43. Epilogue Will
CHAPTER 43
Epilogue: Will
“ W here are you taking me?” Millie asks. We’re in my truck driving east toward the mountains.
“Somewhere special,” I say, not giving away where I’m taking her for our date today.
The past two months have been filled with calendar events and assigned tasks on our new shared system between Millie and I. True to our original plan, I moved into her house the day after the spring festival.
We made room for my clothes in her closet. It helped that I had minimal items to move over. Most of my stuff is still in the city, but we plan to go out there together to donate most of it.
And now, we have both taken the day off to spend time together.
I’ve decided to take her to a spot that we visited a long time ago, when we were doing the whole friends-with-kind-of-benefits thing. It was sometimes hard to get away from everyone, so one time I took her here for an afternoon.
“Are you taking me to?—”
“Maybe.” I interrupt.
I turn left on a gravel road and stop after a mile, parking the truck. In front of us is a field of wildflowers and roses. I found it randomly one day when I was driving around for fun, not knowing what else to do in a small town.
It was my hidden secret until one day I showed it to Millie. I never thought much about it at the time, but that’s when I knew I loved her.
“Will,” she says, my name falling off her tongue in barely a whisper.
“Have you been back here?” I glance in her direction.
She shakes her head. “It always made me think of you.”
I lean over the center console and grab her chin to turn her head to me, kissing her.
I slide out of the truck, walking to the other side to open the door for her and offer my hand to help her step down. There’s a bench to the left of where I parked the truck, and that’s where we go to sit. The sun is setting; it’s my favorite time to be here.
With her, surrounded by her favorite flowers, where we have nothing but time to be with each other.
“It feels like forever since we have been here,” she says, interlacing her fingers with mine. Her head lays on my shoulder.
“It has been forever, Mills. I’ve been wanting to come back here for a while with you.”
“Oh yeah?”
My cheeks heat. “I never thought I’d get the chance. You know, life moves so fast, and I thought I lost my chance with you.”
“You didn’t.” She says it so easily, like it’s something that never could have happened, even though there was a period in time where I almost married someone else.
“I would have found my way to you again. Even if it took time,” I say.
She snuggles deeper into me as we watch the sunset over the flowers.
“I know. I’m glad it didn’t take more time though,” she says.
“Me too.”
“Can you tell me about your tattoos?” Millie asks, tracing the sleeve of roses.
“I was wondering when you were going to mention this again.”
“Well, we’ve been a little busy these last few months doing other things.” Millie tries to wiggle her eyebrows, even though I knew what she meant already.
I chuckle. “True. Um, so the tattoos, the roses, mean a lot to me.” She stays silent as I talk, still outlining the petals on my arm with her finger. “When I ran away from dealing with how I felt about you three years ago, I wasn’t doing the best. I remember thinking about how I thought it was a good choice, that you were better off without me. One thing led to another, I had a lot to drink and woke up the next morning with a confirmation text from a local tattoo artist.”
“You didn’t have the thought to cancel?”
I shake my head. “No, I apparently paid in full, told him I wanted to somehow wear my feelings for a girl I love on my sleeve. He took that literally, didn’t even know what roses meant to me, and drew this design.”
“Seems like it was meant to be, huh?” Millie says, smiling into my chest.
“Seems that way, love,” I say and kiss her head. “When I walked into the appointment and saw the design, I should have known we would be together someday.”
We sit for a few minutes in silence, likely both thinking about the same thing.
Millie fidgets next to me for the tenth time, and I can sense her looking at me, her head twisting on my chest.
“Millie, is there something else you want to ask me?”
She giggles, and I take my gaze away from the flowers to observe her.
“Um, more like say to you?” She says it like a question, and I’m confused, so I scoot a little away to twist to face her. She does the same and clears her throat. “Okay, so I don’t know how to say this?—”
“Millie, what?” I grab her hands, but she takes one away and reaches into her jacket pocket.
“Do you remember how I’ve felt sick lately?”
“Yeah…”
She’s been more nauseous and tired than normal over the last week. We thought it might be the flu or something going around since she’s all over the place these days.
The corners of Millie’s lips curl into a smile as she gives me a moment to come to a conclusion on my own.
“Are you…” My eyes widen and drop to her stomach.
Millie pulls her hand out of her pocket, and I’m at a loss of words.
In her hand is a pink pregnancy test, a positive pink pregnancy test.
“I took it this morning,” she whispers, her voice blending with the wind around us.
“You’re having a baby.”
“ We are having a baby.”
“Did this happen…” My voice trails off, thinking back to the night before the event where we first had unprotected sex. Although, we have had protected sex since, thinking it might be better to try and plan for this instead of throwing caution to the wind. We knew we wanted kids soon, but we thought about trying in six months once I was settled into her place and our businesses felt stable.
“I believe so.” She worries her lip and lowers her gaze. “Are you upset?”
“What?” I ask, shocked. “Why would I be upset, love?”
Millie looks back at me, tears in her eyes. “We talked about waiting, and I know this is sooner than?—”
I grab her face and kiss her to stop her from talking. “I’m thrilled. ”
“Really?” She huffs a laugh in disbelief.
“Really.”
Millie smiles and kisses me again. “I can’t believe this is happening.
“I believe it, Millie Mae. I told you, endgame.”
“Endgame.” She grins.
One way or another, we would have found each other again. Even if it took years, we would have been in this same spot, with her wrapped in my arms.
Millie tucks the test back in her pocket and leans her head back against my chest. She snuggles in close before saying, “Seems like we were meant to be.”
“Millie, you were always meant to be mine.”