Epilogue
Naomi
Eight Months Later
“ K eeping this bag or donating it?”
I turn to where Sam’s standing in the corner of the living room in my Austin apartment, holding up a white plastic bag.
I cock my head to the side, considering. I know what I shoved in there. All the beautiful wool scarves I’ve collected over the years.
Won’t have much use for those on Faraday Island.
“Donate,” I decide with a smile.
We’re finishing up the last of the packing and getting ready for the real estate agent to start staging for listing photos.
We talked about keeping the place as a getaway in the city, but I finally decided I wanted to let it go. I want this chapter of my life, the lonely, searching, empty chapter, officially closed. We can always buy a new place in Austin if we end up spending time here. Goodness knows we’ll be able to afford it.
The last eight months have been a whirlwind of emotions, introductions, and new beginnings. I’m officially settled into the homestead. I even have my own set of chores. Every day feels like a labor of love. Like I’m building something with my own two hands. Sam and I are building a life together.
After deciding not to reinvest my time back into my lifestyle channel, Reina, Fran and I had a ceremony on the beach where I got to say goodbye to an era of my life and invite in a new one.
I’m happy to say it’s going really well. I already have three clients, properties on Faraday and neighboring islands, that I’m doing content creation for. And then there’s Paradise Events, my main client, who keeps me busy with weddings at The Sands and all over the world.
It feels crazy being back in this apartment, where I spent so many years thinking my life could only be so big. That I only had so much room in my heart, and I needed to protect it.
Things could not be more different now. It’s like my heart, my life, my soul, have blown wide open and the amount of space I have to live and love is endless.
“Why don’t you pick your favorite one and keep it?” Sam says, walking over with the bag of scarves. “You never know.”
I grin at him and dig into the bag, pulling out a long, jewel blue and gold one that I bought on a trip to Amsterdam my senior year of high school. I toss it around the back of Sam’s shoulders, using it to pull him close. “I guess these can come in handy, huh?”
He allows me to take him in my arms, letting the bag fall to the side. “We’re pretty close to being done here,” he says, resting his forehead on mine as I hold him tightly with both arms.
“So, we deserve a break?” I tease back.
Sam’s eyebrows go up. “What did you have in mind?”
I start walking backwards, pulling him along with the scarf still draped around his back. “I thought we could re-visit the room where this all started.”
“Oh, really?” he answers, clearly on board for whatever I have planned.
“Do you remember the night we first met?”
“Of course,” Sam says. “I remember.”
“Well, I thought that since we’re back at the scene of the crime, and you never got to do what you really wanted to do when we were here the first time…”
Sam’s lips graze down my cheek and tuck into the crook of my neck. I can feel his warm breath as he answers. “Now’s my chance?”
“Exactly.”
His hands are everywhere, softly tracing my curves and teasing the edges of my shirt and shorts. Just when I think he’s going to use those strong hands to strip me bare however, he drops them to his sides and takes a step back.
“Okay,” he says.
“Okay,” I agree, biting my lower lip. “I’ll lead the way.”
I turn and start down the hall toward the bedroom that used to contain my queen-sized bed and pink loveseat. The room where I first let my crush on this man blossom into something more.
“Naomi.”
Sam’s firm voice stops me, and I turn.
He’s still standing right where I left him, arms dangling at his sides.
As I watch, he drops to one knee.
“What…” The word drifts off as I raise my hand to my mouth in surprise.
“You told me to do exactly what I wanted to that first night we were here. Well, this is what I wanted to do.”
I walk back until I’m standing a foot away from where he still kneels in the soft carpeting. As I look down into his upturned gaze, I know he’s telling the truth.
“I could not be happier that we get to create this life together. I’ve been dreaming about my soul mate for a long time, Naomi. I’m so grateful that life finally brought us together.”
At his words, I drop my hands from where they’re still clasped over my mouth and allow him to take them in his. “I’m grateful, too. I never imagined this would happen for me. I thought it was too late.”
Sam smiles and heaven and earth move. “The timing could not have been more perfect.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little blue velvet bag, tied at the top with sparkling gold thread. When he pours the ring into his palm, I gasp.
“Is that?” I can’t bring myself to say the words.
“Your mother’s ring. Sure is. Dom gave it to me months ago.”
“I thought he was going to give it to Reina.”
“It was always meant for you.”
I haven’t thought about the thin gold band, with its princess cut solitaire, for many years. It disappeared from our house when Dom did, and I never thought I’d see it again.
“Sam,” I start in a whisper, trailing off when the emotion of the moment threatens to turn my words into sobs.
Sam just takes my hands in his once more, holding me tightly, grounding me back into this moment. “Let me get through this, okay?”
Tears roll down my cheeks even as I nod, a small breathy laugh escaping my lips.
Sam’s eyes well with tears of his own, but his voice is steady as he says the words I’ve dreamed about hearing.
“Naomi, now that I have you, I can’t believe I ever lived without you in my life. This ring is a promise that I will show up every day and prove to you how grateful I am that we found each other. That somehow, in this great big world, you and I got to cross paths. That in the grand scheme of the universe and endless time and space, you and I get to exist in this same moment, together.”
His tears are rolling now, but he doesn’t brush them away. “I was going to do this when we got home, after all your stuff was at our house and it was official that your world and my world were combined. But I think you’re right that this is the perfect place. It feels like coming full circle. So, my love, will you make me the happiest man on the planet and marry me?”
I’m nodding before he even finishes speaking. “Yes, Sam. Of course. I love you. I would love to marry you.”
He slides the ring onto my finger and for a moment, I’m transported back to my childhood bedroom, slipping this very ring onto my tiny finger, imagining a life where someone loved me enough to keep me forever.
But I don’t have to imagine anymore.
Because he’s right here.
My vision is a little fuzzy from my tears, but I can see clearly enough to see our bright future reflected in his eyes. It’s deep and blue and black and white with hints of green. Like the cosmos and our island home and the warm feeling of everything I’ve ever needed in life, wrapped around me in an embrace.
The End