Epilogue
CHASE
One Year Later
W here the hell is Forrest?
My watch told me it was only 12:02. Still, it wasn’t like him to be late. That was even less so when he was scheduled for a meeting of the utmost importance. He was set to meet me at Kimballs, the most elegant jewelry store in Knoxville. What could be more important than helping your best friend pick out a ring?
I certainly wasn’t qualified to choose one myself. Women could be particular. Google had already taught me about color and clarity and more than I ever thought there was to know about cut. I’d learned enough to know that this wasn’t a decision I could afford to make alone. Choosing an engagement ring for Violet wasn’t something I was willing to mess up.
Under other circumstances, I might’ve asked Nikki and Tatum and Jules. But it didn’t feel right after Violet had revealed Tatum’s feelings for me. I knew better than anyone what it felt like to have an unrequited crush. I felt pretty stupid for never having picked up on the signs. Tatum was just so friendly.
Hey, man. Where you at?
I finally texted him at 12:05. Kimballs was a fine establishment—the kind where you made an appointment instead of walking in, an appointment to which I was now officially late. Thankfully, Forrest’s responding text was immediate.
I’m thirty seconds out. Don’t kill me.
Sure enough, Forrest’s truck turned into the parking lot seconds later, followed by another truck on its heels. After that was another truck. Then a minivan, then a sedan. The way they parked together—pretty maids all in a row—explained Forrest’s plea. He hadn’t come alone.
The next thing I knew, I was being greeted by every single member of the Secret Poker Society. Some guys were two-to-a-car. Dan had come with Buck. Forrest had come with Grizz. Jed and Sebastian had brought their own cars, and—incredibly—the chief had come. This was turning into quite a family affair.
“They wanted to come.”
Forrest threw up his hands in the universal sign of peace as he approached me.
“How’d they even know where you were going?” I asked, suspicious.
“It’s Taco Tuesday. I dropped by the firehouse for lunch.”
I rolled my eyes. Forrest knew every free meal in town.
“And you just happened to mention that I was getting ready to propose to Violet?”
By then, Grizz was walking up to us. “We’ve got expertise.”
I pinned him with a look that told him I called bullshit. “Man, you ain’t never proposed to anybody.”
“Maybe not. But I’ve got six and a half brothers, gay and straight. Three of them are happily married. But the other three and a half really fucked up their proposals.”
I shook my head quickly, as if to free it of the Grizz effect. I had no clue what the hell he had just said. Buck and Dan were the next ones to come up.
“I was only recently in the same boat myself.” Buck announced the rationale for his own inclusion and greeted me with a hug.
“I didn’t want to have FOMO,” Dan admitted, offering the same.
“I’ve been married the longest,” said the chief. “And, let’s face it—you and Violet are the talk of the town.”
It was true. Firefighters were big gossips and formidable storytellers. Nothing stayed a secret for long. The courtroom drama that had ensued during Violet’s trial against the insurance company was the stuff of legends. A full year had passed and people still asked me to tell the story. I’d even overheard recountings from strangers several times myself, as a bystander.
“Alright,” I said, conscious of time as I waved them all inside. At this rate, I wouldn’t make my appointment until 12:10. And I wanted—no, needed—to be ready on the correct day for the proposal.
Violet and I had made an agreement. Three months to make sure the two of us were viable. Six months before we told the kids. Another six months to make sure the family unit worked together. We’d mapped everything out—said we wouldn’t even consider moving in together sooner than a year. A year would come at our staff meeting on Tuesday.
Tuesday was why I absolutely could not miss this appointment—why I couldn’t take time to question why all my friends were there—why I had to roll up into the most elegant jewelry store in Knoxville with a posse.
“Hello. I have an appointment,” I said to the receptionist as nonchalantly as possible when I walked in. “Chase Greenleaf? I’m here for bridal.”
From the look on the receptionist’s face, she wasn’t accustomed to this many guys in her lobby.
“Are these your groomsmen?”
In my mind, I hadn’t gotten that far. But, the truth was, these guys had been there. They had seen me through thick and thin this past year. These were guys I could trust.
“Yeah, I guess they are.”
“We’re firefighters,” Grizz said, sidling up against the counter and making eyes at the attendant. “We’re here to help our buddy propose to his woman.”
I threw Forrest a look that said, “Really?” He threw back a look that said, “You don’t choose family—family chooses you.”
The attendant took us to a back area. What happened from there was closer to what I had expected. A salesperson had been assigned to meet with us. Said salesperson asked about Violet and showed me an array of rings. I had it on good authority that Violet adored Sierra’s. That was why I had invited Forrest.
The man gave good advice. I took his word about the pluses and minuses of various ring styles and how many carats. But the other guys turned out to be more helpful than I thought.
“I think you should go for three carats,” Grizz chimed in at some point. He’d insisted upon looking at every diamond with a loupe, as though he himself were some sort of master appraiser. “Two carats might not be enough. She’s a wealthy woman now.”
Violet was, indeed, a wealthy woman. Not only had she accepted the $2.5 million settlement for the wrongful death suit, she had proceeded with a civil suit against the senator. Not only had she won a landmark settlement against the senator—she’d organized a separate class action suit with more than thirty plaintiffs who had been in battles with DCH over jurisdictional issues. With Katrina at the helm, they’d been able to make obstruction and corruption charges stick. Not only had Violet won a financial settlement—Morone himself had gone to jail, marking the end of a multi-year scheme of internal insurance fraud.
Violet had kept enough of the money to properly set up herself, and Bri, and Trey. She’d donated the rest to families of survivors who—like her—had been caught up in red tape and been denied their benefits.
“I’m not buying Violet a three-carat diamond,” I made absolutely clear.
“Her hand is far too small,” Buck said wisely.
“Less is more,” Dan said.
“Three carats is a lot of ring,” Forrest agreed.
The ring I finally settled on was a 2.25-carat lab-grown diamond, cushion-cut with pavé diamonds all around.
“Should I even get a diamond?” I had asked, having second thoughts after Forrest and Buck had explained to me the blood diamond thing. “Maybe I should just get her, like, a plain band made out of really nice platinum.”
“No!” every last member of the Secret Poker Society cautioned in unison. Grizz looked up from the pinky ring he was trying on.
The saleswoman looked at me accusatorily. “Women like shiny things, too.”
Before I could take the ring home with me, I had one more stop to make, to a place I hadn’t been in a long time. Todd was buried thirty miles away at a cemetery called the Great Smoky Memorial Gardens. It sat atop a beautiful vista halfway between Green Valley and where Todd’s parents lived. As its name announced, it boasted a gorgeous view of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
When the time had come to bury him, we had spared no expense. His headstone was large and bore the insignia of the Green Valley Fire Department. Apart from his name and the dates of his life, his headstone bore an epitaph.
Firefighters never die.
Their memories burn forever
in the hearts of their families, friends,
and those whose lives they have saved.
“Hey, brother.” I sat on the memorial bench we had placed upon his gravestone. “I know it’s been a long time. Too long. If you were still here, you’d give me shit. You’d have asked me what the hell was so important I hadn’t been to visit my best friend.”
I paused. I hadn’t even been on the bench for more than a few seconds when I felt the sting of tears—tears of sadness and guilt.
“They say grief gets easier,” I began again. “Honestly, it doesn’t. The longer you live, the more people you lose. It’s been five years since we lost you and it still seems fresh.”
I fingered the ring box in my pocket but paused on pulling it out, hesitating to say what I had to, stalling a little as I meandered through. I’d been thinking on this for a while, how to tell Todd about marrying Violet—how to tell him that I wanted to adopt his kids. How to move forward without a blessing he could never give.
“I know I came here a while ago, to tell you me and Violet are a thing. I know I promised to protect her, and told you if I ever hurt her, you could come back and haunt me and shit. I’m here to tell you, I kept my promise. When it comes to her, I’ve kept every promise I’ve ever made. And I don’t plan to stop that now.”
Finally, I did what I’d come to—I took out the small box and opened up its lid to look at the ring. A thought struck me then that had me laughing through my tears—the joke that Todd would crack if he were here.
“No, asshole. I’m not proposing to you. I want to propose to her. I want everything between us to be official. And it’s not just for me or for her or for the sake of what we mean to each other. I want us to be a family for those kids.”
Now, I was really crying.
“I wish you could see them, man. Bri’s turning out just like you said. Sweet, just like her momma. Both of them are smart like her. But I see so much of you in them. Trey’s got your sense of humor, and your same sense of adventure. I like to hope that maybe you and Trey had a chance to meet on the other side.”
From there I quieted, and I let my gaze fall upon the ring. For minutes, I sat and thought of how life could feel so short, but also so long. I thought of the time I had left with Violet, and how much we’d already been through, and how much more I wanted to go through with her.
I wanted to be there every single day to see those beautiful kids grow up. I wanted us to share a home. I wanted us to become whoever we were supposed to be in this stage of our lives. I wanted us to go on adventures together. I wanted us to be even better partners to one another in business, and life. I wanted us to achieve every single thing we ever set out to. And then I wanted to grow old with her.
“Wherever you are, brother,” I finally said. “I hope I have your blessing. And if you can find a way to swing it, I sure wouldn’t mind a sign.”
Violet
“Hey there, baby…”
I peered down from my perch in my office loft to see Chase walking inside. He was right on time for our Tuesday morning meeting. The one we’d always called our staff meeting had turned into a leadership meeting, mainly because the events department now had an actual staff.
I’d bought the building on Main Street and opened up my shop. For six months, I’d been seeing private clients. But I still directed the events business for Noble Farms. This only became possible after hiring two more people—events coordinators who reported to me.
“I brought you something sweet,” Chase said slyly, crossing the showroom quickly and beginning to climb the stairs.
“You always bring me something sweet.” I was talking about his lips.
“Even sweeter than that.” The smell emanating from his direction foretold what was in the bag.
“Chase. Did you bake cinnamon rolls?”
He reached me quickly enough that he skipped giving me an answer in favor of giving me a kiss. There was no such thing as a peck on the lips or the cheek with him. When Chase kissed me, he really kissed me—like he meant it and wanted me to know.
“Cinnamon rolls are your favorite.” He murmured it against my lips for a few short seconds when we came up for air. Then, he went back in, kissing me like we hadn’t seen each other in years, even though we’d awakened in each other’s arms that very morning.
It was an open secret among the staff that our “leadership meetings” were half-code for alone time. They all knew not to disturb. Just in case, we’d taken to locking the events barn from the inside. The loft bed Chase had built me years ago had started to come in handy, not for naps but for sexy times, back when we’d lived apart.
For the time being, Chase had more or less come to live with me in the name of normalizing things for Bri and Trey. We didn’t want to change too much for them too soon. But we all spent our weekends at the farm together. The endgame was for all of us to live at the farm, in the farmhouse. All of that would come in time.
“Shall we get down to business?” I asked after we had kissed a good, long while.
He raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze to the bed.
“Real business.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “You know we’re going into busy season. Besides, today is the day of our monthly.”
Among the things that had not changed were me running the numbers and showing them to Chase. Splitting my time between the farm and my interior design clients had made me even more committed. And I was more than a little proud to see on paper the kinds of results that were coming in. I was even getting better at taking credit for my work.
Not that I could take credit for all the good ideas. Bri had suggested in the spring that Noble Farms host a pumpkin patch—that we do our own hayride and corn maze and bring in our own rides. So we’d grown pumpkins and tested the idea for a few weeks. It had brought in so much money, I wanted to talk to Chase about how to scale it.
After we pulled our lips off of each other, we spent the next half hour running numbers on revenue potential versus the potential liability of bringing in more rides. We also went over the plan of events for the week coming up and when to plan a blackout period to do repairs in the farm’s commercial kitchen. We ended with reviewing the report.
“I have one more order of business.” Chase closed his copy of the printouts I’d given him. “There’s been a cancellation. “The Ogawa wedding, in June.”
“I didn’t hear anything about that.” I frowned. “Did they call the main number or something?”
It wasn’t like Chase to not forward anything having to do with the events business to me.
“No, it was me who called them.”
Now I was really confused. “Called them to say what?”
Chase looked at me calmly as he set the report down. “Called them to say the venue was no longer available. That an unavoidable conflict arose.”
I stared at him in sheer disbelief.
“Chase,” I admonished. “You’ve got to leave the wedding bookings to me. The third Saturday in June is highly sought after. They’ll never find another venue for that date.”
“All that’s taken care of, darlin’.” Chase had the nerve to smile. “I called in a favor from a friend. They’re very happy with the alternative venue.”
I blinked. What friend? And what did that even mean?
“Why did we even need to cancel and why didn’t you just let me take care of it? Events are literally my job.”
Chase stood up like we were done talking. “I needed to open it up for a VIP.”
“VIP” was the shorthand we used to describe events we ran for our friends. Chances were, one of the guys down at the firehouse had told Chase he needed a venue and Chase had asked him for a date.
“Oh. Who’s getting married now?” I swiveled a bit in my chair, eager to get into the calendar. It was a part of the system that Chase rarely touched. All I had to do was go in and delete the Ogawa wedding and open a new file for the VIP.
I navigated to June 23, but something was wrong with the booking. The Ogawa file had been deleted but something different was in its place. It looked like another event, but instead of a name, it said, Blank slate. Blank check.
“Babe, you added it to the calendar, but you forgot to put in the name. Who’s getting married?” I asked again.
When he didn’t answer, I swiveled my chair back around. Chase was down on one knee.
“Hopefully, me and you.”
My jaw dropped wide open as I comprehended the moment. Chase was proposing to me. He’d just flipped open the box of an enormous ring. Now, it all clicked—why his hair was trimmed and his beard was groomed and why he looked so nice on an average Tuesday. Because this Tuesday wasn’t average at all.
“Yes!” I blurted enthusiastically.
“I haven’t asked you a question.”
“I’ll marry you!” I underscored.
“But I had a whole speech.”
“Cha-ase…” Now I bounced in my seat, somewhat exasperatedly.
“At least let me promise to love you, and Bri and Trey forever and do everything in my power to make you the happiest woman in the world.” Now, he was holding the ring away from me, out of my reach.
Him being on one knee and me being on my feet meant he couldn’t take it far.
“Come on, now. Don’t play with me.” Even as I scolded him, I was grinning widely. “You can give me your speech right after you put on that ring.”
Chase
“May I have this dance, little lady?”
I held out my arm to Bri, who wore a white dress just like her momma. Whereas Violet’s was yards and yards of fine, flowing lace that flattered her womanly beauty, Bri’s was embroidered with vines. They were leaves and stems that started at her hem and ended at her waist in colorful flowers. She floated on a cloud of sweetness and tulle.
“Yes, sir, I will.” She curtsied, having gotten it in her head that dressing formally meant putting on airs. I was glad to indulge her. She had barely been able to contain her excitement about the wedding and looked almost as joyful as me. To be clear, no person in the history of forever had ever been as happy as Violet had just made me. I was living the dream.
We made our way to the dance floor for the evening’s second dance. My first, of course, had been with my bride. As we swayed, not a single word had passed between us. It hadn’t needed to. All the spaces within us and around us, flowing between us and to us from our family and friends, were filling us with love.
“You were great up there, shortcake,” I praised Bri as soon as we were dancing. She’d gone through a growth spurt and was taller to me than she once had been. It made talking a lot simpler.
“I wasn’t nervous at all.”
She hadn’t seemed it. She’d scattered petals with aplomb, smiling at the guests as she did. Bri was, as ever, a chatterbox, and spent at least half of the dance recapping her favorite moments from the ceremony—the banjo rendition of “Here Comes the Bride,” me promising to love and cherish not just Violet but also Bri and Trey, my and Violet’s long kiss. I listened with delight, content to hear her go on about the wedding.
Whereas she had been the flower girl, Trey had been the ring bearer. His dog, Butterscotch, had been the official ring dog. He’d negotiated having his canine companion come with him down the aisle when we’d all planned the wedding. It had been important to us that Bri and Trey be a part of things.
“My friend Tyler has two daddies,” Bri suddenly announced.
“Are Tyler’s daddies nice?”
“They’re okay.”
I hummed to demonstrate my interest.
“He calls his one dad ‘daddy’ and the other ‘dad,’” she reported.
“Makes sense,” I affirmed. “If both were ‘daddy’ or both were ‘dad,’ folks could get confused.”
Bri quieted for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was small.
“I thought maybe it would be okay if I had two daddies. I have lots of uncles, like Uncle Forrest and Uncle Grizz. And I know Daddy’s Daddy …but maybe you could be Dad.”
I didn’t think I could take it—the emotion that swelled in my chest from having the love of this little girl, gratitude for the family I found, the fierceness with which I would always protect them. I lifted Bri easily, until we were eye to eye and she rested on the seat of my forearm. I could see it cost her something to ask, so I didn’t make her wait.
“’Course I’ll be your dad, sugar. I was waiting and hoping you’d ask me, and trying to gather the courage to ask you myself.”
Want more of the Green Valley? Check out the Green Valley Teachers’ Lounge series. Read on for a sneak peek of Passing Notes by Nora Everly, book #1 in the series!
Do you love heartfelt small town romance? Then check out these other books by Smartypants Romance!
Upsy Daisy -- First love college romance with all the feels.
The One That I Want -- She's a reformed bad girl, and he's the nice guy trying to show her that it's okay to have a little fun.
Baking Me Crazy -- She's an independent tomboy and he's been in love with her for years.
No Whisk No Reward -- He's the town pariah and she's only in town for a little while, but she's determined to find out why.