Epilogue
She’ll be here any minute.
I pocket my phone then rub my hand over my jeans. Fuck me. I bite my lip. I’m nervous as hell.
I drag myself away from the window to sit beside Ethan on the sofa.
“When did she say she’d be here?” he asks again, the second I sit down.
I take my phone back out, but it’s only been two minutes since he last asked me. “She said she was about fifteen minutes out … but that was about half an hour ago …”
Ethan pouts, and I tilt my head to one side.
I know. I miss her too.
He unties his hair then smooths it again, teasing his dark locks back into a tight bun.
It’s grown loads since Christmas, and though I wasn’t super keen on the whole man bun thing at the time, now …
Well, I’m starting to think this guy could pull off any look he tries.
Bastard. Oh, and why is it called a man bun anyway? It’s a bun. A sexy bun. An Ethan bun!
Not that I can say anything about hair. I smooth my hand over the side of my head.
The shaved part. The “Look at me, I’m totally bisexual!
Just check out my fresh undercut!” part.
I have the little “binosaur” pin badge of the tri-coloured t-rex, the carabiner with my house key on it, and now, at last, I have a queer haircut!
I hope she likes it.
There’s a knock at the door, and we both freeze.
Oh my god.
Ethan and I look at each other, nod, smile, then stand in perfect unison.
These last few weeks, maybe even months, we’ve been in such a good place. It hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve both made the effort to stay on the same page. On the same team.
He steps aside as I bound over to the door, my hand shaking as I unclip my key and jam it in the lock.
When the flap of the letterbox springs open, I jump so high that if we’d had a lower ceiling I’m sure I would have gone right through it.
“Are you theeereeeee?” A familiar voice rings out.
Heart pounding, I try to catch my breath and turn the bloody key.
Juniper releases the letterbox, and her blurred form retreats from the obscured window. Then, after all this time—
“You’re here!” I exclaim, throwing open the door.
“I’m here!” Juniper grins then lunges to one side, reaching out to grab something. “And I brought someone with me!”
I look up, and up, and up as this six-foot something, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Viking of a man comes into view.
Holy fucking shit.
He reaches out one giant hand to shake mine then leans in to say, “Nipper here tells me you two know how to have some fun!”
And I can’t even dwell on that nickname as I am completely in awe of this giant’s utterly charming Scandinavian sing-song accent.
I blink as his huge hand eclipses my own in a firm, yet thoroughly intoxicating, handshake. Holy hell. Have I been doing this wrong all these years?
“Um … yep,” I reply, totally disarmed.
What in the world is going on?!
Ethan clears his throat, and the Scandi god releases me to reach past and pull Ethan into a hearty hug along with three firm pats on the back, which I swear nearly knock him clean over.
“You must be Ethan,” he says, his perfect teeth a blaze of white as he grins at us both.
“Er … yeah?” Ethan steps back, looking as mystified as I feel.
“Would you like to come in?” I ask, still in a sort of daze.
He looks down at Juniper then back at us. “We’d love to!”