Epilogue
Colson
Arogue ocean breeze shifted the sheer curtains Nora had picked out for this floor. They were my favorite of all the ones she’d picked. Each floor had its own theme, but this one…my mother’s favorite spot, she’d decorated it all for me.
I told Nora I wanted whatever color she picked to match her eyes.
The aqua fabric had the sun bleeding through it, casting a glow over the hardwood.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked down right at my mother’s garden and smiled.
“There he is.” Nate mused, tipping his head back with a drink from his flask.
Trevor came up next, slapping me on the back. “You ready for this?”
I turned towards my brothers, smirking at the sight of them in suits.
“I’ve been ready for this for a while.”
Their shoulders shook with laughter.
Nate twisted the cap on his flask. “Well, we have to find your best man…any ideas where he might be?”
“He’s been with me most of the day…maybe he went to check on the girls?”
Trevor furrowed his brow, “last I saw he was talking to Haley…they looked like they might be in an argument or something.”
Fuck. I didn’t need to be worried about whether or not my little sister was going to lose her job right now.
Liam couldn’t keep a nanny or babysitter to save his life, I had no idea why my sister would be any different.
Regardless of what Nora seemed to think…
Liam and Haley argued too often for her theories to be correct.
“If I find him with his hands near our baby sister, I will lose my shit. Your wedding or not, I will kill him.” Trevor warned, stealing Nate’s flask.
Nate and I both laughed, shoving his shoulder.
“Liam is a fucking boxing legend, you idiot. And he’d never cross that line with his nanny…not to mention our little sister came here with a date.”
The sound of music starting up from below made my heart slam into my ribs.
It took me back to that first time I had brought Nora here, and how much brokenness I had felt that night. How she saw me through the worst of it, how she gave me a chance to prove to her how much I wanted this…how much I wanted her.
I planned on reminding her every single day.
“We’re going to go find Brock,” Trevor slapped my back and the two of them left.
I had no idea how much time passed as I stared down at the place where I’d marry Nora, the arch covered the expanse of my mother’s garden, the cement that had been poured over it was gone, so now it was tilled, fresh soil.
Over the top of that soil was a raised platform, where I’d stand, along with our bridal party and the pastor.
There was green ivy, white gauzy fabric woven through the arch, along with big white flowers.
I had no fucking clue what they were called, but I remembered when Rae and Nora talked in great detail at our kitchen table over which ones to order.
The designer in Nora had come out in full swing and was showing up in every precise detail.
I knew I’d go down first, but a small part of me wanted to just stay here, a few doors down from where I had stayed with Nora that night…a few doors down from where I first confessed to loving her. From the place where I realized that she wouldn’t run from how broken I was.
Part of me wanted to just have her come up here, marry me in the privacy of this hall, in my mother’s favorite place.
But I wanted to marry her over that soil even more. To flip the middle finger to Sherrie and my father. Fuck knows where they ended up, they left as soon as Haley had discovered that the house didn’t even belong to him.
Apparently, my mother left me the house; it was supposed to go to me on my twenty-fifth birthday…my fucking father never said a word.
“Colson, it’s time.” Liam walked in, straightening his tie.
I turned to look at my best friend and realized he was clenching his molars which made his jaw tick.
I gripped his shoulder, distracting him from fixing his tie. “You good?”
Liam wouldn’t look me in the eye, which made my concern over Haley losing her job rise to the surface. I wanted to ask but I knew this wasn’t the time…not the day.
My friend finally gave me a smile. “I’m good…just had an issue with the girls, but I’m fine. You ready?”
I knew he was bullshitting me.
Liam got that look in his eye when he wanted to hit something. I saw it when we sparred in the ring.
I’d deal with his bullshit later.
Walking past him, I took the stairs one at a time feeling my pulse race each step of the way.
The ocean air was balmy and felt good against the summer sun.
It was nearly six in the evening, but the heat from the day was still heavy in the air.
The breeze ruffled the white gauzy material woven in between the ivy and flowers.
I stared at the backs of the guests’ heads who were seated in rows of white fold out chairs, set up along the grass.
The preacher was already on the raised platform waiting, my guys followed me as I stepped up and got into place. There off to the side were two people holding a violin and a cello, their strings moving in a beautiful rhythmic melody.
My breathing was a mess of panic and excitement as I listened to the crescendo rise, and I realized this was happening. It was real.
It made me think back to when I had asked Nora to marry me a few months ago.
We had moved the fence line between our properties so that her original garden could be expanded on my side. It was something that had bridged our worlds together and one day while she was covered in dirt, wearing a hat over those big curls, she smiled up at me, holding a berry that had grown.
She was so insatiably happy over something she’d produced; over something she’d done—it tore me open in a way that had me sinking into the dirt next to her. Then after tucking a curl behind her ear, I simply said.
“Marry me.”
She was so stunned that she’d flung herself at me, knocking me back into the dirt and kissed me senseless, covered in soil. It was fitting now marrying her over the start of a new garden.
Mila, Seraph, and Maddy began walking down the aisle, tossing more of those white flowers out of their baskets. They wore beautiful dresses, a pale-yellow color that seemed to match the bridesmaid dresses.
Haley walked behind them beaming down at their heads. Her hair was curled, she had darker lashes than she normally did and that with the little gold flecks on her cheeks, made her look like she’d stepped from a fairytale.
I smiled at her as she crossed in front of me, but her gaze lifted and stuck to the man standing next to me. It wasn’t a smile that graced her lips though…it looked more like a sneer.
Liam cleared his throat behind me and adjusted his tie.
I couldn’t focus on that, not when Rae cleared the aisle next, her gaze staying on her husband, Davis, who stood next to Liam. Then the tune changed, the melody of the violin and cello slowing and thrumming with base. It made my stomach swirl, and my heart slam against my chest.
A flash of white, and she stepped out.
My heart thundered; my lashes coated with tears as my eyes betrayed me.
Shit.
Her curls were wild, tossed up some gorgeous way that left tendrils floating around her face, and her dress fell off her shoulders, dipping into an elegant v, showing off her delicate collar bone.
Those aqua eyes stayed on me as she walked, and the guests stood.
Her father held his elbow at an angle, and her hand rested inside it.
Seeing him walk her toward me made me smirk for an entirely different reason.
Fucker had come a long way over the past few months.
He even looked like he was fighting a few tears as they walked, but if I had to guess it was merely because she’d chosen me over his ridiculous idea of freedom and choices that were never hers.
The closer she got, the more my hands began to shake.
She slung a wide smile my way with that same purple color staining her lips, that I loved so much.
She was really doing this.
She’d chosen forever with me.
Her father helped her step up the raised dais, and then her hand was in mine, and everything seemed to melt away.
Her eyes locked on my blue ones, and my breath hung heavy in my lungs.
This was it.
Our forever.
Nora
5 years later
The ocean roared below the cliff, but it was in steady competition with the happy squeals echoing through the air as my sons played tag.
I was currently tending to a patch of soil that was supposed to be yielding sweet potatoes but hadn’t yet.
I had no idea what I was doing wrong, but this was the summer I’d figure it out so we could harvest this fall.
We spent every summer here in California, staying on the estate, and liked to donate whatever we yielded here to a local soup kitchen before we headed back to Macon. A chime came from my phone, forcing me to take my gloves off. Pulling it from my overalls, I smiled.
Colson: when are you coming back inside?
I slid my fingers over the screen rapidly.
Me: the boys are playing tag
Colson: so let them, have Haley go out there …she said Jamie just woke up from a nap and wanted to play outside.
I considered it…
Me: what exactly would we be doing once I go inside?
Colson: you’d help me in the shower…I haven’t had you in two days…Haley keeps monopolizing you at night with that stupid show.
Me: First of all, it’s not stupid…and secondly; fair. But I don’t want a quickie…I want to orgasm at least once before you insert your mc into me.
Colson:…you know I hate when you type the initials
Me: and you know I hate when I have to spell out the whole word….
Colson: Monster Cock. Not that hard, baby…sorry—it in fact is currently getting hard. I’m thinking of how you begged for this monster cock to fuck you so hard you wouldn’t be able to walk the next day.
Me: a massive, miscalculated request…
The boys made a giggling sound behind the sunflower patch, which made me smile. They were planning something. That was where they went to conspire against the world.
Colson: Come up here, Nora. I’m already fucking my hand thinking of your lips wrapped around me.
I was already getting worked up just thinking about it.
Me: Deal…coming right now, start the shower.
Standing, I dusted my knees and called for the boys.
“Kane, Tarryn!”
The twins popped into view, their big blue eyes beaming with giddy excitement. They both had lighter hair like their father, but they had my curls.
“Come on, we need to go inside and get Aunt Haley.”
Tarryn reached into his pocket with his little fingers, grabbing a piece of paper.
“Wait!” he rushed in a frantic pout, “first, we have to mail our letters to grandma.”
Kane started feeling his pockets until he pulled a paper from the back of his jeans.
“Yeah, our letters!”
The boys had begun drawing pictures for their grandma, and after they realized their dad wrote letters to her, they wanted to participate as well.
So, I’d set up a mailbox in the garden, and whenever the boys had a letter for grandma, they’d walk over and place it inside.
Colson would collect them, and then tape each one into a photo album that each of our sons would get when they were older.
But every time those letters made my husband smile, and every single summer that we came and stayed here, it was like a piece of daylight pierced his heart and breathed fresh hope into his lungs.
This place was slowly healing him. Our life, our marriage and boys…
they worked to knit those tattered and torn heartstrings back together.
I loved when he saw what his sons would create, and the fact that it was now a tradition whenever we came to visit made my heart burn bright.
“Okay, let’s mail them and then go find Aunt Haley.”
I followed after them as they began running barefoot through the soil, then when they found the rusted mailbox with leaves growing all around it and a few sunflowers, they tugged the metal flap down and shoved their little fists inside, leaving their notes behind.
I smiled as they both ran back towards the house.
I took a second to watch the sun beat down on our little world and thought back to how I’d been tempted by my neighbor into a fulfilling and meaningful life.
One that I couldn’t be more grateful for.