Epilogue #2
She was staring at me with a strange, softly rapt expression, like she was seeing me for the first time.
My heartbeat stuttered, my body sensing something my brain hadn’t yet caught up to.
And then, very deliberately, she slid her hands from beneath the covers, took the ring she hadn’t taken off since the day I gave it to her, and moved it from her right hand to her left.
Time flatlined, and I swear my heart did too. I closed my eyes, certain this was some freakishly realistic dream, then opened them. She was still there, flushed and beaming. The love of my life, the woman I once thought I’d lost for good, was sitting in front of me, offering me forever.
I knelt down, took her hand, and brought it to my lips, pressing a kiss to her ring finger. “Are you sure?”
Her blue eyes, bright as seaglass and brimming over with love, didn’t waver. “Very sure.”
I sealed my lips to hers, wrapping her in my arms, my chest aching with happiness and adrenaline.
I wanted to freeze this moment. I wanted to go back in time and tell the Ryder from ten years ago to hang in there, that the hell he was living through would one day turn to joy so immense he could barely contain it inside his skin.
I finally broke the kiss, keeping her pinned beneath me. “When?”
She giggled, breathless, her curls splayed across the pillows. “Whenever you want.”
“Is tomorrow too soon?”
I kissed the laughter off her lips, swallowing the sounds until they dissolved into sighs, then moans.
We eloped a week later, right there on a secluded stretch of Corsican sand, and didn’t tell a soul until we went home to celebrate Christmas with her family in Indiana.
Aside from Kendall, I was meeting them all for the first time, and I worried they’d feel blindsided by our whirlwind courtship or concerned about my past baggage.
To their credit, her parents’ shock lasted all of three seconds—long enough for me to stumble through an apology for not asking permission—before they folded me into their brood like I’d always been a member.
By the end of the week, I’d been drafted into three family group chats and was officially an Everhart, complete with a lifetime of inside jokes to catch up on and more siblings than I knew what to do with.
When filming wrapped on The Ingenue, Scarlett sold her house in California and moved to Seafolly.
I think she was nervous at first, unsure if life in a small town would allow us the privacy we wanted, but she needn’t have worried.
Rebuilding after the storm didn’t just restore the town, it bound it together in a way nothing else could.
The people of Seafolly claimed us as their own, as protective of our family as we were of the town.
(Or perhaps they just didn’t want to see us spend another ten years apart; our real-life happily ever after was good for tourism.) Either way, I was glad she wanted to make a life here, in the place that had always felt like ours.
To me, Seafolly was hallowed ground—it had given me everything.
There was nowhere I’d rather raise our family.
Still, once the world caught wind that Scarlett and I were back together, the interest in our relationship was, shall we say, intense.
The press frenzy was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before—and I’ve shared a set with Tom Cruise.
We tried to stay out of the spotlight, but our silence only seemed to fuel increasingly outlandish fan theories, sending the #HoldMe diehards into overdrive.
And while we valued our privacy, we also felt grateful.
After all, it was their devotion to The Lost Letter that had helped us find our way back to each other.
Scarlett always said love stories mattered because they gave people hope and reminded them that happy endings were possible, so why not let others share in ours?
It was in that spirit that we finally gave everyone what they’d been begging for: an on-screen reunion.
Rekindled was our gift to the fans: a second-chance romance about a pair of feuding exes forced back together for the destination wedding of their best friends.
It was our reel-life redemption arc—we traded angst for hijinks, barns for beaches, and heartbreak for a happy ending.
The script was whip-smart, the banter effortless, the Hawaiian shoot a tropical dream.
With Jase playing the groom and Kendall working her makeup magic behind the scenes, the whole production felt like a family affair.
(I still don’t know what went down between those two during filming, but I suppose that’s their story to tell.) As for Scarlett and me, eight weeks of filming with her in a bikini meant we came home with more than just memories. Nine months later, Noah was born.
By the time the premiere rolled around—with Millie grinning at us from the front row—ten years of pent-up anticipation exploded into the biggest hit of our careers.
And yet, what once would have felt like an incredible milestone barely registered.
It further cemented to me that the role I currently inhabited—husband and father—was the one I was meant to play.
“I got you a present,” I tell her now, the full moon casting silver light across her face. It’s not our actual anniversary, though it’s the one we always seem to wind up celebrating.
Her eyes widen, a little mischievous. “That’s funny. I got you one too.”
“Mine is truly priceless,” I say mock-seriously.
“So’s mine!” She’s playfully offended.
I tell her to close her eyes, then fish the heart-shaped shell out of my pocket and place it gently on her chest. “Okay, open.”
When she sees it, she snorts.
“Ellie found it when we were out earlier. We agreed it was a critical addition for Mommy’s collection.”
“I will guard it with my life,” she says solemnly, tracing a thumb over the shell’s ridges.
“Now where’s mine?” I tease, opening my palm like an impatient toddler.
Her blue eyes meet mine, bright as a Carolina sky, her lips twitching with a smile she can’t suppress. “I’m pregnant.”
I stop rocking. “Are you serious?”
She nods, biting her lip. “I’ve suspected it for a couple weeks now—”
I cut her off by crushing her in a hug, which is awkward with her still lying in my lap. “It’s going to get even crazier in this house,” she warns, her laughter muffled against my chest.
“You know I love it.” It’s true—I always told her I’d have as many kids as she was willing.
She moves to sit up, and I pull her onto my lap. “You don’t think we’re too old?” she asks, wrapping her arms around my neck.
I tilt her a suggestive smirk. “Obviously not.” I tip her chin up and kiss her slowly, and I feel her smile pressed against my mouth.
I draw back and let myself look at her—cheeks glowing pink, lips parted, eyes shining. She is lit from within. She has never been more beautiful to me. I thought I’d loved her fiercely all those years ago, but it doesn’t even compare to this.
“What do you say, Scar? One more round of chaos with me?” I grin at her like a man who has it all—because I do. “All you have to do is say yes.”