Epilogue #2
Missy lets go of my hand to give Lexi one of her signature hugs, and it melts the self-conscious look right off Lexi’s face. And just like that, Missy and Lexi dive into a conversation as if they’ve been best friends since birth.
“Hey, Colt,” Will says.
Reluctant to look away, I tug my eyes away from Missy and toward my brother. “What’s up?”
“You have a little somethin’ somethin’ on your—” He circles a finger around his lips, and I wipe my hand over my mouth, smearing lip gloss across my skin.
“What, you don’t like Berry Red on me?” I say.
“I’m just wondering who wore it first, you or Missy?” Will smirks.
“I’ll never tell.” I smirk back.
“You dog.” Will backhands my arm. “Good to know my future sis has good taste.”
“In men?”
“No, you idiot. In lip gloss.”
I chuckle. Oh, how I’ve missed him.
For the next half hour, Missy, Lexi, Will, and I, and eventually Mom, eat an uncanny amount of brie cheese with raspberry jelly and crackers, filling our stomachs while enjoying easy banter in the kitchen before adjourning to the living room with steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
Missy and I sit on a cream-colored couch that mirrors the one Lexi and Will nestle into, while Mom sits in one of the two armchairs next to us.
Soon after, Dad joins, filling in the chair next to Mom’s.
My body instantly tenses when I see him, and if I’m reading my brother’s rigid posture correctly, Will likely feels the same way.
While my family’s made huge strides just by being in the same room together, it’s still going to take time to not feel the imagined weight of expectation every time Dad looks at me.
Fortunately, Mom fills in the uncomfortable silence by asking Missy about her mom, who moved to Pine Lakes last August and is currently working as the receptionist for Something to Glow About.
It’s been moving to see how far their relationship has come over this past year and a half.
They are two peas in a pod; that is, unless Maria comes into town.
Then they are three peas in a pod. To both Missy’s and my delight, Bill and Maria frequently make trips out to Pine Lakes to see us.
And since Maria, Missy, and her mom are nearly inseparable, Bill and I have formed our own little club of sorts.
Ever since returning home from Sunsets and Sabotage, Bill and I have spent hours reliving our island glory days at Pine Lakes Paintball Club.
We’re even planning on participating in a two-on-two paintball competition in Dallas come next spring.
“How’s your job going?” Will asks me when the silence begins encroaching once more.
I glance at Dad, just as his eyes flick over to me. I can almost feel my foot stepping on an eggshell, but I choose to ignore it. If Dad and I are going to progress in our relationship, I need to be open and truthful about everything happening in my life.
Instinctively, I hold Missy’s hand, my fingers fiddling with her engagement ring. She tucks into me, likely knowing my fiddling for the nervous habit that it is. “Work is going well. I actually just got promoted to a mid-level associate a few weeks ago.”
“Whoa, Colton. Congrats.” Will leans over the coffee table full of hot cocoa mugs for a fist bump, and I meet his knuckles with mine.
“Thanks, Will,” I say.
And then I hear Dad’s voice. “That’s great, Colton.”
I don’t know if I’m imagining it or if Dad really just said what he said.
I try not to lift my brows in surprise. When I look over at him, I find his mouth raised in a small smile.
Briefly, I try to name the emotion I see in his eyes.
Pride? Maybe. Or maybe not. I stop myself, doing my best not to measure my worth by the level of his approval.
Instead, I turn my focus, feeling gratitude for this moment and the fact that Dad and I are here in the same room together, trying to rebuild our broken relationship into one that is healthier and hopefully stronger in the end.
“You should ask Colton which retainer client he managed to sign yesterday,” Missy says to everyone with a knowing glint in her eye.
“Who?” Will asks, taking a sip of his drink.
I eye Missy, who is far too happy shining a spotlight on me.
“Tyrone Williams,” I say.
To my mother’s horror, Will nearly spits out his hot chocolate.
“As in Joseph Williams’s son, Tyrone? The same Tyrone with a .312 batting average in his first year in the pros and thirty-eight home runs?”
“The very one.” I nod, scooting to the edge of my couch cushion, feeding off of Will’s excitement.
For the next five minutes, our conversation gets a steroid boost, as Will, Lexi, and I talk everything baseball—from the previous MLB season to the draft to which team we think is best set up to sweep the World Series next year.
Even Mom and Dad chime in, their features growing lighter the more we talk.
For a moment, I glimpse how things used to be, all of us sitting around the TV, excitedly talking baseball as a family while watching the Colorado Rockies play.
A bud of hope blooms in my chest. Hope that my family will work through our differences and eventually mend.
When Will and Lexi start an animated retelling of an iconic Rockies game they attended this past spring, I glance at Missy.
She happily nods along to the conversation, though I know that behind her bright eyes, she’s likely off in another realm.
I can’t help but chuckle as I wrap an arm around her shoulder and lower my face to her ear.
“Sorry you’re marrying into a baseball family. ”
She elbows me in the ribs; all the while, she appears deeply interested in the baseball stats my family throws around like a group of MLB recruiters.
Keeping her smile intact, she speaks to me through her teeth.
“I’m coming around to baseball. I just have to get past the part where they use the bat and hit the ball and run around for 500 years—then it will be my favorite game in the world. ”
I snort out a laugh, her words reviving a memory. “I still can’t believe that when we went to Tyrone’s game, you fell asleep. Asleep, Missy. His team had just scored a home run in the tenth inning, and you were snoring.”
“A lady doesn’t snore; she breathes deeply.” In the most adorable way possible, Missy scrunches her nose at me.
Just then, the phone in the pocket of Missy’s denim skirt starts buzzing.
Missy covertly pulls it out to find Ji’s name on the top of the screen.
Quietly, she pockets her phone, putting her attention back on my family.
But moments later, my pocket buzzes, and I find that Ji is calling me now.
Missy glances at my screen, then at me. We both share a this must be urgent look.
“Will you excuse us?” I say to my family. “Missy and I need to take this call.”
Mom and Dad nod and Will leans back on the couch, eyeing us with a rakish smile.
“Sure. A phone call. Needing more of that Berry Red lip gloss?” Will winks at me, and without thinking, I take a forest-green throw pillow by the tassels and huck it at my brother, pelting him in the face like I did when we were kids.
“Nice aim,” Lexi says.
“I knew I liked you,” I say, to which everyone, even my dad, laughs.
With that, Missy and I quickly head out the double doors leading to the deck that spans the entire backside of the house.
The entire city of Pine Lakes fans out beneath us like a picturesque gingerbread village with its many houses outlined with festive lights and snow flurries that are just starting to dust the city.
Missy and I quickly huddle under one of the five or so space heaters that line the outdoor area, and I answer Ji’s call on the very last ring.
“Hey, Ji. Are you okay?” Missy says into my phone as I hold it in between us on speaker.
“Missy, I met him,” Ji says.
“Who did we meet?” Missy asks.
“The one,” Ji says.
Missy gasps. “No. Where are you?”
“In the bathroom at The Simmering Ramen.”
“Oh, fancy. The restaurant, not the bathroom. Wait, is this the guy from the dating app you said you weren’t sure about? Did you actually hit it off with him?”
“Yes, well, no. It was supposed to be with that guy, but he didn’t show,” Ji says matter-of-factly.
“He stood you up?” I feel a burst of brotherly anger that someone would dare to bail on Ji.
“Yes. But that’s beside the point, because then I ran into this guy, and we got to talking, and his family pretty much owns half of South Korea, but at the same time he’s super down-to-earth and smart, and now I’m illogically in love.
” Ji gives a few short panicked breaths as if she is breathing into a paper bag.
“This is not my wheelhouse. I haven’t been on a date in who knows how long, and then this paragon of perfection walks into my life. What do I do?”
“For starters, you should probably leave the bathroom,” I deadpan.
Missy backhands my chest.
“Not helping,” Ji says.
I smile cheekily before Missy takes my phone into her hands.
“Okay, tell me everything.” Missy wraps an arm around her torso to keep out the cold, so I rub my hands up and down her arms to warm her as she gets the rundown from Ji.
“Does he meet your height requirement?” Missy asks.
“He’s about six feet tall.”
“Doctor or businessman?”
“Businessman.”
“Does he make you want to plan a wedding?”
“I’ve already got a color scheme,” Ji squeals.
Missy and I share a surprised look. It’s not like Ji to squeal.
“And he’s not too prideful to let you be the girl boss but also willing to crush any furry spiders you find under the couch cushions in the living room?”
“That’s oddly specific,” I say, throwing my two cents into their verbal ping-pong session.
“I’m not a hundred percent on that yet, but since everything else is perfect about him so far, I’m going to say yes!” Ji says.
“Are those wedding bells I’m hearing?” Missy bobs happily on the balls of her feet.
Ji sighs, sounding like she’s just hugged a puppy, “Sorry to interrupt your night. I just had to talk to you.”
“I’m so glad you did. Paige is going to go crazy that she’s not able to hear this right now.”
“I know! I guess this is what she and Jordan get for ditching all of us for Christmas in Paris with cutie Baby Blake. But I’ll give her a call tomorrow when it’s a decent hour for them.”
Missy gets a dreamy little look in her eyes, the way she always does when someone mentions Jordan and Paige’s chubby-cheeked one-year-old baby. More than ever, I can’t wait for the day Missy and I will have our own family just like we’ve dreamt about.
After wishing Ji luck, we hang up. I pocket my phone before looking at Missy with raised brows. “I have a feeling you two have talked about her checklist a time or two.”
She shrugs as a shiver travels down her arms. “What? She’s a girl who knows what she wants.”
Without hesitation, I pull my soon-to-be wife into my arms. The snow gently lands on her soft curls, making her look angelic, and I place a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Just like I’m a guy who knows what he wants.”
Missy draws back, resting her hands on my chest.“Oh, really? And what, may I ask, is that?”
I bring my hand up to her chin, softly tilting her face toward mine. With one glimpse into her hazel eyes, I see a future beyond my wildest imaginings. “What I want, Missy Jean, is to spend the rest of my life loving you.”
THE END