Epilogue
twenty-four
After a long fought legal battle, we’re finally free of Brad, forever. The police chief contacted us this morning to deliver the good news. We weren’t able to leave the state while the investigation was still ongoing. Haedyn and I were the prime and only suspects in the case of Brad’s untimely death.
Honestly, if it weren’t for his mother throwing such a fit, there probably would have never been an investigation to start with, but she just couldn’t fathom that her baby boy was a grade A psychotic piece of shit. What mother could, though?
The police found no evidence of foul play, even though the lawyer representing Brad’s mother was damn good. That’s the only reason the case took so long to finally close. He pulled out every stop in the book, but it still wasn’t enough to do anything more than make us slightly nervous. We were natural born assassins it seemed.
Not really. As long as no one else messes with my girl, we’ll never raise our death toll. If someone dares, however, all bets are off. I’ll help her get away with a thousand murders if it means keeping her safe and mine. Which she will be forever in about two weeks. Legally, anyway.
I asked her to marry me the night she told me she loved me. It was one full of emotion and healing for the both of us. The first night that she felt free in a long time, and she chose to use that freedom to give herself to me. What an honor I still feel every day that I wake up next to her, knowing she wants to spend her life with me.
We’re building a house on the same property her house is on now. One with a tankless water heater, too, because waiting ten minutes to shower is ridiculous. Kate is going to keep living in the old house and fix it up to her liking as she can afford to. Having her close to Haedyn is an absolute must. She was a godsend after everything happened with Brad initially. Hell, if it wasn’t for her, I don’t know that Haedyn would’ve ever let me love her the way she so clearly needed.
I never would have known why she ghosted me the second time. The girl who ran away would’ve never turned into the girl who chose to stay, and what a tragedy that would’ve been. I’ll never be glad that she had to go through what she did, but I’ll always be grateful she trusted me to help her through it.
She quit the dairy bar to work on combining two of her big interests. Haedyn Marie now owns her own business. Her profile on SnapShot ended up serving a bigger purpose than she could’ve ever anticipated. It opened her eyes to her love of photography, specifically boudoir photography. So now she spends her days in her studio right down the road from my restaurant. The business helps women feel confident and sexy in their own skin.
We played around with just pictures of us two together for a while, letting her get readjusted to the app. Of course, she had reservations about putting herself out there after Brad’s epic catfishing. Luckily, we haven’t run into anymore issues like that. After we brought it to the attention of the creators of the app, they revamped things to further protect identities and vet their subscribers. Because they were so understanding and helpful through the whole mishap, Haedyn decided to offer them deals with her photography. They buy certain pieces that her clients don’t mind sharing publicly and use them for advertising and things of that nature.
Things have taken a turn for the better around here, but we haven’t really had much time to just exist with each other since the day Brad died. It’s been one thing after another, and then we’ve been working tirelessly to start building our life together. It’s time for us to get away.
***
“You all packed? We’ll be gone for a week.”
“I know. I’m looking forward to having you all to myself for an entire week, little brat.” Charlie hugs me from behind as I finish zipping up my suitcase.
Usually, people honeymoon after their wedding, but things have been so hectic for too long. We’re getting married in two weeks. Everything is planned and paid for, but I’m worn the hell out. I’m exhausted from worrying about the investigation, building my own business, breaking ground on our house, and planning a wedding. Not that most of these were bad things, but they’re time and energy consuming to say the least.
Now that things are calming down, and we’re allowed to leave the state, we decided that we wanted to take a pre-wedding vacation instead of waiting until after. Babymoons are popular now; you know how couples go away for a last hoorah before their baby is born? Why can’t we whisk ourselves away before we’re flooded with friends and Charlie’s family for the wedding? There’s no one on my side of the family besides my parents, and like hell would I want them there.
Picking a destination was easy. We’re going to the Ozark mountains in Arkansas to stay in a cabin in the woods. There’s a hot tub, a pool table, kayaks to use in the creek nearby, and plenty of card games to keep us busy. I’m sure even without all those things, we could find something to occupy our time.
The cabin is about an eight-hour drive from here when stops for the bathroom and snacks are factored in, so I went through the trouble of making a playlist for us. It’s got everything from pop to country to rock to theme songs from cartoons. Charlie’s truck is packed to the brim. We’re taking his truck because the old Bronco likely wouldn’t make the trip well. She’s got too many miles on her to be traveling across state lines, even though I’m not ready to give her up just yet. We have had a lot of good memories over the years.
Walking out the door, I pick up the keys and head to the truck. “What makes you think you can drive my truck?”
“I get car sick on long trips if I’m not the driver. We’ve talked about this.” I don’t stop my pursuit to argue with him. That is, until I’m scooped up and thrown over Charlie’s shoulder. Laughing against him, I playfully beat on his backside.
“Nope. We definitely haven’t talked about that. I’d remember something like that,” he states with all the confidence of a great fiancee. Just like a man to claim that their significant other failed to inform them of something. I roll my eyes to myself at the thought.
“Well unless you want those premium leather seats covered in vomit by the time we pass through Jackson, I suggest you let me drive. And put me down, you savage.” I deliver another swift swat to his firm ass that’s swaying directly in my eyesight.
“I don’t think you’re in a great position to be making demands, little brat.” As if to prove his point, he moves his hand between my thighs, trying to submerge himself into my jeans.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish, cowboy.”
“Oh I’ll finish alright. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”
A scoff mixes with my little laugh as he opens the driver side door for me and plants my ass in his seat, kissing me with the biggest smile on his face.
“Off we go, to lose our minds and find our souls, or however that saying goes,” he muses before he swings my legs under the steering wheel and closes my door to walk around the front of the truck. “I’m going to be the best passenger princess ever. Just you wait and see.”
“I have no doubts.” I turn the key in the ignition until the engine roars to life. I put it in gear and side eye Charlie to find him with his seat laid all the way back, his baseball hat lowered over his eyes like he’s trying to nap. Well, not on my watch. The gas pedal meets the floorboard as I jerk the wheel to my left, drifting in a tight donut and hear an embarrassingly girlish yelp ring out through the cab. I shoot him the brattiest smirk that I can before adding, “Surely you didn’t think I’d make this easy on you, did you?”