Epilogue Paradise Found #2
I settle back, savoring the gossip. “So, Chloe’s mom went on a girls’ trip with her old sorority sisters, leaving her at home with the stepdad.
Classic move. One night, stepdad gets wasted, goes to the wrong room, and, um…
sleeps with Chloe. Only, he realizes in the morning that it wasn’t his wife.
They both kind of freak out, but apparently, it’s become a regular thing.
He’s obsessed with her now. And she’s definitely not complaining. ”
Hunter stares at me, incredulous. “That actually happens? I thought it was just your typical AITA internet bullshit.”
“Apparently not,” I say, and laugh. “She’s actually sort of into it. Says the forbidden angle makes it hotter.”
Lachlan shakes his head, a small, fond smile on his lips. “Well, at least she’s happy. Is she worried about her mom finding out?”
I shrug. “Says her mom is oblivious, but probably wouldn’t care even if she did. She’s too busy day-drinking with her sorority friends.”
Hunter leans back, considering. “Sounds like the world is full of people more messed up than us.”
“Or,” I say, “we just know how to pick them.”
There’s a pause, and then we all start laughing again, the sound rolling out over the sand, mixing with the hush of the sea.
Hunter sits up, stretches, and reaches for the cold bottle. “I think we should toast,” he says.
Lachlan raises his glass, and so do I.
“To what?” I ask.
Hunter looks at me, then at Lachlan, then at the ocean, endless and blue and forever. “To found families, to sordid acts, to Chloe and her taboo sex life, and to never letting anyone else tell us what’s normal.”
We clink, and the sound is sharp and perfect.
I lean over, let my hair fall in a sheet across Hunter’s shoulder, and kiss him slow.
He pulls me onto his lap, my thighs straddling him, and his hands find the small of my back.
Lachlan moves behind me, fingers tangling in my hair, and then I’m kissing him too, softer, gentler, the three of us threaded together in a heat that has nothing to do with the sun.
The champagne is flat, the ocean is loud, and for the first time in my life, I don’t want to be anywhere but here.
After a while, Hunter leans in, his voice a whisper just for the three of us: “Maybe we should start practicing for the twins again.”
I laugh, bright and certain, and for the first time ever, it feels like the world is exactly the right amount of wild.
Let them talk.
Let them watch.
We’re already legends. And our story is only beginning.
THE END