone was too small a place to avoid the past.
‘You okay?’ Tyler’s voice was strong, but the concern still softened its undertone. He’d been a little squirrelly in the beginning when Bradley had reached out to them. Trying to make amends. He’d had more than a few gym sessions to pound out his lingering emotions on the matter but, somehow, they’d managed it. Bradley had even brought his fiancée with him to The Fitzpatrick Arms, which had raised more than a few eyebrows amongst the regulars. More than a couple of the old boys mumbled into their pint pots a lot more than usual, and the air was decidedly chilly. Bradley wisely kept close to the bar area, and his fiancée looked like she was wearing a Lady Gaga meat dress and had just walked into a hungry lion’s den. Which wasn’t far off, given that the whole of the community had heard about her infamous engagement party. One which, quite frankly, Amber still didn’t like to think about.
Her own engagement was a very different experience. The air that night had been crackling with love and happiness, as everyone who knew her and Tyler, separate and now together, had told the loved-up couple how perfect they were how great they were going to be as parents. It had all worked out and, as he held the door open for her, Amber found herself being thankful for Bradley’s cheating ways, his detachment from her that gave her the space to realise that what she had wasn’t necessarily what she wanted. It had woken her up, in more ways than one.
As Tyler walked into the busy space, arm around her waist, he leaned down. Making her shiver as he brushed comforting words into the shell of her ear. ‘One word, and I’ll light the pyres, my queen.’
She smirked up at him. ‘Let’s just hope you can keep your axe under control ’til we get home.’
‘Oooh,’ he groaned, reaching down to clamp her bottom in his palm before moving it back to a pose more suitable for public. ‘Stop it, or I will fireman lift you back to the car right now. Screw the dinner.’
‘I love you,’ she told him. Because she never grew tired of telling him, and she felt like she was catching up for all the I-love-you’s she could have been saying before. ‘Now feed your woman.’
He rolled his eyes, before leading her to the welcome desk, where a server waited with a patient smile .
‘Stop clenching.’
‘I’m not clenching,’ he said, slipping the words out between gritted teeth. ‘Okay. A little.’
‘You could carry a keg between your butt cheeks right now,’ she half whispered as he gave their names to the server. Their hostess smiled wider, flicking a pen across her reservations book and leading them to one of the quieter tables in the back.
When they were seated, Bradley appeared from the kitchen area. Spotting them, he headed over to their table.
‘Hey.’ He flashed his professional smile at them both, his shoulders high under his polished-as-ever demeanour. ‘I’m glad you came.’
‘Bradley,’ Tyler said, rising from his seat to shake Bradley’s hand. ‘Place looks good.’
‘Thanks,’ Brad took his hand, shaking it just that bit too eagerly as his smile changed to real warmth. He turned to Amber when the two men pulled back. ‘Amber, you look great.’
She saw Tyler stiffen, just for a second, but didn’t let on. She did, however, pull the tea lights in the centre of the table further away from him as she held out her arms.
‘Thanks Bradley, come here.’
He faltered for a second or two, looking sideways at Tyler as if he might rugby tackle him to the ground, but then his arms came around her.
She patted him on the back before pulling away. ‘The eatery looks amazing, and the food smells great.’
‘Bit too much garlic, maybe,’ Tyler muttered but he was laughing when they looked his way. ‘No, seriously man, it’s looking good.’
Bradley didn’t preen like he usually did at the praise, but he chatted for a while before moving onto the other diners. He had no wedding date pencilled in yet, but Amber was pleased for them. Bradley’s face when he spoke about his fiancée was lit up. They’d worked through their issues. After his future father-in-law had stopped trying to murder him, of course. Ruth was a very forgiving woman, it seemed. A woman after her own heart. Ruth might have started out as a way to get his investment, but, after the engagement fiasco, she’d been hurt. Bradley had finally realised what he was doing and, when he saw his intended so hurt by his actions, it had changed him. She’d seen them together, the way he looked at her. The same way Tyler looked at her, which just made her feel happy to see. Like everything had finally been corrected in the universe. The stars had aligned, even for Sharon – who was the one least swept up by romantic notions.
As they tucked into their food, Tyler’s foot searching for hers under the table, his hand reaching for hers over the tablecloth, Amber looked around at the other diners.
‘It’s so nice,’ she breathed.
Tyler paused, his fork halfway to his gorgeous mouth. ‘I would have added more seasoning.’ He shrugged. ‘But, yeah, it’s pretty good.’ He winked at her when she gave him a look. ‘You didn’t mean the food.’ As ever, he knew what was going on in her head. ‘Tell me,’ he pushed, running his fingers along the back of her hand. She wondered whether her skin would always prickle from his touch. Whether she would still feel this in a decade. She didn’t think it would ever wane.
‘This,’ she told him, her eyes scanning the other diners as they tucked into their food, clinked glasses together, laughing at their companions’ words. ‘It’s nice to be part of it. Not on the sidelines, looking in. Even at work now, I feel for the first time in my life that I’m really part of it. Front and centre. Living it.’ When she turned to meet his eye, he was already watching her. A contented smile, her favourite look. Only for her. ‘Do you know what I mean?’
‘You were always front and centre, Cherry.’ His hand kept up its caress. ‘You just needed to step up and claim your spotlight.’ His face flashed surprise when her smile broke free. ‘God, you’re beautiful. I think you might finally have peaked, and I’ve seen everything, and then you look at me, and it’s like I’ve seen nothing before it.’
‘I’ve got my dreams.’ She laughed, her whole body warming from his words until she felt like she might be the pyre. Flaming, burning. ‘As long as you’re right up there with me.’
‘Forever, Cherry.’ He nodded to her plate. ‘Now eat up.’ His smile turned wolfish. ‘I have plans for you later.’
She picked up her fork.
‘Bring it on, lumberjack.’