Epilogue Ian
I can’t convince Chloe to elope with me. She insists on a wedding, and I will never deny her anything.
“Is there a reason there’s a headstone sitting in your yard?” Logan stands next to me in my backyard, waiting for the music to start and the show to get on the road.
“Yeah,” I tell him. “Chloe went to the cemetery with a dolly and Kennedy’s help, I’m assuming. She dug up Kevin’s headstone and brought it back here so she can bury it in the yard. But she doesn’t want to bury it until after the wedding.” I shoot a droll look in his direction. “That’s the woman I’m gonna marry.”
“Yeah.” He laughs. “She’s a fuckin’ riot.”
“Why are the Harmons here?” Linc growls from the other side of Logan. “You’re kidding me, right? First, he tries to steal my woman, then his brother tries?—”
“Nope.” I shut him down. “Josh saved her life. And Kyle testified against his ex-wife. Between the two of them, they guaranteed that the woman I love will be safe from the psycho who shall not be named.” And when Josh’s eyes seek out mine, I nod in thanks at him. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those two men.”
Linc growls, but I know it has nothing to do with me or Chloe, and everything to do with the fact that he almost pushed Kennedy into the other man’s arms once before. Dom elbows him in the ribs, and Linc shuts up.
Remy stands at the end of the line next to Dom, with Ben at his side, and the two of them are muttering under their breath, thinking that none of us can hear them.
“I don’t get it,” Remy whispers. “How does that happen?”
“You have twins because you’re an idiot and you didn’t listen to Kevin’s letter,” Dom snaps good-naturedly.
“He’s right, you know. Should have listened to the bucket list.”
Everyone looks at me, and Remy shakes his head in denial. “Shut up. You’re just jealous that Chloe isn’t pregnant yet.”
I smile at him, at all of them, and don’t say a word.
“No.” Dom starts laughing.
“No shit.” Remy and Ben high-five each other.
“Holy shit.” Linc shakes his head. “They’re all having babies.”
“Does she know that yet?”
The last one comes from Logan, who isn’t watching me. His eyes are locked on the back door to our house, where I can see the women through the glass windows.
“It’s starting,” he says, nudging Linc in the ribs and making it impossible for the last question to get answered, because all of our eyes pivot to the door.
The music starts, and for the first time in my life, my palms start to sweat at the same time that my heart starts racing and my guts feel like they are sinking into the ground.
“She picked lethal bridesmaid dresses,” Linc announces hoarsely. “Thank the skies above that I already knocked up Kennedy.”
He is beyond right. Chloe picked formfitting and deep-cut dresses that are the same shade as wine. But I don’t care about that. I’m more interested in the groans that are coming from my friends. They are all screwed. Every single one of them.
Logan is the only one who doesn’t say a word. His eyes are locked on Poppy, who won’t make eye contact with him. And Logan’s doing everything he can, which is admittedly little, to get her attention short of waving and running down the aisle to get her to see him.
I have to help him get her, because I can see his twisted little heart on his sleeve. But one thing at a time. First, I’m gonna marry my best friend’s little sister.
One by one, the women come down the aisle. And then, after they are all standing up at the makeshift altar with us, in front of a crowd of our friends and family, a different song starts to play. One without words or a real melody.
“Is that?”
“Yup.”
My bride chose to walk down the aisle to “Witchy Woman” by the Eagles, and I’m not even surprised.
Bee and Nox walk out hand in hand first. Nox lets go of her hand when they reach the first chairs, and Bee starts to spread her flowers. She’s wearing a mini version of the bridesmaid dresses, her long blond hair laid out in ringlets that somehow manage to frame her face and show a vague shadow of what she’ll look like in twenty years.
Nox looks exactly like his father did at his age. He’s wearing a dark-gray, almost black suit with a tie that matches Bee’s dress, and he’s patiently waiting for Bee to finish spreading her flowers.
Only then does he gently take her by the hand and lead her to the front row of chairs where they sit together.
Then Chloe and Kevin walk out together. For the first time since they’ve come home, Kevin isn’t using a cane to walk. Instead, he stands tall, with his dark hair freshly cut. I know because he made me cut it for him that morning. And the scar over his eye is practically invisible.
But my eyes never leave Chloe.
Chloe, who isn’t wearing a white dress.
Instead, she wears a dark-gray strapless wedding dress that hugs her chest and down to her waist and then does that goofy thing that wedding dresses do. It poofs out and somehow still frames her delicate body. And the entire bottom looks like the gray melts into the same color as the bridesmaid dresses.
“Holy shit,” Logan finally whispers next to me.
“She’s stunning.”
I want to rush to her. To pick her up, to claim her as my own already. But I don’t.
This moment is too important for her. For us.
Kevin, walking her down the aisle, is the one thing that Chloe wanted more than anything else in the world. That doesn’t mean that I’m not counting down the seconds until they make it to us, though.
When Kevin finally puts her hand in mine, he looks me dead in the eye. “If you hurt her, I’ll cut you into tiny pieces and feed you to lobsters in the middle of the summer. There’ll be nothing left, and no one will ever find you.”
It doesn’t matter that he is my best friend. It doesn’t matter that I pulled him out of a hole and helped save his life. Chloe is his little sister. That bond is something greater than I, or anyone who doesn’t have a connection like theirs, could ever imagine.
I nod, shaking his hand and pulling him into a tight hug. “If I hurt her, you’ll have to stand in line, brother.”
“Yeah,” Poppy quips. “I call dibs on the lobsters.”
“I’ve got the machete.” Kennedy shrugs when I look at her.
“I’ve got the rifle, and I’m sure I can get something untraceable.” Emma offers glibly. “I can forget the badge for a day.”
“I’m pretty sure that we could get away with it.” Parker rubs her hand over her stomach gently. “Just blame it on hormones or something when it happens.”
“Whatever it is,” Kevin adds. “You’ve been warned, and it looks like Chloe’s got an entire army ready to go to war for her.” He kisses Chloe on the cheek. “I love you, little sister. Now get this thing done so that you can start the next chapter of your life and make me an uncle.”
I marry my best friend’s little sister.
And even though I swear that I can’t put her back together, that all I can do is break her down and tear her apart, I think Chloe is the one who puts me back together again.
Over and over.
Even when she told me she hated me.
Handing me back the ring that now shines on her finger was the biggest test our relationship has ever been through. But we survived, and the love we have is stronger because of it.
I know that Chloe never left me, not really.
Her heart was always mine, just like mine will always be hers.
“I love you, Ian Keller.” She presses her lips to mine before we’ve been formally announced. “Now you’re stuck with me forever.”
I kiss her again, wrapping my hands around her waist and dragging her as close as I can in front of an audience. “I know, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”