Epilogue
CHARLIE
Spotted:
It’s the first day of school for our favorite (newly married) kindergarten teacher.
How did so much change so fast?
I have the first-day-of-school jitters, but not the bad kind. When I get down to the kitchen for breakfast, Alice is already there making French toast, and I have no idea how she got here so fast. Or how she learned to make French toast.
Probably Lydia.
Before I hopped in the shower, she was tucked in her office, my old room that I used to share with Tyler a few months ago. He helped me renovate it before the wedding, and I could hear her clicking away on her lucky red Olympia, hard at work on the bonus epilogue for her book. The one about Constance Bright that our book club is going to love .
But now Alice is here.
Standing in our kitchen and wearing my shirt, like every Married Life daydream I’ve ever had. Except for the part where I have to leave.
My favorite picture of us is on our fridge—the selfie we took in Carl’s car the first day we met. Both of us making faces for the camera after she snapped that stranger-danger mug shot. There are other pictures on the fridge around it. Candid shots of my family and hers as we packed up Alice’s condo in Dallas. A smiling photo of Nicki and Emma at Terry’s Bistro now that they’ve moved to Ponderosa Falls.
There’s even an entire collage of our whirlwind engagement and the wedding we had a few weeks ago at my uncle’s flower farm. Maybe we didn’t have to get married quite so fast, but that’s just how life works sometimes. Meet the perfect girl?
Lock.
It.
Down.
Apparently, that’s the Roscoe way. I smile as I glance at a different picture on my fridge, one from our wedding day, my sister and Tyler smiling beside Alice and me. Roxie always swore she’d never move back here, but she hasn’t left town since…
After breakfast, Alice meets me at the door to kiss me goodbye, looking every bit like my dream girl. Just as beautiful as the first day she rolled into town—except even cuter. Because she’s wearing one of her outfits.
As much as I love it when she wears stuff like this, I know she didn’t dress up for me. She’s working a shift at the Old Ponderosa Museum today, living out her history-loving dreams in the old general store, but I pretend it’s for me. My wife looks a little too adorable when she goes full historical.
“You’ve got this, Blythe,” she says as I hug her close, and maybe she’s right. Maybe with her beside me, I could do just about anything.
It isn’t until I’m finishing up in my classroom for the day with my mom (the world’s best teacher’s aide) that I notice the envelope on my desk. An envelope that definitely hadn’t been there ten minutes earlier.
Inside, there’s a handmade ticket for something called Tramway Tours by Carrots.
Have I mentioned she’s the perfect girl?
ALICE
I’m standing alone in an orange gondola at Ponderosa Falls Aerial Tramway, but there’s no line of other people waiting to get inside. I’ve booked this little coffin of doom so we can have it all to ourselves, and I’m only a tiny bit nervous about the ride up to Four Pines Peak. Mostly, though, I’m just looking forward to standing on the observation deck where Charlie and I had our first kiss; it feels like hallowed ground.
Besides, this tramway is one of his favorite things in Ponderosa Falls. What better way to celebrate Charlie’s big day?
“Tramway Tours by Carrots, huh?” He leans against the open doorway like he’s every romance author’s dream. Pausing, he reads the company slogan I put on his fake tramway ticket. “ The worst kind of gondola. The best kind of view. ”
I shrug. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
That boy doesn’t tell me anything. He just boards the tram and scoops me into his arms, backing me against the window while we wait for our tram conductor to show up.
I can’t prove it, but something tells me Charlie paid him to take his time.
I’m still wearing my old-west costume—I hurried straight here from the museum to meet Charlie after his first day at work —and he traces the calico pattern on my sleeve, drawing a soft line all the way up to the high neck of my blouse.
“I’m not going to lie,” he says with a very wicked, very Charlie smirk. “This outfit is kind of doing it for me.”
I laugh, nudging him in the ribs as he pins me against the wall of the gondola a little more. Then all that wickedness fades. His dimples deepen as a softer smile lights up Charlie’s face, a better smile. After kissing me gently, he rests his forehead against mine.
“You getting stranded here is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says softly.
“Me too.”
And I mean that, every word. My trip to Ponderosa Falls changed my life in all the best ways. I wouldn’t change any of it for a second, not even the hard stuff.
“I’m glad you stayed.” His voice is husky and low as our eyes meet. “I’m glad you’re here, and I’m glad your mine. Stay forever, Carrots?”
“Forever, Blythe.” I rise up on my toes to kiss him. “Always.”