Epilogue
Cassie
I settle into the eight-seater golf cart with Mom, Nana, Madison, Sarah, and Luke. Our tour guide in training, Benjamin, takes the wheel and starts reciting his introduction, much of it verbatim from the speech Luke wrote and presented to me twelve months ago—the night I started letting him back into my heart.
I bought this souped up golfer”s dream with my MatchAI profits. We’re in twenty-five states now, going strong. With the steady growth of MatchAI, I built Nana a new garage, replaced the AC and the roof. The inside is next. I’ll start in the kitchen and move to the living room, letting Granny and Nana pick the fixtures—within reason.
When Luke and I revealed the true, gritty details of our past with the Instagram audience, his finagling with the launch, our fake dates—all the ways we lied to them—they were astonishingly supportive. Cupid didn’t receive a black mark, maybe because I told them how she matched me with Luke the day I thought all hope was lost.
We turn onto Benton. Luke smiles at me and grabs my hand. It’s a warm night, the two of us in shorts and T-shirts, like regular tourists.
I snuggle closer to him as the cart quietly whooshes down the street. At our first stop, Benjamin relays details about the house—its age, who built it, what ghosts are purported to live there.
“Benjamin’s doing great,” Luke whispers.
“You wrote this,” I whisper back.
Luke sits a little straighter. “I’m a man of many talents.”
Next Benjamin stops in front of the Hayashi residence and tells us about their female apparition who sometimes appears at the top of the stairs. She also likes to relocate keys, toothbrushes, and knickknacks.
After a few more stops, Luke’s house comes into view.
“As far as we know,” Benjamin says, “the hauntings here started when the wonderful caregiver and wife, Betsy Conrad, fell down the stairs and broke her neck. She likes to call out to Joey sometimes at night, and despite the destruction of Joey’s medicine cabinet during a kitchen remodel, she continues to retrieve Joey’s medicine from the new cabinet at regular intervals.”
“Nope. Just no,” Nana hollers from the backseat. “You live here, Luke? I’d hire a priest.”
“Well, that went dark real quick,” Granny mumbles.
“That’s not even the half of it,” Benjamin says.
Luke braces himself. “Here goes.”
“While excavating for the inground pool last October, workers came across two skeletons. DNA testing is still pending.”
“Cassie!” Nana yells. “You’re dating a guy with skeletons in his backyard! What kind of crazy is that? They’re probably in his closet too.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mom asks, shock raising her voice a few notes.
“Cause if I told you, you’d never swim in the pool!” I say.
“Got that right,” Nana says.
Luke salutes. “Ever seen that movie Poltergeist? Yep. That’s me. That’s my pool.”
I twist around in my seat. “They’ve been respectfully relocated.”
“That pool’s haunted,” Madison says.
“No, it’s not.”
“One day you’ll be doggie paddling and some demon will reach through the drain and pull you under,” Nana says.
I look at Luke. “Told you. They’re never coming over for a pool party.”
“I promise I’ll have the entire backyard smudged,” Luke says.
“Pfft,” Nana responds.
“Anyway,” Luke says, “there’s one more notable historical fact about this house that you forgot to mention.”
“Absolutely,” Benjamin says. “I’ll let you take over from here.”
I shoot Luke a confused look as he tugs on my hand.
“C’mere,” he says.
“Did you find bones in the crawlspace too?”
“No.”
We slide off the seat and step onto the pitted asphalt.
“Something is about to happen that this house will never forget.” Luke grins at me as he pulls a box out of his coat pocket.
My heart starts to race. It’s a velvet ring box. My hand involuntarily touches my lips. Time slows as Luke bends to one knee.
“I meant to do this years ago,” Luke says. “But the time wasn’t right.” He bows his head. “We both know why. I messed up. A lot.” He refocuses on me. Light catches his brimming tears. “Our love...is stronger than my mistakes.” Watching him struggle for words makes the tears in my eyes flood their banks. “That’s not because of me. It’s because of you and your wonderful, forgiving heart. You gave the new Luke a second chance, and I can’t let you get away this time. Cassie...will you marry me?”
I press my hands to my chest. “Yes, Luke. Yes!”
“Not maybe?”
“Yes!”
Whoops and hollers rise behind me.
Luke stands. With shaking hands, he slides the ring onto my finger. “You’re making me a very happy man.”
I wipe a tear from his cheek, and then I grab him and kiss him long and hard. When we part, neither of us lets go.
I hear a chorus of pops, and seconds later Luke and I are covered in streamers. Laughing, we brush the thin strands of tissue paper from our faces.
“This was your idea, wasn’t it, Sarah?” I ask.
“Yup.” She has her phone trained on us. “Say hi to Instagram.”
“You’re livestreaming?”
“Livestreaming is how it began, and livestreaming is how it will end.”
“Oh, it won’t end,” I say directly into the camera. “There’s a wedding coming up.”
I turn back to Luke and snuggle in his arms, pressing my hands to his cheeks. He bends toward me until we touch foreheads.
“I think my family approves.”
“Thank goodness.” Luke sighs. “It’s been a long time coming.”
“But worth the wait.”
“So worth it.” He kisses me long and slow.
We’re going to make our mark, the two of us. Together.
Watch out, Charleston.