Epilogue
Christmas Eve, One Year Later
“Where the hell did my tape go?”
This was what happened when Ivy went to work: Grant resorted to talking to himself.
It had been two long days since she’d left on her trip and he had another two days to go before she got home. Just long enough to miss Christmas.
It was an unfortunate reality of loving someone in aviation that their job did not stop for birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays.
They would celebrate when she got home, but she would miss his family’s Christmas celebration.
Gemma had finally grasped the concept of a calendar over the last few months, so they couldn’t lie to her and shift Christmas by a few days.
She knew exactly when Santa was supposed to arrive and that was December twenty-fifth, Auntie Ivy’s schedule be damned.
Ivy claimed to not care that she would be missing all the holiday fun because of the whims of someone still learning to read, but Grant cared.
No sooner had she picked up Brad to drive to Chicago for their trip than Grant had Tony helping him haul a Christmas tree up to the apartment attached to the movie theater.
He checked the last text he had from Ivy several hours ago. Her trip was going horribly and she was on a long delay—ironically, in Chicago.
At least there would be a tree and presents ready to greet her when she got home.
If only he could find where he’d put the tape…
“Aha!” Grant shouted and held the tape up triumphantly when he found it hiding behind the small pile of presents he’d already wrapped.
There was a noise at the front door and the handle turned slowly. Grant’s heart stopped. The door creaked as it opened and he screamed, flinging the tape somewhere behind him.
Ivy jumped, but caught herself on the doorframe.
“Why are you screaming?” she shouted, one hand pressed to her chest.
“Because you scared me!” Grant shouted back. “You’re supposed to be in Chicago.”
Ivy entered their apartment and shut the door behind her. Her bags were, unsurprisingly, not with her. Once she’d caught on that he would carry them up the stairs for her, she’d stopped bothering to bring them from her car.
“Remember that long delay? We finally ended up canceling and because we were in base, Brad and I got released to go home and— Did you get a Christmas tree?”
The smile she gave him was worth every splinter and pine needle prick he’d gotten getting the tree into the apartment.
“I did,” Grant said proudly. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” Ivy gushed, bypassing him to admire the tree. “You didn’t put any ornaments on it.”
“I thought I had another two days to decorate,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. “I would have made it a priority if someone had told me they were coming home.”
Ivy tilted her face to look up at him, not a hint of remorse anywhere in her gorgeous features. “I wanted to surprise you. And I kept thinking Crew Scheduling was going to call us back and say it was a prank and we actually did have to work.”
“That would have been a very Grinch thing to do.”
“Very on-brand for them.” Ivy moved her hair off her shoulders. “Can you unzip me?”
“Is this my Christmas present?” Grant toyed with the zipper of her dress.
“Only if compression pantyhose turn you on.”
“They drive me absolutely wild.”
Christmas morning did not dawn bright and festive for Grant and Ivy, because they had to be up before the sun to get to the Underwoods’ house before Gemma woke up.
Ninety percent of the fun of Christmas was experiencing his niece’s joy, and that first dopamine hit started with her seeing what Santa had brought overnight.
The smell of coffee hit him before the dancing Santa could register his presence.
“We’re here,” Grant whispered as loudly as he dared, tossing his scarf over the incessant decoration to disable the motion detector.
He and Ivy crept into the kitchen where the adult Underwoods had gathered around the percolating coffeepot.
Lorelai clutched her coffee cup tightly in her hands, watching the pot with a life-or-death intensity. “If this is the year she sleeps past seven thirty, I’m going to be so mad…”
“You’re the one who wanted to wait until after midnight to play Santa,” Jodie reminded her with a yawn.
“What if she wasn’t asleep at eight?” Lorelai asked. “She was wired last night.”
“I don’t think anything will ever top the year Piper saw Home Alone and Dad broke his wrist because he slipped on one of her traps,” Austin said.
“That she’s still with us in the land of the living after that is how you know she’s the youngest,” Lorelai said with a sleepy grin.
Grant cleared his throat loudly. “Eh-hem!”
The assembled Underwoods chimed a sleepy chorus of hellos, not taking their eyes off the coffeepot.
“Ivy’s here,” he said.
That got their attention. The only thing strong enough to pry them away from the creation of caffeine was the presence of his girlfriend.
Grant couldn’t be mad about it. Even though they’d known Ivy for her entire life, his family embraced her in an entirely different way once she and Grant had started dating.
Hell, they’d added her to the family group chat before she got her transfer to Chicago and officially moved in with him.
Ivy was inundated with hugs, which allowed Grant to sneak behind the crowd and pour two cups of freshly brewed coffee.
“You’re getting smarter,” Tim joked, right behind his son in the coffee line. “Distract them with your girlfriend and swoop in.”
“It’s the only way to get in on the first pot,” Grant said.
Tim filled two cups of coffee. In the year since his heart attack, Tim Underwood had been working hard to repair not only his health but his relationships—starting with his wife.
For the first time Grant could ever remember, his dad took his mom on a date that wasn’t on her birthday or their anniversary.
He’d been taking her on a lot of dates, mostly to the movie theater, because while Tim was putting in earnest effort, learning about romance was like trying to teach himself particle physics with a deck of baseball cards.
Plus, Tim liked the family discount.
Grant had spent the last year learning the theater business from Mr. Donaldson while still helping out at Underwood & Son, which wouldn’t be Underwood & Son for much longer.
He knew that waiting for Piper underneath the big tree was the very first T-shirt with the new Underwood & Daughter logo.
Only a few more months until Piper graduated, and he could hand off that responsibility guilt-free.
The thunder of quick, small feet made everyone look upward.
“She’s awake,” Jodie warned, taking Austin’s freshly poured cup of coffee that he’d made the mistake of leaving unattended to get coffee creamer.
“Hey!” Austin protested when he turned around and almost poured creamer on the counter where his cup had been seconds before. “That’s mine.”
Jodie slurped the coffee while maintaining eye contact with Austin.
“You know the rules,” Lorelai reminded him. “You can’t leave your coffee cup unattended if you want coffee from the first pot.”
Ivy took a leisurely sip of her coffee. “It’s how we know he’s a privileged heterosexual man. It never occurred to him to keep his eyes on his drink.”
Coffee almost came out Jodie’s nose as she tried to swallow instead of laugh.
“Santa came!” Gemma shrieked from the living room.
“Don’t touch anything!” her moms yelled in unison, trying to run without spilling their drinks.
Grace and Tim hustled after them, eager to soak in the magic of being grandparents on Christmas morning, with Austin and Piper a few feet behind, grumbling about the lack of coffee in their hands.
Ivy scooped coffee grounds into a paper liner, rinsed and refilled the pot with water, and got another pot of coffee going.
Every time he thought he couldn’t love her any more.
Grant snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You don’t have to do that,” he told her. “Someone would have made coffee after the chaos died down.”
Ivy leaned into him. “This way, no one has to miss out.” She tilted her face up to smile at him, and a few frizzy curls that escaped her bun tickled his jaw. “And Austin will stop bitching about Jodie taking his coffee sooner.”
“He knew the rules,” Grant reminded her.
“Oh, I’m fully on Jodie’s side. Parents should get first run at the coffee.” Her eyebrows pinched together with poorly concealed worry. “Would it be okay if I invited my parents over? I know we had stuff planned for when I was supposed to get back…”
Grant kissed her worry lines. “I texted them last night. They will be here at the socially acceptable time of nine.”
“I love you,” she said with a soft, grateful smile. If she only knew the things he’d do to see that smile. Frantically texting her parents that plans had changed while she was in the shower was easy.
“I love you, too.”
“Uncle Grant. Auntie Ivy,” Gemma said with strong disapproval. Over the last year in speech therapy, Gemma had really nailed the “grrr” in Grant. “It is time for presents.”
Grant stifled a laugh with a fake cough. “We’re coming.”
The tree in the living room was overwhelmed by colorfully wrapped presents. Gemma watched them take their seats with vibrating anticipation. Grant’s butt had barely connected with the floor before she tore into her first present.
After decimating her pile, Gemma’s job became Honorary Elf: she delivered presents to the seated adults.
Tim got a pair of binoculars and a book about bird watching from Lorelai and Jodie, so he could have a relaxing hobby.
Grace got a new pair of bowling shoes and a wrist brace.
Austin got bug spray, a personal fan, and a complete set of Shakespeare Made Easy for his greatly anticipated—and feared—return to the stage later that year.
Piper cried a little when she unwrapped her Underwood & Daughter shirt. Grace cried a lot when she opened her gift from Tim: a four-night Bahamian cruise…for her and Sophie.
Austin shocked the hell out of Grant and Ivy with a piece of Muppets memorabilia that he’d found through a friend of a friend. They immediately agreed that it needed to be displayed in the movie theater.
“I’m going to put the cinnamon rolls in the oven,” Grace declared at the same time Tim materialized with several big black garbage bags for all the wrapping paper. “Save the gift bags!”
Ivy leaned in close to Grant. “Your present is at home. It wasn’t appropriate to bring to a family event.”
His imagination ran so wild that he worried the blush would singe his hair.
“I’ve got something for you in the tree house,” he said.
Ivy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She looked around to see if anyone had heard him, then whispered through clenched teeth, “It is the middle of the day and your niece is here.”
“Not that,” he said, then added, “unless it’s on the table…”
“It is not.”
He shrugged, then stood and extended a hand to help Ivy up. “Never know unless you try.”
The snow wasn’t as thick as it had been the year before, but he still walked ahead of Ivy so she could step in his footprints and not risk snow in her shoes.
The tree house showed signs of being well loved by a child: toys, blankets, and some smuggled candy wrappers littered the floor.
It wasn’t the romantic setting he’d pictured it would be, but Grant couldn’t wait another minute.
“So,” he started while Ivy looked surreptitiously for her present.
The sudden onset of anxiety made his palms sweat, and he rubbed them on his pants.
“I know it’s only been a year, but—” Grant fumbled in his jacket pocket for the box he’d shoved in there before they’d left their apartment.
“I’ve loved you for so much longer than that.
Everything about you is perfect to me, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Ivy Sabrina Weaver—”
Grant started to lower himself to one knee but was tackled to the floor.
“Yes!” Ivy kissed him soundly. “Yes, yes, yes.”
“You haven’t even seen the ring,” he said between kisses.
“It could be a twist tie for all I care. Yes.”
Joy rose up in him like champagne bubbles, and he wanted to burst. He was going to marry Ivy Weaver.
The simple gold solitaire diamond ring fit her finger perfectly.
He’d let her parents be the ones to tell her that it was a family heirloom.
The diamond was certainly bigger than anything he could afford at the moment.
But just like their daughter, Ivy’s parents hadn’t even let him finish getting the question out before they were calling the bank to see when they could get into their safe-deposit box.
Ivy couldn’t stop staring at her finger, turning her hand this way and that to catch the December sunshine. “Our moms are going to be insufferable about this.”
He would gladly endure it—along with anything and everything life had to throw at him—as long as he had Ivy by his side.
The love doesn’t end here…