Epilogue
“Addison Murphy, if you don’t get your ass down here right now, you’re gonna miss your whole damn prom!” Will shouts up the stairs after we’ve been waiting for almost an hour.
Behind me, Joyce makes a sound of disapproval. “Language.”
“She’s been up there all day,” Will says. “If the dress ain’t working at this point, she’s just gonna have to live with it. Do you know how much Nolan paid for the thing?”
“She’s a young lady getting ready for her senior prom,” Joyce says. “She can take as long as she wants.”
Will looks at me from across the room like his mom is out of her mind, but I ignore him, knowing when I should and shouldn’t go along with his arguments at this point.
Jess is upstairs with Addie, helping her get ready, and it’s not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be.
In the months since she came home, she’s found a condo in a nice area and returned to her nursing job at the hospital. She takes the kids when she can, enough for Will and me to get some alone time. She’s even started dating someone, but says she’s not ready to introduce us yet.
All in all, it’s worked out better than expected, considering Jess and Will can’t get along for more than five minutes on a good day. And I think she’s starting to be ready to give him another chance.
Emmett is standing by the window in his suit, all black, of course. But he looks good. It’s him.
“You alright?” I ask, going to stand beside him.
“Yeah.” He nods, but turns to me with worried eyes. “Do I look okay? I feel like the suit fits weird and—”
“You look great, kid.”
He exhales in relief at the same time there’s movement at the top of the stairs.
“Took you long enough,” Will starts, but the second Addie appears, whatever he was going to say doesn’t come out.
No one is shocked that her dress is pink. A shade lighter than her hair, pinned up with little rings framing her face. It’s a ballgown, a princess dress, with a puffy skirt and a top covered in sparkles.
She walks down the stairs carefully, holding the bottom of the dress up.
When she looks up and sees all of us staring at her, she stops. “What?” she asks. “It’s not too much, is it? I know it’s—”
“It’s not too much,” Jess says, stopping at her side, fixing a stray curl.
Beside me, Emmett makes an involuntary gasp, and all I can do is give him a sympathetic pat to his back.
Will offers Addie his hand to help her down the rest of the stairs. “You look beautiful,” he says, all his teasing from before gone as he looks at his niece in her prom dress. And when she lands in front of him, she drops his hand and wraps her arms around him.
“I’m glad you’re here, Uncle Will.”
He hugs her back, mindful of the dress. And when he looks over to meet my eyes, I know what he’s thinking without him having to say it.
He almost missed this.
“Alright,” he says, stepping back. “Let’s take some pictures before I start getting all weepy.”
The next twenty minutes consist of everyone getting a picture with Addie in as many combinations as possible. Frank and Joyce with her. One with just Jess and Addie. Jess and I with her in between.
Frank wants one alone, and so does Joyce, and Ollie has to be in every single picture. Addie wants at least a hundred of her and Emmett, who stands where he’s told and forces a smile that looks strange on his face.
By the time we’re nearing the end, there are enough to fill multiple albums.
Will volunteers to be the camera man, claiming he wants to test out his new phone. “One more,” Joyce calls. “Make sure you’re getting my good side, honey.”
“Which one is that?” Will says, making his mom frown for the last picture.
Addie breaks away from her grandparents and comes over to where I’m standing, her smile taking up her whole face, and I think about the girl who sat in her room for weeks not smiling at all, forcing back my own emotion.
This is a happy day.
“Dad,” she says. “Come on, one more picture.”
“I’ve been in plenty—”
“With Will.” She takes my hand, dragging me to the middle of the yard, the designated picture spot. “I want one with both of you.”
I look back at Will, the moment Frank steps up to take the phone from his hand. “Give me that,” he says, looking at it like he’s been given a futuristic gadget. “How do you work this thing?”
“The red button on the—”
“I see it.” He waves him off. “Get over there, boy.”
Will looks at his father, incredulous, while Frank gives nothing away as he stands there, ready to take a picture of us. As a couple.
“Smile,” Frank says when he moves to the other side of Addie. “That means you, Nolan.”