Epilogue
JULIET
SIX MONTHS LATER
Gino said he’d take me on a vacation, and here we are at Pohoiki Beach in Hawai’i.
Outside of some surfers and families sitting around the beach, we’re mostly alone.
It’s our second-to-last day here, and we’ve waited until the end of the trip to spend the day at this specific beach.
Gino insisted on planning this vacation without my involvement, except for this.
We’ve hiked through lava tubes and calderas, and did our own version of an Island tour where we stopped at almost every tourist spot from ‘Akaka Falls to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. And the food tour, stopping at different local restaurants for plate lunches and other Hawai’i local food.
I’m lying on my beach towel and notice Gino leaning up from his towel. We’re somewhat in the middle of nowhere; the closest town is almost thirty minutes away. We brought lunch with us so we didn’t have to leave partway through the day.
“Are you hungry?” Gino whispers.
“Yeah,” I reply, leaning up.
Gino slowly goes to the cooler, grabs a container, and hands it to me. I look at him, and he just stares at me.
“You okay?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
I can tell he isn’t, but I let it go.
He grabs another container, and we both dig into our food. I have a plate of rice, mac salad, and kalua pork and cabbage, and Gino has a plate of Hawaiian teriyaki chicken, rice, and mac salad.
We eat mostly in silence. I lean into him and bump his shoulder. No matter how our romantic relationship goes, he was my friend first.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re being very quiet today,” I say.
He purses his lips. “Yeah,” he swallows. “I’m good, I promise.”
We finish eating, and Gino puts our containers in a bag to throw away when we leave.
He goes through the cooler again and grabs something. I watch him because, as far as I know, we didn't bring anything else with us except for some water. He then turns to look at me.
I look at his hand and realize why he’s been so nervous.
I gasp and stare at him. There's a small black box in his hands.
GINO
I feel like I’m blowing this.
Juliet just stares at me.
I’ve never been this nervous in my life.
I clear my throat, and she looks up at me.
“Juliet…”
Get it together, I tell myself. I’ve practiced this speech at least a hundred times. I even had my sister listen to my rambling of this speech, and her response was, “You could say nothing to her, and she’ll say yes.”
I swallow, and she looks at me with a small smile.
Exhaling, I start again, “Juliet, I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. When we first met, I knew I wanted to be with you. I know it took me ten years to finally do something about that. I love everything about you, your smile, your heart, and most definitely the fact that you put me in my place in more than one way.”
She laughs at that.
“So Juliet Tran, what do you say? Do you want to be with this annoying CEO the rest of your life and marry me?” I ask.
It wasn’t the entire speech I planned in my head, but I just want her to wear this ring on her finger and show the whole world she’s mine.
She looks at me with tears swelling in her eyes and offers a beautiful smile. “Yes.”
I let out an exhale, and I open the ring box. It’s a three-carat princess-cut ring with small diamonds along the band.
“Gino, this is beautiful,” she whispers.
“I had help from Vanessa and your mom. Apparently, you had this ring picked out for years,” I wink.
I called her mom a month ago, and she mentioned how Juliet always wanted a princess-cut diamond. My sister helped in picking the setting and size of the carat I should get.
“I only told my mom about that,” she whispers. “And Vanessa saw a picture I looked at months ago. Did you ask her to show her the exact ring I wanted?”
“Maybe,” I reply.
Apparently Mateo wanted to buy her a second engagement ring, so she used that as her way of getting Juliet to show her what she wanted.
Juliet bites her lip and kisses me.
The beach is quiet, so no one can really see us, and if they did, they aren’t making it obvious.
I slide the ring onto her finger. “You are never taking that off,” I growl.
“Okay, caveman, simmer down,” she jokes. “Once we get married, you can’t take your wedding ring off either.”
“Don’t expect me to,” I reply.
She snorts.
“We could get married right now if you want?” I ask.
“Gino, none of our families are here, and I want to plan a wedding,” she replies.
I know she’s right, and I also know she wants to plan a wedding with my sister. My sister didn’t get her dream wedding, and Vanessa has told me about the conversations they’ve had about planning a wedding together.
“I love you,” she says, putting her palm to my cheek.
I can feel the metal of the band, which makes me smile. “And I can’t wait to marry you. But you’re going to have to wait at least six months before that happens.”
I groan, “Seriously?”
“Yes, good things come to those who wait.” She gives me a sheepish smile.
I know what she’s thinking.
“God, I love you,” I growl.
After we spend a few more hours at the beach, we make the drive back to our hotel. The entire drive, my hand is on her thigh, and I spare glances at the ring now on her finger.
Once we get back to the hotel, we make our way up to our room. I didn’t get a huge suite but a beautiful room looking over Hilo Bay. I’ve already placed an order for room service, so we don’t need to leave for the night to get dinner.
Juliet walks into the room and quickly runs into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Room service arrives, and I thank the delivery worker.
I ordered us both steak, baked potatoes and vegetables, and a bottle of champagne.
I set everything up on the balcony just as the sun is setting, casting a golden glow along the bay.
“Hey,” Juliet says as she walks onto the balcony.
After she jumped in the shower, I quickly changed into sweats and a T-shirt. She’s wearing a tank top and shorts.
She leans down and kisses me, then she takes a seat across from me. The food is still hot, so we dig right in.
With what I want to do tonight, we’re both going to need the food to sustain us.
“I need to confess something to you,” I say.
“What?” She looks up from her plate.
“That speech wasn’t the whole speech I was going to tell you, but I got nervous, so I shortened it a lot,” I admit.
She bites her lip. “Oh, really? Did you want to try again?”
“Yes, but also no,” I say.
She gives me another one of those smiles. “Gino, I love you, and no matter what you said, I would have said yes.”
I swallow. She really is my dream girl.
We finish eating and walk back into the room. I set the plates outside the room to be picked up.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I say.
Once I’m done, I step out of the bathroom to see Juliet by the sliding door, and I admire her. She wears a lace burgundy lingerie set, the top hanging perfectly over her ass. The panties match, too, and I’m already hard looking at her.
She’s closing the curtains to give us complete privacy from anyone who could look up from the beach below.
She turns and has a light blush on her cheeks, and she bites her bottom lip.
“Bella, what are you wearing?” I growl.
“Oh, just something I brought with me,” she says.
“You look fucking beautiful,” I reply.
I stride over to her and drop the towel from around my waist.
Grabbing her hips, I lift her up, and she wraps her legs around me.
“Did you have a plan for tonight?” I ask her.
“No, but I do want you to do your worst,” she says, giving me a sly smile.
And I do. Juliet is the perfect woman for me, and I know I’m going to love every second being with her for the rest of my life.
Thank you so much for reading!