Epilogue
Evening, Avocado Avenue, a gathering around Alphonse de Picnic Table at Justin and Hugh’s place
We don’t all need to sit around this table, Justin.” They’d been back for a week, and Justin was hosting an Azores-inspired dinner for the family. He was treating this party as a bigger emergency than anything that had happened in the Azores.
“There aren’t enough matching chairs!” He exhaled dramatically and clutched his pearls. He was wearing his version of a casual afternoon BBQ ensemble with about ten layered necklaces from local estate sales.
“It’s fine.” Gabby was wearing her refined loungewear from Inner-G.
“What am I supposed to do, bring in a folding plastic table with folding plastic chairs to accommodate overflow?” He shut his eyes at the imagined horror. “I’m a party planner.”
“An overflow table sounds reasonable.” A kids’ table was always a great idea.
“It is the most unreasonable thing I’ve heard.” He held a hand in the air as if he needed a shield from the plastic table acceptance energy Gabby was bringing. “I bought this table to elevate my dining experience, so that’s what it’s going to do. There are just too many of you.”
Gabby laughed. He was preaching to the choir on that topic. “Well, who do you want me to cut?”
He popped a hip out and angled his head. “Do you want to go there? I have suggestions.”
It was too late anyway. The kids, and Granny, and Burt filtered into Justin’s backyard, all talking at once. Mr. Bubbles ran to Gabby and started jumping like she’d been trying to teach him not to for his entire life. He was just too cute for rules.
“Uncle Justin? Can I play in the pool?” Lucas was already running toward the deep end.
“Just don’t splash anything,” Justin said.
Gabby raised an eyebrow. Had he met Lucas? “Thank god you didn’t have kids,” she said with a laugh.
“Actually, Hugh and I haven’t decided yet. He brought it up on the plane ride home.”
“You’re kidding.” Justin and Hugh were both well above forty and just now thinking about it? Gabby sighed. Oh, to be a man.
“We had such a nice trip, and we got to thinking.” With a glance to Lucas, Justin said, “You know I love the kids. Even though they’re so sticky and loud.”
“You’re serious?” She couldn’t believe it.
“Look at what you have, Gabs. You might be drowning, but you’re drowning in love.”
Cause of death: too much of a good thing. It was better than being taken out by a serial killer, probably.
“Well, they’re yours too, you know. You’ve been with them forever. If you decide to add a family member, I’ll be there for them.”
Justin grimaced like he was really struggling with the thought of expanding his family. “Maybe just a bunny, I don’t know.”
“Or you can stick with taxidermy.” Gabby gestured to his collection. “I still have Tarragon in my closet if you want him back. He’s easier than a kid.”
Elena and Phil had walked across the street together. After meddling with Gabby’s relationships and making a nuisance of herself at the resort, Elena had toned it down. She was overdoing it in the other direction now.
Phil, who had been too drugged to see much of the showdown, had no clue what had happened and happily went along with the story that he was the smart one.
Inner-G actually hadn’t imploded. As far as cults went, it wasn’t too dangerous.
She’d rank it somewhere between SoulCycle and Disney, maybe a mash-up of the two.
It was unclear what the consequences would be.
But Gabby didn’t see any world in which they could keep the resort and stay out of jail due to the contributions from Kim Jong-Un.
As for Power Couple 2, investors besides North Korea were showing renewed interest now that Genesis had been in the news so much.
But in the meantime, he had signed on to play a detective on Will Trent.
Lucas did yet another cannonball into the pool, and an epic splash hosed down Justin, silk shirt and all. Hugh patted Justin on the back and handed him a cocktail.
“Lucas Daniel Taylor!” Gabby yelled and was headed to the pool to remind Lucas to stop acting like he was at an eight-year-old’s birthday party when she felt someone come up behind her.
“Boo,” Markus whispered, his breath tickling her neck.
She turned to face him, all worries forgotten. “Thank god you’re here,” she said, nuzzling his neck and breathing in his scent. He was still wearing the Inner-G cologne. The smell transported Gabby to the Azores, and she suspected it always would. It was their first trip together.
“Thanks for coming.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it.”
She leaned against his chest and shut her eyes for just a moment.
The family had bought the story that they’d joined a cult, run away to get married, and changed their names, and then changed their minds and changed their names back to normal.
As far as the family was concerned, it was just the worst wedding ever.
Hugh said, “Did you see the news today?”
Gabby nodded. “Yep.”
Amanda Duvall’s article had finally run. Gabby figured Naomi had had something to do with that. Naomi was a bit of a wildcard. Last Gabby’d heard, she’d actually moved to Iceland.
Everything was quiet for a blessed second.
“When are you and Markus getting married?” Elena piped up, for the third time that day. Now that she’d accepted Markus, she wanted the party.
While Gabby choked on her blueberry matcha lemonade, because Justin could never serve anything normal, Markus answered, “We’re just going to take it easy for a while.
” Really, he should have said, “Are you crazy?” given that they’d just returned from the last disastrous wedding where Elena had literally flown across the world to break them up.
“If you do, give me some notice,” Burt said. “I’ll break out my dancing shoes. Gotta start getting my stretches in now.”
Justin seated them all around his designer table, which really was too small for ten people.
Gabby hadn’t explained the details of her work at the EOD to Kyle, Granny, Hugh, or Burt, but they all had at least some idea.
Justin, of course, knew she was a spy. Ironically, Elena and Phil, who had done the most spy work in the Azores, had no clue.
The mission’s success owed more than a little to their meddling.
“So if you’re not getting married, what’s going on? Are you together?” Burt asked. The whole group stopped talking, waiting for an answer.
Gabby looked to Markus.
Markus looked to Gabby.
“Of course we are,” he said. “Nothing changed.”
Everyone nodded and kept on doing their thing. Markus was officially old news, not that big of a deal.
He was a big deal to Gabby, though, and potentially to her kids, but… they were also just two people figuring it out. No one was perfect. As long as there were enough seats around the table, or pretty close to enough, and you weren’t out of ketchup, life went on.
But sometimes you made a dumb rule, the work-wife thing, for instance, and you had to strike it. It was okay to make mistakes, to surrender to the chaos around you.
When the party was over, Gabby’s crowd walked down the block to their home. It was Saturday. Kyle was sleeping over at Sierra’s. Lucas was about to pass out.
“Want to spend the night?” Gabby asked Markus. “Like a secret sleepover?”
“Sneak out in the morning like a teenager kind of thing?” Markus asked.
Gabby said, “Let’s do it.”
Markus nodded like she’d just given him a mission assignment. “You’re on, Agent Greene.”
“I really liked the idea of going on a work vacation, but the work really got in the way.”
He smiled knowingly. “Who would have thunk?”
“Work wives is out,” Gabby said. “That was a dumb idea. But what does that make us?”
“Get your butt to the bedroom,” he said, “and you can call me whatever you want.”
“Coffee date?” she teased while walking down the hall.
“I don’t think that’s going to cover it,” he said in a way that sent shivers down Gabby’s spine.
“Boyfriend?” she hazarded.
“If you’re ready for it,” he said, sounding unconvinced. “I’m not scared.”
“How about George?”
“Hell to the no.” At the door to her beautiful bedroom, he said, “How about Gabby and Markus?” She stepped into the bedroom, and he followed.
“Deal.”