Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Not like I’d mind if we do go get hitched first thing tomorrow morning.
EPILOGUE 1
GRAHAM
“I do,” I say to the judge looking back at us.
“And do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” Tallie says, no hesitation.
I wasn’t lying when I said a courthouse was fine with me.
We’ll throw a more elaborate celebration later on. For right now, besides how insatiable we are for one another, this is the best way to make Tallie’s case for permanent legal guardianship of Lucy. To prove my support isn’t fleeting, and that Tallie is more than capable of providing for Lucy.
We kiss in front of the judge. Not because it’s required, it isn’t, but because hell, I can’t seem to stop. With how we’ve been going at it, I’m not totally opposed to consummating the marriage right here and now.
I restrain myself in front of the judge, though. Legally now man and wife, we head to the park, where there’s a huge celebration going on, as if we had the big ceremony anyway. The whole family is here, clapping for us as we walk onto the trail, hand in hand, like we will be for the rest of our lives.
My mother runs up and embraces Tallie. “See, I told you she’s my granddaughter.”
“Technically, she’s your grandniece? I guess?” Tallie tries to protest.
“Granddaughter. It’s good enough for me. I don’t mince words about all this, I plan on spoiling her just like I already have Plum.”
“Oh dear,” Tallie says, shaking her head, smiling yet overwhelmed.
“I had seven kids I had to be a good, stern parent to. Now it’s time for me to spoil the grandbabies rotten.”
I rub Tallie’s shoulder. “You’re not going to dissuade her, Tallie. Just let her give Lucy all the sugar she could ever want.”
“Aren’t you off to being a strict disciplinarian of a father figure.”
“I’ll be like that sometimes. But I look forward to spoiling her too.”
“Oh God, poor Lucy,” she’s laughing. “What have we married into?”
“A wonderful future,” I say, kissing her again, which she gladly accepts.
It’s a damn fine day. My father is at the grill making hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone, and cheesy eighties rock music is pounding through the whole park. It’s another charming day in the life of the Roughs, all of us dedicated to one another.
When it gets late, some of my brothers are getting drunk and rowdy. Me? I just can’t wait to get my wife alone. My sister Lemon comes to the rescue, lifting Lemon out of my arms.
“Don’t you worry a bit about her,” she says, cradling the sleeping infant. “You two have fun and enjoy yourselves.”
She’s playfully shifting her eyebrows, knowing exactly what I’ve got on my mind. It is, of course, our wedding night.
Our festivities done for now, we ride away in my truck, a cacophony of cans dragging behind us as we head up into the hills and to my home.
When I turn the engine off, we scramble into the cabin, slamming the door behind us.
Tallie damn near leaps into my arms, and I catch her, her lips on mine.
“Aren’t we the feisty ones?” I say.
“I’ve been imagining fucking you all day, Graham. Don’t you even think of disappointing me there.”
“Well then. I suppose we could. Unless you’d rather do a jigsaw puzzle?”
“Stop being coy and fuck me, you big handsome lug, you.”
I throw her onto the couch and give her everything she wants.
Which is also everything I want.
Funny how that keeps working out for us.
And it will keep working out for us.
Tallie and I share a vision for our future, and I can’t wait to build it with her.
Some of it, like the family, will be a whole lot of fun to create.
God, she just gets more perfect by the moment.
EPILOGUE 2
TALLIE
It’s a solemn day.
One year ago, a freak mudslide came through the town of Hobson and almost killed me.
And it did succeed in taking my sister from me.
I’m at her grave, kneeling in front of it and setting down a bouquet of daisies, her favorite. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you, Julia. I wonder what you’d say about me falling in love with a cop. About getting married so fast. I bet you’d laugh your ass off about all that. Probably about how saccharine his family is too. I know you’d love him, though, especially after he popped Marcus in the face.”
My heart wrenches when I see her birth and death years. They’re far too close.
“Lucy’s doing well. She’s starting to talk. I do wonder how she’ll take being a big sister. Or a big cousin. It’s still all too confusing for me. I wish you were here to say it simply like you always did. But I’ll try to think of how you would raise her. Try to carry on your memory. Try to make you proud of me. That's all I can do.”