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Instead, I fell head over heels for the man of my dreams.
Epilogue
CARTER
My gaze lands on Sam across the living room, talking to Adam and Ellie. His green sweater is molded to his chest, each muscle standing out as he lifts his tumbler glass to his lips. Damn, I am one lucky man.
The Christmas tree in the corner gives the space that happy glow of the holidays. Our whole family is here for my parents’ Christmas party. On top of that, Sam’s mom is here, as well as Natalie’s mom. Ellie’s sister and her husband came, too, and so did Katie, Ellie’s best friend, and her son, Cody. Rounding out the group are Tilly’s parents and her brother. To say the house is packed would be an understatement.
“Helloooo?” Nolan waves his hand in front of my face. I smack his arm down as he laughs. “I thought the puppy dog eyes went away after you got engaged.”
I smile into my soda. “Not when you find the right person.” My eyes go straight to Sam’s ring finger. The dark band stands out in that masculine way that shouldn’t be as hot as it is. It does something to me every single time I look at it.
Nolan’s sigh is full of longing, and I look back over at him. His eyes are glued to Katie, and my eyebrows raise. The woman is beautiful. No doubt about it. But she screams off-limits. It’s so loud even I can see it, and I don’t look at women like that.
“Have you ever talked to her?” I ask.
Nolan blinks and finally turns back to me. “No. Well, for, like, a few minutes at Adam and Ellie’s wedding. I didn’t even flirt with her.”
I give him a look.
“Okay, I flirted a little, but it wasn’t my picking-up-a-girl flirting. It was just me being me. I can’t turn it off.”
“And what happened?”
“I got a polite response before she walked away. And then nothing. She’s avoided me like the plague. I’ve made sure to keep my distance, because I can catch a hint, but still…”
“You like her.”
“Yeah.” He sighs again. “I’m gonna get another drink.”
Nolan sulks off to the kitchen of my parents’ house. I take the opportunity to go back to Sam.
“I’ve got one more year to go in the program. I was hoping to graduate early, but my freelance gig has taken off way more than I expected.” Ellie smiles.
“What kind of freelance stuff do you do?” Sam asks.
“Mostly logos and rebranding for companies, but I’ve been getting into character art ever since Tilly published her book. It’s been a blast drawing the characters in her stories, and I’ve been debating about starting a page dedicated to that specifically.”
“I didn’t know you were doing that. I’d love to see some of your stuff,” I tell her.
Her face immediately flames, and Adam laughs at her. “Well, some of it is normal character stuff, but Tilly and I have been playing around with the steamy stuff, too.”
“Ah, how about we skip those, then.” I wink at her.
She presses her palms to her cheeks to cool down. “That would be ideal.” She laughs.
Adam presses a kiss to her head, his eyes alight with humor. “I quite enjoy the steamier ones.”
Ellie slaps Adam’s stomach. “Adam.”
He busts out laughing. “Come on, let’s go get a drink.”
Sam turns toward me. “I love your family. They’re unapologetically themselves and incredibly supportive of each other. It’s sort of mind-boggling.”
I press a kiss against Sam’s lips. “They are all of those things.”
“How are you feeling, husband?” he whispers the last part.
