Epilogue
LOAD-BEARING
Cole
Three Months Later
Six hours.
That’s how much longer I have to wait in this house that wasn’t built to feel so empty.
Because it’s not just a house. It’s a home.
I understand the difference now.
Our home at Papa’s fishing hole holds the quiet differently than the model house we used to live in. It’s not an empty silence anymore…it’s holding space for the life that will happen here.
I know because I drafted the plans for it in painstaking detail.
Junie spent last night at Katie’s because Katie declared it a tradition we weren’t going to mess with. And Katie’s traditions, frequently invented on the spot, are enforced with the zeal of a small-town dictator in sequins.
That’s how I end up on the deck of our home at 7 a.m. watching the fog sit low over the marsh, counting down the hours until Junie Mercer becomes Junie Whittaker.
My phone buzzes on the railing.
BFFs Maid of Honor Group Chat:
Katie: She’s awake. She’s fine. She may have tried to reorganize the seating chart at 2 a.m., but she’s FINE.
Junie: I’m right here, Katherine.
Katie: See? Fine.
Junie: Whittaker, you’d better be sleeping.
Cole: Sound asleep.
Junie: Liar. I can see the porch light over the marsh from Katie’s guest room.
I look up at the light burning brightly over my head and smile like an idiot.
Cole: You’re not home. Of course it’s on.
Junie: Five hours and fifty-six minutes.
Cole: I’ll be waiting.
By nine, the Boston boys remind me why I love them and also why prisons were built.
Fen has appointed himself Director of Ambiance and keeps radioing Stanley via military-grade walkie-talkies about the golf cart procession route.
Hudson is steaming his suit and mine because he doesn’t trust anyone else to “get the details straight,” and there’s a legal pad on my kitchen counter with the heading Objections, Anticipated that I’m not asking about.
Nolan finds me in my office, fighting a losing battle with Papa’s cufflinks.
Six months ago, I probably would’ve fought those little bastards until my fingers bled before admitting defeat. Today, I simply hold out my hands like a toddler.
“Help?”
My friend smirks. “Look at you. Using your words like a big boy.”
“Don’t make it weird.”
“It’s been weird since kindergarten when Fen decided that we would all be marrying each other so we’d be stuck together forever.
” He finishes the second cuff but doesn’t let go.
His hand comes down on my shoulder instead, the weight of twenty-five years of friendship in it.
“She’d have killed us both, you know. If we’d let you marry anyone else. ”
“There was never going to be anyone else.”
His gaze softens as he nods. “That’s the truth, isn’t it? You would’ve rather died alone than try to replace her.”
“There is not, and never will be, a replacement for Junie, Nolan. My heart has always known that.”
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “So does hers.”
“For what it’s worth,” Fen murmurs next to me. We’re standing on our porch with the lanterns at our backs, waiting for Junie to walk down the aisle. “I’m really fucking glad you learned how to stay.”
“Well, maybe you’ll find that running was never the solution to your problems. Maybe this time, you’ll learn how to stay.”
Fenway Jones has always liked bookends, and he just dropped one on my wedding day.
“Me too.”
Of all the ways things could have—and did—go sideways when he and Hudson dropped Junie off at my front door, learning to stay made it all worth it.
Hudson hands me some tissues. I nod in thanks as I tuck them into my pocket after wiping my left eye.
The list of things we don’t talk about now could fit on a Post-it note, and it’s another thing I’m thankful for.
Sweet peas in mason jars line the railings, steps, and the new dock because Nana Mae spent two weeks muttering that she wasn’t taking any chances with this wedding.
The Haven arrived in a procession of golf carts strung with lights, and now they all sit in white folding chairs, staring at me with emotion swimming in their eyes.
Nana Mae is in the front row, wearing her good cardigan and a new pearl pin that Junie bought for her.
Bea stands behind me, Hudson, and Fen, wearing a brand-new cardigan that Junie gifted her in butter yellow. She notices me smiling at it and shrugs. “Lavender is for difficult days. She said I needed a verb-free color.”
That’s my Junie.
“Is verb-free the technical term?” Hudson teases.
“Don’t think I don’t see you, Hudson Tenney. My porch is waiting for you too.”
Hudson gulps and averts his gaze.
“Shh,” Bea says. “Here she comes.”
Here she comes, and the world fades to black and white around her.
Junie’s on her brother’s arm, walking up the driveway strung with lanterns, and I forget every structural principle I’ve ever learned because nothing about me is load-bearing anymore.
She draws my attention like a personal sunbeam.
Radiant.
Dazzling.
Mine.
Her dress is simple. Her smile is not.
Junie will always be complicated, witty, sassy beyond comprehension. But she’s also complicated in the sweet, quiet way that happens when you finally let love in.
She’s perfection in a Junie-sized package.
My gaze drifts down to the flowers she’s carrying. They’re tied with a moss-green ribbon the same exact shade as my favorite dress. It’s intentional, and she’s smug as hell about it.
She walks straight toward me without an ounce of hesitation. This is the version of her that will flash through my memories for a lifetime.
Nolan puts her hand in mine. “Junebug,” he whispers, and kisses her cheek before releasing her to me. His gaze finds mine over her head, full of love and happiness and all the joy we’ve been running from for too long.
Bea clears her throat, and he takes his position next to Katie because Junie decided that he would also be her bridesman—whatever the hell that is. I didn’t fight her on it, and neither did he.
“I’ve been informed I have one job today,” Bea says.
“And it’s to keep this short so these two can kiss, then throw the biggest party The Haven’s ever seen.
” She waits out the laughter, but that really was our only request. “Junie and Cole came to my porch haunted by ghosts they couldn’t control.
Ghosts that kept them apart and broke their hearts.
Sometimes we need to break before we can become whole, and sometimes our pieces only fit when our soul finds its other half.
That’s what Junie and Cole did when they committed to fixing what was broken.
Junie learned to release her past so she could have a future, and Cole learned to harness what he could control and let go of things not meant for him. ”
She smiles at us, and Junie squeezes my hand.
Hudson nudges me in the back. “The tissues weren’t just for you,” he whispers.
I reach into my pocket and hand Junie a clean tissue.
“Today,” Bea continues, “I’m going to offer them a new verb, the best one I know, and they get to share it. Today’s verb is keep. By coming together today, you’re promising to keep each other’s hearts safe. To keep your love alive. To keep choosing each other every day…especially when it’s hard.”
Junie’s fingers tighten around mine.
“Juniper. You first, dear.”
Katie steps forward to hand Junie a piece of paper she pulls from her cleavage.
Junie unfolds it, again and again, and the crowd loses it when she flashes a brightly colored spreadsheet their way.
I recognize it instantly.
“Before I agreed to move in with this man, I built a new matrix,” Junie says.
“It’s sixteen pages, and he still can’t read the math of it.
” She glances at me, wicked and watery at once.
“So in the interest of transparency, I ran the numbers again last night. Probability of me running: Zero. Probability of you carrying things alone and getting caught by me immediately: High.”
I chuckle, and so does everyone else.
“Probability that I will love you, exactly as you are, grump and vellum and all, until I’m dust: Certain.
” Her voice cracks on the landing. “Cole Whittaker, you’re the only risk I never needed to assess.
I just needed to be brave enough to take it.
I vow to stay. I vow to try. I vow to love you openly, honestly, and with my whole wobbly heart until my very last breath because I’ve loved you for so long it’s become a part of my fabric.
You’re in my DNA, my heart, my forever.”
Hudson hands me new tissues. It’s not worth telling him that the marsh is just aggressive in its allergens because there isn’t a dry eye in all of The Haven right now.
Junie just put her heart on blast and did so with zero walls or hesitation.
God, I love this woman.
“Cole,” Bea prompts.
“I had a speech,” I say as Hudson tries to hand it to me, but I wave him off.
I’m not even shocked that he managed to find a copy of my words.
“But I’ve learned something about my speeches and you, so here’s the structural composition of you and me—you’re it, Junie.
You’ve been it for me since before I had the words and after I lost them.
I vow to hand you the heavy things. I vow to tell you the truth even when I want to build something to hide it behind.
I vow to always leave the light on so while you learn who you are at every stage of life, you’ll always know where home is.
I vow to love you and be your partner, from spite to love and everything in between for the rest of my life. ”
Junie makes a sound that’s half sob, half victory.
Hudson hands me the rings, and as Bea says words I don’t hear, I slip the final band around Junie’s ring finger like it was always meant to be there—and we both know that it was.
Junie takes my hand, and before she puts my ring on, she tilts it toward the light. I lean in to read the engraving.
Love is load-bearing.
I swallow thickly as she slides it past my knuckle.
Love is load-bearing. It wraps around my finger, then around my heart in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
Those four little words mean more than I can say, and she knows it.
Love is the structure of us—it always has been.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Bea says, and loving chaos erupts around us.
“They did it,” Stanley shouts into his megaphone just as I lean in to kiss Junie.
It’s not a sweet kiss. It’s a forever kiss—it’s a lifetime of hopes and dreams and a promise of the future. It’s love between lips and hearts and us.
We have our first dance right where I asked her to try, and the night glows golden all around us.
“Mrs. Whittaker,” I say, just to hear it.
“Mr. Whittaker.” She grins like she’s gotten away with something.
“The first time I danced with you, I knew you’d either be my salvation or my ruin.”
“Yeah?” She rests her head against my chest. “And which did I end up being?”
“Both, sweetheart. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“My teenage self is pinching my arm right now,” she says. “When I think about every dream I ever had for myself, they always ended here, with you. Thank you for being my dream maker, Cole.”
“Oh, sweetheart. You have that all backward. You’re the only dream worth having. Thank you for trying.” I tilt her head up and press my lips to hers. “Now.” I kiss the corner of her lips. “About tonight.” I kiss the other corner of her mouth. “How…slow should we go?”
Her gaze darkens with desire.
The Haven residents and our family are scattered around the property, but Hudson will shut this place down the second we head inside.
“Carry me over the threshold, Mr. Whittaker, and don’t you dare even think about…slow tonight.”
Game. Set. Match.
I lift Junie into my arms and practically run down the dock to cheers and whistles, and Hudson immediately starts corralling people out of the way.
We threw the party we wanted—now it’s time to start our future.
“I love you, Juniper Whittaker,” I growl as I slam the front door shut, then lock it behind us.
“I love you too, Mr. Whittaker, but if you ruin this dress, I will destroy you.”
I smirk as I take the stairs two at a time. She bounces against my chest.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Junie. You own me, body, heart, and soul. From now until forever.”
“Forever’s a long time, Whittaker.”
“Forever is not nearly long enough, Viper. Not nearly long enough.”
If you loved Cole’s quiet fixer-hero energy, then you’ll love Where We Fall—Kissing the boss is never a good idea. Especially when your boss is suddenly guardian to two tiny nieces he has NO idea what to do with!