Epilogue
LACEY - ONE YEAR LATER
“Gotta say, Lace,” Warren says, watching with wonder as Claire reaches out and wraps her fingers around his. “This is your best character creation yet.”
“I told him that joke in the car,” Vanessa scoffs, and when she laughs, Claire giggles happily in her arms, looking up at Vanessa with that wide-open, gummy smile I’ll never get tired of seeing.
There’s always that ever-present itch to take my baby back, nestle her back into my arms, but I ignore it. I trust Vanessa, and besides, I’ve been playing with Claire all morning. It’s nice to relax for a moment.
Also, there’s something undoubtedly heartwarming about seeing Vanessa and Warren — an even more unlikely pair than Max and me — giving the whole being together thing a shot. And holding a baby, nonetheless.
We’re standing in the living room of the cabin that was once Jasper’s, and now mine. Ours. It looks a little different than before. Max painted it a sea foam green after I decided I didn’t want to rent it out, and I love the way the sunlight through the windows lights up the space.
Claire laughs again, throwing her head back, and Vanessa laughs, copying her. Warren looks on with admiration.
At first, I’d worried that Max and I weren’t going to make good parents. We read the books, went to the classes, and took advice from anyone who would give it, despite the fact that a lot of it contradicted itself.
But there was nothing to worry about. Max loves me, I love him, and the moment Claire was born on a beautiful June evening, that love shifted and expanded. We have more than enough for her.
“Are we ready to go?” Max asks, walking into the living room, a huge diaper bag slung over his shoulder.
Each time we leave the cabin with Claire, he acts like we’re going on an expedition, packing any number of items we might end up needing.
It’s resulted in a huge bag, and also several other parents being very impressed with us.
“We are,” Vanessa says, reaching over and handing Claire back to me. “More than ready. You’ve been talking about the fall festival since you went last year.”
“You’re going to love it,” Warren says, eyeing her. “It is totally your kind of event. But you can’t ride your motorcycle there.”
She punches him lightly in the arm, and we turn, heading out the door and to the car.
Max plucks Claire from my arms, making her laugh again, and tucks her into the car seat in the back. I circle around to the passenger seat, and we convoy down the side of the mountain with Warren and Vanessa in the lead.
When we get to Low Pines, it’s just as cute as it was last year. We park on the edge of town and get out, chatting while Max puts together the stroller, then we set out down the road.
“Just wait until you see it,” Warren says, right before we turn the corner and spot the general store, and the crowd gathered outside it.
Actually, they’re not outside the general store; they’re gathered around the building beside the general store.
“There he is!” someone whispers as we walk past, and Max waves, smiling quickly before averting his eyes.
“He’s never going to get used to it, is he?” Warren asks as Max unlocks the shop and heads inside.
“No,” I answer, and Vanessa taps my arm, nodding her head in the direction of the crowd. Someone is wearing a High Pines shirt: the game we made based on high fantasy and this town. Their shirt features Leithe, the succubus hardware store owner.
“Unreal,” Vanessa says, and she’s right, it is. While not a break-the-charts best-selling game, ours is doing pretty well for itself and building up a fan base of players who are entranced with the story. It’s more than I’ve ever wanted.
A moment later, Max flips the store’s sign to open and says something to his partner behind the counter, an apprentice he’s taken on who helps him run the shop and make the furniture at his workshop.
The crowd floods inside, and Max is delayed a few times for conversations before he finally makes it back to us.
“Celebrity is so hard, isn’t it, Maxwell?” Warren says.
“Not my name,” Max grumbles.
Vanessa leans in close to me, asking, under her breath, “What is his name?”
“Sorry,” I whisper back, shooting her a knowing look. “You’re on the enemy team now. I can’t tell you.”
From her stroller Claire grins at Max, who has stopped to pick up her toy, waving a chunky arm at him and making a babbling noise that sounds a lot like, “Dada!”
Max freezes. We all do. My mouth drops open, even though I know there’s no way she’s saying her first word so young.
Then, a smile erupts on Max’s face and he reaches into the stroller, unbuckling her and pulling her out, lifting her up into the air. “That’s right! I’m Dada! Good job, sweetheart!”
I decide not to tell Max that Claire was definitely just making random sounds.When he glances over at me, I mime taking a picture, and Vanessa nudges me, pointing to her phone. “I got the real one, if you want it.”
The smile is present on Max’s face all day, through the face painting and pumpkin-picking and even weaving our way through the crowds, which have only gotten thicker this year — especially with the customers coming to get pieces directly from Max’s store, which is only open one day a week usually, but more during the fall festival.
The website and social media postings have helped drum up some interest, along with the fact that Warren has been working his magic with marketing Max’s work, spreading the word for nearly twelve years, so when Max finally did appear on the internet, there were already plenty of people searching for him there.
We’ve been at the fall festival for about an hour when Max and I spot something at the same time.
“Is that—” Max starts to ask.
At the same time, I pull away and shout, “Mom!”
It is her, standing with Liam Smythe, who’s leaning on an apple booth and smiling up at my mother like she brought him the sun. Of course, she’s drinking it up.
“Uh, hi, Mom,” I say when I get closer, and she turns to me, her cheeks pink from the flirting. I shoot Liam a glare, for the first time understanding a modicum of what Max doesn’t like about him. “What are you doing?”
“I thought I would come early,” she says, pulling me into a hug, her perfume washing around me, “and surprise you at the festival!” Then, lower and just for me, she says, “Sure you need me to take Claire tonight? Looks like I could have other plans…”
Pulling back, I shoot Liam another glare, but he’s too busy mooning over my mother. I cross my arms and clear my throat, glaring at her. “Yes, I’m sure. Sorry, no way you can get out of it.”
She fluffs her hair and looks back at Liam. “Too bad.”
“Yeah.” Warren laughs. He gives Max a look that I can’t quite read. “Too bad.”
“Well, come on,” Vanessa says. She’s holding a caramel apple in one hand and a pumpkin spice croissant in the other, definitely embracing the vibe of the festival. “We have to finish visiting all the booths.”
“Ri-ight.” Max laughs, while Warren slings an arm around Vanessa’s waist and says something teasing into her ear, which earns him a smear of pumpkin spice over his cheek.
For a moment, as my mom takes Claire from Max and coos at her happily, I’m almost paralyzed by my own happiness. More than a year ago, when I climbed into my car and started for Montana, I never could have predicted that it would go like this.
“What’s in your head?” Max asks, pulling me in and pressing a kiss to my temple.
“Oh, nothing,” I say, turning to him, smiling when I realize we’re going to get the entire night — no diaper changes, no crying, no waking with a start just to check the monitor and realize everything is fine — all to ourselves.
He smiles back, making a joke that puts even more meaning and emphasis on the to ourselves part. I laugh, and Max kisses me, ignoring the calls from the others to hurry up as the kiss deepens.
If there’s one thing Montana has taught me, it’s to slow down and take every moment as it comes.
When we flick the lights on at the cabin and walk inside, exhausted and happy from the long day at the festival, I’m hit once more with the sense of Jasper being here. In the walls and floors, in the bones of the place that Max and I have made a home for ourselves.
It’s like I can practically hear him saying, Good job, Bug.
“Max?” I ask when he quickly takes off his shoes and jacket and disappears into the bedroom. “Wait, are you okay? What are you doing?”
Mom has Claire and Dona down at the other cabin. It’s still where Max goes during the day to do woodworking and glass blowing, and where Vanessa and Warren stay when she comes to visit. This is my mom’s third time here, the first being right after I had Claire.
“Max?” I ask, wandering after him into the bedroom, but when I walk through the threshold, I gasp.
The bed and floor are covered with rose petals, and Max has just finished lighting a candle on the bedside table, turning to look up at me with a breathless expression.
“This is special.” I laugh, but then I gasp again when he turns and drops to one knee in front of me, holding out a ring. When he tips his head up to look at me, the light from the candles dances over his dark eyes and thick hair, highlighting the undertones of gold there.
“Lacey,” he says, that deep voice serious and almost reverent.
“When you first pulled over to the side of the road, I thought I didn’t want anything to do with you.
But you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Our little family is the best thing that’s happened to me.
You’ve brought more sunshine to this side of the mountain.
Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? ”
“Oh my God,” I breathe through my fingers, tears already pricking at my eyes as I stare down at him. I never thought I would be the kind of girl to cry at a proposal, but here I am. “Of course, yes, Max, I—”
But I can’t get any other words out because he’s wrapping his arms around me, stepping close, putting the ring on my finger and pulling me in against him.
I might have been the maddest I’ve ever been when I realized what Jasper did, keeping everything to himself, then leaving this cabin to me.
But Max is right. Getting the cabin is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, too.
“I love you,” I say as he lifts me and places me on the bed, his eyes already going dark, his lips trailing over my collarbone.
“It’s more than love,” he murmurs, brushing the pad of his thumb over the ring on my finger. “It’s fate. You were right when you said it: you are a sign from the universe. And I’m ready to cash in on that good life together.”
I smile, wrap my arms around his neck and bring him close to me, trying to drink him in like I have so many times before. Trying to remember this moment, to take it as a photo or video in my head that I can return to forever.
“Me, too,” I say.
Max rewards me with a smile, then leans over and blows out the candle.
The End
I hope you’ve enjoyed Lacey and Max’s story!