Avery’s Epilogue
Avery’s Epilogue
Four Months Later
The smell of charcoal and fresh-cut grass hangs thick in the summer air as Grayson laces his fingers through mine. This is the first time he’s sat down all day, and despite my initial nerves over meeting his family, I haven’t minded watching him in his element.
The backyard is overflowing with people. Kids dart between lawn chairs with dripping popsicles in their sticky hands, and quiet music is playing in the background. A group of adults is playing cornhole across the yard, arguing about the point system.
Every few seconds, another burst of yelling rolls across the property, blending with the sizzle of burgers on the grill. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this many smiling faces gathered in one place.
I still can’t believe that everyone here is Grayson’s family. Growing up, it was only my parents and me. Despite every instinct screaming that I should feel completely out of place, not a single person has looked at me like I don’t belong here.
“Avery,” Grayson’s mom, Amy, calls out to me from across the yard. “Come over here and meet my sister.”
I unlatch my hand from Grayson’s, and he pouts.
“Want me to come with you?” He asks, moving to stand.
“No, I’ve got it.” I’m not lying either.
When we got here, Amy threw her arms around me as if we were long-lost friends. After telling Grayson that I was prettier than he described, she’d swept me away to meet his dad, David. Now, after a couple of hours, I was already more at ease with his parents than I sometimes felt with my own.
I make my way over to her, and she beams at me with Grayson’s exact smile.
“And this is Avery, Grayson’s girlfriend,” she announces to the table of new arrivals.
Girlfriend.
Three months later, and that word still sends a ridiculous little flutter through my stomach.
“Nice to meet you all,” I say, practically yelling over the chorus of greetings that surrounds me.
“How’d he manage to steal you away?”
“Isn’t she just lovely?”
“Grayson finally found someone he liked enough to bring home.”
I feel my cheeks flush, and Amy must notice because she locks her arm around mine and pulls me away from the table.
“They can be a bit much, but they’re good people.”
“Everyone is really nice, honestly.”
A chorus of laughter breaks out around us, and I smile.
“You’ll get used to this,” she says as she notices me watching everyone. “Every family gathering sounds like an argument to anyone standing outside of it.”
“I was just thinking everyone seems happy.”
She pauses for a second before looking across the yard at her family. “We are.”
It's such a simple answer without an ounce of hesitancy. My mind jumps back to my childhood, and I realize that I don’t have a single memory that feels like this one.
I can’t think of a single instance that was filled with warmth and happiness without the undertones of toxicity that usually surrounded me.
Even when things were good, they were never this.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?”
I almost lie, but don’t bother. “I just didn’t really think this kind of family was real. This kind of happiness or love, I guess.”
“You know,” she continues, studying me carefully, “I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
Heat immediately creeps up my neck, and I busy myself filling up a cup of lemonade.
“He called me after your first date.”
My head snaps up. “He what?”
“He said, and I’m quoting here, I took the most stubborn woman on the planet on a date today.”
I laugh. “That sounds about right.”
“Then he told me it was the best date he’s ever been on.”
My chest tightens as my eyes drift to Grayson across the yard. He’s chasing his nephews through the yard, roaring and laughing in the most ridiculous way. I thought he looked at home on the ice, but here, in his parents’ backyard, it’s an entirely different type of comfort.
“We weren’t serious then,” I admit.
“Maybe you weren’t, but he was. He is.” She reaches over and gently squeezes my arm. “I know my son, and he’s very serious about you.”
I roll my lips together. “Yeah, I am too.”
It still feels strange to say it out loud after swearing that a serious relationship was something I didn’t want for so long.
Watching Grayson kneel in the grass to scoop up Katie’s daughter, Lexie, to put her on his shoulders, I can’t help but wonder if maybe I’d never hated the idea of children.
Maybe I’d only hated the idea of raising them the way I had been.
Lexie wraps both arms around his neck, squealing with excitement, and he chuckles.
My mind drifts toward wondering what it’d be like if she called me Aunt Avery one day.
Then I squeeze my eyes shut because I need to calm the hell down.
We haven’t been together nearly long enough for that ridiculous thought.
Then, Grayson catches me watching him. His entire face softens, and he winks. My stomach does the stupid little flip it’s been doing for months, but I still roll my eyes at him. Some things don’t change.
“Glad you guys could make it,” Katie says, appearing at my side. “I know soccer is still in full swing.”
“It’s a quick trip, but I could tell it was important to him that we come. And with summer winding down, hockey will start practicing again before long.”
“Is he still upset about the Cup?”
I shoot her a look. “He’s your brother. What do you think?”
“I think he whines too much.”
I chuckle because I’ve come to learn that picking on each other is their way of showing love. “He’s bummed but determined to bring it home next season.”
“I think they like him more than they like me,” Katie says, nodding to Grayson as the kids swarm him.
“They adore him.”
“They really do.”
There’s something incredibly natural about the way he moves through the chaos. He isn’t performing. He’s simply home. Every single person gravitates toward him, and he manages all of it without looking the slightest bit overwhelmed.
Amy chimes back in, “I was just about to tell Avery how Grayson always thought everyone else came first when he was growing up.”
“He has one hell of a hero complex.” I sip my drink while they both chuckle.
She leans against the picnic table. “Even though he was the youngest, Katie refused to ride her bike without him because she was convinced he'd catch her if she fell."
Katie snorts. “He ran behind me for three blocks.”
Grayson groans loudly enough for all of us to hear as he slides in next to me. “I was five.”
“You never complained.” His mom pats his shoulder.
“I definitely complained.”
“You complained while you kept doing it.”
Something soft unfurls inside me because that little boy isn’t so different from the man by my side. He’d done the same thing for me, staying behind me while I wobbled and catching me every time I started falling.
“Can I steal her?” Grayson asks, tugging on my arm.
His mom waves us away. “That’d be up to her.”
He looks at me, quirking his brow.
“Oh, so now you ask before you kidnap me?”
“I don’t kidnap you.”
“You’ve raised a real delinquent,” I tease his mom.
He gasps. “Don’t be a tattletale.”
She chuckles.
I poke him. “A tattletale? Really? Someone’s been hanging out with too many five-year-olds.
“Ha. Ha. Very funny.” He squeezes my hand. “C’mon, I want to show you something.”
We wander toward the edge of the property where the noise softens beneath the rustling branches overhead. The grass gives way to a narrow walking path that curves around a small pond, hidden just beyond the backyard.
“I forgot how peaceful it is back here,” he says.
“You have a pond?”
“My grandpa dug it.”
“Of course he did.”
We walk without saying much, our shoulders brushing every few steps. When I was growing up, silence meant tension and anger, but now, it’s always comfortable. Easy.
His thumb lazily traces circles across the back of my hand.
“My family likes you.”
“I like them.”
“I noticed.”
I smile to myself. “They’re kind of impossible not to like. That must be where you get it from.”
“You used to find it pretty easy to dislike me.” He studies me for a second.
I stop walking. “That’s not true. I disliked this fictional person that I created in my head. A man who was no different from my ex, but that isn’t you. It never was. Once I realized that, you were impossible not to like, too.”
He tugs on my hand, pulling me closer and giving me a quick kiss before walking again. “Thank god for broken-down cars and drunken meltdowns then.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t go that far–” I trail off when my phone vibrates inside the pocket of my sundress.
I pull it out to see my mom’s name across the screen. Everything inside me threatens to slip backward for one agonizing second. Then, I shove it back into my pocket, refusing to let her ruin my day.
There was a time when I would’ve answered it immediately. I would talk to her while she ignored all of my pleas for civility. I would listen while she trashed my dad, then do the same for him when he called.
But that time is over. Last month, Grayson had sat by my side while I informed both of my parents in a joint call that I would no longer tolerate being a toy in their game. They both said okay, before immediately testing those boundaries in our next conversations.
After many hang-ups and arguments, my dad finally seemed to get it. My mom, on the other hand, I might just need more space from for a while.
Grayson notices my expression. “You okay?”
“It’s just strange,” I admit.
“For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you.”
I scrunch my nose. “Why?”
“Because you’ve finally learned the difference between setting boundaries and building walls.”
My smile is wide because for years, I’d treated those things like they were the same. But he’s right; I’ve stopped doing that.
I catch myself being more honest about my feelings, instead of holding my insecurities hostage in my head. My mind travels back to our first honest conversation in the car after Wyatt’s party.
“Do you remember when I told you that your parents were the exception to the rule?”
“Of course.”
“I still think they are. This-” I motion back toward the picnic- “Your family. It is the exception. I don’t think many people get to experience this.”
He looks at me, confusion flickering behind his eyes.
I smile. “But maybe we can be an exception, too.”
“We already are.”
He kisses me, tongue gliding along my lips as he pulls me to him. My body seeks him out until I’m flush against him, my hands curving around his neck. The kiss deepens, and his hands slide from my hands to around my waist and up my back.
I don’t know how long the kiss lasts. I never do, but eventually, Mason screams through the trees.
“Uncle Gray. We need you to even the teams.”
Grayson pulls back, resting his forehead against mine. “He won’t stop yelling.”
“No,” I agree. “He won’t.”
He groans before turning back toward the house. He starts walking backward, still holding my hand, until our arms are stretched almost completely apart.
“You coming?”
I feel my phone vibrate once more in my pocket, and I spare it a single glance. It’s a glance at a life where love was something to be endured.
Then, I glance back at him, surrounded by laughter and burnt hamburgers. A life where love was something anyone would be lucky to have.
I step toward him. “Yeah, I am.”