Epilogue
Hartley
Two weeks later …
“I swear to all that’s holy, if you fall in that fire, I’m not helping you get out,” I say to Brooks.
He slaps himself in the chest. “You do realize that I was once a professional athlete. Balance comes naturally.”
“Where’d the girls go?” Gray asks, coming out of the back of his cabin. “Brooks, get the fuck off that stump. You’re gonna fall in the fucking fire.”
“Does no one have faith in me?” Brooks asks, looking around.
“They took the side-by-side down to check on Pigasso,” Drake says, ignoring the Brooks drama. “I can’t believe you have a fucking pig named Pigasso.”
I take a swig of my beer as the fire crackles in front of me. “I overheard Gianna telling Mira that she wants a baby if Pigasso has a litter.”
Drake shakes his head. “Look, I give in to all of Gianna’s crazy whims, but we’re absolutely not getting a pig.”
“My bet’s on Gianna,” Gray says, laughing and sitting beside me. “Did you make an offer on that house out by the lake?”
“We did,” Drake says. “We looked at it three times and made an offer yesterday. We should hear something on Monday. And, speaking of houses, Jory Plath is moving to Sugar Creek. Did you know that, Gray?”
“It’s a small fucking world,” Gray says. “I didn’t even know that you knew him. We were in the locker room a couple of weeks ago, and he mentioned moving down here with his kid.”
“Why did that sound like he went to the kid store and bought one?” I ask.
“It’s a very long story,” Drake says as headlights shine through the trees.
The girls’ laughter makes its way to us well before they do. We all look around the fire, puffing out our chests and smiling. We’re all thinking the same thing. How could we not?
Damn, we’re lucky bastards.
It’s a thought that crosses my mind no less than ten times a day.
And since the day a couple of weeks ago when Mira finally told me she loves me, things have just gotten better.
Whatever happened to her at Lolly’s that night healed a piece of her heart, and while I’d hoped to be the one to do that for her, I’m just glad it happened.
But this is Mira we’re talking about. She had to journey through her own pain, face the heartbreak in her own time, and in her own way. To have denied her that would be wrong. Even Lolly knew that. God bless that amazing, slightly unhinged in the very best way, woman.
There might be moments when sorrow eclipses that peace—for both of us. Holidays are still hard sometimes, and my heart twists in a certain painful way in the fall when Mom would’ve been baking apple pies. Mira has those moments too. But I’ll show up for my wife whenever and wherever she needs me.
Neither of us will have to live or grieve alone. And that’s our superpower. We have each other.
“I love you.”
I probably think about the first time she said those words to me as husband and wife every day and feel the relief and joy every damn time.
I hadn’t realized how much I truly needed to hear them.
And wanting to start a family? There’s nothing I can ever ask for because I’ve been blessed beyond measure. Far more than I deserve.
The side-by-side stops at the side of Gray’s house.
“We’re back,” Gianna says as if we’re all unaware. “That thing can go. I’m going to need one of those.”
“I’ve seen you drive that,” Drake says as Gianna sits on his lap. “You’ll kill yourself.”
Mira’s comes up behind me and lays her hands on my shoulders. I tilt my chin to look up at her and find her peering down at me. Her eyes are lively and bright, and her features are peaceful. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for her—aside from being with me.
I rest my head against her arm.
“I heard that Lolly’s signing over the back acres to you, Hart,” Brooks says. “Audrey told me this afternoon.”
My chest warms from the idea that in a few weeks, the land will all be a part of Blackbird Ranch once again.
She’s keeping the farmhouse in a trust until she dies, but then it will be transferred into Mira’s name.
She said she may as well give me the land because she didn’t do anything with it, and that might be true.
But I kind of wonder if she just got her property tax bill and decided she’d keep the money and let me pay them.
She’s a plotter, that’s for sure.
Mira comes around the chair and takes her usual place in my lap. It’s one of my favorite things about her, how she just curls up on me like I’m her favorite piece of furniture. Obviously, I don’t mind. I soak up any and all physical contact she’s willing to give me.
We sit around the fire and shoot the shit. I catch my brother’s eye, and we exchange a grin.
This is how we grew up.
At first, it was with my parents. Then the four of us were old enough to sit around the fire and roast marshmallows by ourselves, thinking we were young MacGyvers by half-assed whittling sticks into spears and stealing tobacco from the ranch hands.
This firepit has facilitated so many laughs, fights, apologies, and nostalgia through the years.
But now I have this.
My brother by blood and the others by friendship.
And our incredible women—all so different, yet perfectly matched.
They all add so much to these nights, to our days, and to our futures.
There’s something really special about knowing the next generation will be raised right here, too. God willing, together.
“Is Markie coming tonight?” Gianna asks, breaking through my thoughts.
Mira shakes her head, her braided ponytail that I helped her with earlier today swishes against her shoulder. “No. She’s interviewing another guy for the pickleball thing.”
Everyone chuckles. Markie’s pickleball obsession has been a recurrent theme for a few weeks now.
I’ve never seen someone so determined to not lose a festival competition.
Then again, most people haven’t been the reigning champion for a few years running and being challenged by her ex-boyfriend and the girl he cheated on her with.
Fuck Jasper.
“Oh, okay,” Gianna says. “That’s fine. I’m meeting with her tomorrow at the high school.”
“Why?” Audrey says.
Gianna sighs. “She wants to train for her sportsball thing.”
Drake shakes his head, making us all laugh. As a sportscaster, Gianna’s lack of knowledge about anything sports-related is kind of funny. I think she refuses to learn now just to irritate him, which is just how Gianna works.
“And you’re going to train with her?” Drake asks. “I’ve never seen you run for anything but my dick.”
Gianna laughs with the rest of us. “No, funny boy. I’m not training with her.
Ew. Sweat? No thanks.” She takes a long drink of Drake’s beer.
“I told her I’d come and take pictures of her while she’s working out.
It would be a shame if she looked super hot and those got posted to Social and Jasper happened to see what he lost.”
“And who he is going to lose to,” Audrey says.
“Oh, Auddie, getting a little feisty,” Astrid says. “Better be ready for a long night, Brooksy.”
“I get her feisty every night,” he says, earning a swat from a blushing Audrey.
The chatter centers around sports, something I could really take or leave. So I tune them out and pull my wife a little closer. She melts into my side like she was made to fit there, and the familiar weight of her against my chest settles something deep inside me.
Mira and I have both been knocked around by life. We’ve lost people far too soon, and carried scars no one else could see. For a long time, those scars convinced us that we were better off keeping pieces of ourselves tucked away where nothing else could hurt them.
One of us buried our feelings through responsibility and obligations. The other tried to outrun theirs. Neither did us much good.
It took us a while to get here. It took Mira showing me that life is about more than responsibility. I helped her learn that some things are worth the risk of losing.
Just like our lucky coin.
Most people walked right past it, but Mira picked it up.
She saw something worth keeping and handed it to me.
In the wrong hands, it held no value. But in the right hands, the discarded piece of metal is the symbol of continuity that means so much to us.
It hangs over our door, reminding us every day that the things that matter aren’t always shiny or obvious.
Sometimes they’re a little worn. A little dirty. Scraped and beat-up—without their luster.
But with a little love, the shine can come back again.
No matter where life takes us, through the rain and rainbows, we’ll be okay. Because we have each other.
Forever.
If you have read Play Me, Try Me, and Show Me, you should check out The Proposal. I will put Chapter One in the back of this book.