Epilogue
TWO YEARS LATER
For Penny Becker, nothing beat standing in gauzy late spring sunlight with bees in her hands.
Except maybe drinking tea on the porch with Mimi, or planting peppermint with her mom, or lazing in bed with Zander, tracing her fingers over his latest tattoo—a group of honeybees crawling across a comb.
But this was pretty great, too. The morning was crisp, wildflowers spraying color across the field outside the house she’d moved into the year before, the house with the yellow kitchen and the fairy lights still strung up in their bedroom.
After getting the official green light from Winter and deciding on the move from Boston to Sullivan’s Glen, Zander’d returned to Boston to pack up his apartment and help Mallory and Quinn with theirs.
From there, it was remarkably fast—they all were back in town by September, in time for Winter to start middle school in Sullivan’s Glen as Zander prepared to host a wedding on the property in October.
A bee landed gently on Penny’s forearm as she remembered that fall, and the bumps they encountered blending their lives together.
She and Zander had their first blowout fight when he insisted on using the event deposit to pay toward the Becker Farms loan.
Penny would hear nothing of it, ranting at him in the garden about how he couldn’t just sweep in and solve her problems for her.
He argued back that this was what partners did, and that she should let him decide what to do with his own damn money.
The fight had ended quite gloriously in her bed.
Once their tensions were worked out, Zander offered up a proposal: his payment toward the loan would be an investment, not a bailout.
Excited by the planning for the wedding, he’d put together an LLC and begun proper zoning and permit processes, building a business that would last beyond this one event. Winter was given naming rights, so Becker Farms’ neighbor was now known as Honeybee Haven.
“And what is Honeybee Haven,” Zander had asked her, stroking a hand across her hip, “without the honeybees next door? Like it or not, Becker, my future is tied in with yours now, and I need Becker Farms almost as much as you do.”
Eventually, with her mom and Mimi on board, she’d agreed, and entered a partnership—a business one, on paper, vetted by local contacts who knew about these things—between Becker Farms and Honeybee Haven.
With a substantial payment toward the loan, she was then able to refinance to a more manageable payback timeline.
And the wedding had been stunning—a chuppah set up in the grass with the changing leaves behind them, with tables and a dance floor under tents nearby.
RJ practiced cakes for a full month before, delighting everyone in town with free samples.
Quinn and Mallory’s wedding—a small affair with a sundae bar and a punk band—followed the next spring, and Honeybee Haven had been booked ever since.
The personal partnership between Penny and Zander was just as fruitful, but slower moving.
Their relationship was real and deep and the most thrilling thing Penny had ever known—but all of that made it scary, too.
They both moved tentatively at first, letting themselves believe it was real, and that it would last. Though Penny had long dreamed of having a partner, actually having one took practice and trust. Likewise, Zander was prone to doubts that Penny would continue to want him there, like she might look up one day and find him lacking.
But they did it every day: trying and talking and listening, staying up for hours to learn about each other, being late to start their days because they couldn’t stand to get out of bed. And every day, it all worked, just like the beautiful balance of a beehive.
She’d moved in with him after a year, and had walked into their bedroom that day to find it brimming with bouquets, flowers in every corner.
“It’s only half as bright as you make me feel,” he’d told her.
Now, Penny held the frame in the sun, scanning it for any abnormalities.
Winter had done the hive inspection the day before, and she trusted his work completely.
But he’d told her he’d seen something weird on one of the frames, something she should look at more closely.
Whatever it was, this frame was clear. She slid it back in the hive and pulled out another.
“Penny Becker.” A familiar voice brushed her skin in the breeze, alerting all her senses. “My sweet farm girl, always working. I thought you were taking the morning off before our meeting?”
A new prospective client was coming over to see Honeybee Haven and talk about their wedding. Whenever possible, Zander liked to have Penny in on the first meeting to, as he put it, check the vibe.
She peeked at Zander over her shoulder, which was a mistake. He was so distracting in his tight T-shirt and dark beard that she almost dropped the frame. “I’m just checking this out. Winter said he noticed something he didn’t recognize.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
She rolled her eyes but kept up her inspection. Sometimes Zander liked to do this—lean against a tree and watch her work. He never said a thing, but he said enough other times—dirty, tempting things—that she always knew what he was thinking.
Penny turned the frame in her hands, and something in the corner glinted in the sun. She pulled the frame closer, squinting at the unexpected object embedded in the honey.
“What in the—”
Lowering the frame to the top of the hive, Penny reached for the curious item. It was a ring—a golden band with a small amber stone the color of honey. The bees hustled around it, inspecting the foreign object with interest.
She set the frame down and pulled the ring from the comb, stretching honey out in long golden threads.
“Zander, this is so weird.” She lifted the ring into the sunshine, turning it around in her sticky fingers. “Look at this. How do you think it—”
At first she thought he’d left, because his usual spot against the tree was bare. But then her gaze drifted down… down to where Zander, in his pink T-shirt and surrounded by wildflowers, kneeled in the bee yard where he’d interrupted her work—no, interrupted her whole life—two years before.
“Oh my god.”
Zander cleared his throat. “Penny.”
“Oh my god.” Penny covered her mouth, the ring shaking in her other hand.
His wicked mouth grinned. “I guess you found the ring.”
“I guess I—” She shook her head. “Yeah. I guess I did.”
Zander’s eyes welled. “If you don’t want to marry me, I get it.
Marriage can be important, but it’s not necessary.
I could live my whole life with you without it, if that’s what you want.
I don’t want you to feel any pressure.” He choked out a laugh.
“I mean, I know I’m doing the whole down-on-one-knee thing, so it feels like pressure. ”
Penny moved toward him. “Zander—”
“It’s just.” He ran a hand through his hair as a tear poured over his lid and tracked down his cheek.
“Penny, I love you so much. I love living with you and working with you. I love how you’ve become part of my family with Winter and how I’ve become part of your family with your mom and Mimi.
You’re one of the smartest, most passionate people I’ve ever known, and you always keep me on my toes and make me excited every day.
I’m safe with you, and I can grow with you, and I want everyone to know.
I want to stand on that hill with you and have everyone I’ve ever known watching while I pledge myself to you. ”
She lowered down, kneeling in front of Zander. “If you would—”
“But maybe this is too much.” He sniffed and shook his head. “It’s too good, right? Like everything we have. I shouldn’t want more. If you don’t want to take this step, I’ll totally understand and we can just pretend this never—”
“Zander!” she squealed right in his face, watching his eyes go wide. “Will you shut up for a minute?”
“Oh.” He blanched. “Yeah, sorry. I’m a little nervous.”
She arched her brows. “I noticed.”
Penny took his hands, holding the sticky ring between them. Everything he’d said, she felt, too. The overwhelming love and joy, the safety to be who she was, even as she kept exploring that for herself.
Behind him, the new green leaves of budding elms rattled, and she thought back to that story he’d told her.
About that first time he’d walked over from his grandfather’s house, when he was just a lonely kid strolling through the woods and he’d seen her family there: the Becker women, laughing together.
You had everything I wanted, he’d told her of that day.
Since hearing that story, she’d thought a lot about what might have happened if she’d seen him there, if she’d invited him into her life. If she’d said to him what he’d needed to hear: You’re welcome here. This is home.
It was a silly fantasy, and one she didn’t really want to come true, because the years between brought him Mallory and Winter, and made him the man she loved now.
But she could extend the invitation now, and make sure he knew that he was wanted here, forever.
Penny leaned forward, brushing her lips over his wet cheeks, then at the side of his mouth, and finally over his lips. Zander cupped her face, and as they fell into a kiss as bright as the flowers around them, Penny slid the ring onto her finger.
When she pulled away, Zander still looked nervous, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. But Penny only smiled and held his hands.
“Zander Bouras.” She saw the instant he noticed the ring, couldn’t believe her luck that the elation on his face was because of her. Penny was ready to welcome this man home every day of their lives. “Will you please marry me?”