Epilogue #2
I didn't need long, heartfelt conversations. I just wanted to be with him and do normal, everyday stuff. That was my idea of heaven, and I’d landed smack in the middle of it.
I gave myself a day or two to mull over the issue of the house, before I brought it up to Riley.
First, because I wanted to make sure I really was okay with living there. That scene with William was over, but it had been horrifying while it lasted. And while I'd had a very happy childhood in that house, my parents had died right there in my father's office.
Could I walk into that room every day and remember the good times rather than the bad? I didn't want to make a commitment, get Charlie started on remodeling or encourage Riley to sell his place unless I was sure.
And second, I didn't want to try to have such an important conversation with Riley scowling at me for straining my throat.
So I behaved myself, sucked on lozenges and drank buckets of honeyed tea while I thought about the house and enjoyed being around my family, knowing I wouldn't be chased off by an unexpected delivery.
The simple freedom in knowing that I could stay, or go, but I could make my own choices out of desire rather than fear—that was bliss. I was in no rush to worry about the rest of my life when the present was better than my wildest dreams.
When I finally did bring up the house to Riley he only smiled and said, “It's a great house. If you’re okay with it, I think it would be the perfect place to raise a family."
"What about your place?" I'd asked, not wanting him to feel obligated.
I'd only been to Riley's condo once, but it was centrally located in midtown, not far from the Sinclair Security building. Modern and open, with plenty of space, it was the opposite of my parent’s homey craftsman style house in the woods. It also had the benefit of privacy.
The house in the woods was secluded, but it was a quarter-mile from Winters House. Living in the Winters estate would put me close to my family, but Riley might want a little more space from the rest of the clan.
When I brought up my concerns, Riley just shook his head.
"I can handle your family," he said. "And you've been away from them for long enough.
Anyway, my condo was an investment. I'm not attached.
Charlie's got her broker's license. She can sell it, and we'll stay at Winters House until our house is ready to move into. "
"Really?" I'd asked, looking up at him, drinking in the love in his eyes and the affectionate smile turning up the corners of his lips.
He hadn't shaved in a while, and his scruff had turned into a beard.
I'd never been into facial hair on guys, but Riley's was soft to the touch and gave him a roguish air that made my knees weak.
I loved the way it felt under my fingertips and against my skin when we kissed.
"Really," he said, bending down to press his lips to mine.
Our house. That's what we started calling it, and just referring to it as ours, rather than my parent’s, birthed a sense of ownership, of new beginnings. We decided against any major remodeling, other than updating the appliances, and Charlie set her crew to repairing the fire and water damage.
We never really had a formal conversation about the wedding. Despite Aiden's offer, I had no interest in a big wedding. I'd loved Gage and Sophie's wedding. Just friends and family at home.
Riley had added only one stipulation. He wanted to be married in the great room of our house in the woods after the renovations were complete. That had sounded like a dream to me. All we needed was for Charlie to tell us the date the house would be done and we'd be good to go.
Well, that and a dress. I'd dragged the girls, alternately Charlie, Sophie, Maggie, Abigail, and even Josephine and Emily to almost every shop in town, but nothing was quite right.
Charlie finally gave us a date only a few weeks away, and if I didn't find something, I'd be getting married in jeans and flip-flops.
I was starting to worry I’d never find a dress when Mrs. W stopped me after our fifth unsuccessful dress excursion and said, “If you have a few minutes, I'd like to show you something upstairs."
"Sure," I said, following her all the way up to the attic.
I hadn't been in the attics in years. They sprawled above the second floor, almost a full level except for the slanted ceilings. Room after room of storage.
Mrs. W kept them ruthlessly organized, or so it appeared, but as she led me past stacks of plastic storage containers she explained, "I didn't want to say anything until I found it.
I knew it was here, but everything got rearranged a few years ago, and somehow, I misplaced it.
I didn't want to get your hopes up unless I was sure. "
She led me around the corner and headed for a storage container that had been set to the side, the lid partially open. Leaning over, she reached inside and gathered something in her arms. I heard the rustle of fabric, and she stood, holding before her a wedding dress.
I recognized it instantly. I'd seen it in pictures, remembered sitting in my mother's lap, her arms around me as we looked at a photograph of her and my father on their wedding day. This was her dress, and it appeared to be in perfect condition.
I raised my hand to my mouth and took it in, the full skirt, strapless bodice made demure by a boatneck overlay of Brussels lace that extended to long sleeves. I had almost the same figure as my mother, and I knew just by looking that the dress would suit me as perfectly as it had suited her. But—
Reading my mind, Mrs. W said, "I already checked the hem, and there's more than enough to let it down.
Try it on," she urged, holding it higher.
I peeled off my T-shirt and jeans in a flash, not shy around Mrs. W.
She'd been taking care of us since we were children and I had nothing she hadn't seen before.
She’d already opened the buttons going up the back, and dropped the dress over my head, settling the layers of white silk around my legs.
"I'm only going to button every few buttons,” she said. “If I do all of them we’ll be here for the rest of the day."
When she had me fastened into the dress, she stepped back and turned me around. Her eyes got wet as she looked at me in my mother's wedding gown, and she shook her head in awe.
"You look so beautiful. So much like her, but exactly like yourself." Glancing around the attic room her face fell in dismay, “There's no mirror up here. I didn't think. When is Riley due home?"
It was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, so not for a few hours.
Everyone was out except for Sophie and Amelia.
"Stay right there," Mrs. W ordered before she disappeared down the stairs at the other end of the attic.
A moment later she was back, gathering up my discarded clothes and pulling a wisp of white lace from the storage container.
"Come down to Sophie and Gage's room."
I didn't have to lift the skirts much to walk. They would definitely need to be let down a few inches for the dress to truly fit, but I felt like a princess with yards of silk rustling around my legs and my arms covered in white lace almost to my fingertips.
Sophie and Aunt Amelia were waiting for us in the dressing room of Sophie and Gage’s suite. Sophie's eyes lit when she saw me, and she exclaimed, “Oh, you look just like Grace Kelly."
I barely heard her. I caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror and was transfixed. The dress was perfect, and Mrs. W had been exactly right. Wearing it, I looked like my mother, but also like myself. And with her dress, I could have her by my side on my wedding day.
Aunt Amelia, her voice shaking a little, said brusquely, “No, Grace's dress went all the way to her neck.
James loved Anna's shoulders and collarbone, and he asked that whatever dress she wore, she leave them uncovered. She had the designer do the boat neck instead, just for him.” Amelia let out a sigh and said, “You look so beautiful, Annalise. It's just perfect."
As Mrs. W arranged the lace veil over my hair, Amelia cleared her throat and said. “We've been driving all over town trying on dresses. Why didn't you tell us you had this upstairs?”
With the same starchy tone she always used with Aunt Amelia, Mrs. W said, "I wanted to make sure I could find it, and that it was in good condition. You’ve seen the attics. Everything had been moved around, and it took me a while to locate it."
Before they could start arguing, I stepped in. "It doesn't matter. I'm glad I tried on all those other dresses because none of them were right and this one is."
Looking at Mrs. W, I saw tears in her eyes. "Thank you," I said, and she let out a sniffle. Mrs. W would be horrified to cry in front of the family. Breaking the mood, I said the first thing that popped into my mind.
"Who knows? Maybe you can wear it next."
Her eyes flew wide, and I winked at her. Riley had told me about catching her and Abel in the kitchen after, he was sure, they'd been kissing. Mrs. W's cheeks flushed hot pink, and her eyes dried.
"Don't be silly, Annalise. I'm far too old for romance."
"That's not what I heard," I teased.
Surprising me, Aunt Amelia cut in to say, “You're never too old for romance, Helen. You should tell that man ‘Yes’ and put him out of his misery."
Sophie and I stared at them in shock. Amelia clearly knew things that we didn't.
Mrs. W's pink cheeks went brick red, and she shook her head, spreading the skirts of the wedding dress, shaking out the wrinkles, and refusing to meet our eyes.
"I'm thinking about it," she said under her breath.
"Hhmph, thinking about it too slowly is what I say," Amelia said.
Mrs. W pinned her with a steely glare and said primly, “Then it's a good thing I didn't ask your opinion, Amelia. I'll go get a dress bag, and we can pack this up to take to the seamstress. It won't take her long to make the adjustments. I don't think it needs fitting anywhere but the hem."
And that was that.
I had a dress, and we had a wedding date.
The few weeks between finding the dress and marrying Riley passed in a blur.
I had Dave Price review Sloane's contract.
He made a few changes, she agreed, and I signed on the dotted line.
Then I panicked and spent the next few days glued to my computer, sorting through pictures, editing the few I decided on, and generally freaking out.
Everyone thought it was hysterical that I was more nervous about selling my photographs than I was about getting married.
I couldn't explain it. I'd wanted to be a professional photographer for most of my life.
While I hadn't had a real show in a gallery, put out a coffee table book, or even worked taking portraits at the mall, I'd sold some pictures here and there as I'd bounced around the country. But I was nervous about my photographs. Would anyone like them? Would everyone say Sloane only took me on because I was a Winters? Was I really any good? Just the thought of my work hanging in Sloane’s gallery for anyone to see had me shaking with nerves.
But not marrying Riley. Every time I thought of our wedding, all I felt was eager anticipation.
Ever since I’d left Riley in that hospital bed, I'd abandoned the dream of a life with him.
I'd been absolutely certain that dream had no hope of ever coming true. Now he was mine, and I was his. I had Riley back. We were getting married. We’d even had a few conversations about kids.
We both wanted them, and neither of us was getting any younger.
I'd already made an appointment to have my IUD taken out. We’d wasted enough time.
We didn't want to wait another moment to start our lives together.
I found I had not the slightest trace of nerves when it came to marrying Riley. Not when we set the date. Not when I tried on my dress at the final fitting. Not on the morning of our wedding.
In my whole life, I'd never been more certain of anything than I was about marrying Riley Flynn.
Aiden gave me away. As he walked me through the foyer of our house, into the great room and up to the fireplace where Riley stood waiting, I felt only a bone-deep certainty that I would love Riley every day for the rest of my life, and he would love me in return.
I grinned like a fool through the ceremony, and Riley grinned right back. When the minister pronounced us husband and wife, he dipped me over his arm and kissed me for so long the minister murmured, "I said kiss the bride not consummate the marriage."
Everyone burst out laughing, the minister included. Riley took my hand and pulled me through the great room, calling over his shoulder, “See you in a few."
The reception and dinner were back at Winters House since our dining room didn't have enough space to seat everyone and our kitchen wasn't quite big enough to feed the entire Winters family.
I followed Riley, my fingers twined with his as he guided me up the stairs to our bedroom. The second floor still smelled faintly of fresh paint. At the end of the hall, Riley swung open the door to the master bedroom and led me inside.
Sometime that day, while I'd been busy getting my hair and nails done for the wedding, someone—maybe Riley—had moved my big brass bed back where it belonged. Everything else in the room was new. We'd wanted a fresh start.
The past had dictated enough of our lives. All of us were ready for the future.
Riley pulled me into his arms, tipping my face up to his. "I wanted you to myself for a few minutes, Mrs. Flynn."
The name shivered through me, filling my heart with joy. Mrs. Flynn. I might have doodled that name in my psychology notebook all those years ago.
I twined my arms around his neck, falling into the love in his familiar hazel eyes.
"You set me free," I said.
Riley shook his head. "We set each other free."
He backed me toward the bed, his lips tracing mine, his hands working the buttons on the back of the dress. Laughing, I dipped my head back to free my mouth.
“Riley! We can’t. It’ll take too long to get my dress back on.”
He was undeterred. “They can wait. I’m sure Mrs. W and Abel have plenty of hors-d'oeuvres to keep them busy. I’ll be fast.”
My breath hitched as the dress sagged from my shoulders. Riley had quick fingers. “What if I don’t want you to be fast?” I breathed as he tugged the dress off and lowered me to the bed.
“Then we’ll be late. I don’t care. I just want to make love to my wife.”
I had no argument with that. I wound my arms around his neck and pulled him close, murmuring in his ear, “Take your time, Mr. Flynn. I’m all yours.”
And I was. That night, and forever.