Epilogue
Olivia
Two Weeks Later
The smells of fresh-baked pastries and coffee hit my nose when I open the door to The Beach and Bean Cafe.
I glance around the sitting area and find my very sexy boyfriend sitting in the back corner, scrolling through his phone. Two white cups and pastry bags sit on the table in front of him.
With a grin, I make my way around the line, and as I approach the booth, Caleb spots me and sets down his phone. He stands, pulling me into his arms, kissing me boneless.
When he pulls back and says, “Hi, babe,” my heart skips a beat.
“Hi. Wow, I like that greeting.”
He leans down, his mouth at my ear. “Well, the way I really wanted to greet you isn’t fit for the public.”
A shiver goes down my spine at his husky words. “I guess you’ll have to show me when I get home tonight.”
“Done.”
He drops a quick kiss on my lips before I slide into one side of the booth and he takes the other.
“How’s your first day back?” I ask, pulling my muffin from the bag.
He nods. “Not bad. If I’m going to have to ride the desk for a while, I think I’m going to like going in early when there’s hardly anyone there. I can get through the reams of paperwork before it gets busy.”
Caleb isn’t back to full-time work as he’s still healing from his injuries, and there are steps to go through before he can get back on patrol.
And that doesn’t even include the standard protocol investigation of the accident.
“How about you? Ready to take over the practice?” he asks, his eyes twinkling.
I take a deep breath. “I think so. Well, I’m not taking it all over.
Not yet. My uncle is still going to work some.
But yeah.” I nod, smiling, feeling the tendrils of fear dissipate when I look at him.
I don’t know how he does it, but all he needs to do is look at me and I can see everything I can be in his eyes. “I’m ready.”
The day after I sang my heart out to him at the Red Parrot, we went back to Dallas and spent the next week packing up my apartment.
We also christened every room before I moved out.
I showed him some of the places I would miss, and he went with me to the hospital so that I could have one last lunch with the few people I’d made friends with at work.
Thankfully, we didn’t run into Samuel.
When we arrived back home, my uncle approached me about working with him in his practice so he could semi-retire. I jumped at the chance to work with the man who made me want to be a doctor in the first place. I couldn’t think of a better mentor.
Caleb brings my hand to his lips, kissing the back of it. “You’re going to kick ass, babe.”
“Thank you for believing in me.”
His eyes shine with so much love, I want to pinch myself to make sure it’s all real. “There’s no one else I believe in more than you.”
Our lips meet again briefly, then I start to chuckle. “Did you know the town had a bet going about us?”
His brow furrows. “A bet?”
“Darcy told me the town was taking bets on when we’d figure out we were in love with each other.”
“Are you serious?”
I laugh. “Yep. Apparently, they’ve kept it a secret from us for years.”
“Huh,” he grunts, taking a sip of his coffee. “Who won?”
“You’ll never guess.”
“Wyatt?”
“No, but that’s a good guess after what he said to me that night in the bar.”
He narrows his eyes. “What did he say?”
“Oh, you know, just that we had enough electricity between us to light up the East Coast.”
His shoulders relax and he smiles that sexy smile. “Well, he’s not wrong about that.”
“No, he’s not.”
“So who won?”
“Derek. He even started the bet!”
“No shit. I wonder what he won.”
“Well, that’s one thing Darcy wouldn’t tell me.” I smile and drop my chin into my hand. “God, I love you.”
He gives me his dirty grin, reserved just for me. “I love you too.”
Once we finish, he walks me to the town clinic, where my uncle has worked for more than forty years and where my new path in my medical career is about to start.
And where I first saw Caleb Wright.
“You know,” Caleb says, when we stop and face each other in front of the building, “there’s something I need for you to do for me.”
I wrap my hands around his neck, and his hands land on my hips. “I can think of a lot of things I can do for you.”
“And I will let you do all of those, but there’s something else.”
“What’s that?” I ask, tilting my head.
“You should make me an honest man.”
Before I know what’s happening, Caleb is down on one knee. I gasp, covering my mouth.
“Olivia, I know this might seem sudden, since we just said I love you to each other two weeks ago. But it’s actually been almost twenty years in the making for me.
Right here in this building is where I saw my future the first time I saw you.
I didn’t know then what that feeling was, but I knew from the moment I saw you, someday you’d be mine.
” He pulls a deep burgundy velvet box out of his pocket and opens it.
“We took the long way to get here, Olivia, but we’re here now. Will you choose forever and marry me?”
The princess-cut diamond glints in the sun, just waiting to be slid onto my finger.
The place it belongs.
“Yes! Of course, I’ll marry you.”
He stands and slides the ring onto my finger, grinning down at me.
“I love you, Olivia Emerson.”
“I love you too, Caleb Wright.”
Then he wraps me in his arms, and his mouth slants over mine, hot and possessive, telling me he’s mine and I’m his.
Forever.