Epilogue
Six months later …
Holt
“Good morning, gorgeous,” I say to Blaire as I enter the den.
She looks up at me from her seat on the chair and smiles. The glasses she got over the winter make her look so studious and so fucking sexy.
“Good morning to you.” She places the binder she’s looking at onto the coffee table. Her arms stretch overhead. The edge of my T-shirt she slept in rises and gives me a peek at a swath of skin at her hip.
Mornings are my favorite time of day. Waking up to the sun rising and reminding me that my life includes Blaire is like a little gift that just keeps on giving.
My life before her was busy. It was filled with motions and things and places and to-do lists. It was filled with people too—people I cared about. People I loved.
I enjoyed my life before Blaire. It was all I knew.
Now that I have her, I don’t know how I made it through a day without her.
We’ve been figuring it out for the past six months, traveling back and forth between Illinois and Georgia. We’ve met up for weekends in Nashville and Cincinnati, and she accompanied me to Portland for a trip too.
It’s been fun, and it’s worked out well. So far.
“What are you doing today?” she asks.
I take a sip of my coffee. “Not sure. Gramps wants to watch golf, and I promised him I’d come by and do something. I didn’t commit to watching golf, though.”
Blaire laughs. “It won’t kill you to watch a little bit of golf.”
“It might. It really might.” I take another sip. “What are you doing today?”
“I’m meeting your mother at her house this afternoon.”
I quirk a brow. “Again?”
“Your mother met a lady last week who said her son got an unfair trial. He’s been in jail for a year already, and the man’s mother claims he’s innocent. It’s really been on your mom’s heart. I’m sure you can imagine.”
I sit back and listen. It’s not hard to do. She’s so beautiful and so damn smart. But she also has a huge heart that makes me love her even more.
“I can imagine,” I say. “And I’d also bet that it’s been driving you crazy too.”
She blushes. “I told her I’d meet with them today and take a look at his case.”
“You’re amazing. Do you know that?”
“Hardly,” she scoffs. “I just try to use the tools I have to … do the right thing. It’s what everyone should do.”
I sit my coffee down and start to pick up my computer. But something in the way she’s looking at me stops me in my tracks.
“Holt,” she begins. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“Sure.”
She tucks her legs under her. “I’ve been thinking and … would it freak you out if I moved to Savannah? I wouldn’t have to move in with you—”
“The hell you wouldn’t.”
My heartbeat begins to thunder inside me. My breathing gets rapid. All I can think about is taking the next step with Blaire and making sure I don’t scare her.
Because if I had my way, I’d marry her tomorrow. Today, even.
I love her.
Her eyes grow wide. “I’m not implying that I don’t want to live here. I just—”
“Good. Because if you step foot inside Georgia, it better be in this house.” I scoot to the edge of the sofa to be closer to her. “I’ve waited as patiently as a man can fucking wait for you to want to move in with me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Can I order a moving truck today? I’ll have people at your door in Chicago in an hour.”
“Holt …”
“Try me.”
“Easy there, tiger,” she says with a laugh.
“I’m being as easy as I can.”
She picks up the binder again and finds the page she was on. “Your mom wants to start a nonprofit to provide legal resources to underprivileged people around Savannah. She asked me to help.”
“And you said yes.”
“Of course, I said yes.” She looks up at me. “This is my passion in life. Besides you, naturally.”
I grin.
I pick up my coffee again and then take another drink.
The den, my favorite room in the house, is filled with the bright morning light.
I take in its warmth and imagine little kids running around it and having Saturday morning cartoons blaring from the television.
And I realize that this is why I bought this house.
A part of me always knew I’d meet Blaire.
This time last year, my idea of a good Saturday morning meant being in the office before noon and maybe playing a round of golf with Dad. Now it’s daydreaming about having children.
Who would’ve thought?
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Your mom said that Coy is coming home. I guess he and Willa ‘broke up’,” she says, using air quotes. “There was a big photo spread about it in all the celebrity magazines.”
I chuckle. “It’s so weird to me that my little brother is considered a celebrity.”
“Yeah. Well, your celebrity little brother is trying to flee the paparazzi, so he’ll be hiding out around here. She told me to tell you, so this is me telling you.”
“What she’s really doing is asking me to help babysit his dumb ass,” I groan. “She doesn’t want him having too much time on his hands or he’ll end up in the magazines all by himself.”
Blaire hums in agreement, but I don’t think she heard what I said. She’s too engrossed in the paperwork in her hands.
I kick back and let my coffee warm my hands. My mind goes back to my life before Blaire.
I thought I had it figured out. I thought I had to show restraint in all things, or my life would spiral out of control.
But Blaire proves that’s not true.
Sometimes you have to release the reins and let the world guide you. You have to trust that the universe knows what’s best.
I didn’t know that when I raced through the airport that day. I had no idea that I’d meet a woman who would change the course of my life.
I could’ve helped her up and went on about my day, too concerned with the fact that Oliver was calling me incessantly. But I took a minute and looked around and was present in the moment.
Maybe not for all the right reasons, but that’s not the point.
The point is, I now know that the world will drop little cookie crumbs in your life here and there. We just get too busy to take a moment and follow the trail. Thank God I didn’t miss the trail that day.
Because it led me to my forever.
“Hey, Blaire,” I say.
She looks up from her binder. “Yeah?”
“I love you, sweetheart.”
She grins. “I love you too.”
The End.
(Turn the page to read chapter one of Coy Mason’s book, Reputation.)