Epilogue
Two Years Later
The grass was a little damp beneath me, soaking the bottom of my dress pants. I didn’t mind all that much, though. Forrest sat beside me, groaning as he got situated, obviously not minding it much, either.
I turned to him, raising an eyebrow. “Your knees aren’t old enough to make you groan like that.”
“What can I say? Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.”
Rolling my eyes, I sighed and brushed an errant piece of dirt off the gravestone before us. “Well, we did it, Grandma. I wish you could’ve been there. I’m still mad this little shit didn’t wait a full year to propose to me like I said to do. Hence why it took us so long to actually get married.”
Forrest laughed. “You still said yes, didn’t you?”
“That’s not the point, and you know it.”
“Whatever. You still love me.”
I nudged his shoulder. “With all my heart.” I knew Grandma was probably sick of hearing our little bicker sessions by now. We came to see her often enough that she got to hear everything about our lives on the regular.
Since I couldn’t pick up the phone and call her or run over to her house anymore, this was the next best thing.
Grabbing Forrest’s hand, I leaned forward, showing both of ours to her gravestone.
“Look at our rings. Aren’t they pretty?” They were a matching set of gold with silver embedded in the center.
I pretended like she was agreeing, smiling and nodding and holding our hands to kiss the backs of them. “I know, right?”
“Your grandson cried the entire time, by the way. My family was getting worried he was going to end up dehydrated.”
I smacked the side of Forrest’s arm. “You didn’t have to tell her that.”
He took his hand from me, shrugging. “She probably already saw it go down. Not my fault.”
“You cried too. Don’t forget that part.”
“How could I not? You looked so handsome, and you were gonna be mine. For real.”
Yeah, I got that. I understood all too well.
Just thinking about it made me tear up again, which honestly made me mad.
The moment I’d started to walk down the aisle, surrounded by all our friends and Forrest’s family, I’d fucking lost it.
Absolutely lost it. Completely inconsolable, gasping through every word in my vows to him.
The realization that I was going to be a Castillo had hit me, and it hit me hard.
I wrapped an arm around his, leaning my head on his shoulder. “We’re handing our work off to other people for a week and going to the beach.” I gave a pause, making sure Grandma had space to talk, too. “I know. It’s as much of a shock to you as it was to me.”
“He’s been doing really well, though.” Forrest kissed my head. “We think he’s ready to face the ocean, even if it means only looking at it from afar.”
“I’m going to try to get my foot in it, at least. Maybe not swim or anything, but at least touch the ocean, y’know? Forrest has faith in me.”
“I have all the faith in you, sweetie. But we’ll take it slow and see how things go.”
We’d been building my tolerance to large bodies of water. We’d made it to the shallow end of a swimming pool. I hadn’t gone underwater yet, but like Forrest said, we’d been taking it slow. There wasn’t any rush. I’d simply decided to try to face my one final fear in the eyes of control.
It was kind of funny. I’d started to realize that, in my effort to gain control of anything and everything in my life, I’d lost it entirely without even realizing it. I’d never had control. I’d been clinging to an idea, never truly understanding that it wasn’t even reality.
The moment I’d slipped and fallen into the ocean, I’d lost control and never truly gained it back.
I was going to gain it back, and Forrest was going to help me.
The late June heat was starting to take its toll on both of us. Forrest’s forehead was already dripping with sweat, and I knew I had armpit stains in my fancy shirt. It was time to go home and get some sleep before our road trip in the morning.
“Well, Grandma, it was nice to see you. We’re going to head out so we can get an early start tomorrow.”
Forrest got up on his knees and waved to her gravestone. “Good seeing you, Grandma. We’ll come back soon.”
My chest had never felt lighter. My heart had never felt happier. We’d skipped out on a reception so that we could have plenty of time to come see Grandma as soon as we’d said our goodbyes to everyone.
My husband took my hand, squeezing it tightly as we made our way back to the car. His car, because he was driving. The only person in the world I’d get in the passenger seat with.
Holding my breath wasn’t the calmest I’d ever felt anymore, but it was a close second. I let my body sink beneath the water, opening my eyes after a few seconds. Just above the surface, I could see Forrest on the shore, cheering me on.
I wasn’t very far, and I was fully sitting on my ass in order to get deep enough to put my head under, but I’d done it. I’d made it. I was in the ocean, under the water, and I wasn’t panicking. I wasn’t drowning.
Though this wasn’t my safety or my home away from home anymore, I still loved the feeling. Everything moved differently beneath the water. The sun shined brighter, and people looked so much happier. It wasn’t as dark as I’d remembered. It wasn’t as cold.
It was warm and inviting. It was everything I’d ever remembered loving. It reminded me of a life I used to be so fucking excited for, always racing right to the edge of the pool, eager to dive right in and let the water take over.
When I came back up, I still ran straight to Forrest, but he caught me, and everything was okay. There was nothing to fear. No control to lose.
I’d gained it back, and I’d gained it back right in Forrest’s arms, hearing his heartbeat and feeling his skin against mine.
Six Months Later
Christmas at the Iverson house was never anything short of pure, utter chaos, and I fucking loved it. I’d somehow forgotten each year just how many people would join us, and it seemed like the number increased each time. Everyone was welcome at Crew and Price’s house—OG staff or not.
Everyone was talking over each other, finding new and old things to hash and rehash and laugh about all over again.
Crew and Price were arguing about whether to ask us to help them take decorations down or not, even though we always did.
There was never a shortage of stories to share or food to devour.
Fire and Ice had recently opened its fourth location, and the metrics of that one were the highlight of one discussion somewhere in the middle. Jesse, Isaac, and Willow were comparing it to the numbers of the Newton location when it had first opened up.
Fishbowl and Lemon—Callum and Tobi’s dogs—were having the times of their lives, tearing through the leftover wrapping paper on the floor.
I’d been trying to convince Jack to let us get a dog, and I think I was close to completing that mission.
I’d have to try again later and mention how damn cute Fishy and Lemon were, growling and yipping over something as simple as paper.
Tobi and Callum both stood up at the same time. Tobi shook his head and made some sort of hand gesture to Crew, who frowned immediately.
Jack leaned in beside me, whispering. “You wanna bet they’re about to go start taking the tree down to shut them up?”
I snorted, nodding. “Oh, definitely. They do this every year.”
“Well, their Christmas collection gets bigger somehow. Crew really goes all out.”
That he did. It honestly looked like Santa himself had thrown up all over their house. I often wondered if they have glitter around their house year-round from how much was on their decorations.
Exactly as Jack thought, Tobi and Callum walked straight to the huge tree and turned the lights off on it. Crew walked up to them, looking positively flustered. I raised an eyebrow at them, whispering back to Jack. “Should we go help them, sweetie?”
“I think we should, yeah. It’s going to take all our hands to get everything stored away.”
We made our way over to the tree, interrupting the petty argument between the three.
Crew had his hands on his hips. “Y’all just love to rile me up.”
“No, we just love you.” Tobi laughed as he pulled a string of lights off. “You do this every year. Let us do it for once without an argument.”
“I do not do this every year.”
Jack stepped forward, helping Tobi with the lights, while Cal started to take the hundreds of ornaments off. “Crew, with all due respect, he’s right. These two have known you for a very, very long time. They know you by now.”
Crew rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
I grabbed a tote that was sitting flush against the wall, pulling the top off it.
Callum handed me ornaments, and I stacked them up in the tote while Jack and Tobi made work getting them all off.
There was still a ton of conversation and laughter and bustles of joy from behind us at the table while everyone finished their desserts.
Price eventually emerged from the chaos, wrapping an arm around Crew and pulling him into his side. I couldn’t help but smile as Price sighed and pressed a kiss on Crew’s head. “You do indeed do this every year, Pretty Boy. But look at how many people are willing to help.”
“If you say so,” Crew mumbled.
“Stop and look around, would you?” Price moved them backward a little, and Crew turned his head to the side. “Looks like we got to have our Christmas redo after all.”
Something about that had Crew softening immediately. They both looked at the table, then back at us. With a rumbling laugh, Crew nodded. “Yeah. Looks like we did.”
Another OG staff Christmas for the books. I knew their history had lasted well over a decade now, with memories neither Jack nor I would ever have or fully understand, but they’d become some of our closest friends.
As Jack had once put it—though I didn’t know the entire story behind it—thank God for snowstorms.
Thank God for chances.
And, most of all, thank God for little pieces of magic.
The End.