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“Yes,” I say, my voice cracking. I’m smiling so hard, I can’t see through my tears. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
His breath hitches, and his big, strong arms come around me, lifting me up off my feet. He spins us around, the snowy dock crunching beneath our feet.
He uses one hand to grab my jaw, leaving the other arm braced around my lower back, and he crushes my lips down to his in a searing kiss.
“Mountains and all,” I vow softly against his mouth.
Growling, he nips my lip, vowing right back, “Storms and all.”
EPILOGUE
FIVE YEARS LATER
NOLAN
It’s a sunny, cloudless day, with a sky so blue, it’s hard to believe they’re calling for heavy rain later this evening.
There’s even a chance for thunderstorms, something that has my pulse racing, and a smile teasing my lips.
“What’s that look?”
I glance over at Hudson, before returning my gaze to the grill. It’s Memorial Day, which just so happened to fall on my husband’s birthday this year, so we threw a giant barbecue together at our place to celebrate both.
“What look?” I say, flipping a burger.
“The look that tells me you’re thinking naughty things while cooking my food.”
I roll my eyes. “I swear you sound more and more like Cort every day.”
“It’s the best friend effect.”
“You mean husband effect?”
He knocks my shoulder with his. “Aw, you jealous? Don’t worry, you’re still my best platonic friend.”
I shake my head, and he chuckles, bringing a bottle of Dr. Pepper up to his lips. I insisted people could drink today—it’s a cookout for fuck’s sake, and there’s only one alcoholic here that I know of, being that Hal couldn’t make it—but Skyler, Mel,andAbby wouldn’t hear of it.
I’d feel bad, if I didn’t secretly feel so grateful. Maybe it makes me selfish, but if there’s one thing that relapsing, and over eight new years of sobriety taught me, it’s that people in this country rely a little too fucking heavily on the stuff.
And society feeds into it, without a fuck in the world. Stores, sporting events, the media…
I don’t know why I didn’t notice that my first time sober, but maybe it’s because I was still too wrapped up in my own struggles to see just how much of a chokehold the industry has on society as a whole. They don’t make it fucking easy to take drinking as seriously as it should be taken.
But then again, maybe I’m just a conspirator in my old age.
You’re barely even forty,I hear Skyler saying all exasperated in my head. Hal’s raspy chuckle not far behind.
He couldn’t be here today, though we did invite him. He’s off fishing withhissponsor for the holiday weekend.
Closing the grill to let the meat smoke for a while, I grab a water from the cooler, and Hudson and I head over to the stone wall dividing the patio from the yard.
Rock music filters out from the outdoor speakers, mingling with the chatter amongst the adults, and the screaming and laughter coming from the kids.
If someone told me eight years ago, that one day I’d be hosting a get-together at my cabin in the woods, with all my loved ones present, including my ex-wife, the daughter I’d worried I may never see again, my ex-in-laws, and myhusband…
I would’ve thought they’d been dropped on their head.
“Sky,”Abby growls, dragging the word out from where she stands frozen in the middle of the yard, water gushing down her face, plastering her long hair to her skin.
