Epilogue
Kylie
Four Months Later
“Harriet! Stop! What are you doing with all that glitter?” Luke shouted from across the room, Kylie wondering why on earth he was so upset. His voice rang out in the enormous room, the high ceilings carrying sound.
Once the old dining hall had area carpets, a pool table, the two large sectional sofas Luke had on order, and the foosball and ping-pong tables Kell was fixing up, leftover from when the place was a camp, it wouldn’t echo so much.
“Yay!” Harriet said, giving Kylie a look before turning to her dad. “Fairy paint!”
Dismay filled Luke’s face as he looked down at the five-gallon bucket of white paint, the pile of glitter slowly sinking into the center, like a shoe in quicksand.
“That’s a lot of paint to ruin with glitter!”
“I think what you meant to say was, that’s a lot of paint to make awesome using all that glitter!” Kylie corrected him, reaching for a stirring stick, beginning to blend it all.
“Huh?”
“You said we could paint the long hallway to the greenhouse and the rooms for the fairy camp with whatever colors we wanted.
“Colors. Not glitter! It’ll be walls of nothing but glitter!”
“EXACTLY!” Kylie and Harriet said, descending into giggles as they fist bumped each other.
Luke looked at the bucket. Looked down the hallway. Looked back at the bucket. Shaking his head, he breathed out through his nose, contemplating the situation.
Finally, he shrugged. “It’s your fairy camp.”
“That’s right, Daddy,” Harriet said, reaching for one of the long stir sticks, plunking it in the thick liquid hard enough to make some glop out on her hand. “Shocky and Griffy and Beezie need a shiny home.”
Invoking Harriet’s secret fairy name was a stroke of genius, the other two just fairies the little girl had invented.
Since Luke and his family had truly begun to move in, the renovations were endless, every day off and most evenings spent fixing up the old camp.
Kell and Rachel had already moved in, and Kylie had taken over his apartment above Bilbee’s Tavern.
Luke had pushed to have her move in with him and Harriet, but they’d agreed that going slow made sense, too.
One year, he’d agreed to. Just one.
Moments like this made Kylie wish she lived at the camp already. One more month and Luke’s house on Clannagh would close, he and Harriet moving to the camp, giving up the only home Harriet had ever known.
And the only place where she remembered living with Amber.
Fortunately, Moore’s nephew, Joey, was the buyer, and had offered to let them visit any time.
“I’ve got ninety more minutes before my shift starts,” Luke declared, touching Kylie’s shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Kylie eyed Harriet warily. “Can she be left alone to stir five gallons of paint?”
“I’ve got her.” Kell walked into the room carrying a big bucket of spackle. “No problem.” He frowned. “If you wanted glitter paint, why didn’t you ask them to add it in at the hardware store? The spin machine can do it easily.”
Kylie cleared her throat as Luke put his arm around her shoulders. “Because I didn’t know we were doing it until Griffy and Beezie decided they couldn’t live in a house without shiny walls, silly,” she joked, making Kell laugh.
Luke guided her down the hall, into a living room area they’d created, right next to the dining table.
“I have to be at the library in two and a half hours,” she said, realizing it was getting late already. “I’m taking Harriet, right? And your mom will get her after craft time?”
“Yep.”
A week after Luke had come to New York and they’d gotten back together, KidzdocTV had offered her the job, surprising Kylie before she’d even put together the materials Manu had asked for.
After careful consideration, and plenty of assurances from Luke that he would be happy with whatever choice she made, Kylie had felt free to choose what she felt in her heart:
A big, fat no.
Because the day before that job offer came in, another had been handed to her: children’s librarian at Luview Library. It was a part-time gig, and not even close to being enough money to pay Kylie’s basic bills, but she’d been lured in by Dotty Chen’s confession:
Mrs. Chen planned to retire soon, and wanted Kylie to take over.
Between her part-time job at the library, and plans to open an actual fairy camp in the summer, Kylie was getting by.
And Luke made it abundantly clear that soon, he would propose. An engagement, marriage, and moving in with the Luview family at the camp were all in her future.
A future full of love.
“Hey,” he said softly, pulling her close, the feel of his arms around her waist still sending tingles through her.
Their kiss was warm and nice, gaining heat by the second, his hands cupping her ass as she pressed harder against him, her back against the wall now as his tongue told her how much he wanted her.
“Hey back,” she said as they came up for air.
“Spending the night at my place tonight?” he asked, eyes hooded, gaze dropping to her mouth.
Over the last month, they’d decided to ease Harriet into life with Kylie as a mother figure, one she’d embraced instantly, telling anyone and everyone that Santa brought her a new mommy a little late, but that was okay.
“It’s Saturday, right? That’s the deal.” To keep life consistent for Harriet, they’d decided on a schedule, regardless of work shifts. Because the library closed at six, Kylie could always be there.
And if Luke had to work, she just stayed with Harriet, who loved their “girls only” nights.
Jester excepted.
Another hot kiss made Kylie want to pull Luke into a spare room, rip his clothes off, and –
“GET A ROOM!” Colleen and Moore were suddenly there, both in painting clothes, Moore drinking a soda while Colleen typed on her phone.
“What are you two doing?”
“As little as possible,” Moore said drolly. “And did I see glitter in that huge bucket of paint Harriet and Kell are stirring?” he asked Luke, who rubbed his chin.
“Don’t ask.”
“You realize it’ll look way better if you sprinkle it on wet paint, instead of mixing it in?” Moore said to Kylie. “It’s going to settle in that huge can. Better to mix smaller amounts so it’s evenly distributed.”
“You sound like an expert,” she replied. Colleen’s eyebrows went up.
“He should be. Painted houses for what – six years? High school and college?”
Moore’s face hardened. “Yes.”
“I thought you worked in your father’s jewelry business your whole life.”
“Nope. Not until I’d graduated college.”
“Really? Why? You like painting?”
Something protective came out in Colleen’s tone as she jumped in and said, “Moore did whatever he needed to do to support his family when he and Cammie had Jordy,” Colleen explained, Moore frowning and blinking hard as she spoke. “Mike Hostettler hired him to paint back then.”
Kylie knew there was a subtext she didn’t understand.
Moore seemed to notice, catching her eye.
“When Cammie and I got pregnant, my dad told me I had to step up and be a man. Be independent. I wasn’t allowed to work in the family business until I had a bachelor’s degree.
He and Mom cut me off financially. We were allowed to live in the basement apartment at home for free, but we were on our own otherwise. ”
“Oh, wow.”
He shrugged. Luke was watching him closely, and Kylie could feel the past creeping into the present, the weight of their shared experience.
“So I painted. Went to community college, then transferred to USM and commuted.”
“That’s two hours each way!”
“Sure is. I was gone a lot from Jordy.” Moore touched Colleen’s shoulder. “And you saved my ass.”
“I loved babysitting Jordy. Still do. Speaking of him, I’m texting now. We’re playing League of Legends tonight, and he says he’s coming for his extended spring break next week?”
Moore sighed. “He talks to you more than he talks to me.”
“That’s because I am so awesome,” Colleen crowed.
The look Moore gave her made Kylie do a double take. The guy was Luke’s best friend. Colleen was his sister. There was no way they would…
Nah.
“AAAAIIIIEEEEEE!” Harriet’s shriek cut through the air, Luke halfway down the hall before the rest of them began to run, his reflexes razor sharp.
“IT’S OKAY!” Kell boomed, his voice carrying down the hallway. “HARRIET’S FINE, BUT GRAB JESTER!”
“Jester?” Kylie gasped, as suddenly, she was knocked off her feet, falling on Moore, who fell on Colleen, the three of them like bowling pins being toppled by a ball.
A wet, dog-shaped ball.
“DADDDDYYY! JESTER RUINED IT!”
As Kylie sat up, her legs streaked with wet glitter paint, her elbow aching from her fall, she found her leg on top of poor Moore’s torso, Colleen smashed under him.
“Arf!”
Jester was at the end of the hall, nothing but two eyeballs poking out from under a glittery white coat of wet paint.
Kell appeared as Jester turned to the right.
“Oh, no. Don’t go in that door, Jester!” he shouted. “We just painted and set up the office!”
But the dog didn’t listen, walking toward the office as Kell made a run for it.
Dogs think people chasing them are nothing but a game, so of course, Jester took off just as Kell reached the door, but suddenly, he slipped between Kell’s legs, running at full speed back down to the end of the hall where Kylie, Moore, and Colleen were in the process of standing.
He stopped.
He panted.
And then he did what came naturally.
He shook.
Slow motion never happened in real time, but it did for Kylie, the long strands of honey-gold hair on the dog now sopping wet with glitter-infused white paint.
It dropped in long waves on his body, and as he shook, the waves lifted up, viscous drops flying through the air in impressive arcs as she heard people shout, the aerodynamic propulsion of the liquid, and the thwack of it falling on her skin.
Her clothes.
Her hair.
And...
“JESTER!” she screamed as wet paint filled her mouth one drop at a time, the taste as horrifying as the feel. Because she was closest, she bore the brunt of the golden retriever’s no-holds-barred, full-body shake off.
As Luke ran back, Harriet on his heels, he came to a screeching halt, bent down to grab Jester’s collar, and looked up.
“Oh, Kylie,” he said in a low voice.
Then he snickered.
“What happened?” she asked Harriet, who looked up at her and clapped her hands.
“You look just like I imagine Beezie does!”
“Beezie is coated in white glitter paint?” Colleen asked through uncontrolled laughter.
“And looks really pissed off?” Moore added as he wiped a glop of paint off his forearm.
Thumping footsteps made Kylie turn to her left to find Kell there, fingers threaded in his hair in frustration, eyes a bit wild.
“How many mops do we have here, Luke? He got the floor, but stayed off the couches, thankfully.”
His eyes landed on Kylie and Kell burst out laughing, a deep, braying sound that made her anger pique.
“It’s not funny!”
Colleen took her phone, reversed the camera, and showed her. “I beg to differ.”
Seeing herself on the glass screen made her gasp.
White paint ran in thick lines down her face, like she was melting.
Much like a dappled mare, she looked like an assemblage of pieces, different colors jammed together, but her lips were glittery white.
Light reflected off the glitter in the paint, giving her a luminous quality, as if someone were pranking a fairy.
She looked like a reverse Jackson Pollack painting.
An outraged one.
“Jester! Bad boy, Jester!” she snapped, holding her hands out, arms akimbo, trying to figure out what to do next.
He whined, shoulders hunching, tail dropping.
“Is that what you sound like when you’re mad, Kylie?” asked a tiny voice, as Harriet hid behind Luke, who was still dropped to the ground, holding Jester’s collar.
Harriet’s words made Kylie feel awful.
“It’s what I sound like when I am covered in glitter paint, sweetie.”
“You sound way nicer than I would if Jester did that to me,” Harriet replied. “I would yell so hard! You look awful!”
Now all the adults gave up trying to hold back, giggles, chuckles, and outright snorts dominating the air.
And then Jester shook himself again, spraying Luke, Colleen, Moore, and Harriet, squeals and shouts erupting.
“Hah!” Kylie called out. “Serves you right!”
And then, surrounded by the people she cared about most, they all laughed about the mess.
Because they’d gotten into it together, and she knew how they’d get out of it, too.
The same exact way.