Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER…
“ I ’m ready, Freddie!”
Nate watched Stella punch the air like a boxer about to enter the ring, not a woman ready to tackle an aerial course.
“I believe you,” he responded with a smile. The bright autumn sun peeked out from behind a cloud, splashing light across Stella’s face, highlighting her beauty. Not that she needed any help from the sun for that. How had he gotten so lucky to be loved by this woman? “Are you really sure this is how you want to celebrate your first full year and a half of business ownership?” He’d suggested revisiting Oglebay to commemorate the one-year anniversary, but she said it hadn’t really felt like her place until the chandelier was up. So, she wanted to toast to the chandy-versary , or whatever she’d called it. He couldn’t really remember, but he was more than happy to play along. Any excuse to celebrate this woman was alright by him.
“I’m doing this.” She leveled him with a stare that would have meant business if not for the tiny smirk that played at the corner of her mouth. A corner he found impossible to resist. So, he didn’t.
“Hey.” She chuckled once they broke the kiss. “I need to focus here. You’re distracting me at a very pivotal moment of this adventure.”
“What…starting the course?”
“No. Mentally preparing myself for the atomic wedgie I’m about to get in that harness.”
Nate laughed again. He’d been doing a lot of that during the last year. It seemed Stella softened him in a way he didn’t know was possible. She’d truly changed him.
And speaking of change, he didn’t now. His life as a werewolf was much different than it had been this time last year. Seemed the love of this woman, grimacing and shifting her butt all around in that harness, saved him from the shackles of the full moon. Not that he never shifted. He’d come close a few times when he’d been really hungry, but Stella always kept a pack of Goldfish in her purse for such occasions.
“Ready to go?” he asked as he joined her on the stand and got strapped into his own harness.
“Yep.” She craned her neck to look behind her. “But how far up my rear does this thing go?” She wiggled some more. “I feel like the jeans of my pockets are going to disappear.”
Nate stilled, remembering something that was in the back pocket of his jeans.
“What’s that face? Did I overshare?”
“Yes, but what else is new?” He was trying for a joke, but even he knew his tone didn’t sell it.
“Then what is it?”
“Nothing. I’m just ready to rock this course.” He checked to make sure he hadn’t lost what he’d brought along on this adventure today. What he’d carried around in his pocket for weeks now. He was beginning to wonder if finding a perfect moment was more challenging than not shifting into a werewolf.
“Now I know something is up, because when have you ever said you were going to rock anything?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “And your hands. They’re shaking.”
Dang it. They were. Apparently, he really was nervous about all this. It didn’t make sense, because he knew they were meant to spend the rest of their lives together. And he was about ninety-nine percent sure she was going to say yes to what he was planning to ask.
“Nate, look here.” She brought her hand to his face, tipping his chin so she could meet his eyes. “Do you know what today is the exact one-year anniversary of?”
He nodded. He knew what she was doing. She was distracting him, making him think about something other than what was making him nervous—same as he’d done the day they did this aerial course together last year. Only then, he was the one distracting her…with his words. It wasn’t until much later that she’d confessed how much his physique had taken her attention away from plummeting to her death—something that still made him blush whenever she reminded him.
“It’s the anniversary of your chandelier-hanging. That’s why we’re here.”
She shook her head. “Nope. That’s actually still a couple days away.”
“Then it’s the anniversary of when we completed this course.”
“Oh-for-two,” she said with a smirk he would have kissed off her face if his hands still weren’t shaking so badly.
“I honestly don’t know.” He bit his lip, suddenly worried this was one of those things couples argued over. He’d seen his fair share of squabbles in sitcoms when someone forgot an important anniversary.
“It’s the anniversary of when we started dating!” She threw her hands in the air, nearly punching the poor park worker in the face.
“But do you mean real dating or fake dating?”
She twisted her lips. “Hmmm. Well, it’s the day we started real dating, but we both agreed that it was never really fake for either of us. So, should we have celebrated a few days ago? Dang it. Did we really miss our real anniversary?”
Nate chuckled softly because only Stella could get worked up over something like this. But he knew just how to fix it. “What if we celebrate a new anniversary?”
“What, like celebrate the date smack dab in the middle of the two? A compromise? Because we missed that too.”
“What if, from now on, we celebrate the day I asked you to marry me?”
With a hand that still shook enough that he wondered if maybe proposing on the top of the aerial course was a terrible idea, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the solitaire diamond on a white-gold band.
“Nate,” she gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth, her hands shaking as much as his, which was going to make putting the ring on quite a challenge.
“Stella, I can’t imagine spending another moment of this life without you by my side. And whatever adventures come your way, I’d like to be the one standing right there beside you, showing up for you always.” He took a deep breath as he looked at her through glassy eyes. “Will you marry me?”
“Absolutely I’ll marry you!” she shouted as she jumped into his arms. Their helmets clanged together, and the ropes of their harnesses tangled, but dang if it wasn’t the most romantic moment of his life.
“Then I think this is for you, soon-to-be Mrs. Myers,” he said as he put her down and slid the ring on her finger. “Well, look at that…a perfect fit.”
“Just like us.”
He smiled as he wrapped an arm around her as they walked to the edge of the platform. A year ago, he would have laughed at a comment like that. He’d never imagined anyone being a perfect fit with him, let alone a bubbly, happy-go-lucky human . But as he watched her face her fear, stepping off the ledge and onto the rope, he was happy he faced his own fear and let someone love him. Because despite what he’d believed, he was worthy of it. Everyone was…no matter who—or what —they were.