28. EPILOGUE – Parker – One Year Later
T he morning sun filters through the gauzy curtains, casting a warm, golden glow across the room. I lie awake, staring at the ceiling, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. Today is the day. The day I finally marry Chloe. I can hear the faint hum of activity downstairs—the clatter of dishes, the murmur of voices. Our families and friends are bustling around, making final preparations for the ceremony. I take a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart.
A soft knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts.
“Come in,” I call, sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The door creaks open, and Lauren peeks her head in, a broad smile spreading across her face.
“Morning, groom-to-be,” she says, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. She’s holding a cup of coffee, which she hands to me. “How are you feeling?”
“Thanks.” Taking the cup, I savor the warm, bitter taste. “I’m good. A little nervous, but good.”
Lauren sits down beside me, and her smile turns more thoughtful. “Nervous is normal. This is a big day, after all.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agree before taking a sip of the coffee. The warmth spreads through me, helping to calm my nerves. “I just want everything to be perfect for Chloe.”
“Everything will be perfect,” Lauren assures me and pats my hand. “You two are perfect together. And everyone is here to celebrate that.”
I smile at her, grateful for her unwavering support. “Thanks, Lauren. For everything. I don’t think we could have gotten here without you.”
She waves off my gratitude with a playful roll of her eyes. “Please, you and Chloe did all the hard work. I’m just here to make sure you don’t freak out and run off.”
I laugh, feeling some of the tension ease from my shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
Lauren stands up, brushing imaginary dust off her dress, and nods her head. “Good to hear. Now, finish your coffee and get dressed. The sooner we get you ready, the sooner you get to see Chloe.”
“Right. I’ll be down soon.”
As Lauren leaves the room, I set the coffee cup aside and head to the closet. My wedding suit hangs there, a sleek, tailored ensemble that Chloe and I picked out together. I run my fingers over the fabric, remembering the way her eyes lit up when she saw me try it on. I pull on the suit, feeling the weight of the day settle over me. It’s a good weight, though—one filled with love and anticipation.
Once I’m dressed, I take a moment to look at myself in the mirror. The man staring back at me looks confident. Happy. Ready. I smile, straightening my tie one last time, then head downstairs.
The newly-renovated house is a hive of activity. My parents are bustling around, making sure everything is in order. Friends and family are chatting excitedly, their smiles and laughter filling the air. I spot Lauren across the room, talking animatedly with a group of friends. She catches my eye and gives me a thumbs-up, which I return with a grin.
Things with my family have greatly improved over the past year. The cracks that had formed because of Bethany have all but healed, and it helps that we’ve all decided together that she will no longer be part of our lives. There was an investigation into the money she took from my parents, and she was arrested and spent a little time in jail, but ultimately, I’m not sure anything that happened to her will cause her to make any lasting changes.
All we can do is focus on the people in our lives who are good and lift us up rather than tear us down.
Speaking of, my mom approaches me, and she’s got a bundle of white silk clasped in her arms.
“He’s been fed, changed, and is sleeping,” she says with a wide smile, gazing down at my son in her arms. “Lauren is holding him during the ceremony, right?”
I nod while running a hand over my boy’s soft head. “Yeah, she is. I still can’t believe Chloe chose a white tuxedo for him. He looks like a mafia baby going to his baptism.”
Mom laughs and shakes her head. “Oh, no. Little Charlie is the most handsome baby in the whole world, and he’s going to be on his best behavior during the ceremony.”
“But just in case, you know where the milk is in the freezer, right?” I ask, even though I know it’s not necessary. My mom knows where all of the supplies for Charlie are in this house. She’s been a great support system for Chloe and I as we adjust to parenthood, and I couldn’t be more thankful for all her help.
“Of course,” my mom assures me. “Now, you need to get going. Things are going to start soon!”
I nod and give her and Charlie both a kiss before moving through the house to the backyard.
I step outside, where the wedding will take place. The backyard has been transformed into a beautiful venue, with rows of white chairs set up facing a floral archway. The scent of fresh flowers mingles with the crisp morning air. I take a deep breath, feeling a sense of peace wash over me. This is where I will marry the love of my life.
The guests begin to take their seats, and I take my place in front of the archway, waiting for Chloe to walk down the aisle.
My dad appears next and stands beside me, clapping a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “You ready for this, Parker?”
“More than ready,” I reply, my eyes fixed on the aisle. “I can’t wait to see her.”
The music starts, and everyone turns to look at the entrance. Lauren appears, holding Charlie in her arms, and walks down the aisle with a wide smile. She winks at me before moving to sit next to my mom in the front row. The music changes, and my heart pounds in my chest as I see Chloe step into view. She looks breathtaking in her wedding dress. A true vision of beauty and grace. Our eyes meet, and she smiles, a radiant, heart-stopping smile that makes everything else fade away.
As she walks down the aisle, I can’t take my eyes off her. Each step brings her closer, and with each step, my heart swells with love and excitement. When she finally reaches me, she offers me her hand, and I feel a surge of emotion.
“You look amazing,” I whisper, my voice choked with emotion.
“So do you,” she replies, and her eyes shine with unshed tears.
The officiant begins the ceremony, but my focus is solely on Chloe. We exchange vows, promising to love and cherish each other for the rest of our lives. Our voices tremble with emotion, but our words are clear and strong. This is our forever. Our happily ever after.
When it’s time to exchange rings, my dad hands them to me with a wink. I slide the ring onto Chloe’s finger, feeling the significance of the moment. She does the same with my ring, her hands steady, despite the tears in her eyes.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” she says, her voice steady.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” I repeat, and my heart feels close to bursting.
The officiant smiles at us, his voice warm and full of joy. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
I don’t hesitate. I pull Chloe into my arms and kiss her. I don’t care who’s watching and ignore the roar of our friends and family. It’s just the two of us at that moment, bound together by love and commitment. When we finally pull apart, the applause and cheers of our friends and family bring us back to reality.
We turn to face them, hands clasped, grinning from ear to ear. Together, we walk back down the aisle. Lauren follows us with Charlie still in her arms, asleep and oblivious to the significance of the day.
The reception is a blur of laughter, dancing, and heartfelt toasts. Lauren gives a speech that has everyone in tears, recounting stories from our childhood and expressing her joy at seeing me so happy. My dad’s toast is filled with humor and heartfelt wishes for our future. Chloe and I share our first dance as husband and wife, swaying to the music, lost in each other’s eyes.
As the night progresses, I steal moments with Chloe away from the crowd. We find a quiet corner of the garden, the sounds of the party drifting softly in the background. I pull her close, wrapping my arms around her, and we stand there, savoring the feel of each other.
“This day has been perfect,” Chloe whispers as she rests her head against my chest.
“It has,” I agree, pressing a kiss to her hair. “I still can’t believe it. We’re married.”
She looks up at me, her eyes filled with love. “We are. And I wouldn’t change a thing. You, me, and Charlie, I couldn’t ask for more.”
We stay like that for a while, wrapped in each other’s arms, before returning to the party.
As the evening winds down, and the last of the guests have gone, Chloe and I find ourselves alone in the house with our son. We sit on the couch, her head on my shoulder, my arm around her, and Charlie sleeping in her arms. The house is quiet now, the only sound the ticking of the clock on the wall.
“I can’t believe it’s over,” Chloe says softly. “The day went by so fast.”
“I know,” I reply, feeling a mix of exhaustion and contentment. “But it was perfect.”
She lifts her head to look at me, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “It really was.”
I lean in and kiss her, a slow, lingering kiss that promises more to come. “I love you, Mrs. Thompson.”
She smiles against my lips. “I love you, too, Mr. Thompson.”
We stay there, wrapped in each other’s arms with our son, savoring the quiet and the promise of all the tomorrows to come. It’s the beginning of our forever, and I couldn’t be happier.
The End
***
Thank you so much for your interest in my books. If you enjoyed this story, you will absolutely love, Faking It with my Bestie's Billionaire Brother.
I'm caught in a fake engagement with my best friend's billionaire brother.
The sparks in the bedroom are the only real thing.
Spencer is a silver fox in a tailored suit who runs the elite academy where I teach.
His gaze alone is so hot it melts my clothes right off.
Bossy, arrogant, and infuriatingly sexy.
He’s in boardrooms, I’m in art studios but there’s one thing we have in common - his sister is my best friend in the world.
He needs a respectable girlfriend ASAP to save his public image.
I agree to protect my job and help my best friend's family reputation.
Now I'm playing wife in his swanky penthouse, close enough to sense his hidden scars.
I know mixing business with mind blowing pleasure is messy, but he brings me to dizzying heights.
My risky reality….my heart, job and friendship are hanging by a thread.
One wrong move and I could lose everything.
Here's a sneak peak of Chapter One…
Ava
"I just don't understand why somebody would agree to the date if they were going to be weirded out about what I do for a living?" Penny huffed, all the while furiously filling out paperwork.
Idly, I combed a miniature rake through a little box of sand on her desk, making patterns in the grains. I was the one who got it for her when she first started at the school, and I was quite sure that I was the only one who played with it. But judging from her tone, she could definitely use the relaxation technique.
"This is why I don't mess with any of those dating apps," I told her. "There's something to be said about sussing out a person's intentions when you meet them face to face. It's too difficult to do that through the Internet."
Penny eyed me speculatively, a small smile playing on her lips. "Says someone who never dates."
I made a face at that. "It's not that I don't date. I just don't really have that much time, you know."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Are you saying that I need to give you more vacation days? Because I'm well aware of how much time you have during Christmas break and Thanksgiving break and all of summer that you have to rectify your hermit status."
Sending her a mock glare, I had to bite back a laugh. "How rude of you to remind me that I'm a hermit." She just smiled broadly at me. Only Penny could get away with talking to me like that. But she was right, I didn't date. I hated the whole concept of it.
Why couldn't a young, creative woman have Prince Charming just appear before her like a fairytale? Was that really too much to ask for?
Still, Penny did make a point. I had a more desirable schedule than most as a sculpting teacher for the Ashbury Academy of the Arts. Seeing that my boss was also my best friend, I got away with more than maybe the average teacher.
I felt bad, though, after hearing about Penny’s disastrous evening since I had encouraged Penny to get out there and see if she could find somebody. She was always so busy running this place, not that she seemed to mind, but she deserved to have the relationship she yearned for. She was the one who spearheaded this whole academy. Sure, her rich brother bankrolled the place, but it was Penny who had made it all happen.
Unfortunately, when potential dates heard about her position and just how much responsibility she had, they backed off swiftly, like the little cockroaches they were. Dealing with insecure men was yet another reason I didn't really care to put myself out there. I just preferred to dream.
Penny's office phone rang, and she picked it up, answering in a clipped tone. When she spoke to whoever was on the other line, my eyes wandered to the pictures on her desk yet again, mulling over the familiar lines, trying to see if I had missed any details.
The one behind her head was particularly intriguing with the fine form of the tall, broad-shouldered male leaning against the lamp post. The arrogant ease with which the man leaned against the post was what caught my attention in the first place, but it was the clean lines of that square jaw and the danger banked in those green eyes that had me studying it now.
It was none other than Spencer Ashbury, Penny's much older brother. He was a looker, alright, but he was also one of the most difficult people I'd ever met. Granted, I'd only met him a couple of times.
Penny worshiped the ground he walked on, but I'd only ever found him to be surly, dismissive, and cold. I guess when someone had more money than God, they didn't have to worry about things like warmth and compassion. Oh, but how the world would be different if that wasn't the case?
Despite his surliness, his one weakness did seem to be his baby sister. She'd had this vision about starting this creative academy for at-risk youth, and he had helped her make it happen. I'm sure it didn't hurt that being the purse strings behind the academy meant a substantial tax write-off for the Ashbury Corporation, which had been in business for several decades, having been passed down to Spencer from his father.
As annoying as I found him, I couldn't deny just how handsome he was, and what irritated me even more was that it was a picture behind Penny's desk that had finally broken my month-long creative block.
Weeks before, when I came here for one of our daily chats during my break, I'd finally let my eyes feast on this picture, and those eyes had seeded themselves in my head.
By the time I got home that day, my fingers were itching to get into the clay, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had sculpted Spencer's strong jawline. I had several little sculptures now that I was working on all at once, trying to get just the right composition of all his angles. I was still trying to capture what I was hoping would come across as a complex man. Even if I knew that he was just some rich sourpuss, nobody else had to know that when they looked at the busts.
"Do you really think they would mess with the school over that? I mean, we're not a part of it. They can't be so cruel as to do something that would actually take this school away from the kids?" I overheard Penny saying, her voice getting louder with each word.
Normally, Penny remained calm and cool in most situations, but I could see the red staining her cheeks and the worry lining her forehead.
I felt my brow furrow as I waited for her to finish up the call before asking her anxiously, "What's going on? Are you okay?"
She was shaking her head. "I don't know yet, but we will be. Don't worry. It's some PR bullshit with Ashbury Corp. That was Ralph," she said, referring to the Ashbury family lawyer. "He was saying that I need to be prepared because this mess that's going on with a company right now could blow back on the academy and cause people to make inquiries about our accreditation."
"But that's silly, we're fully accredited."
"I know," she said, sighing. "Unfortunately, with how political the education system has gotten, it just takes one disgruntled voice to call that into question. The inspector could say anything they want to as long as their palms are greased properly."
"But they can't do that to the kids."
Penny nodded emphatically and put her hand up to calm me. "I know, I know, but let's not panic now. Ralph knows what he's doing, and Ashbury Corporation has a crap ton of lawyers, so it's about time they earn their keep. Plus, you know that Spencer would do everything in his power to ensure that nobody touches the school."
I nodded, hoping it was convincing. Sure, I was worried about the school, but I was mostly worried about Penny. Even though she claimed that she wasn’t worried, I could still hear the doubt in her voice.
The shrill sound of the bell ringing overhead for the next class interrupted our conversation, but after it finished, I reached across her desk and patted her hand. "We're going to get through it, Penny. This school means too much to the community for it to be taken away now. Besides, it's not just Ashbury people they would have to fight to get to the school," I teased her, winking.
She laughed softly. "Lord help the fool who dares to cross a Moretti, I know." Penny and I had been best friends long enough for her to hear the saying often quoted by my family, probably a nauseating number of times.
"I better go. I'm running late and I have to get all the way across campus," I said, stopping by the extra chair where I'd set down a large, plastic tub with some supplies that I had grabbed from the supply closet during my break.
"I'm never far away if you need me, Pen," I called over my shoulder as I hefted the large tub up in my arms and hurried out the door.
"I know." She smiled at me when I looked back, and I tried not to worry too much by the shadow of sadness I saw behind that smile.
Carefully, but as quickly as possible, I navigated my way through the hall with the large tub in my arms. The academy taught seventh through twelfth grade students, so typically, when I walked down the hallway in between classes, I saw a lot of heads down and checking their phones. So, I had to be careful not to bump right into somebody since no one paid much attention to where they were going.
I was halfway to my classroom when I heard a familiar voice call out behind me, "Hey, Miss Moretti? When is that project due again?"
I looked over my shoulder to see one of my more precocious students holler at me from across the hall. "On the fourteenth, Jackson," I called over my shoulder as I kept walking.
I started to turn back around when I ran into a hard, warm wall of muscle. I hit it with such force that I started to fall back, but strong arms shot out and wrapped around me before my head hit the ground. Another couple of seconds, and I would have smacked against the concrete. Thank God for my savior. That was when I looked up into said savior's eyes to find that they were the mysterious green eyes of Spencer Ashbury.
Oh, my God.
His brow was creased, as usual, and his nostrils flared in irritation.
"I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I breathed out as he continued to cradle me just inches above the floor.
"Yes, I see that," he said, something other than irritation flickering in his eyes for once, but not anything I had time to identify because I heard laughing and catcalling.
"All right, Miss Moretti, go and get you some," a student yelled from nearby.
I vaguely heard another voice say, "Isn't that the guy who's on the board of the school? No wonder she's got such a nice classroom."
I groaned internally. These kids will be the death of me. But that was when I also realized that Spencer had not made a move to help me up. I looked frantically toward the students and saw what seemed like hundreds of little lights flashing, although, in reality, I knew it was probably a dozen.
"Mr. Ashbury," I said, "as enjoyable as this situation might be for you, would you mind helping me up before we're featured on every child's social media?"
He shook his head, seemingly realizing what was actually going on for the first time. He straightened himself and helped me up. "Yes, well, do try to be more careful next time you're traversing the halls, Miss Moretti."
I raised a warning eyebrow at him. If I hadn't been in front of all of these children, he might have gotten a taste of the sharp Moretti tongue in the worst way possible, but it was my job to teach these children how to sculpt and create art, not new four-letter words that would shock even them.
Still, I couldn't quite help myself from responding sarcastically as I managed to drop into a slight courtesy and answer in a stuffy voice, "Oh, do forgive me, Duke Ashbury, whatever shall I do with these troublesome elephant feet." Moving away, I bit back my smile when I heard laughter come from the children.
I'd probably hear about my little show from Penny later, but I decided it was worth it.
For all of his iciness, however, Spencer certainly was warm when he held me. All of that secret time I'd spent imagining him for weeks, as I sculpted frantically to capture the essence that was Spencer Ashbury, or at least some iteration of him, was now surfing through my blood in a pleased thrum. The whole thing was inconvenient, of course, but I would definitely use that interaction for fuel later that night when I finally got to sink my fingers into my sculptures again.
I had the night set aside to grade papers, but screw it, when one was called to create, there was no denying it. Even if it was a short-tempered jackass that was inspiring the creation.