Epilogue
JADE
Four Years Later
“You just had to wear a Shafer shirt, didn’t you?” I tease Reeve as he pulls open the passenger door of the Bronco for me and smooths down the front of his washed-out red football T-shirt from senior year—practically vintage at this point.
“Hey, I could wear a mask and a garbage bag and I’d still be begged for autographs all night long, babe.” He takes my hand to help me out of the car, wraps his arm around me, and we set off through a blanket of orange and yellow leaves toward the grounds of the Forty-Second Annual Shafer Carnival.
Nothing has changed in the years since we first came here together.
Rainbow lights illuminate the night, the scent of spun sugar hangs in the air, and children shout and laugh as they weave in and out of the crowd.
It’s sensory overload, but a nostalgic bit of comfort among the ever-changing chaos of our daily lives.
Reeve’s been New York’s starting quarterback since his first season, and judging by his perpetual smile, he’s loved every minute of living out his dream—including buying his first home not in New York or New Jersey but back in Shafer, literally right around the corner from Minnie Forrester.
It’s a beautiful house with a sprawling yard, a house he used to drive by every day back in high school and dream of owning, and even if he only gets to sleep there a few weeks a year, he considers it his true home.
It’s taken me a little longer to settle into a career, but I wouldn’t trade the changes of these last few years for anything.
My summer program in Spain ended up being everything I needed it to be: a chance to get out of my own head, to escape the Shafer bubble and meet new faces, to prove to myself I could be alone—even lonely—and still love my life, and to learn that changing my plans for love didn’t mean losing myself.
Oh, and to discover that coming home to Reeve after spending three months halfway across the world felt like the best decision I’ve ever made.
I spent my first year after Spain living in my crappy New Jersey apartment and working as a mental health technician at an inpatient psychiatric hospital before starting a master’s program in psychology, which I’ll graduate from next spring.
Last year Reeve and I moved in together, choosing a condo in New Jersey with a beautiful view of Manhattan across the water and plenty of extra room to accommodate our friends’ visits.
“So I think we should basically re-create our first time here together,” Reeve says as we stroll between the carnival booths. “Funnel cake, me winning you the best prize at the entire carnival, you being in complete awe of my studliness and totally desperate to take me home and get naked for me.”
“This wouldn’t be your superstitious side coming out, would it?”
“There was some magic in the air that night, don’t you think? And look where it got us.”
“Life is pretty damn good. Of course . . . if you want to re-create that night, you’ll have to accept being humiliated by my dart-throwing skills all over again. Is it worth it?”
He takes a deep breath like he’s weighing a difficult decision. “For another five perfect years with you? Anything.”
We share a funnel cake as we walk the grounds. As promised, Reeve agrees to balloon darts and, as expected, I kick his ass. Then we find the milk bottle toss booth and, just like that first night, he sends them crashing.
I clap. “Looks like we’re three for three on re-creating the magic.”
“That’s right. Which means it’s time for your prize, babe,” he says with a smile. “I’ll take that one,” Reeve tells the carnival worker, pointing to a row of neon animals suspended from the tent ceiling.
I laugh in disbelief when Reeve holds up the plush toy the man just handed him. “No way. It looks exactly like Jeeve! They really haven’t changed a thing here, have they?”
But Reeve simply holds on to his quiet smile and looks back at me, his eyes so full of anticipation they make my heart skip a beat.
Something’s happening. Does he know what I planned to tell him tonight?
“It is Jeeve,” he says, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
He grasps the stuffed animal with both hands like it’s worth everything to him, but never breaks my gaze.
I look quizzically between him and the animal. How in the world could that be? But he’s right—the penguin is missing a patch of fur on its belly and its neon pink is sun faded and—
“Oh my god.” I gasp as I see it—a giant pink diamond ring sewn with a single stitch just under the animal’s pink wing. I glance at the guy operating the game to find he’s retreated to the back corner of the booth, watching us with a small smile.
Tears well in my eyes as understanding dawns on me. With a flick of his wrist, Reeve breaks the stitch holding the ring in place, sets Jeeve aside, and lowers himself to one knee.
“I never told you that the night you brought me here to this carnival changed everything for me,” he says, taking my hand.
“When I look back at my life, there’s before that night and there’s after.
There’s life where you were out of reach for a man like me, where I was alone, where all I had was a sport that could never need me the way I needed it.
And then there was life where you saw me and you didn’t look away, a life where I knew if I had you, I wouldn’t need anything else.
And I never have—I’ve never needed anything except you, Jade. ”
I take a deep, steadying breath as warm tears run down my cheeks, threatening to blur the sight of the most beautiful person I know saying the most beautiful words I could imagine.
“And I won’t need anything ever again if I hear you say yes tonight.” He slides the sparkling ring onto my finger and looks up at me. “So will you marry me?”
I can barely choke out a yes before I start crying full force. Reeve grins and stands to pull me into a hug, lifting me off the ground and wrapping my legs around him.
“Was that too long of a proposal? I wanted to keep going because it sounded even better out loud than it did in my head, but I was starting to get lightheaded.”
I laugh, which only makes tears come harder, my emotions engulfing me.
Reeve lowers me to the ground and takes my face in his hands, his smile replaced by concern. “Fuck,” he says softly. “Did I just screw up? I didn’t know if a public proposal was everyone’s worst nightmare but mine, but I figured—”
I force myself to swallow the tears and give him the smile that’s hiding underneath. “It was perfect, Reeve. Absolutely perfect.”
“Then why are you sobbing uncontrollably, baby?”
“I’m happy,” I tell him, which is true but not the answer to the question. “Now let’s walk around. I need to get a little air and stare at the most beautiful piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Reeve buys me a bottle of water and guides me to a quieter corner of the carnival grounds, where we sit at a picnic table as I pull myself together.
I knew this night would change our lives, but I had no idea this was his plan.
There’s so much happiness inside me I feel drunk.
I glance down at Jeeve in my arms, remembering the plan I’d had for this night with this stuffed animal, smiling at the way Reeve’s mind works so much like mine sometimes.
Then I hold my hand out and stare in disbelief at the beauty on my finger.
“I took a risk with the pink diamond,” Reeve says.
“But the second I saw that color, it reminded me of your hair the first time I saw you. If you don’t want it, I’ll get you another color.
Or I’ll get you every color. I’ll get you anything you want, Jade.
For the rest of my life, I won’t quit until I’ve given you everything you want. ”
He doesn’t know he already has. “I love it more than I ever thought I could love an inanimate object.” I lean against him, letting the familiar strength of his body soothe me.
As my emotions settle down, determination takes over.
“You know, there is one more thing I want from you tonight. Ride the Ferris wheel with me?”
He runs a hand through his hair. “Shit. When I said let’s re-create our night, I was hoping you’d forgotten that part.”
“Forget watching the great and powerful Reeve Dalton quake in his boots at the sight of a carnival ride? Never.”
“It would have been so much more romantic if you’d said that kiss was the part you’d never forget.”
I kiss his soft lips. “That too.”
“Ferris wheel, huh?” He looks up at the hulking ride behind me. “Okay, but only if you promise to make it worth my while like you did last time.”
“Oh, I promise.”
The sky is dark by the time we climb into our little pod. Reeve seems slightly less nervous than he did the last time we were here, but he still holds my hand tight as the wheel begins to move. I think I’m the more nervous one tonight.
“So tell the truth,” Reeve says as our pod lifts higher into the air. “Did I really surprise you down there? Because I know you’re a damn fine actress.”
“I am and you did. It was a beautiful proposal, Reeve.” I squeeze his hand. “The funny thing is, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, because I had a little plan of my own here tonight.”
“A little plan, huh?” He gets a wicked look in his eyes.
I take a deep breath and turn to him slowly so I don’t rock the car, the very same way I did that night years ago. “When you told me you wanted to come to the carnival, I had an idea. Actually, that’s why I was in the attic for an hour last night—I was looking for Jeeve.”
“For Jeeve?”
“Against all odds, this hideous creature has witnessed our biggest moments together right from the start.”
“Oh, yeah? Exactly which big moment did you plan on Jeeve witnessing tonight?”
I take his hand. “Remember the night you won him for me? You joked that this is what it feels like to become a father.”
“I remember.”
“Well, it wasn’t. But this is.” I drape his hand over my belly and cover it with my own, watching as his blue eyes move from my face to our hands and back again.
His chest rises and falls as he stares at me. “Jade,” he whispers, a burning question locked tight inside one soft word.
I nod. “I’m pregnant.”
His face transforms, the hope in his eyes giving way to elation as he smiles the widest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen.
“Holy shit,” he whispers with a soft laugh.
Then he drops his head back and whoops, the howl loud and deep and joyful enough to be heard across the carnival and halfway across town to campus.
“Holy shit!” he yells and turns for me, rocking the pod as he drapes both hands reverently over my belly.
It rocks again as he bends his head to kiss my stomach, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Easy there, Daddy. Whatever happened to your fear of heights?”
He straightens up to kiss my lips. “Gone,” he says. “Just like that. No room in here for fear.”
I laugh, his joy chasing away all the apprehension about our changing lives and replacing it with pure happiness. “Just like that? Doesn’t impending fatherhood unlock a new fear in every man?”
“Not me. You know how it’s always been with us. No rules, baby. Nothing to fear.”
THE END