Epilogue
Busy
… seven years later …
“I know you’re planning something,” Reid says as he steps up behind me at the mirror, his arms sliding gently around my waist and pulling me snug against him. “You’ve always been a horrible liar.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I smirk as I put on my second earring, a simple gold hoop set that Junie gave me for my birthday last year. “Besides,” I continue, my eyes connecting with his in the mirror, “if something was planned, is there any harm in just letting it be a surprise?”
He chuckles and presses a kiss against my neck, then he inhales, his eyes closed. I lower my hands to rest on top of his, enjoying the quiet intimacy of how it feels when he holds me like this, the way my blood begins to heat just slightly.
I’ve heard about the seven-year itch, but I can’t begin to fathom what it must feel like. Each passing day makes me want more time with my husband, and I’d bet my life he’d say he feels the same about me.
“You look beautiful,” Reid says, his eyes opening and his gaze raking me up and down in the mirror. “Have I seen this dress before?”
I shake my head. “Briar picked it out when we did that trip to San Francisco.”
He hums, the sound low and gravelly and sending a ripple down my spine. “Well, I like it,” he tells me, his thumb caressing my hip.
We make a striking pair in our reflection, each dressed to the nines, something we so rarely have the occasion to do. It’s a special celebration tonight, and that means a chance to get a little gussied up, even if we’re just going to the other side of the lake.
“I especially like,” Reid continues, his hand dipping lower and finding the short hem of my blue floral dress, “how soft it is.”
I inhale softly when his fingers slide between my thighs and gently stroke the skin just below the edge of my underwear.
“We don’t have time for this,” I mumble, though my protest is half-hearted at best.
We’re running a little late, and I know people are waiting for us, but I wait with bated breath to see what he’ll do. Anticipation threads through me as he traces my bare skin, teasing me, his eyes still locked on mine in the mirror.
“We can always make time for the things that are important,” he says back, his words a whisper. “Isn’t that right?”
I hum in response, my mouth opening slightly when Reid drags his thumb over my clit, the material of my panties still a barrier between us. Instead of shifting them to the side, he just stays right there, stroking me through the fabric, his movements infuriatingly slow. My breathing picks up, and even though we’re several feet from the mirror, I can still see the flush in my face and the frantic need growing in my eyes.
“God, I love how you still respond to me,” he says, his other hand roving, his pace leisurely as he caresses my body…my hip, my stomach, my breasts…before resting gently on my neck.
Then he tilts my head to the side and presses his mouth to the skin there, his tongue stroking against my pulse.
“Reid.” His name falls from my lips like an exaltation, and he groans quietly in my ear before finally slipping his fingers beneath the fabric and gliding them through the slick wetness between my lower lips. I close my eyes at the relief his touch brings, my head falling back against his chest.
“Is this for me?”
Nodding, I find his eyes again in the mirror. “Always.”
He doesn’t smile, but I can see the joy he gets from my response as he circles the nub of pleasure, over and over again. “Good.” And then his fingers are pressing into me, first two and then, after a few strokes, a third that makes me whimper, my legs threatening to give out.
“God, look at you,” he whispers, using his other hand to lift my dress completely above my hips so we can see his movements in the reflection. He groans again at the sight, and I can feel his cock, thick and heavy, pressing against my ass.
I lick my lips, wanting to feel him inside me. But when I try to shift against him, he shakes his head. “This is just for you. A little early Christmas gift.” Then Reid smirks. “But it’s just as much for me as for you, because watching you fall apart is entirely selfish.”
My head falls back as he continues working me over, and when he finds that perfect rhythm of thrusting and rubbing against my swollen clit, I give in, biting my lip to keep from shouting as a wave of white heat rushes through my body.
Once I’ve ridden my orgasm to the end, I slump back, my heart pounding an erratic beat in my chest. Reid slips his hand from my panties and adjusts my dress, and apart from the flush in my neck and cheeks, nobody would be any the wiser.
“Mom!”
My eyes widen at the sound of Junie outside our bedroom door.
“I can’t find my green shoes. Have you seen them?”
“I think they’re in the garage, sweetie,” I call back, clearing my throat.
“I already looked there.”
“In the bag with your swimming gear, not near the doorway.”
There’s a pause. “Oh! Thanks!” And then I hear her running through the house, presumably back toward the garage.
“She loves those shoes,” Reid says, chuckling.
I shrug, running my hands over my dress, still feeling a little mentally flustered. “Which I normally don’t have an issue with, but she has such a cute dress picked out for tonight and…neon green sneakers?”
My husband laughs again and shrugs. “Funky is just her vibe. She takes after her mom.”
I chuckle and press a kiss against Reid’s lips. “Don’t I know it.”
Crossing the room, I slip on a pair of pumps before turning to look at myself in the mirror again. Then my gaze snags on the sight of Reid tugging on his jacket, and my head tilts to the side as I drink him in.
“That suit still looks great on you,” I say, watching as he walks toward me.
“You say that every time I wear it.”
I grin. “Because it’s true every time you wear it.”
I reach out, adjusting the knot of his tie, my mind wandering back over the other times he’s worn this navy blue suit.
The first time—the reason he bought it in the first place—was our wedding. It was a tiny affair, just our family at a small ceremony in my parents’ back yard a few months after Reid proposed. We considered planning a full wedding, inviting half the town, blah blah blah, but when we actually thought about the logistics, it sounded like a lot of fluff that we didn’t need. So instead, we kept it tiny, and we each picked one thing to splurge on. For me, it was a really good photographer to capture the important moments. For Reid, it was his suit.
Since then, he’s worn it to any nice occasion we’ve been to, like Rusty and Bellamy’s wedding a few years ago and his twenty-year high school reunion last year. He looks just as good now as he did the first time he wore it. Maybe even better, especially with that little bit of gray coming in at his temples and along the edges of his mustache.
Once we’re ready, I go in search of Junie, who I find sitting next to the fireplace, her little legs dangling over the couch as she watches TV, our aging Sydney snuggled up at her side.
Our pup is a bit too old to be sneaking out of the house anymore. Reid finally figured out how she was escaping from the blue cabin all those years ago by setting up Junie’s baby monitor to watch her, and we couldn’t believe it when we saw the video of Sydney hopping up and shoving the sliding door open all by herself, then nudging it closed once she was outside. The little escape artist. Apparently, she could have lived another life as a trained show dog.
Junie’s head snaps to the side when I walk into the living room, and she lifts one leg dramatically into the air, showing off her bright green tennies. “Found ’em!”
I grin. “Awesome. Are you ready to go?”
Junie nods and jumps off the couch, turning to pet Sydney and give her a kiss before following me to the door.
“Jacket,” I say, pointing to Junie’s winter coat hanging by the door as I pull on my own.
“Alright, let’s get to this fancy ‘Christmas dinner’,” Reid says, smirking and using air quotes.
I purse my lips and Junie cackles as we follow him out to the car, a dark blue SUV we bought after his truck finally broke down a few months ago.
“He totally knows about the party,” Junie whispers loudly as we round to the passenger side, her breath coming out in a fog against the cold evening air of late December.
I wrinkle my nose and she giggles, but we stop talking as we hop into the car and Reid blasts the heat, giving the windshield a chance to defog for a few minutes before we pull out on the long gravel drive that leads to our cabin in the woods.
After Reid and I got married, Junie and I moved into the blue cabin, the three of us beginning our life as a family in the same place where we fell in love. About a year in, we realized we wanted something bigger. It took a few years of saving, but eventually we found a spot in the northwest corner of the lake. A single story with three beds, two baths, and a den. Most importantly, it has a property line that touches water. That’s why it took so long for us to find the right spot, because we both knew we wanted to be on the lake. After Reid got the right permitting to build a dock, we were in heaven.
It’s so wild to sit on our back deck during the summer with Sydney, watching Reid and Junie in the water. My mind almost always drifts back to years ago, to the days when he spent hours teaching her to swim. Now he’s her father, the man who has shown her consistency and stability and never fails to show up for her.
After Reid and I had been married for a year—a time period during which Jay didn’t visit or call once—he asked how I’d feel if he adopted Junie. I cried, because I was so overjoyed and overwhelmed in the same breath. Then Reid contacted Jay himself and handled it all. Getting his permission, the legal paperwork, the appointments with the court…all of it.
The day everything was finalized felt like a new beginning, for all of us. It’s strange to think there ever was a Jay to begin with. He might have been Junie’s father, but Reid has always been her daddy.
When we come to a stop outside my parents’ house, there isn’t anything suspicious to give away the surprise birthday party waiting inside. All our family and friends were instructed to park at neighboring houses and come in groups. I received a text right before we left the house saying everyone was ready to go, and I sent a response as we turned into their driveway.
I can’t help but chuckle at the fact that Reid knows about the party, because we have kept this thing under lock and key.
He looks at me as we walk toward the door, a smirk on his handsome face.
“How did you know?” I ask, my voice a whisper.
He shrugs. “Nothing is a secret in this town.”
I purse my lips and just glare at him.
“Also, the caterer called the house last week to confirm.”
“Jersey called the house ?” I roll my eyes. “Figures.”
I shove through the front door. “Mom?” I call out as we take off our winter coats. “We’re here!”
“Dad and I are in the living room!”
The sound of my mom’s voice has Reid chuckling quietly to himself. If there was ever a giveaway of the surprise in the next room, it’s my mother shouting across the house to us instead of coming to greet us at the door.
Junie bounces excitedly through the entry and over to the living room ahead of us, and when we come around the corner, a loud “Surprise!” is shouted by the crowd of people waiting.
I grin when I look at Reid, because as much as he said he ‘knew’ about tonight, part of me thinks he didn’t know exactly what to expect. The look on his face says this was much more of a surprise than he was anticipating. It might be Christmas Eve, but my parents’ living room is filled with close to thirty people: my siblings, all of Reid’s friends from around town, his family—everyone we love was invited to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday.
Of course, once the cat’s out of the bag, the entire room is chaos. Hellos and hugs are exchanged and drinks are poured before everyone heads into the back yard. Over the back porch, a canopy has been erected and outdoor heaters have been set up, the entire space decorated with flowers and twinkle lights and one long table to seat everyone.
It’s a magical evening, and the joy on Reid’s face is unmistakable. For a man who prefers a quieter life, he sure knows how to come out of his shell in situations like this one. I watch as he chats with his friends, his family, and my family, never missing a beat. He’s laughing constantly and smiling nonstop.
Reid’s fears about the future are still a reality. He’s still in therapy, still meeting regularly with his doctors, and has even started a new injection regimen that has had some moderate success in helping men with Kennedy’s disease delay onset of certain symptoms. He also finally opened up to more people in his life about what the future looks like for him, and thankfully, that settled the nagging sensation in his chest that made him feel like he was constantly hiding something.
“I think it will be easier to be myself when the people I love know the truth,” he said one day after he shared his diagnosis with Nick.
And it really was. Something blew open inside Reid when he gave himself the freedom to be honest. It started with me and then trickled on to other friends and family members, and now, he isn’t carrying his burden alone. He’s surrounded by people who not only love and support him, but who also know what he may face in the future, and that makes such a huge difference.
We’ve been lucky in a lot of ways, though, and we feel constantly grateful for our very happy life. His symptoms have only progressed slightly, primarily as tremors in his left hand. It’s enough that he’s brought on an apprentice to work the shop, a young man named Everett who will eventually take over the primary woodworking if Reid gets to a point where he thinks it would be best to take a back seat. I was worried at first, but then I saw the smile on Reid’s face when he and Everett were talking one day after work, and I knew it was all going to work out just fine.
“It’s like chatting with my dad about the trade, but this time, I’m the one on the teaching side of things,” he told me one night as we sat on our porch, looking out over the lake. Then he looked at me with a big smile. “It’s going really, really well.”
I haven’t felt even a little bit worried about it since.
“Think he was surprised?”
I glance at Briar where she’s washing dishes on the other side of the kitchen island. For the most part, everyone has gone home to snuggle in for the remainder of their Christmas Eve, only my siblings and their families staying behind to help with cleanup.
“He had an inkling of what was going on,” I tell her honestly, “but he had no idea it would be this big.”
She smirks. “Nice. I was worried for a while.”
I shake my head and finish scooping the roasted potato leftovers into Tupperware. “No, it all went perfectly. He was very surprised.”
“You talking about me?”
Looking over my shoulder, I smile when I see Reid and Andy walking through the sliding door to the back yard.
“Always.”
“Hey, why don’t you guys take off,” Briar says. “I’m just about done, and Andy can finish up with the leftovers.”
He nods, bumping his hip against mine as he takes my place at the counter.
“Normally, I’d protest and stay to help, but I’m exhausted,” I say, giving Andy a hug. “Thank you for offering.” Then I round the counter and hug Briar. “We’ll be back in the morning.”
My sister nods. “We’re doing gifts and stuff with the kids and Andy’s dad in the morning,” she replies. “But we’ll be here probably around lunch time. Do you know what everyone else is doing?”
I shrug. “All I know for sure is mom is adamant about a big family photo since we’re all here together. Apparently, it’s been more than ten years since the last one.”
I hitch a thumb in the direction of our last family photo that hangs on the wall in the living room, taken on the dock out back.
“Didn’t Ruby take that picture?” Briar asks, drying her hands and crossing over to take a closer look.
We’re all jumping off the dock together, fully clothed, laughing and looking completely ridiculous.
I nod, remembering the summer when Boyd met his wife. “She did, and then Boyd tugged her into the water as well.”
It’s my favorite picture of our family, probably because it was taken before life got complicated. I was barely 19 at the time. Now, at 29, I’m trying to imagine what a new family photo will look like, with my parents and all my siblings and our spouses and kids. Three generations of Mitchells.
I smile, because what an amazing new memory that will be.
We finish saying our goodbyes to everyone before grabbing Junie from where she’s been hanging out upstairs with Briar’s kids. Once we get home, she collapses fully clothed, face down in her bed, with barely a muffled good night. Then Reid and I head to bed, making quick work of our evening routines before we’re snuggled up together.
“Tonight was perfect.”
“Yeah?”
He nods, bringing me in against his chest. “Yeah.”
I wrap my arms around his waist, satisfaction blooming within me. Every year, I try to do something to make my husband feel special on his birthday, and seeing the joy on his face at being celebrated always sends a thrill through my heart.
Reid lifts my face up so I’m looking into his eyes, which are twinkling in the moonlight stretching across the room.
“You have a way of making me feel…so seen, and loved, and…” He shakes his head, his gaze boring into mine. “I’m just so thankful for you. For your love, but also how you love me, each and every day.”
My eyes grow misty, feeling the truth and depth of each word, and also knowing the same is true in reverse. This man knows how to love me and cherish me in a way that fills a space I didn’t know was empty before him.
“I love you so much,” he whispers, dipping down and pressing his lips to mine.
As our tongues tangle together and we lose ourselves in each other, I can’t help but think for the millionth time how lucky we are to have found each other, and to have been given this beautiful happily ever after.
Have you met the rest of the Mitchell siblings yet? See where it all began in The Trouble with Wanting , a steamy, grumpy/sunshine, vacation fling romance!
Thank you for reading The Downside to Forever !
If you loved the Cedar Point series, make sure you visit Hawthorne Vines! The first book in the series, Bitter Truth , is a forbidden romance between a chef and his boss’ younger sister set at a small town vineyard. Keep reading for the first chapter!
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