36. Epilogue
Grady
Maggie looked radiant, absolutely glowing when she grinned at me from across the banquet hall on election night.
The result could have only gone two different ways, and although the victory was narrower than I liked to see, Maggie had beaten me fair and square.
In the weeks after the Small Town Savior show, the town had been rife with gossip about me, about Maggie, and even about Trent again. Old wounds had been reopened all around, but it had let a lot of the air clear in a way that I’m not sure it would have otherwise.
Whenever I caught wind of something incorrect about Maggie or Trent or even me, I set the record straight firmly and quickly. If Maggie and I intended to make our home here permanently and eventually raise a family here, I wasn’t having any lingering doubts about her role in Trent’s drug ring, about my brother’s sense of remorse, about my love for both of them.
With my Small Town Savior performance going hugely viral, I’d been doing a lot of radio, television, YouTube, and social media lives with other creators, news people, and others in the industry. At every turn there, I shouldered the blame, without hesitation, for my portrayal of Maggie and Trent in my songs, for the folly of youth, and how I intended to work my ass off to make up my idiocy to Maggie and Trent for as long as they’d have me.
Tyler appeared at my shoulder, a victory beer in his hand. I’d had a special batch of beer and wine made up with customized labels for Mayor Maggie.
“Dad would be really proud,” Tyler said, his voice thick with emotion.
“I suspect he was always proud of all of you,” I said, not taking my eyes off Maggie. One of the joys of having her was that I didn’t have to hide how much I wanted her, cherished her.
“It’s made me think a lot about fatherhood,” Tyler admitted, taking a long draught of his beer.
“I keep thinking about Amir,” I said, shifting my focus to Emily’s little guy who was running through the crowd of town supporters, streamers flying from his outstretched hands. “Two father figures gone.”
“Trent’s been taking him to the mechanic shop, I hear,” Tyler said with a small smile. “And I’ve been trying to teach him how to sew.”
“Any luck?”
“None,” Tyler said. “But I hear he’s learned the names and uses of some tools with Trent. Omar was always good with his hands.”
“I never met him.”
“He was a good guy. Firefighter. I hope Emily can find someone else who lights her up like you and Maggie are for each other.”
I let out a little laugh. “We’re lit up, are we?”
“Like the motherfucking sun,” Tyler said, following my gaze back to Maggie, who was chatting with some of her regulars from the pharmacy.
It amazed me, sometimes, all the little things I knew about Maggie now. Her regular customers. The temperature she liked to sleep in. That putting my dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher would make her huff out an annoyed breath at the sight. That she had slippers scattered around her house, and now mine, because her feet were always cold.
I watched as Maggie excused herself from the people she was talking to and made eye contact with me, a silent indication she was headed back to me, headed home to the crook under my arm. There was nothing I liked better than the weight and feel of her against me.
She didn’t make it far before she was halted by someone else, congratulating her, or maybe asking a pharmacy-related question—we could never be sure which would win when we were stopped on the street.
“You leave for LA in two days?” Tyler asked.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Which reminds me that I should be glued to my lady for the next forty-eight hours.”
“Too much information, buddy.”
I laughed. “Not literally,” I said. “I mean, unless she’ll let me.” I gave him a half smile and left him to saunter over to Maggie.
As soon as I reached her, I looped my arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the temple. The older ladies she was speaking to went all soft in the eyes as they looked at us.
“You two make such a handsome couple,” Margot Langly said.
“It’s all her,” I said. “I’m the scruffy one she took pity on.”
Maggie gave me a gentle elbow to the ribs, and the ladies laughed before excusing themselves to track down Emily about a real estate deal they’d heard was coming on the market. As much as I wanted it not to be true, most of the real estate in Little Falls was a steal of a deal. I was hoping the recording studio at the train station might help to drive some famous traffic through here, increase tourism a little at least. Maggie had some other ideas to try to bring in more industries or encourage small businesses in the heart of town that she was going to try to implement in the next year.
“These are cute, by the way,” Maggie said, turning one of the wine bottles on the closest table, custom label facing out, toward us.
“I love that photo of you,” I admit. I took it the week after her dad’s funeral, when we were still tentative, as though we were worried something might blow us apart again.
In the photo she’s surrounded by the fall colors in her parents’ backyard, and when she’d looked at me, there’d been so much love and affection in her expression, I’d snapped the pic without thinking. Then I’d realized that it was the perfect representation of how Maggie feels about Little Falls too—this place fills her up.
“Another four-year term,” I said, giving her a squeeze. “I never had any doubt.”
Maggie laughed. “Um, I think you had a lot of doubts. But I’m a champion, and I overcame them.”
“You did rise to the top,” I agree. “I feel like I should have to wear the court jester costume as punishment for my initial lack of faith.”
“Costumes are allowed,” Maggie agreed, “later at home.”
“You want me all to yourself, do you?”
“Always,” she said, rising on her toes to give me a quick kiss.
When she went to pull away, I slid my hand into her hair and deepened our kiss, not giving a damn about the crowd around us.
A loud wolf whistle broke my concentration before I could sink too far into the sensations that usually led to me blocking everything else out.
“Get a room,” Trent yelled from across the hall.
“Gladly,” I murmured against Maggie’s lips before glancing up. “You offering to pay?”
“Oh, please,” Trent hollered back. “That video of you groveling for Maggie’s forgiveness has more than paid for a hotel room.”
He was right. But I was trying to funnel as much of those funds as I could into things I knew would make Maggie happy—like renovations on my dilapidated house, so she felt more comfortable being there, or putting up a memorial bench for Jim Sullivan outside Maggie’s pharmacy in the town center, complete with a plaque that accurately conveyed everything he’d meant to so many, or making sure she was well stocked with morning coffee while I was still here to hand deliver it to her at work—whichever work she was at.
“Do you think that means we can leave the party?” Maggie whispered to me. “I only get you for two more days.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I called out in a booming voice, “the mayor of Little Falls will now be taking her leave. Thank you so much for supporting her run for mayor. The best candidate was the victor.” I gazed down at her. “But honestly, it feels like I’m the real winner. I’m so fucking proud to call you mine.”
And without waiting for her reply, I scooped her into my arms, and I carried her out of the banquet hall and straight into the rest of our lives together.