Epilogue #2
A two-person tent is pitched on a square of fake turf with a hand-lettered sign nailed to a nearby pole that reads: ADVENTURE AWAITS.
Beside it, a card table covered in a linen cloth holds a first-aid kit, a French press, and a framed moose photo captioned in Iris’s neat block print: Do Not Approach. This Mama Will End You.
I’m laughing and crying at the same time, which isn’t a pretty look, but I don’t care in the slightest.
Jensen nods at the tent. “We’re not sleeping in that thing. Photo backdrop only.”
“I love it,” I say and go up on tiptoe to kiss him. He wraps his arms around my waist and spins me in a wide circle while our friends cheer wildly.
“I love you, sweetheart,” he says when I’m on the ground again.
“Best prom ever?” Avah asks, her smile smug because she already knows the answer.
I grin at my friends. “Best prom ever,” I shout.
“It’s about to get even better,” a familiar voice calls, and Cody steps onto the makeshift stage I hadn’t noticed set up in one corner.
I let out a not-so-soft squeal of excitement.
“I have that effect on women,” he says into the microphone, then tips his hat as Jensen shakes his head. Cody is six months sober, still insufferable, and I absolutely adore him.
He strums the guitar and begins crooning a familiar Patsy Cline number, and all the couples—Luke and Laurel included—begin dancing like this really is the best prom ever.
I love them so much, especially the man who draws me into the middle of it.
“Maybe you should have rented steel-toed dress shoes,” I tell him with a grimace.
He tucks me against him and starts to sway. “Having you crush my feet,” he says, “is one of my favorite things.”
I set my cheek to his chest as he turns us in slow circles under a thousand indoor stars. I’ll press this night between its pages later—the playlist and the mist and wildflowers, Cody’s velvet voice, and the precious knowing that my happy ending is here to stay.
As the song ends, Iris joins Cody behind the microphone, a clipboard in hand.
“Is the clipboard necessary?” Avah calls.
“She loves that thing,” Jake mutters, but the look in his dark eyes says he loves her even more for it.
“As the only member of the book club with documented experience running an election,” she announces, “I’ve tabulated the votes.”
“There were no votes,” Piper says.
“Luke and Laurel, please close your eyes for a moment,” Iris says sweetly. When both kids comply, she flips Piper the bird.
“You can open again,” Molly tells them.
Iris gives the twins a thumbs-up, sets the clipboard on Cody’s stool, then produces a sparkly plastic tiara from a box on the floor next to it.
“Sloane Winslow, by unanimous vote, you are officially crowned Cool Girls Book Club Prom Queen. Try not to have a brush with the cops on the way home.”
I step forward so Iris can settle the tiara on my head as the people I love most clap and cheer.
And the teenage girl who once stood in a shredded dress, certain all the way to her bones that she’d always be the girl things happened to, and never the girl things happened for, isn’t sure she can hold this much joy without shattering.
Yep, I’m a glittering mess. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Then Jensen steps in front of me, and a hush falls over the barn.
“I have one more thing,” he says in that gravelly voice that has ruined me a million times over. He takes both my hands, his steady and mine shaking like a leaf.
“Jensen,” I whisper.
“Right here, Sunshine.” He squeezes gently. “Nine months ago, you told me to have a nice life.” His mouth tilts. “But I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on you in that Nashville dive bar, that you are my life, Sloane. Even without knowing your real name, I knew.”
He produces a ring from his pocket. A brilliant oval diamond, timeless and elegant, set on a slender gold band. Nothing about it feels flashy. Everything about it feels like me.
“Sloane Winslow, I love you as big and wide as the Montana sky. I understand that you don’t need me to fix anything.
You’re the hero of your own story, and you always have been.
Let me show up for you anyway. For every moment.
” His gray eyes are steady, the storm they often hold gone quiet in the way it does just for me.
“Marry me. Let me claim you. I want to be your person because you will always be mine. Forever.”
I don’t make him wait for an answer. I’m done waiting and running.
“Yes.” I take his face in both hands. “Forever yes. I love you, Jensen, and I’m claiming you right back. I choose you and us. Every moment. That’s the deal.”
“Best deal I’ve ever had.” He slips the ring onto my finger and lifts my hand to his mouth, kissing each knuckle like he could do it forever. Like he plans to make that a regular part of our forever.
Our friends lose their minds, surging in with hugs and back slaps, and we’re all crying now, even Jeremy, who’s muttering darkly about pine pollen.
Then Cody—bless him—lifts his guitar again and plays the one song I didn’t know I needed to hear. A few bars about heather on a hill.
And when Jensen pulls me close and sings along low against my mouth, I don’t sink into his voice like a hot bath at the end of a long day. I stay right here in this moment, claimed and claiming, in the enchanted place I know will never disappear.
Keep reading for a sneak peek of Nothing But Trouble, Book 1 in The Vineyard Next Door trilogy!
When runaway bride Emma Sullivan becomes her small town's favorite scandal, the only person on her side is Ethan Fox (her ex's off-limits, bad-boy brother).
A forbidden, slow-burn, feuding-families romance that follows one unforgettable couple across three books. One-click Book 1 here.