Epilogue
Four months later
Anna
I was sweaty and exhausted, and I stank to high heaven, but I’d never felt more deeply, blissfully content in my life.
My brother accused me of being an eternal optimist, but really, how could I not be? I had everything I’d always wanted: Kemp, Oliver, a new-to-us home, and the very best friends a girl could ask for.
I was stretched out alongside Kemp on the thick-cushioned double lounger on our deck, gazing out at our one-acre wooded lot, the stars twinkling overhead, the crickets and cicadas providing the soundtrack as we recovered from moving day.
We’d started before eight this morning and had only just seen everyone who’d showed up to help out the door.
“We are blessed,” I said, inhaling the smell of my fiancé even though he wasn’t shower fresh. “I can’t believe how much we got done today thanks to our friends.”
“Oliver’s room is all set,” Kemp said. “He was one happy little boy tonight.”
“It’s the room of his eleven-month-old dreams,” I agreed.
“We’ll have to see if he can sleep or if he’s too taken with the horses on the wall to close his eyes.”
“After all the chaos and activity today, I’m thinking he’s already out,” I said.
We’d gone overboard on the nursery on purpose, both of us wanting to compensate for the undecorated office Oliver had slept in for the past five months.
The upside of waiting until he was almost a year old to decorate his room was that we could make it reflect his interests.
We’d hired Lexie North, Chloe and Holden’s sister-in-law, to paint a wall mural of horses, trees, and hills.
We’d pulled the different shades of green from it for the color scheme of the rest of the room and found a kid-sized armchair in a horse print that Oliver adored.
Kemp picked up the baby monitor from the deck floor, verifying it was on and our boy was quiet, then set it back down. “I still can’t get over how everyone came together to make so much happen.”
“If you ever needed proof that Magnolia’s a master planner, today was it,” I said.
The dads group and a handful of others had stepped up to help, and Magnolia had assigned everyone duties.
Several of the guys had done most of the heavy lifting.
Quincy, Rowan, Harper, and Sam, Rowan and Chance’s teenager, had watched all the kids at Quincy and Knox’s house, with Quincy ready to give birth any day.
Olivia and Maeve had been responsible for unpacking Oliver’s room and setting it up so he’d have as little disruption as possible.
Emerson, Presley, and Ava had unpacked nearly half the kitchen so it was semi-functioning.
Magnolia and I had directed everyone and ensured Kemp’s and my bed was made and the bathroom towels and necessities were in place so we could clean up and crash tonight.
Thanks to our tribe, our new home was less chaotic.
Now we could take our time unpacking the less-vital boxes.
The past four months had been invigorating, exciting, and emotional as we’d sorted through Kemp’s childhood home and all his parents’ belongings in preparation for putting the house on the market.
The memories that had stirred up were bittersweet, but we’d taken the time to acknowledge them, share them, lock them into our hearts for when the physical items were no longer ours.
Then we’d had a garage sale to end all garage sales and made enough to buy a new dining table for our new dining room.
We’d found our perfect-for-us home on the west edge of town.
Our yard backed up to the woods, and we’d already staked out the best place for the two-tier treehouse we planned to build.
The house was two stories, with four bedrooms including one for Natalie in the finished basement.
For now the extra room upstairs would serve as my craft room where I could store my yarn and patterns.
I’d happily give it up when and if we had a baby.
“I still love this yard,” Kemp said as he surveyed our new mini kingdom.
“It’s a great yard for Oliver to run around in.”
“I can see me teaching him to hit a baseball out here. Or throw a football. Swing a golf club. Whatever he takes an interest in.”
“Too bad it’s not big enough for a horse,” I joked.
Kemp laughed. “Your brother wants nothing to do with the kid, but he may well end up being responsible for Oliver’s biggest passion in life.”
“He’s young. Lots of time for him to change his mind,” I said, grinning. Privately, I hoped someday Ryder would come around and deal with his fear and embrace his nephew. I hadn’t seen any sign of that so far though.
My mother, on the other hand… About a month ago, I’d gotten a long text message from her saying she’d started counseling.
She’d gotten a referral from someone in her yoga group and had jelled well with the therapist in spite of her hesitancy.
After three or four appointments, they’d started EMDR, a method used to treat trauma.
She’d said it was hard and draining and wiped her out for the rest of the day every time she went but that she was starting to think it was helping and was determined to see it through.
I’d been skeptical, but the more I thought about it, the more I believed it was true.
The message was too detailed—and contrite—to be a lie to appease me.
I’d replied with encouragement, but so far I hadn’t talked to her more, in large part due to the chaos of selling a home, buying one, and moving.
A siren started up off in the distance.
“Fire truck?” I asked after a few seconds of it.
Kemp nodded.
I turned to look at his expression in the moonlight. He smiled at me and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead.
“Do you miss it?” I asked softly.
He was quiet for several seconds. “I miss the people. I miss the feeling of accomplishment after working a big fire, even though those were few and far between. But I don’t miss being called out of bed or away from my family.
I don’t miss the extra stress. I sure as hell don’t miss trying to balance that and the brewery. ”
I nodded and leaned farther into him, wrapping my arm around his middle and exhaling my relief. I’d thought he’d made peace with his decision, but I hadn’t dared to ask him until now, months after his last volunteer shift.
The unfrazzled, non-overwhelmed Kemp I’d always loved had surfaced in fairly short order after withdrawing his name for the lieutenant job and quitting the online class.
After a few nights of better sleep—not great sleep, mind you, because we still had a teething baby, but better sleep—he’d gone back to being the guy who laughed a lot, loved socializing, and shared responsibilities.
He’d been a good father before that, but his care and concern over both Oliver and me had increased when he had less to juggle, and I selfishly loved it.
Now he seemed to thrive on being a dad. And with Kemp less stressed out, I was more relaxed too.
We were finally able to fully enjoy and appreciate being a couple.
“I wish I had energy to walk out to the treehouse spot,” he said, peering in that direction.
“Same. It’ll be there tomorrow though.”
“I’m saving my reserves for bedtime,” Kemp announced. “If you thought I wasn’t going to make love to you the first night in our new home, you were wrong.”
I grinned, my tired body responding to his declaration. “We definitely need to christen the house.”
“My love, we’re going to christen every room,” he said. “Except the nursery. That seems a little wrong.”
“Plus we’d have horses staring at us,” I said with a laugh.
After a another comfortable silence, Kemp said, “So I know we said we’d wait till the move was over to pick a wedding date and start planning. The move’s over now.”
I laughed again. “By about half an hour,” I agreed.
“What if we had it here in our backyard? I was thinking maybe September.”
“This September?”
“I am not waiting a year and three months till next September to make you my wife, Anna Bobana.”
My chest still went all warm and liquid at his words. “No?”
He shook his head with certainty. “Oliver’s officially an Essex now. I’m in the process of claiming my people and giving them my name. You’re next on my list.”
“That sounds terribly barbaric,” I teased, endeavoring to keep my tone serious. “What if I want to keep my name?”
He paused as if he hadn’t considered that. “Okay.” His bluster had faded and he nodded, but I could still hear the disappointment in his voice. “If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do. Or not do.”
I grinned. “Lucky for you I’ve dreamed of becoming Anna Noelle Essex for approximately forever.”
He shifted to look at me. “Really?”
His expression was so hopeful that I held in my laugh. “Really. Of course. I have plenty of feminist beliefs in me, but I’m yours, Kemp, and I want the world to know it. As for having our wedding here? I love the idea.”
“Yeah?”
“We have more than enough room. I could see the altar being out there with the trees as a backdrop. We could add barrels of flowers everywhere. I think it’s perfect.”
“No better way to plant our roots deep,” he said.
“I happen to have an in with a good planner. I bet Magnolia will fit us into her schedule.”
“After the way she executed her plan today, I’m a believer. We can see what dates she has open and work around her schedule. As long as it’s not later than September.”
“I’ll talk to her tomorrow,” I promised. I closed my eyes and let everything sink in, a thrill pulsing through me when I imagined marrying the love of my life in less than four months. “It’ll be more chaos until then, but I don’t want to wait either.”
He startled me by untangling from me and getting up from the lounger. Holding his hand out to me, he said, “Come on, future Mrs. Essex. I might be able to wait four months to marry you, but I need you in the bedroom right now.”
“I’m filthy and smelly,” I fake protested as I took his hand and stood.
“I’m a flexible guy. We’ll break in the shower in the master bathroom first.”
“I love a man who can pivot,” I said. “Last one naked has to do all the work.”
Laughing, we ran inside together and thundered up the stairs hand in hand like two best friends who’d known each other and loved each other their whole lives.
Thanks for reading Single Desire! I hope you loved Kemp and Anna.