Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Six months later …
“Mel, isn’t Abby’s ring stunning?” Jo Swift glances over her shoulder toward her husband, Mel, Red’s co-owner in the distillery.
“Yeah, yeah, great ring,” he says, his attention on his phone.
Jo rolls her eyes at me. “Don’t be insulted. He’s in the middle of negotiating some big deal with a hotel chain. Keeping his attention on anything other than that phone the last two days has been a piece of work. But as for me,” she continues enthusiastically, “that is absolutely gorgeous.”
“It really is,” I say, feeling deliciously giddy.
“Did Renly pick it out?”
“He did. And it’s perfect.”
He’s a few feet away, talking with Red, and I see Jo’s eyes shift that way, a small smile playing at her mouth. Happiness for me, I assume, and I reach out, gratified when Renly takes my hand without even looking.
“I’m so happy for you both,” she says, and though she looks toward her husband, I don’t see the smile I would expect. On the contrary, it almost seems as if a shadow has fallen over her.
I squeeze Renly’s hand, and he meets my eyes, the love I see reflected there filling the abyss that Jo’s darkness has created inside me.
She gives me a hug, then turns away, pasting on a smile as she heads toward Mel.
“They’re not our role model,” Renly says, whispering in my ear.
I look up, surprised. “What? Who?”
He strokes my hair. “Do you really believe I don’t know what you’re thinking?”
I laugh. “Fair enough. They don’t have a spark at all. I don’t want that to happen to us.”
“It won’t. It can’t.” Gently, he tilts my chin up. “Take another look around.”
I do, taking in all of our friends who’ve come to celebrate our engagement. Nikki and Damien, Ryan and Jamie, Linda and Winston, and so many more from my work, from Renly’s Hollywood jobs, and from Stark Security.
“There’s so much love around us,” he whispers. “But none of that even matters. Because we have enough love between us to last an eternity. We’re going to be great, baby.”
“Going to be?” I say with a quick shake of my head. “Sweetheart, we already are.”