Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I watch these two people become husband and wife. I watch as they gaze into each other’s eyes and repeat traditional vows.
Inside my breast pocket is my surprise for Aspen.
A diamond ring that once belonged to my great-grandmother.
Tonight, after the reception, I’m going to ask Aspen to be my wife.
Because together, we’re stronger than we are apart.
We’re the other halves of each other.
A sum that is more than its parts.
We are…one.
EPILOGUE
ASPEN
Three months later…
Buck and I get married at Luke and Katelyn’s beach house.
I was surprised Buck agreed to it, but he and Luke seem to have finally come to an understanding between them.
Katelyn and I are ecstatic about it. Because we’re besties, the four of us will be spending a lot of time together.
Katelyn is, of course, my maid of honor, and Buck’s sister Emily is my bridesmaid. Coming back to this house couldn’t have been easy for her, but she did it for Buck and for me.
Buck has two best men. His brother, Johnny, and his fellow SEAL, Leif Ramsey. Also known as Phoenix.
I’m dancing with Phoenix later. He’s tall and muscular, like Buck, but there the similarities end. Leif is blond and blue-eyed with light skin.
“Thank you for being here,” I tell him. “For Buck. It means everything to him.”
“I’ll always be here for Buck,” Leif says. “We’re brothers.”
His phone buzzes.
“Do you mind?”
“Of course not.”
He leads me off the dance floor and looks at his phone.
“Oh, shit.”
“Is anything the matter?”
“I need to talk to Buck.”
“Leif, this is our wedding day. Please…”
“I know, Aspen. And I’m sorry.”
Buck is on the dance floor with his sister.
Emily and Luke seem to have made their peace as well, and for that I’m grateful. Emily is radiant—she looks like Buck in female form—and she seems ecstatic with her significant other, Scotty, a half-Hawaiian surfer boy who’s now studying to be a licensed psychologist.
A moment later, Buck is leaving the dance floor with Leif. They go inside the house.
I wait.
And I wait.
Only a few minutes have passed, but I can’t take it any longer. I head into the house to find them.
They’re deep in conversation when—
“Aspen, baby.”
“Exactly what’s going on?”
“I’m so sorry,” Buck says, “but I need to go back to New York.”
“All right. In two weeks. After our trip to the Virgin Islands.”
“I promise you, baby, we will have the honeymoon of the century. But we have to put it off for a little while.”
The spoiled little girl inside me wants to stomp and hold my breath, but I don’t. This is Buck. The man who loves me. And he wouldn’t make me postpone my honeymoon unless it was very important.
He is who he is. He’s Buck. He saves people. He wouldn’t be the man I love if he didn’t do that.
“Why? What is it?”
“It’s another one of the women from the island.” Buck shakes his head. “Opal. She’s in trouble.”
I swallow. “Kelly?”
Kelly was different. She used to get jealous when someone was chosen over her. None of us understood her. Of course, none of us tried to understand anything while we were there. We were simply trying to keep our own heads above water.
“Yeah,” Phoenix says. “A threat has been made against her…by another woman from the island.”