Epilogue
RYAN
Five years later
Warm arms wrapped around my waist, and I didn’t even have to look in the mirror to know my husband had joined me in our bathroom. Jones kissed the base of my neck and pressed a line of kisses up to my jaw.
“God, Sparkles, I missed you so much. I hate when you have to go on these work trips,” he whispered against my skin, then turned my head to steal my lips.
I turned around in his arms and pulled him in for a deeper kiss.
I’d returned from my work trip this morning while Jones was still at work, and he’d just gotten home.
He was still in his work clothes and smelling like man after a hard day of physical labor.
That, mixed with his natural scent of sun and fresh dirt, had me pitching a tent.
Jones noticed. I could feel his smirk against my lips as his hands massaged my ass cheeks. He rubbed his erection against mine, making me fully hard.
“Fuck, stop. Karla’s gonna be back at any moment,” I gasped and broke our kiss. I tried to struggle out of his arms, but Jones held me tight.
“Did she have fun at Gigi’s today?” he asked, kissing down my neck again. I tried to push down the swirling fog of lust and keep my head clear.
“Grandma was helping with Karla’s summer homework. Some arts and crafts assignment. When I arrived, they looked like I’d come to ruin their fun,” I told him, breathing ragged.
Jones laughed.
At ninety-five, my grandma was officially the oldest resident in Kither Springs. She had shrunk another inch in height, but aside from that, she was still going strong and loved spending time with her great-granddaughter.
Jones kissed the sensitive spot at the back of my ear. “And where’s Karla now?”
I couldn’t think straight and tried to push him away again. I had a hard time thinking when he was so close.
“She’s, uh, hanging out with Imani and their friends,” I replied when I found my voice again.
“We have time then,” he said, then spun me around and bent me over till I was resting over the bathroom vanity.
“Jones, we really shouldn’t. We’re gonna get?—”
All my weak protests turned into moans when Jones pulled down my pants and underwear, spread my cheeks, and feasted like a man ending a hunger strike.
“God, I missed the taste of you. I’d keep you here and eat you out all day if you let me,” he said, taking a nibble of my right cheek.
He speared his tongue into my hole and wasted no time sliding in a thick finger alongside it.
“Fuck, Jones. Stop teasing and get inside me already,” I cried when he kept hitting my prostate just lightly enough for me to get a taste. All it did was make my desire for him burn even more.
He stood and leaned into my ear. “I thought you said we shouldn’t do this?”
I reached back with my hands and spread my cheeks for him, not even caring about how needy I probably looked. I was needy—for him.
It’d been an entire fucking week since I’d last had him inside me, so he didn’t get to tease me like this after working me up.
Jones’ eyes darkened as his eyes landed on my exposed hole. He’d already unzipped his jeans and pulled his length free. His dick was slick from the lube he’d pulled from who the hell knew where.
“Such a pretty hole,” he breathed. His large hands covered mine to stretch my cheeks wider for him. Then, in one smooth thrust, he pushed all the way inside.
A guttural sound came from me, sounding even more lewd echoing in the bathroom. Jones wasn’t much better and made a sexy growling noise when he sank in deep.
“Fuck, I missed coming home,” he groaned. His hands were rough on my hips as he pounded my ass, making sure to hit the spot that had me seeing stars. All I could do was hold on tight to the vanity.
It didn’t take long for him to shoot his load inside of me, and then he was fisting my cock until I joined him. I turned my head and begged for his lips as my orgasm washed over me.
I was lost in his kiss, feeling soft and warm from the good fucking Jones had given me, when a loud “Dad!” came from the living room.
“Fuck!” I muttered in a panic, almost biting Jones’ tongue. I pushed him off me, which only made his cum drip down my thighs.
I shot daggers at the culprit behind my current situation. Jones chuckled and kissed my forehead, my glare bouncing right off him.
“You clean up and I’ll head out first,” he said, tucking himself away and redoing his zipper. He looked completely put together after making a mess out of me.
I glared harder as I watched him quickly wash his hands, then exit our bathroom.
“My baby girl, where have you been?”
“Papa! You’re back!” I heard our girl’s giggles bounce into the bathroom.
I quickly cleaned up and made sure I was presentable before joining them in the living room. Jones had Karla in his arms as she animatedly told him all about her day.
Lily and Sunny were circling around Jones’ legs with their tongues lolled out. They were almost identical now, save for Lily’s more pinkish nose while Sunny’s was pitch black.
“Dad! There you are!” Karla shouted when she saw me. I silently winced at the new title she’d started calling me this month, saying only babies still called their dad daddy .
Never mind the fact that at ten, she was, and always will be, my baby. But what made it worse was that Jones got to keep his cool papa moniker!
This wasn’t the plan! Once Kassy fell in love, her husband was supposed to be the boring dad while I kept being daddy .
Kassy dying hadn’t been part of the plan either.
I still missed her so freaking much, and I knew from losing my dad that the hole of their loss would never go away. But thinking about them now didn’t overwhelm me with sadness as it had before. I was able to recall all our happy memories and share them with Karla with a smile now.
I didn’t want Karla to grow up forgetting her amazing mom, so I often told her stories about her. Some nights, the three of us and our dogs would lounge in the rocking chairs on the patio and look up into the night sky to find her.
Karla was old enough now to know that her mom hadn’t really turned into a star, but I think she still had fun pretending and pointing out all the stars that twinkled hello to us.
“Imani and I and the others are gonna go to the top,” Karla told Jones, then wiggled out of his hold.
She didn’t have to clarify what she meant. The kids had been running around the trails behind our cabin for years now. I didn’t worry too much since Jones and I had done the same when we were her age. Plus, with Lily and Sunny following them, I knew they would be well protected.
“Be safe,” Jones said and kissed her cheek. Karla giggled when his beard tickled him.
“Your nana and gigi are coming over for dinner tonight, so make sure you come back before then,” I told her. Karla was still giggling and playfully tugged on Jones’ beard.
“Karla,” I said in a warning tone.
“I will!” she said with another laugh. She ran to give me a kiss on the cheek, then sprinted toward the sliding back doors, the dogs at her heel.
Before she left, she stopped by a picture frame and said, “I’ll be back, Mom!
” Then she was off to where Imani and the others were waiting for her at the base of our private trail.
I always got a little teary-eyed whenever Karla spoke to Kassy’s photo like she was talking right to her.
I liked to think Kassy was watching over us.
Jones had insisted we keep photos of Kassy up around the house so Karla could remember how loved she was.
Most of the photos were of Kassy holding Karla, huge smile and blue eyes so similar to mine, sparkling as she held our baby girl.
The walls were covered in photos, not only of Kassy, but of all of us from over the years. Pictures of friends and family, and all the happiness we’d created these past five years.
My favorite was our wedding photo, which Jones had blown up to hang over the fireplace.
Our friends and family stood on either side of us as we posed in front of our cabin.
Jones and I wore matching white suits, standing close to each other while holding Karla in our arms. She looked adorable in her yellow dress with her toothless smile.
All of us wore the yellow flower crowns Karla had insisted on making for our wedding.
Jones pulled me into his arms, looking at the photo in question, too. He kissed my forehead. “I can’t believe it’s already been three years since you made an honest man out of me,” he said, teasing. He held my left hand and rubbed my ring finger where we’d gotten matching ring tattoos.
Since it was dangerous for Jones to wear jewelry while working, we decided to get matching tattoos on our ring fingers with the date we reunited in the shape of a ring. We still wore the gold rings I’d gotten us when I proposed, but only for special occasions.
I snorted, remembering the not-so-honest thing he’d just done in our bathroom not even ten minutes ago.
Jones told me not to make him wait, so I proposed to him in the field of yellow flowers the summer after we moved in. We got married the summer after that, with only our closest friends and family in attendance, right here at our cabin. And a few months after that, Jones officially adopted Karla.
“I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did earlier. If we’d finished a minute later, we would have gotten caught,” I grumbled, but I still pressed our chests close together.
“How should I make it up to you?” he said with a teasing smile.
“Should I give you another pounding? Go slow and slide my dick over your prostate the way you love? Are you gonna order me around till I’ve wrung every last drop of pleasure from you?
You know how much I love it when you tell me what to do with those sweet lips. ”
I moaned just thinking about it. After all these years together, Jones knew my body like the back of his hand. And he was so fucking good at following directions, too.
But I stayed strong and gripped his ass cheeks. “Your ass is mine tonight.”
“Promises, promises,” Jones said with a twinkle in his eye. He pressed a soft, comforting kiss to my lips.
“I think the kids took over our spot,” I told him when I’d fully recharged myself with his lips.
“Good thing I found a new spot for myself,” he said and wiggled a finger into my crack to press against my hole.
I rolled my eyes and pushed him away. “Go wash up. I need to start on dinner,” I said and left before he could pull me into the shower with him.
Jones’ laughter followed my back, but he did as I said. I made my way to the kitchen, stopping to smell the coneflowers I’d picked earlier today.
It’d become a tradition of sorts to make a bouquet for Jones every year. Of course, I always replanted as many as I took, and now the field of flowers had spread onto our property as well.
Karla returned just as I finished cooking, dragging dirt in with her. Jones cleaned up the dogs and the mess while Karla cleaned herself.
Dinner was a quiet affair, with good conversation and lots of laughter. Mom and Grandma didn’t stay too long afterward since Grandma went to bed pretty early these days. We hugged them goodnight, the parting short since we’d see them again tomorrow.
As soon as the car was gone, Karla ran into the backyard to play with the dogs. Jones and I smiled as we watched her. Our girl had a boundless amount of energy.
“Sit with me?” Jones said as he sank into his rocking chair.
“Always,” I told him, and settled into mine. The legs of our chairs touched as we rocked. Jones twined his fingers through mine and pulled my hand up to kiss the back of it. The soft setting sun turned the entire world into a warm embrace .
“I love you, Sparkles,” he whispered. “You make me so happy.”
“Yeah?” I asked, voice trembling. He nodded.
Five years ago, I promised I’d live every day to make him happy, and I did my very best to keep my promise.
That didn’t mean we never fought, but we made sure to end each night loving each other, no matter how much we hated the other’s guts at that moment.
“I love you,” I told him. “Thank you for waiting for me.”
He laughed, his eyes wrinkling more than they used to. Memories of the boy with the very same laugh appeared in my mind. We were so young and happy back then, and so clueless about the world and the struggles we’d face.
We weren’t young anymore, but we were still happy. Always happy. And we now faced our struggles together, hand-in-hand.
And I was never letting go.