Epilogue
XANDER
“Xander,” the officiant, Reverend Kareem Holden, said to Xander with a grin. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Xander nodded his understanding, his eyes returning to Rylee.
The two stood out in their backyard in Greene Gardens beneath a beautiful arching arbor formed by red and white roses. He held her hand in his, his grip tight but loving.
She stood on sparkling silver heels wearing a cream A-line dress that highlighted her curves and accentuated her shoulders in lace sleeves. Her hair, styled by her mother, was cornrowed in the front, her long curls loose and flowing along her shoulders.
Xander had found it hard to keep his eyes off her since she made it down the aisle to him.
It was their wedding day… one Xander imagined the moment he slid that diamond ring onto her finger, now winking in the late afternoon sun.
“Rylee,” he started, needing to clear his throat to clear it of the heavy emotions that weighed it down.
“Not long ago, we moved into this house and I thought that the moment was our version of complete. But it’s here, right now, standing in front of you that feels more like the perfect completion and a beginning I can’t wait to be fully inside of. ”
They’d only given themselves six months to plan.
It was after a night out in Manhattan with no kids and hours to enjoy alone, just the two of them.
They had just hit up their favorite taco truck and were making their way down the city blocks, headed for Xander’s truck, when Rylee blurted, “Let’s just get married later this year. ”
The two had been going back and forth with ideas on the idea of a small versus big wedding. Neither of them wanted the fanfare. They wanted something simple. An event where they could invite only the people they loved and truly knew.
Xander threw an arm over Rylee’s shoulder and asked, “What venue could we find that we wouldn’t have to book a year in advance, Snoop?”
She smiled up at him, her beautiful eyes sparkling, making him smile back. “The backyard.”
That night, when they returned home, the two toasted to the decision with sparkling ginger ale in champagne glasses—since Rylee was nursing—and got to work planning the small event they now stood in the center of.
“The way you came into my world and turned it upside down in the best way.” He shook his head, smiling, eyes only on her. “Only you could do that, baby. Only you could make the man who never thought past what the day offered, open himself to a world so big, so full of love and light.”
Rylee’s smile grew grand, revealing a toothy grin.
“You, Nova, LJ, and Junior,” Xander continued, his eyes moving to his other favorite people.
“Y’all gave me purpose. Something to look forward to.
Something to love outside of myself, but that I quickly considered an extension of me.
Y’all are my family, my heart. And you, Rylee?
” He swallowed back the tears welling in his eyes.
“You’re one of the greatest things to ever happen to me.
Only second to our boy who wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you…
so I guess that moves you up in rank to becoming the greatest. Congrats. ”
Everyone expressed humor around them, including Rylee.
“From the moment I stepped into your world, I felt it…” He nodded. “You were home for me. And that’s when everything became clear… I’d be good anywhere, as long as I’m with you.”
Though they’d done well with making the Greene Gardens house a safe haven they all looked forward to coming back to, it was at the insistence of Xander to keep the brownstone and not sell.
“It’ll be cool for us to go there when we want to get away from perfect.” He grinned. “Have a vacation in Brooklyn.”
Though they all still saw Brooklyn throughout the week—Xander still worked at the firehouse in Park Slope and the kids were still enrolled in their schools in Brooklyn Heights—their time was limited in their home city.
So, Xander reasoned the brownstone could be their escape whenever Rylee and the kids became homesick.
“Rylee, I promise to be the calm when life gets chaotic.” He held her hand tighter, nodding to seal his words.
Xander’s eyes darted between Rylee’s, his heart full, his pulse steady.
None of this made him nervous. Not the uncertainty of the future. Not the feeling that he could never be enough for her.
The journey they’d been on was proof enough that their life together was fated. And her life before him was destined because of that.
“I promise to honor your story,” he continued. “Even the chapters I didn’t write.”
Rylee closed her eyes, sniffed back tears.
Xander pressed a hand to her cheek and felt warmth rush through him when she leaned into his touch, resting her head in his hand.
“I vow to kiss you slow,” he added, caressing her skin. “And fold the laundry fast because I know you run a tight ship around here, and you mad strict mama. But I respect it.”
Rylee snorted, playfully tapping his chest. As expected, their family and friends joined in with a laugh of their own.
“Most of all, I promise to raise our kids like they’re my heartbeat.”
He threw a glance at Nova and LJ, then at Junior, who sat on the lap of Xander’s smiling mother. “Because they are.”
When he looked in that direction, he caught sight of the empty chair beside The Walkers—the one that bore their son, Lennox’s name on a card propped up on the cushion.
Xander smiled at it with acknowledgment, respect, and understanding. Finally.
Life for Xander had been one he hadn’t expected or really planned for. And it was that—that unpredictability—that made him excited to live it these days.
He had the woman. The great kids. The career and the friends to boost.
Life was officially great… and for him, he was just getting warmed up.
“I vow to keep choosing you, Snoop,” he recited, refocusing on her and giving her a wink. “Even on the hard days, the quiet days, and the days when choosing means learning how to love you better.”
Xander pinched her chin, running his thumb lovingly down the center.
“I may not be your first chapter… but I plan on being your favorite one.”
RYLEE
“Rylee,” Reverend Holden said, smiling and nodding toward her. “Your go.”
Rylee snickered, moving her attention off the reverend and over to her soon-to-be husband, Xander, who stood before her dressed in the finest cream tuxedo. The top button of his dress shirt was undone. He was the finest husband she ever did see.
A husband.
The idea sent a charge through her that settled in her heart and made her force in a breath to keep the tears in.
Her friends Nadia and Parker had helped with her makeup, insisting they had to do something since Rylee refused to have bridesmaids. According to her, she was not going to piss either one of them off by not making them maid of honor.
In her bedroom, they took turns making their friend up, both Nadia and Parker dabbing at their eyes and smiling from the application of primer to the spritz of finishing spray.
“You’ve given me hope, friend,” Parker said. “I may need to stop mean-mugging these fools who approach me and give them a shot. See something for a little.”
“For real,” Nadia added, taking a seat on Rylee’s bed and staring at her in awe. “Maybe I might keep my profile up on HeartMates—”
“Delete it,” both Rylee and Parker instructed, turning to each other and laughing.
“Aht!” Nadia said over their humor. “Not y’all dogging the company I still work for! You know what, fuck y’all.”
Rylee fell back in her chair, laughing even harder.
It was the laughter Rylee needed before one of the biggest steps of her life.
She’d been taking a lot of big steps in her life. Moving out of the brownstone and now getting married. And each phase had felt like smooth sailing, because the decision was intentional, and now… she was open to it all, with wide open arms.
“Xander,” Rylee started, tilting her head back to meet his eyes. “When I tell you I never thought I’d get here… that’s an understatement. But I’ve come to learn whenever you’re involved, you make the impossible possible.”
Xander licked his lips, the corners pulled up into a smile.
“You met me at a time when I was still so sad,” she voiced, her bottom lip quivering. “I’d experienced a loss that broke me in a way I never knew was possible.”
Rylee glanced over at the chair that was open beside a smiling Ivy and Cyrus Walker, her eyes settling on the card with Lennox’s name scripted, her heart swelling at the sight of it.
She knew if he were there, sitting in that chair, his smile would be so big.
You finally got it right, Ry, she could hear Lennox saying in her ear. And that brought a smile to her face.
“Through you, I’ve learned that grief doesn’t vanish. It just… softens. And it only softens when you’ve found a soft place to land.”
Rylee squeezed Xander’s hand and sniffed back her tears.
“Xander, you are my soft place. From the day we met outside your mother’s daycare, you have always been my soft place. And I can only pray I can be that for you too.”
When she suggested they just get married in their backyard, she shocked herself. Rylee had always wanted marriage, and the end of her engagement years ago could have ruined that hope for her… which she believed it did.
But she learned that the right person will make you change your mind about decisions you thought were set in stone.
She also learned that the right person could make her want to stop trying to carry Lennox in her arms… and start learning how to carry him in her heart.
“Before you, I didn’t know if I’d get here… standing in front of someone again with this much love in my heart, and this much excitement for the future. Our future.”
She watched Xander’s eyes water, him twisting his lips from left to right to keep the tears in.
“I love you so much that saying it to you every time charges me in a way that just agrees with every part of me.”
Xander moved his eyes off her and turned a little to swipe a hand down his face.