Epilogue
MIA
“Oh, hang on, there’s one more.”
Everyone looks up from their side conversations and gathering up used wrapping paper to where my dad is standing in the doorway. He’s holding a flat box wrapped in shiny gold paper with a huge red bow.
“Says it’s from you to Mia,” he tells David.
I look at David sitting next to me on the couch.
“Oh, yeah. Almost forgot.” He glances at me. “Just a little something.”
He already got me a beautiful soft cardigan, a pair of “sensible” boots, and a two-person tent since his is really only for one. Though we can certainly sleep close enough that it didn’t seem to matter the one time we took it out in the fall.
My dad brings the package over. It’s very light. Everyone in the room has stopped what they're doing and is watching me unwrap this last Christmas present.
As I tear the paper off my heart once again expands, and I feel like crying. I’ve felt like this all day. Just because we’re all here like this together. Just because I’m so happy.
We’ve celebrated four birthdays, Halloween, and Thanksgiving as one big, happy family. But Christmas is my favorite, and being here with our families all blended together, as if we’ve been doing this forever, is amazing.
I unwrap a flat cardboard box and lift the lid. Inside are a few typed pages.
I lift my puzzled gaze to David’s.
“I wrote a new chapter,” he tells me.
My eyes widen and I slap the box lid back on the box.
David has been writing in the fanfiction world. He’s actually quite good. And very dirty.
It’s been fun sharing that part of my life with him, not just having him as my biggest fan, but also reading what he comes up with.
But this is obviously not the time.
He chuckles and leans in, lifting the lid again.
“I want you to read this one right now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Trust me.”
I do, of course, so I pull out the two pages and start reading. Just not out loud. Just in case.
It only takes me three paragraphs to figure out what’s going on.
My hand flies up to cover my mouth, and I look at him with wide eyes.
He slides to the floor next to me. Just like described in the scene.
Shockingly, however, my father strides over and hands David a black velvet ring box.
They exchange a smile, then David turns to me and opens the box.
I assume the ring is gorgeous, but I can’t look away from David’s face. He looks madly in love and incredibly happy. God, I hope I get to see that look on his face for the rest of our lives.
“Mia Hansen, will you marry me?”
It’s simple, not flowery, and perfectly David Bennett.
I nod. “Yes. Of course.”
He pulls me up from the couch, wrapping me in his arms, burying his face in my hair. “I love you so much,” he says against my ear.
“I love you, too. I’m so happy right now.”
“I intend to keep you that way for a very long time.”
I have no doubt that he will.
Everyone swarms around us, hugging us, offering congratulations, declaring they knew it was going to happen like this. Our moms are both crying and hugging one another. My sister is crying harder than anyone.
But it’s my dad that I can’t stop watching. He stands off to the side, watching everything with an expression of pride and love.
There’s no mistaking what he’s feeling.
We had a long talk after he found out that David and I were dating. After he went to David and told him how happy he was.
I never doubted that he wanted me to be happy. I just didn’t know what he would do if I ever did something that he wasn’t expecting or that he might disapprove of.
It turns out he did exactly what he’d always said he would do—love me unconditionally.
I eventually make it to his side.
“You were holding the ring for David?”
“Well, I’m easily the most trustworthy of this bunch,” he tells me with a little grin.
I grin up at him. “Does this mean that David asked you for permission to propose?”
He slips an arm around my shoulders and hugs me up against his side. “You and David don’t need my permission for anything.”
“But he told you he was going to propose?” I’m not surprised.
David and my dad talk several times a day, every single day.
I can’t even count how many times I’ve told David something about my dad and he’s said, “oh, I know,” or I’ve filled my parents in on some something David’s been up to, and my dad’s corrected me on a detail or two in my story because he’s already heard about it from David.
“He didn’t have to tell me. It’s been pretty obvious for a long time that you were headed this direction,” my dad says. “But I found out for sure about a month ago. Do you remember the day that David rescued that baby deer?”
“Of course.” That day had been scary as hell. Someone had called in that they’d seen a baby deer in the river struggling. It had fallen through the ice. David and a couple of other Game and Parks officers had responded as had my dad and the sheriff from the next county.
Of course, David was the one who decided to belly crawl out onto the ice and pull the deer out.
I was so grateful I found out about all of it after the fact when both David and the deer were safe and sound.
“When he was getting ready to go out on ice, he pulled the ring out of his pocket. He’d been carrying it around with him constantly. He handed it to me for safekeeping.”
“And you just hung onto it after that?” I guess.
My dad chuckles. “Pretty much. Told him he could have it back when he was down on one knee.”
That story is so in character for both of them.
I hug him tightly. “I’m really happy, Dad.”
“That’s very obvious, daughter.”
It’s just before midnight and I’m staring up at David’s childhood bedroom ceiling, cuddled up against my fiancé , his strong heartbeat under my ear, his big hand on my ass, the ripples of an amazing orgasm just fading, and feeling like life can’t get any better.
“So I know tomorrow is Christmas Day,” David says. “But…”
I roll my eyes, but I am not a bit surprised by this. “What are you and my dad going to do?”
Neither of them is supposed to be working tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to be busy with something.
I swear, if we hadn’t started dating while David still disliked my dad, I would think he was with me just to get closer to him.
“Well, since the kids are off from school for the next two weeks, some of us were talking that it might be fun to have some activities down at the park. We were thinking like building snow forts, and a snowman building contest. It’s also really fun to use paintball guns on the snow because the colors show up amazingly.
So we thought we’d meet down at the pavilion and look into setting up a hot chocolate stand and see if we can get a popcorn machine plugged in.
I think there are plenty of outlets, but your dad isn’t sure. And while we’re there?—”
I roll toward him and kiss him to shut him up.
His hands are in my hair a moment later, and I feel him getting into the kiss and forgetting all about hot chocolate and snow forts.
I pull back. “It sounds like you, my dad, and your brothers want to build snow forts and play with paintball guns, and you all think that saying you’re doing it as a community service for the kids is a good cover-up.
Kind of like the water balloon fight a few months ago.
And the Punkin’ Chunkin’ contest in October. ”
He squeezes my ass. “Don’t tell anyone.”
I laugh. Everyone knows. And loves it about this group of guys. “Or what?” I ask, wiggling against him.
He growls. “Or I won’t deny you orgasms tomorrow night once we’re back in our own bed. I’ll just give you one hard, fast one and that’s it.”
I giggle. Of course, denying orgasms sounds like that should be a punishment, but it is so delicious when he does it to me that it is not a deterrent.
I had to first learn about it in one of the dirty fanfictions we wrote together, but he was very happy to give me a hands-on demonstration after that chapter published.
In fact, we’ve had a great time exploring a lot of things that we write about in the new fanfiction we’re co-writing. It’s the most popular thing on the entire site and has been for the past three months since we started.
I’ll bring something up as the shy, innocent heroine. He’ll answer in his chapter as the broody, alpha hero. And then he’ll show me everything in graphic, full detail, real life at home.
He rolls toward me. “You know, it is really hot to be fucking my best friend’s daughter.”
Yeah, except that trope. He wanted to do that in our latest, and I said no.
I shake my head quickly. “No, we’re still not doing that.”
He chuckles and nuzzles my neck. “Okay, I’ll make something else up.”
“You know I don’t need you to make anything up. I like us just exactly the way we are.”
“Me too. Playing prissy and prim librarian with the dirty, rugged Game and Parks officer is always a good time.”
“My favorite non -fiction of all,” I agree as he pulls me over on top of him, and my diamond ring sparkles in the moonlight.
Thank you so much for reading Making It Up! I hope you loved David and Mia’s story!