Epilogue
EPILOGUE
NINE MONTHS LATER
“Can I get you anything before my shift is over?” Jane propped a hip against the table in the back corner of the Grassroots Café, pen and paper in hand.
“Just a peanut butter brownie for my girlfriend.”
“I already put in the order,” she said with a grin, leaning down to press a kiss on Nik’s mouth. He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her down on his lap.
“Ew. Gross!” came Scarlett’s voice from behind them. “Mom! Nik! Please. One of my friends might see you . ”
Jane looked up to find her daughter pressing her hands to her eyes as if she didn’t want to be blinded by their public display of affection. Jane couldn’t help but laugh. Scarlett was in fifth grade at Linden Falls Elementary and, at ten and a half, she suddenly found everything about her mother to be deeply embarrassing. Especially if her friends were around.
Jane rolled her eyes at Nik but she slid off his lap. “I’ll go and close out,” she said. “And then Nik and I will go someplace where we won’t mortify you anymore.”
Nik gave Scarlett a grin. “Can you at least sit and tell me about your day?” He hitched a chin at the opposite chair .
Jane’s heart warmed as Scarlett dropped into the seat and began chattering with Nik about the super hard math test she had coming up. As Jane crossed the room to close out her tabs, she watched Scarlett pull out her math book and slide it to Nik so he could talk her through a problem.
It was these little moments that made her the happiest. Seeing them study together when Nik came over for dinner. Watching them out in the backyard throwing a ball.
They hadn’t told Scarlett that Nik was her father yet. The DNA test had come back a couple of weeks after Matteo’s death, but everything was too raw back then. It still was. A decade of trauma couldn’t be erased in a few months. Maybe it couldn’t ever be erased. They’d agreed to wait a year and then revisit the conversation. In the meantime, Jane had found therapists for both herself and Scarlett. And Nik was being patient with her.
Jane still lived with Mom, and there was a lot of healing that needed to happen in that relationship, too. But they were working on it, slowly. They took long walks together while Scarlett was at school, talking about what it was like for Mom when she was with Dad, and for Jane with Matteo. They weren’t that different, both of them trapped in the cycle of abuse. But they were going to do everything in their power to make sure it never happened to Scarlett.
Over the register, Jane watched her daughter and Nik. Every day, Nik was demonstrating to Scarlett what a healthy relationship looked like. How a man was supposed to act. He glanced up and saw her watching, and his eyes softened. And, just like it always had, her heart slowly turned over in her chest.
He tilted his head toward the door. Hurry.
Jane laughed. On Fridays, she and Hannah took turns watching the girls so the other couple could have a date night. Since the only place to eat out in Linden Falls was the Grassroots Café, and Jane worked there as both a server and host of the Saturday music showcase, she and Nik usually spent their “date” back at Nik’s place, wrapped in a blanket on the floor in front of the fireplace.
She hurried, finishing up at the register and heading out to the car with Scarlett and Nik. They dropped Scarlett at Hannah’s, where Jane’s chest filled with a familiar gratitude that she had friends she could trust, and Scarlett had a community looking out for her.
When they arrived at Nik’s cabin, she didn’t waste a single moment, moving into his arms almost before he could close the door. These times they had together between his intense hospital schedule, her job, and parenting Scarlett always felt precious and far too rare. Jane knew that Nik would have loved for her and Scarlett to move in with him, for them to be a family in every sense. Jane felt closer to being ready for that every day.
So, when he stepped back from her embrace and whispered, “I have something I want to give you,” her heart turned over in her chest.
He looked at her sideways, a grin tugging at his lips. “It’s not an engagement ring… this time.” The raise of his eyebrows told her, soon . “But it is something for your next chapter.”
Her next chapter? Jane followed him into the living room. Nik stopped at the fireplace mantel and picked up an enormous package, holding it out to her. If Jane’s lungs hadn’t been filling with emotion, she would have laughed out loud. The gift was wrapped in bright red paper and tied with a silver bow, but it couldn’t have been more obvious what was inside. The package was shaped exactly like a guitar case.
Now that they had plenty of space at Mom’s house and Jane’s old guitar back again, Scarlett had expressed an interest in learning how to play. Jane had been teaching her and found she enjoyed it. She’d just started classes at the community college last week, taking the prerequisites she’d need to eventually transfer to one of the local universities to major in music education.
Jane slowly unwrapped the paper and then lifted the lid of the case. Inside, she found a brand-new Martin guitar in a rich, gleaming mahogany. “Nik,” Jane gasped, pulling it out of the case. “ Thank you. It’s beautiful.”
“Now that our daughter is learning to play on your old guitar…”
Jane’s breath caught. Our daughter.
“… I wanted you to have your own,” Nik continued.
Jane settled on the couch, pulling the guitar to her chest, strumming a couple of chords, feeling the vibration of the notes as they moved through her. Or maybe that wasn’t the guitar at all, maybe that was just what Nik did to her.
He sat down next to her. “I thought you might miss all the doodles and drawings on your old guitar, so I left you a little something on the back.” He hitched his chin at the instrument, and she flipped it over.
Right by the neck, he’d doodled a small vine with flowers woven around two simple sentences.
They’re going to love you. Just like I do.
Jane looked up, tears in her eyes. Nik didn’t need to have an engagement ring. She was always going to marry him. From that first day when their mothers had enrolled them in preschool together, there was never any doubt. Never going to be anyone else for her but Nik. And when he finally asked her— soon —she was going to say yes.
***
If you adored the intense chemistry between Nik and Jane and were completely shocked by the final twists, you’ll love It All Comes Back to You , another absolutely heart-wrenching second-chance romance by Melissa Wiesner. Anna and Gabe are best friends until he discovers her deepest secret. But when tragedy pulls Anna home, could it mean a second chance for them both—or will even more secrets come out?
Get it here or keep reading for an exclusive extract.