Epilogue
One Year Later
Duffy
“Are you ready, Ms. Distefano?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding and getting out of the green room chair. “I’m ready.”
I followed the intern, shaking out my nervous hands while hoping I wouldn’t fall down or pass out. Even though I’d done this before, I was still crazy-nervous to be in front of a studio audience.
We stopped at the edge of the curtain and waited, and as soon as Kel said, “Please welcome Duffy Distefano,” the intern gestured for me to move and I was walking out onto the stage.
“Welcome back, Duffy,” Kel said with her blindingly white grin as I sat down. “You’ve kind of had a lot going on since the last time you were here.”
“You could definitely say that,” I said, reminding myself to smile while I tried to pretend everyone in the studio audience wasn’t looking at me.
“Well, we want to hear all about it,” Kell said, his bright grin matching that of his cohost wife’s. “But first, we’re going to bring out another guest so we can discuss it together.”
“How fun,” I said perkily, unfazed because Connor told me they’d invited him and we’d actually ridden to the station together.
I definitely wasn’t getting surprised this time.
“Friends, can we give it up for Tony Distefano?”
My mouth dropped wide open—I caught a glimpse of it on one of the many monitors mounted around the studio—as the crowd went wild and my dad ran out onto the stage. He was wearing his favorite Coyotes jersey and grinning as he jogged out like some celebrity.
“Dad? What are you doing here?” I asked, shocked as hell to see him.
“The Kells said you couldn’t come back without me,” he said, plopping down in the stool beside me. “And who am I to argue with them?”
Everyone laughed at that, like he was the most charming man on the planet, and they probably weren’t wrong. I mean, he’d always been my favorite human, but my appreciation for him had grown exponentially since the lung transplant.
Things had quickly gone south with his health last year, and there had been a lot of days where we didn’t think we were going to get a happy ending, but then—praise God—a donor showed up.
Looking at my dad now, you’d never imagine how bad it’d been because he was a freak of nature and was now thriving at a ridiculous level.
He looked ten years younger.
He walked to work on nice days.
He’d become a “cat foster,” which meant at any given time he had a plethora of cats wreaking havoc in his house.
Which was partly why I was back with the Kells.
“I can’t believe you didn’t mention you were coming,” I said, and he just smiled and shrugged.
“So Duffy,” Kel said, clasping his hands together. “You’ve gone viral yet again, but this time it’s for a good reason. Instead of bullying coyotes, you’ve moved on to saving kittens. Why don’t you tell us what happened on that fateful night?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t say I’ve ever ‘bullied’ coyotes, Kel,” I clarified, because the comment definitely felt like shade, right? “If you remember, Carl was the one who inappropriately touched me—”
“Yes, of course,” he said with a quick nod, and I swear to God the man rolled his eyes.
What. A. Jerk.
“Who cares about Carl anyway?” my dad said with a scoff, obviously trying to keep me out of trouble but still on my side. “That guy, right?”
But I wasn’t finished.
I added emphatically, “And multiple other women—”
“And got what he deserved, that punk,” Dad said, patting my arm. “But wanna get on with the story, Batman? Give the people what they want.” The audience laughed.
“I told you not to call me that,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “But fine.”
In a shocking twist, I came in last in the fantasy football league I had with my brothers and their friends.
(Only because they’d insisted it was a conflict of interest for me to have my boyfriend as a player, and after bullying me into trading him, he went on to have a record-breaking season, that talented ass.)
As the loser, I’d been required to wear a Batman costume every day for a week. My boss had been cool with it, and I’d gone in to work super early and super late to try to avoid people with eyeballs who weren’t in on the bit, but the public still noticed when Batman was milling about among them.
One night during that week, I stopped by my dad’s house when the carbon monoxide detector was going off. It ended up being because of a furnace issue (he wasn’t home, thank God), but my neighbor’s Ring camera captured fifteen minutes of me evacuating foster kittens.
Foster kittens who scaled Batman’s body, who bit Batman, who caused Batman to trip on the porch and face-plant right into the snow.
I’d been a hero to those asshole cats, saving their lives, but I’d gone viral as #klutzybatman, then twice as viral when I blamed it on Connor for being “so damn good at football that he ruined my life.”
After the Kells finished interviewing me, Connor came out.
“Were you surprised when you saw the footage?” Kel asked him. “Did you recognize the viral Batman as your girlfriend?”
“I wasn’t surprised at all, and of course I did,” he said, giving me the full-wattage smile that’d become my happy place. “Not only did she look good in the suit, but who else but my Duffy could manage to dive headfirst into the snow without dropping the cat?”
I rolled my eyes, but it was impossible not to laugh. “Someone’s jealous of my ball control after their drop against the Eagles.”
“That was overthrown and not a cat, Distefano.”
“I was on ice and saving feline lives, Cunningham.”
“There,” my dad said to Connor, nodding vigorously. “There’s the opening. Go.”
“What? Tony,” Connor said quietly, looking a little uncomfortable. “I don’t think—”
“Come on.” My dad lowered his voice, but everyone could still hear him. “Just say something like ‘Speaking of last names’—”
“Dad,” I interrupted, not sure what was happening but very sure I wanted him to shut up. “I’m sure Connor doesn’t need your help with…anything. Let the man be.”
“Well, I was going to do this in the green room afterward,” Connor said, giving my dad a pointed look. “Because on-camera seems a little heavy-handed, but my boy Tony here—”
“I like a big romantic gesture,” my dad said with a smile, utterly unapologetic. “Remember, I proposed at a tailgate like a true gentleman.”
The audience let out a collective gasp at the word “proposed,” and I was right there with them, my mouth dropping wordlessly.
Connor turned his eyes to me, his beautiful, blue, always-smiling eyes, and gave his head a shake. “You told me your dad couldn’t keep a secret and I didn’t listen.”
“See?” I said, my voice coming out as a croak. “He’s a sieve.”
I watched as Connor reached into the front pocket of his pants and pulled out a ring box.
My heart thudded rapidly against my chest, and I suddenly forgot how to breathe.
“Duffy Distefano, if you can ever forgive me for asking this question in such a public way, will you maybe consider spending the rest of your life with me?”
My hand found its way to my mouth and the tears pooling in my eyes blurred his face from my vision. “I will absolutely maybe consider it.”
“What the hell kind of answer is that, Duff?” my dad said with a scowl.
“The only kind of answer I’d ever want,” Connor replied, eyes still on me as he opened the box. “Total Duffycore.”
I wiped my eyes and my heart felt like it might burst when I recognized the ring. “But—but it’s your grandma’s.”
“I know, without a doubt, that he’d want you to have it,” he said, his throat moving around a big swallow. “His cookie girl.”
We FaceTimed his grandpa every day, and even though things were getting progressively worse with his memory, there was one morning last year where Connor’s grandpa randomly called me “cookie girl,” a tiny spark of recognition that made both of us cry happy tears.
“Give the man a real answer, for the love of God, Duff,” my dad demanded.
That prompted the audience to start clapping and cheering.
I looked at the giant I loved, with his 9.63-inch hands and warm smile, and wondered how it was possible to be so happy.
“Yes, yes, yes, I want to marry you,” I said, laughing as tears blinded me again. “I’ve never wanted anything more. Make me your bride, Connor Cunningham, or lose me forever.”
“Don’t be a wiseass, Duff,” my dad scolded. “He might change his mind.”
Connor took out the ring and slid it onto my finger. “I will never, ever change my mind about Duffy.” He gazed at me so lovingly, it felt like we were the only ones in the room. “With you, it’s forever.”