Epilogue
“And that was my favorite day of third grade!”
“Excellent work on your project, Michael,” I said, smiling down at the gap-toothed little boy. “Let’s all give our friend a big round of applause!”
The rest of the class clapped and cheered as Michael grinned shyly.
When he was back at his seat, I looked around.
“Would anyone else like to share their end of the year project?” Most of the kids had already shared, but I wasn’t going to force the shyer ones to get up in front of the class if they didn’t want to.
No sense in torturing them on the last day of school.
When no hands went up, I nodded. “Okay, Katie, why don’t you collect the rest of the projects and bring them up to my desk. ”
As Katie went around the room, I smiled at my class.
“I want to thank you all for such a great year. I hope you had as much fun as I did learning together.” I paused, smiling at the expectation I felt in the air.
We were ending our day with a class party—pizza, cupcakes, and games—and the kids were clearly ready to get a head start on their summer vacation.
I didn’t blame them. Two months of no school had never sounded better. Liam’s season was over and we had plans to spend every spare second together for the foreseeable future. It sounded like heaven.
Especially because Josie would officially not be my student anymore.
I would definitely miss having her in my class every day, but the end of the year meant that Liam and I didn’t need to be so guarded with our relationship.
After the terrible day when she’d run away, I’d talked to my union rep and my principal, letting them know I was involved with a student’s parent.
There was no official rule against it, but I’d been asked to be as discrete as possible.
It would be nice to be a little more open this summer. To hold hands in public and cuddle in booths at our favorite restaurants. Hell, I might even be persuaded to make out with him at the movies.
When you bag a man like Liam O’Conner, a girl gets the urge to shout about it from the rooftops.
The kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing board games and eating our snacks. As excited as I was for summer, I was going to miss this group. Judging by the hugs I got before pick-up and bussing started, they felt the same way about me.
“I’m getting a little jealous,” a low voice murmured behind me, and I spun to see Liam. My face immediately lit up at the sight of him. Yes, I had woken up in his bed only that morning, but it didn’t seem to matter to my heart. I saw the man and I was happy—it was really that simple.
“Jealous of children?” I asked.
“They all get to hug you and I don’t.” His pout was so ridiculous I had to laugh. Then Josie came barreling up, throwing herself at his legs for a hug of her own.
I smiled as I watched them. It hadn’t been completely smooth sailing since that day at the telescope in Knight Plaza, but they were doing much better than the beginning of the year.
Josie was seeing a great therapist, and Liam had even done a few sessions of his own.
Even Chloe seemed to be determined to stick to the promises she made Liam.
She called Josie regularly and didn’t make plans she couldn’t keep.
She had taken Josie for a few days over spring break, and they seemed to have a good time, but Josie had seemed even more happy to be back at home with her dad at the end of her trip.
Which probably had a lot to do with Puck, the lab-mix puppy Liam had finally gotten Josie for Christmas.
“How much of this clean-up can wait until tomorrow?” Liam asked, looking around the quickly-emptying room.
He’d agreed to come in with me in the morning to get some things packed up for summer so I didn’t have to be here all evening.
Apparently, he had something planned to celebrate Josie and my last day of school, though he refused to share any details.
“Most of it,” I told him. “I just want to get the games put away.”
He and Josie got started on that while I said goodbye to the remaining students and their parents. Out of the corner of my eye, they kept whispering to each other, and Josie looked positively giddy. I wondered if maybe she had weaseled his plans out of him.
While we finished up, I considered whether I should mention the project to Josie now that the other kids were gone.
It obviously wasn’t for a grade, being the last day of school.
My intention with asking the kids to express—either through words or artwork—their favorite day of the school year had simply been to get to reflect on some of the things they’d learned and done over the last ten months, and remind them of how far they’d come.
But it was really unlike Josie to not do an assignment. I should probably check in with her about it, make sure there was nothing wrong.
Before I could call her over, Liam came up behind me, sliding his arms around my waist. “Ready?”
“I’d be more ready if I knew where we were going.”
He scoffed. “Where’s the fun in that?”
The three of us held hands on our wait out to the parking lot, Josie in the middle, and I wondered if it was normal to feel so happy about such a small thing.
Josie was oddly quiet on the drive—she usually talked a mile a minute after school—but every time I looked at her in the mirror, she still had that adorable grin on her face, so I wasn’t too worried.
Liam filled the silence, telling us about how Puck had spent his morning being a hyper puppy menace, making us both laugh.
I didn’t realize where we were going until Liam turned into the parking lot. “Zilker Gardens?” I asked, looking around.
“Surprise!” Josie called from the back.
I turned to give her a mock glare. “You knew where we were going and you didn’t tell me?”
She laughed, already unbuckling her seat belt, practically bouncing in her chair as she reached for the door handle. She seemed way too excited for an afternoon of looking at flowers and something started to thrum in my chest, some hint of anticipation that I didn’t quite understand.
It only grew as Liam took my hand, leading me towards the gardens.
None of us talked much until we got down to the gazebo near the rose garden.
There, Liam stopped, taking the backpack off his shoulder.
He pulled out a blanket and a folder, handing the latter to Josie while he spread the blanket on the ground.
He looked at me, eyes bright, face soft. “Sit down, Gracie. We have something for you.”
Heart pounding now, I took a seat on the blanket as Liam knelt in front of me. “Josie girl?”
She stepped in front of me, hands clutching the paper folder so hard her knuckles were turning white. “I wanted to give you my end of the year project,” she said, voice oddly squeaky. “Sorry I didn’t have it in class today.”
I nodded to tell her it was okay—my throat too dry to make words.
Her hands shook as she removed a few stapled pieces of paper from the folder.
“I couldn’t decide on my favorite day, so I did a couple.
” She handed me the project and I grinned at the cover.
It was plastered in so many glittery star and heart stickers I could hardly see the pink construction paper background.
I’d assumed Josie would choose the written option for her project, as into books and writing as she was.
But instead, I saw a drawing on the first page—three somewhat lumpy, misshapen people standing in what was clearly a library.
“That’s us,” she said softly. “Me and you and Daddy. When you showed me your Pan tattoo.”
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “That was a pretty good day.”
“I was so scared to start a new school,” she said, a little shake in her voice that made me want to pull her into a hug. “But once I met you and we started talking about books, I knew I was going to have an okay year.”
It took everything in me not to burst into tears. “I’m so glad you felt that way about my class, sweetie.”
“Turn the page,” she said eagerly.
The next picture made me laugh—a photograph of the two of us at one of her dad’s games, cheering our heads off.
Then the three of us ice skating at Rockefeller Center in New York—the Sting’s last game against Liam’s old team happened to fall over Josie’s Christmas break, and he’d brought us both.
The two of them had showed me around to all of their favorite Manhattan haunts.
It had been one of the best weekends of my life.
There was a photograph of the day we’d gone to pick up Puck from the shelter—he’d licked Josie’s face right when the camera had gone off and she was laughing in the shot. Field day, with Josie and Liam running a three-legged race while I cheered in the background.
The images were a mix of photographs and children’s drawings, some a little misshapen, but I had no trouble making out the scenes. Just like Josie, they had been some of my best days too. And in every single drawing she did, it was the three of us. Liam, Josie and me.
“The last one is my favorite,” she said, before I turned the final page. “It’s about today.”
I looked up at Liam and saw that his eyes were wet with tears even as he smiled at me. “Turn the page, Gracie,” he whispered.
It was a picture of us here, surrounded by flowers, the three of us hugging. Underneath, Josie had written six words. “The day we became a family.”
When I looked up again, Liam was kneeling, a black box in his hand. I could hardly see him for the tears streaming down my face. Through the blur, I reached out my hand for Josie and she grabbed hold, squeezing tight.
“I love you, Grace Knight. I loved you when I was a dumb teenager and I love you now. I am so thankful that the universe brought you back into my life because you’ve made it a thousand times better and brighter and happier.
” He swallowed hard, the wetness growing in his eyes.
“I love the way you see the world, the way you’re always teaching me about things I never would have thought of.
I love how much you love your brother and your friends and food.
” I sobbed out a laugh at the last part and Liam grinned before his face turned serious.
“But most of all I love the way you love my girl.”
I looked to Josie and saw that she was crying, too. “I do,” I promised her. “I love you so much Josie-girl.”
“I love you, too, Grace,” she whispered. It was the first time she hadn’t called me Miss K and my heart felt like it might just fly out of my body with joy.
Liam took my other hand and I turned back to him. “I want us to be a family, all three of us.” He gave me that boyish grin that I’d loved since I was a teenager. “What do you think? Want to be a family with us?”
“Yes,” I said, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Of course I do.”
His face grew serious once again. “Being your husband would be such an honor, Gracie Knight. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I threw myself into his arms, nearly knocking him over. When Josie’s little body hit ours, he did stumble back to the ground below. The three of us laughed, laying there tangled up in a pile. Liam kissed the top of his daughter’s head. “Thanks for the help, baby.”
She grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Fresh tears erupted at that. Knowing that he planned it all out, that he wanted Josie to be a part of it, that he made it so special—not just for me but for the three of us. Our family.
I never had much of one of those. For most of my life it was only me and Andy.
Then, when I met the girls, they became the family I chose.
But now, the promise of this, it almost felt too much, too big.
A real family. A home we’d build together.
An entire future stretching out in front of us, filled with happiness and the kind of love that can guide you through the hard times.
I never thought I would have it, that kind of bond.
But there was no one else in the world I’d rather try with than Liam.
“I love you,” he said, his blue eyes bright and happy. “So much, Gracie.”
“I love you, too.” He kissed me then, laying there sprawled in the grass, just like he’d done all those years ago when we lay sprawled on the ice.
It was every bit as gentle and innocent as our first kiss, seeing as how we were in the middle of a three-person hug with his daughter.
But that kiss held the promise of everything I’d always wanted.
Liam O’Conner. Josie. Love. A family.
The rest of our lives, he’d told me, back at prom.
I couldn’t wait to get started.
The End