Epilogue
HAZEL
I stood at the start of the aisle, heart pounding.
We hadn’t sent out invites or booked a venue. We hadn’t even told anyone.
The plan was to say our vows quietly, just us, at the riverbank. Right where our whole ridiculous, amazing love story had restarted when I got stung by a wasp, crashed into the river, and fell right back into Tucker Colburn’s life.
Full circle. Neat. Simple. Private.
Except nothing in the Colburn orbit stays quiet. Not for long anyway.
Somehow Emma, Penny, and Kiera caught on.
And butted in.
Which meant that within the hour, the entire town had gotten involved.
By the time I finished getting ready—simple sundress, hair wrangled into loose waves with a wildflower or three tucked in, thanks to the twins, my bouquet picked from Kiera’s garden, also by the twins—the riverbank looked like a low-budget Pinterest wedding planned by a committee of feral woodland creatures.
Folding chairs. Lawn chairs. Coolers. Fairy lights tangled through trees. And one slightly crooked flower arch that looked suspiciously like it’d been liberated from the hardware store’s spring display.
Kiera had ordained herself online. The twins clutched handfuls of wildflowers and chucked them like glitter grenades. My dad, at my side, already had tears in his eyes. Hank sat at the front, probably unaware we were getting married but absolutely loving the vibe.
Caleb and Ryder stood behind Tucker beneath the flower arch, which brushed the top of Tucker’s head. His hair was still damp—he’d showered and changed at the firehouse locker room not ten minutes ago—and he wore a button-down shirt rolled to the elbows and charcoal pants that fit him like sin.
His expression was calm and steady, like he’d never had a single doubt that we’d end up right here.
And he was all mine.
Emma, Kiera, and Penny walked ahead of me—well, Penny waddled, radiant and due to give birth any second.
Abi and Alex hurled petals into the air like they were trying to start a confetti war.
Music drifted from someone’s Bluetooth speaker—not classical, but Ryder’s “Bangers of the Early Aughts” playlist.
The crowd was beaming with excitement. Like they were happy for us, for me. Happy I’d finally stopped running. Happy I’d stayed.
“Ready?” my dad asked, voice thick with emotion.
“So ready.” Happy didn’t begin to describe all I was feeling, but in that moment, all I saw was Tucker. Waiting for me at the other end of the makeshift aisle with that quiet, crooked smile that said I was his favorite part of every day.
Tucker
Music floated from a speaker—Ryder’s 2014 playlist, of course. But Hazel was walking toward me, barefoot in the grass with a wild grin that had a grip on my heart. My chest felt too full to hold it all in as she made her way down the aisle on her dad’s arm.
And then he was kissing her on the cheek and setting her hand in mine.
We grinned like fools at each other. “You came,” I said inanely.
She shrugged. “Heard there’d be cake.”
Everyone laughed, and God, I loved her. And I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than that. I wanted to scoop her up and take her far, far away, where no one could find us for a week.
Make that a month.
Instead, I smiled in marvel that this woman wanted to hitch her life to mine. “You’re stunning,” I said, voice husky with emotion.
“You too.” She went up on her tiptoes to kiss me—
“Don’t you dare!” Kiera exclaimed. “I spent all night practicing the right way to do this!” Primly, she opened a little leather notebook. “Dearly beloved,” she began, “we are gathered here today to witness what, frankly, most of us have been waiting decades to see. Decades, people.”
“So maybe we should get to it,” I said, giving her a look.
The ceremony was short and more than a little chaotic, which is to say it was perfect.
“Okay, now you may now kiss your bride,” Kiera said through tears and a bright smile. “But please don’t make it weird. We’re all watching.”
My brothers looked emotional as well. They wanted this for me, almost as much as I did. We’d all been through so much, and to come out on the other side made me feel grateful beyond words.
We kissed again when the twins demanded an encore.
Hazel was glowing with happiness, somehow still looking like the same girl who’d once talked me into skinny-dipping during a thunderstorm.
I could still hardly believe it, and hell, I didn’t deserve it, but I was keeping her all the same. I was so thoroughly hers, I couldn’t imagine a life without her.
The music kicked on, and we danced barefoot right there on the grass, wrapped up in each other, with the river whispering behind us and the stars flickering overhead.
Ryder and Penny—her belly like a beach ball between them—danced with us, along with Kiera and Miguel, and Emma and Caleb—whose idea of dancing was swaying his hips with one arm straight up in the air—surrounded by our ridiculous, meddling, wouldn’t-change-them-for-the-world people.
Hazel frowned. “Is Caleb having a stroke?”
“That’s his idea of dancing.”
“More like flailing,” Emma said, grinning at Caleb.
“Hey, it’s interpretive,” Caleb informed us, spinning in a circle, still with that hand in the air like he was swatting bees.
Kiera and Miguel were making out behind a tree, subtlety clearly not part of their skill set.
“Think we could sneak away without anyone noticing?” Hazel asked, waggling her eyebrows.
I kissed her. “Say the word, and I’ll follow you anywhere.”
“Even into a fire?” she teased, soft against my chest.
“Been there, done that.” And thankfully that horrific night was way, way, way in our past. Bill had been given leniency, sentenced to community service, though he was still paying restitution, because that would take a while. “Anywhere,” I promised, and Hazel now knew I meant that literally.
I scooped her up and threw her over my shoulder, heading up the hill to my truck.
She was squealing with laughter. “What are you doing?”
“Guess.”
“Hey,” Ryder called after us. “That’s kidnapping.”
“Leave them alone,” Penny said, rubbing her belly. “They’re in a hurry to get to their private celebration.”
“They’ve been ‘celebrating’ for months,” Caleb said.
“It’s true,” Penny said, then froze. “Uh-oh.”
“Stop,” Hazel said. I did.
We both turned to stare at Penny.
“Pen?” Ryder asked, brow furrowed. “You okay—”
“Oh!” She gasped and clutched her belly.
Ryder’s eyes bugged out. “Now? It’s happening right now?”
Penny straightened and let out a breath. “Sorry, no, it’s just heartburn. From the third brownie.”
Ryder clasped a hand to his heart. “Okay. Okay. We’re okay.”
Penny laughed and hugged him. “We’re all okay.”
“Good,” I said. I was still holding Hazel and didn’t plan to let go.
“Tucker,” she said softly, “I need you to let me down.”
“But—”
She made a strangled sort of sound. “Hurry.”
Worried at her tone, I immediately complied. “What is it?”
She gripped my arm. “I maybe need to throw up.” Letting go of me, she dropped to her knees, pale, so pale that she was almost green.
I crouched before her. “What’s wrong? Did you eat three brownies too?”
“No.” She inhaled carefully, exhaled even more carefully. “I took a test.” She paused. “The kind where you pee on a stick.”
Penny, still holding her belly, squealed. “Oh my God! You’re pregnant too!”
I…was stunned.
Around me, my brothers whooped, and Penny, Kiera, and Emma—laughing and crying—crowded around me and Hazel, then snatched us into a group hug in the grass.
Hazel is pregnant.
As it sank in, I disentangled my bride from everyone and gently rocked her to me before tilting her face to mine. “We’re having a baby?”
“We’re having a baby,” she whispered, cupping my face. “And yes, I’m just as shocked as you are. I cried for only fifteen minutes and googled it twenty-seven times. I’m not even sure how this happened—” She grinned. “Well, I know how it happened, but I was on the pill—”
“You were also on antibiotics when you caught that nasty cold,” Kiera reminded her. “Everyone knows you can’t expect your pill to work when you’re on antibiotics.”
“Not everyone,” Hazel said, still staring up at me. “You okay with this?”
I could barely speak. “I’m a whole lot more than okay.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “You’re astonishing.” I smiled. “We’re really going to do this.”
She grinned. “Yeah, we are.”
I kissed her. “I love you, Hazel, so fucking much, it hurts.”
“I love you too—”
To our left, Penny gasped and clutched her belly again.
“Okay, no. That’s not the three brownies,” Ryder said, scooping his wife in his arms. “It’s labor.”
We all raced for our cars to get to the hospital, leaving the town to enjoy our wedding reception without us.
Hazel and I arrived last because I had to stop for Hazel to throw up in a bush.
Twice.
Then, like a miracle, she perked up, got her color back, and grinned at me. “He’s already giving us trouble.”
I reached over and rubbed her still-flat stomach. “Or she is. We’ll arm-wrestle for naming rights.” I buckled her in and brushed a kiss to her sweaty temple. “Let’s get you checked out while we’re there with Penny.”
Her gaze softened. “I’m okay.” She pressed her hand over mine on her stomach. “We’re both okay.”
We pulled into the hospital, and I turned to her. “Have I told you that loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done?”
She laughed. “Liar.”
I grinned. “Okay, so maybe easy isn’t quite the right word, but…” I flashed her a smile. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do—be with you and have a family.”
We’d come so far, and by some miracle, we’d ended up exactly where I’d once been afraid to even hope for.
They say second chances don’t come around often.
But maybe they do. Maybe you just have to fight for them.
Love isn’t the prize at the end. It’s the whole damn story, and we were just getting started. “And if our kid turns out half as stubborn as their mama…” I grinned at her. “We’re totally screwed.”