Epilogue
JACKSON
Four Months Later
Blackstone, New Hampshire
I pull into the parking lot, which is one big mud pit now that the snow has melted and the ground is thawing, when my phone buzzes with a text.
Nate
I’m running late. I’ll meet you inside.
Even though it’ll probably only be a few minutes until he’s here, I hate that anything is keeping him from me. He’s been gone for the past three months, and I need to see him in the same way I need air to breathe.
After spending New Year’s together, he headed back to Europe to finish the season. I flew over twice to visit him, and I would have liked to have been there for more of his races, but my life has mostly been consumed by this project at Blackstone.
Nate was initially concerned about me giving up my career as a physical therapist to help manage this project.
But it wasn’t even a question in my mind.
Physical therapy was a career—the one I chose when my first love, ski racing, was no longer an option.
But skiing, and Blackstone Mountain, those are my passions.
Getting to help my favorite place on Earth become a better and more sustainable ski resort is one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
And starting today, Nate will be here to do it with me.
We broke ground over a month ago, in early March, and since then the hotel has looked like a steel skeleton rising out of the mud pits of northern New Hampshire.
Every time I traverse the dirt road that will eventually be paved and landscaped and serve as a fitting entrance to the hotel we’re building, I hope to see more progress.
And today, it happened. Our hotel now has exterior walls wrapped in breathable “house wrap” to protect it from the inevitable spring rains.
In the last month alone, I’ve learned more about building codes, structural engineering, roofing materials, and weatherproofing than I ever thought I’d know in a lifetime.
And that’s just for the exterior. I’m excited to move on to the interior once the windows go in, and the plank siding and stone accents go up.
I can’t wait to see our vision become a reality.
I head in through the side entrance where the cubbies are set up with everyone’s labeled hard hats.
I wish I was wearing something sexier for the first time I’m seeing Nate in too long, but the steel toe work boots are a requirement for the job site, and jeans with my long-sleeve fitted T-shirt and down vest help me not stand out like a sore thumb in this construction zone.
I smile to myself at the entirely sheer lingerie I’ve got underneath it, because that’ll be fun to show Nate once I have him to myself.
But first, we need to have the town inspector sign off on the solar panels that were installed on the roof last week, and on the electrical work in the control room where the enormous batteries are stored.
We’re planning on keeping the carbon footprint of this hotel as small as possible, and the solar panels will help.
I can’t wait for Nate to see the progress that’s been made, and for him to be here for all the future rounds of executing our dream.
“Jackson,” our contractor calls from above me where he’s walking on a steel beam twenty feet in the air like it’s the most normal thing in the world. “I’ll meet you in the lobby. Wait till you see what we’ve accomplished in the last two days.”
“The outside was surprise enough! You got more done in here too?”
“Come and see for yourself.” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the lobby, then spins on his heels and starts walking toward the front entrance to the hotel.
I head down a hallway framed out with two-by-fours toward the cavernous two-story space that will one day be our beautiful lobby with a soaring stone fireplace.
As I take the last few steps from the end of the hallway into the vast open area of the lobby, a hush falls over the room.
The music and the rhythmic sound of construction tools—it just fades away as one by one the construction crew stops working and someone lowers the volume on the stereo they normally keep loud enough to hear over the tools.
I’m about to glance up at the second floor balcony that surrounds the lobby on three sides to ask Jim what’s going on, when instead my breath catches in my throat.
In the middle of the two-story space, with light streaming in behind him through what will soon be enormous windows, stands my man.
He’s lit up in the sunlight, his face so smooth and chiseled it’s like Michelangelo might have sculpted it out of stone, and when he sees me a smile practically breaks that exquisitely carved face in half.
My feet carry me across the plywood floors faster than I’ve ever run before, and without even thinking twice about it, I launch myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. “You’re here,” I breathe, my cheek resting against his as I cling to him.
“I’ve missed you too.” He tilts his head to the side, sliding his lips along mine. I pour everything I have—my longing, my fears, my dreams—into that kiss. I don’t tell him how happy I am to finally have him home. I show him.
And that’s when it starts—the kind of catcall whistles that usually precede some guy calling out “get a room.” Remembering that we’re in the middle of a construction zone, I drop my feet to the ground and give him a perfunctory kiss as I pull away.
Nate leans his head down, his voice a growl next to my ear. “How long until we get naked?”
“We just have a couple inspections, then we can head home.”
“Not sure I’ll make it that long,” he says.
The work zone is still unusually quiet, so I glance around to see what’s going on. But oddly, not a single person is facing us. They all look very busy intentionally avoiding us.
I turn back to Nate to ask if he’s noticing this too, but he’s not standing there anymore. My eyes swing lower to where he kneels on one knee, and my gasp is so sudden and so loud that it fills the entire space.
He reaches out and takes my hand in his. “I’ve known I loved you for twelve years, four months, and eleven days. I’ve known I was going to marry you for a decade. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve wanted to ask you.”
I assume he’s talking about Before.
“But I waited because we both needed to be ready to build a life together. At the time, I told myself I was waiting because you weren’t ready.
But really, maybe I wasn’t ready either.
Maybe somehow I knew that we both deserved better than what we were able to give each other back then.
I can’t promise that everything is going to be perfect from here on out.
We’re both too headstrong for that. But I can promise you it’s going to be worth it. ”
I want to say “yes” and launch myself into his arms, but he’s been waiting so long to ask the question that it’s only right I let him get that part out. So instead, I just nod and swallow back all the emotions that are about to come tumbling out of me.
“I want to spend every day of the rest of my life proving to you how much I love you, how worth the wait you’ve been.
I want to watch our dreams grow together, to see our kids grow up in this place we both love so much.
I want to grow old with you, but not too quickly”—he smiles—“because I want to make sure we spend time enjoying every moment along the way.”
There is an actual lump in my throat that I painfully swallow down as my eyes fill with tears and I wonder how in the world I ever tried to convince myself Nate wasn’t the one for me. I’ve known it all along, and can hardly remember why I ever fought these feelings.
He holds out a ring box, flipping the top open. “Jackson, will you marry me?”
I crumple to my knees. The question, I was expecting.
What’s inside that box, it’s left me breathless.
There, looking back at me is a three carat emerald cut diamond with smaller princess cut diamonds all the way around the band.
I’d know that ring anywhere, because his mom wore it on her finger every day.
“Is that . . .?” I trail off, the words unable to rise past that lump that’s back in my throat.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that her last request was that I give you this ring,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.
I reach my hands out and cup his face in mine. “Yes.” I smile. “Yes, I will marry you. And I promise I’ll spend every day making sure that I love you better than I ever have. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Nate, and I can’t wait to live our dreams together.”
I kiss him gently, our lips barely touching, ghosting over one another in a silent promise. Then Nate pulls away and takes my hand, sliding the ring on my finger.
Around us, the room explodes into cheers and we both look up.
The entire balcony is filled with people and now they’re facing us.
As my eyes track across them I recognize each and every face—my parents, Sierra, Petra, and Lauren, Mr. Davenport, Jeff, Marco and Christian, our best friends from high school, my friends from our high school ski team, people from the National Ski Team, people we’ve worked with and become friends with here in Blackstone.
The room isn’t filled with construction workers, it’s filled with everyone who’s known us and loved us since we met.
My head snaps back to Nate. “How did you do this?” The level of coordination this must have taken astounds me.
He stands and pulls me up by my hand, kissing my cheek once I’m back on my feet. “I sent people plane tickets, obviously.” His smirk is so quintessentially Nate that I can’t help but laugh.
“No one else could pull something like this off.” I shake my head in amazement while I soak in the cheering of our friends and family. I’m pretty sure people are shooting off confetti cannons because there is colored paper floating down around us, but I can’t take my eyes off Nate.
“There are no lengths I wouldn’t go to in order to make you happy, Jackson.” He wraps me in his arms and brings his lips to mine, whispering, “This is just the beginning.”
Not ready to see Jackson and Nate’s story end? Get their bonus epilogue so you can see what they’re up to in the future.
THE END