Epilogue What Took You So Long?
Epilogue
What Took You So Long?
“So…airport?” the driver prompts when I’m once again sitting in his back seat.
I offer a sheepish look. “Actually…no.”
“Hate to break it to you, hon, but I’m not sure you know how Uber works,” he informs me, but his lips are twitching with humor.
“I’m sorry,” I say with a sigh.
“Ah, it’s all right.” He waves a dismissive hand. “Where do you want to go?”
I give him the address, and he punches it into his navigation system. It’s not far. Only five minutes before we’re stopping at the curb, and my very patient and nonjudgmental driver is helping me get my suitcase out of the trunk.
The first thing I see is Chase’s motorcycle, packed up with the things he needs for the trip. But he’s nowhere in sight.
As the Uber drives off, I hike my backpack higher on my shoulder and walk up the tidy path toward Chase’s front door.
It swings open the moment I step onto the porch.
The sight of him brings a smile to my lips. Blond hair unruly as always. Faded jeans and a snug T-shirt. And that obnoxious little smirk he dons when he sees me, as if he knew I’d be there.
“Hi,” I say, feeling myself blushing.
“Hey.”
“Um, so…” I fidget with the strap of my backpack. “Is that offer to tag along with you still open?”
Chase looks at his motorcycle, as if he’s trying to decide if he has enough space to hold me and my stuff. At first I think he might say he doesn’t have the room. That the offer expired. That he has a different idea in mind, and a sidekick is just going to hold him back.
But then he says, “What took you so long? I should’ve been on the road hours ago, but I was waiting for you.”
My insides flutter. “You were?”
He nods.
I bite my lip. “Why? Why did you wait for me?”
He shrugs, then reaches out and takes my hand, drawing me toward him. “You always wait for the people you love.”
Despite the smile threatening to crack my face in half, I manage to lift a casual brow. “That’s a big word to be throwing around there, Hedlund.”
“What? Love? I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.” He grins at me. “And if I didn’t think you felt it too.”
“Wow, now you’re being presumptuous.”
“Hmm. Am I?”
Before I can respond, he kisses me, sparking a thousand little explosions inside me. I’ve never felt this way before. Like everything is possible. Like we have hundreds of choices stretched ahead of us, waiting to be made, to be whittled into a future of our own design.
After some repacking and rearranging of the bike to accommodate my things, Chase hands me a helmet. “You ready for this?”
“More than ready.”
He revs the engine. I wrap my arms around him, a sense of exhilaration brewing under my skin. Chase speeds forward, and we glide down the streets of Starling, leaving everything behind. The grief, the secrets, the past. It all fades into the distance as the horizon opens up to us.
A new life awaits. And this time, I’m ready to live it.