Epilogue
Jada
We were pulling out of the hospital when I glanced at Cane.
He was in total control—sunglasses over his eyes, one arm resting on top of the steering wheel.
It was the most relaxed I had seen him in the past three days.
He had never left my hospital bed. Kari had brought him clothes, and he had showered in my room.
He slept in a chair next to my bed every night.
The hospital kept me for tests and observation, but luckily, no permanent damage was done. It was going to take some time for me to heal completely, but at least it would happen. My eyes were black and my face was swollen, but the ringing in my ears had started to wane.
A counselor had come to see me in the hospital and explained that I may feel some sort of post-traumatic stress. He encouraged me to make an appointment with someone to discuss my feelings if I became overly anxious or scared.
The thought of going back into Cane’s house terrified me, and I didn’t think I would ever be able to go there again.
But otherwise, I wanted to try to live my life without looking over my shoulder.
If at all possible, I didn’t want to become a victim.
I made a couple of appointments with a therapist at Cane’s urging, just in case …
and because he wasn’t to be argued with.
Cane grabbed my hand and sat it on his thigh, covering my hand with his. He chewed on his bottom lip as we made our way across the Valley toward Kari’s.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
I shrugged, wincing a little. “Okay. My head hurts, but I think it may hurt for a while.”
“Yeah.” He furrowed his brow. “Can I show you one thing before we go to your sister’s? If you don’t feel like it, baby, just say so.”
“I’d like to see whatever you have to show me.” I smiled widely as I tried to readjust my sunglasses on my swollen face.
Cane turned on the radio, and John Legend came on. “Hear this?” he asked, turning it up. “This is me to you.” He grinned shyly, making my heart burst. “I love you.”
“I loved you first,” I whispered.
His eyes found mine, and I could see the wheels turning.
“What’s the matter?”
He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said as we passed the exit to Kari’s.
“Where are we going?”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Funny, I’ve heard that before.” I laughed. I relaxed back into the soft leather and felt some of the tension float away. Maybe things were getting back to some sort of normal.
He took his sunglasses off and chewed on the end. “I think I’ve said that to you before,” he said thoughtfully. “And I think it was the last time we came out here.”
“Are we going to your mountain?” I asked him, wondering what the city looked like from there with the sun still up.
He grinned.
“So that is where we are going,” I exclaimed, and he shook his head at me. “I really love it out there, you know. I’m excited to see it in the daytime.”
“I hope you are.”
I watched the scenery float by, everything so colorful. After what had happened, every color, every flower, every single thing looked more beautiful, tasted better, smelled better.
I’m alive. Cane’s alive. We’re going to be okay.
“So what do we do now?” I asked.
His eyes flashed to me in a panic.
“Not like that, Cane. We can’t live at Kari’s forever. Where do we go? I just can’t go back to your house.” I looked at the floorboard, disappointed in myself that I couldn’t get over that. “I just feel so … homeless. And you won’t go home without me, and I can’t go there, and it’s just—”
“Home is wherever you are, baby. That place my shit was at was just a structure. That wasn’t a home.”
I tried to suppress the ridiculous grin on my face to no avail. “So what do we do?”
“That depends,” he said softly, sticking his sunglasses in the top of his shirt.
“On what?”
He nodded ahead.
I looked up through the windshield and realized we were making our way to the base of his mountain. At the top was a building, but I couldn’t make out much as we pulled to the back and made our way up the hill.
“When did you sell this?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s great and not so great at the same time.”
The tires crunched on the hard ground as we inched our way to the top. The building, a house, began to come into sight again. It was a ranch style, of sorts, and all I could see was a lot of glass and a tile roof.
We pulled to the top, Cane saying nothing as he put the car in park. He turned to look at me, but my eyes were fixed on the white picket fence lining the back of the house.
“Cane?” I asked nervously, anxiety building. I scanned the rest of the scene in front of me. Although the house wasn’t complete, I could tell from the materials lying around that it was coming along.
I opened my car door—not even looking at Cane although I felt his eyes on me—and got out, taking everything in.
It was absolutely perfect.
I walked up the small sidewalk toward the door and, wow, what an incredible view.
I hope whoever bought this place appreciates it.
I got a few feet from the door and stopped dead in my tracks, my hand flying to my mouth.
The plaque by the back door read Alexander House.
“Cane?” I said, whipping around, looking at him for an explanation.
He smiled sheepishly, his hands stuck in the front pockets of his jeans. “Yeah?” he asked, bowing his head like he was afraid of my reaction.
“What is this?” I whispered, looking around again, afraid to believe what I thought I was seeing.
“This is Project AH, otherwise known as your happily ever after. I hope.” He chewed on his bottom lip, watching me intently.
“My happily ever after? What do you mean?”
I sat on one of the lounge chairs on the concrete slab, not trusting my legs. My heart pounded as I looked out across the city, the most amazing view I had ever seen, until I pulled my eyes back to the man standing in front of me.
That was the best view in the world.
“I built this for you.”
“Cane…” Words seemed so inadequate. “When did you do this?”
He smirked. “This has been in the works for a while now. I wanted to show you before, but everything was just a fucking wreck.” His face smoothed, his smirk turning into a small smile.
“For the first time in my life, I know what it means to be happy. I know what it means to look forward to the future. I know what it feels like to love someone … to love them so much you’d literally die for them.
You’d let them go across the country so they wouldn’t get hurt even though it tore your heart apart to watch them leave. ”
He sat on a chair next to me, fidgeting in a very un-Cane-like way.
“I just need to know one thing now,” he said, smiling nervously. “Will you move here with me?”
I couldn’t say anything. I was just in total shock.
“Jada, you’re killing me here.” He laughed nervously.
“Of course I will,” I breathed out, my chest heaving with excitement, the smile on my face touching my eyes. It was the happiest I had ever been.
“I have a confession.” He winced as he tilted his head.
My heart dropped to my knees, and my smile slipped.
Please, God, please don’t let us go backward again.
“What’s that?” I asked hesitantly.
“I lied to you.” He looked at the house so I couldn’t see his face.
My shoulders began to sag, my words coming out harsher than I expected. “About what?”
“I have another thing I need to know. I want you to change your address—move here with me. But I also want to know if you will change one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Cane reached into his pocket and got down on one knee in front of me.
Tears came to my swollen eyes, and my hands flew to my mouth.
“I want you to change your last name. Will you marry me?” He opened a black velvet box, and the most beautiful ring I had ever seen sparkled inside.
It was a beautiful oval yellow diamond made even more striking by a row of diamonds encircling it.
“Yellow like the sun because you’re my sun and my stars. You’re my world.”
“Cane.” I felt light-headed, excitement taking over me.
He removed the ring from the box and slipped it gently on my finger. He held my hand in his hands, as mesmerized by the sight as I was. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it before pulling me into him.
He kissed me long and hard, his hand wrapping in my hair and holding me still as he took his time telling me everything he wanted without words.
He broke the kiss and held my head with both hands.
“You were right.” I smiled.
“About what?”
“Words are overrated.” I grinned as he laughed.
“So this means you’ll marry me?”
“Yeah, I’ll be your girl.”
“Baby, you must have been confused.” He smiled mischievously. “You were always my girl.”
“You think?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“There was never any doubt.”
CANE
We drove in silence through the city toward Kari’s house a little while later.
My beautiful girl was sitting in the passenger seat, looking more content than I had ever seen her.
I felt more at peace than I had in a long time; just being with her, having a promise of being with her forever, gave me more happiness than I ever thought possible.
I watched her examine her ring. She was always beautiful, but with that ring on her hand …
She really did say yes.
I shook my head in disbelief.
I pulled into Kari’s driveway just as Kari and Max walked out of the house. Jada leaned over the console and kissed me sweetly before jumping out of my car and racing to her sister. Kari had Jada’s hand in the air, inspecting the ring as I closed the door behind me.
“I still can’t believe she said yes to you, man,” Max joked, shaking his head. He walked toward me with his hand extended, and I shook it.
“Of course she said yes to me. She’s not crazy.”
“She has to be a little crazy if she’s going to marry your dumb ass.”
We watched the girls talk animatedly, their hands flying through the air.
“Are you going to make things solid with Kari any time soon?” I asked.