Epilogue #2
“Damn, it’s good to be back here,” he says to the crowd. “Remember the last time I was in your city?”
Not sure how many were actually here that epic night, but most of his fans know the story of us, and their cheers rain throughout the auditorium.
“Remember what went down?” He continues talking to the crowd. “I told my man that I loved him. I told him in a song. Told him he’s mine. And you know what? I wrote another song for him. ‘Something Fierce.’”
He strums a few notes.
But before he can play it, I’m taking my turn.
“That’s true.” My voice carries across the theater too, thanks to the mic.
Stone flinches and then turns his gaze on me as I stride across the stage. “Well, hello, handsome,” he says. He’s not a performer for nothing. He goes along with my surprise appearance in a snap.
I walk over to him, stopping a few feet away, my heart sprinting as thousands of his fans shout Jackstone . “You did tell everyone, and I was so damn happy,” I say. “And I told you I’d make you happy every day.”
“You sure do,” he says with a smile.
My chest tightens with emotion, but with certainty too. There are no doubts. I haven’t had any questions about us in the longest time.
Every day, I have answers, over and over again.
Beautiful answers that all start and end with Stone.
I waste no time.
But holy shit.
I was wrong about nerves. A cargo ship docks in the harbor of my chest, loaded full of them. But I push through the jitters as I get down on one knee in front of the whole theater.
The audience gasps.
“I want to keep making you happy every day for the rest of our lives,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady as my heart gallops away.
The crowd goes wild. Gasps. Awws. Shouts.
Stone’s eyes widen. He’s speechless at first. His lips part, but no sound comes out. Then, a few seconds later, he clears his throat, his voice husky. “Are you asking me to marry you in front of an entire audience?”
There is only one answer. “I am.”
Please say yes.
And since there’s no point in keeping that inside, I say it out loud. “Please say yes.”
He stares at me in wonder. “J, I’d have married you the night I told the world I loved you. I’m so ready to be your husband.”
Happiness bursts inside me like starlight. Joy fills every cell as I slide a platinum band on his finger. I rise, cup his cheeks, and kiss the man who’s going to be my husband.
The cheers the crowd gave us that night last year? They have nothing on tonight.
Tonight is thunder and lightning.
It’s an earthquake, and we are the epicenter of big, bold, beautiful love, right here in Las Vegas.
Stone
We don’t get married that night.
Because family matters.
We don’t wait for long though. Two weeks later, I fly everyone to Portland, Maine, and we head to a little cabin we rented on a lake.
Everyone we love is there: Zane, Nadia, Sage, Ivy, Eliza, Veronica, Callum, Bethany, Caroline, Ben, Candi, Terrence, Cruz. Terrence’s wife, Cruz’s wife, their daughter. Jackson’s parents. My mom, my grandmother.
My dad’s not there, but that’s okay. I made peace with that long ago. And I have this family.
I have family through blood, I have family through friendship, and I have family through love.
My man.
We marry on a dock overlooking a crystal blue lake. Jackson looks so damn beautiful in slacks and a button-down shirt, the cuffs rolled up to reveal those forearms I love.
I’m casual too, in pants and a button-down. This is how we do things. His sister Caroline, an ordained minister thanks to the internet, stands in front of us. Bethany is by Jackson’s side. My brother, Zane, is by mine. They are our wedding party. Brothers and sisters, standing with the two of us.
Caroline straightens her shoulders, and then she says the best words I have ever heard. “Do you, Stone Zenith, take this man to be your husband? To love, to cherish, and to take care of for the rest of your life?”
I look into Jackson’s hazel eyes, and my pulse jackhammers. My grin is bigger than the lake. “I absolutely do.”
She turns to him. “And do you, Jackson Pearce, take this man to be your husband? To love, to cherish, and to take care of for the rest of your life?”
He swallows roughly, then says two simple words. “I do.”
Peace flows through my whole body. Peace and happiness and promise.
“I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss the groom.”
I don’t need to be told twice. We kiss before our friends and family.
Tomorrow, this kiss will go up online, since Zane is recording it.
I don’t mind that my fans will see me kissing my husband for the first time in front of the lake on a beautiful summer day in Maine.
Because they know—they’ve always known.
And they’re getting it, just like I am.
Jackstone.
For the rest of our lives. Yes, our love belongs to us, but before it was ours, others wanted it too. In a way, our love story is everyone’s, and I’m a lucky man to share a little bit of our life with the world.
That is an incredible gift—to live and to love in a world where our ship is someone else’s wish come true—and my reality, for the rest of my life.
I slide a hand around Jackson’s neck, curling my fingers over his skin, whispering just for him, “Did I ever tell you about the rock star who fell for his bodyguard?”
“Let me guess. Did the bodyguard fall hard for him too?”
“So damn hard.”
“Sounds like our love story. And maybe your next song.”
“It absolutely does.”
We walk along the dock to join the party with our families, stopping to kiss one more time. Me and the guy who changed my life. Who shows me love every day.
The guy who makes me feel like a rock star in every way, but most of all, in the way that matters the most.
With love.