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Caroline rolls her eyes. “What, you think I’m going to tell you no? After all the trouble you’ve caused? Please.”
“There’s more peach cobbler in the kitchen. Let’s all have some, hm?” Gram says and disappears back inside.
Chase helps me to my feet and places a hand on my lower back to guide me inside. But before he closes the door, he stops, looking out at the grounds.
“What is it?” I ask, sliding my arms around his waist and looking up at him.
He quirks his lips into a smile. “I have a feeling we’ll be back here again.”
I tilt my head back. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Chase Gladstone.”
Chase pinches my chin between his fingers. “Too late,” he says, then presses his lips to mine in a soft kiss.
And, somehow, this moment tops any fantasy I’ve ever had about what Chase Gladstone and I could become.
Because this is real life. And real life feels pretty damn good.
We head into the kitchen and find Gram lighting candles that she stuck into the gooeyness of the peach cobbler. She starts off the well-wornHappy Birthday to You.
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Chase
Twoyearslater…
Gram peers at the wall mural with amazement in her eyes. “Well, I declare. I feel like I’m right at Mont Saint-Michel. This is incredible Jude, just incredible.”
The paintingisincredible. Jude’s best work yet. Finished just in time for Gram’s big day.
Jude adjusts her curls carefully and then clasps her hands in front of her. “Thank you. I’m so happy you like it.”
“Like?” Gram says and pats Jude’s arm. “Loveis more like it.”
I beam proudly from the corner. In honor of Gram’s eightieth birthday, I commissioned Jude to create a mural just as she did in the front hall of our home. Of course, the historic building would not take kindly to a mural, so Jude created it on a near floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall canvas that’s going to look perfect in Gram’s library.
“Thank you, dear,” Gram says and kisses Jude’s cheek before coming over to me. She straightens out the lapels of my seersucker suit (I know, I wouldn’t have worn it if it wasn’t Gram’s birthday). “Aren’t you lucky you found a keeper? And, she’s just as pretty as a peach. Always has been.”
I glance at Jude over Gram’s shoulder. She flushes and looks away. Six months into our marriage and it still feels like those early days of dating. My heart flutters. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Excellent, now I could use a glass of sweet tea,” Gram says, already heading back outside where everyone is celebrating. “Itismy birthday after all.”
Jude starts to follow, but I stop her, slinging an arm over her shoulder. “It really is spectacular, Jude.”
She looks up at me with glimmering eyes and a smile. “Thank you, honey.”
I had chosen Mont Saint-Michel due to its significance to Gram. She and my grandfather honeymooned on the Riviera. She keeps a framed photo of the two of them at the sight. It was apparently a terrible weather day to be visiting the castle, but the two of them are beaming in black and white, tucked under grandfather’s coat to shield them from the wind.
Jude and I also visited the castle on our honeymoon. We spent a summer month bobbing around Europe to celebrate our long-awaited and well-earned wedding. I say long-awaited because from the second Jude gave me another chance to do things the right way, I knew I’d want to get her down the aisle again.
However, that was to take time. Doing things the old-fashioned way, rather than leaping into a marriage with a contract and not a lot of feeling behind it.
“How are you feeling?” I ask softly.
“Chase…”
“Just tell me now and I won’t ask again, promise.”
