The cheers the crowd gave us that night last year? They have nothing on tonight.
Tonight is thunder and lightning.
It’s an earthquake, and we are the epicenter of big, bold, beautiful love, right here in Las Vegas.
Stone
We don’t get married that night.
Because family matters.
We don’t wait for long though. Two weeks later, I fly everyone to Portland, Maine, and we head to a little cabin we rented on a lake.
Everyone we love is there: Zane, Nadia, Sage, Ivy, Eliza, Veronica, Callum, Bethany, Caroline, Ben, Candi, Terrence, Cruz. Terrence’s wife, Cruz’s wife, their daughter. Jackson’s parents. My mom, my grandmother.
My dad’s not there, but that’s okay. I made peace with that long ago. And I have this family.
I have family through blood, I have family through friendship, and I have family through love.
My man.
We marry on a dock overlooking a crystal blue lake. Jackson looks so damn beautiful in slacks and a button-down shirt, the cuffs rolled up to reveal those forearms I love.
I’m casual too, in pants and a button-down. This is how we do things. His sister Caroline, an ordained minister thanks to the internet, stands in front of us. Bethany is by Jackson’s side. My brother, Zane, is by mine. They are our wedding party. Brothers and sisters, standing with the two of us.
Caroline straightens her shoulders, and then she says the best words I have ever heard. “Do you, Stone Zenith, take this man to be your husband? To love, to cherish, and to take care of for the rest of your life?”
I look into Jackson’s hazel eyes, and my pulse jackhammers. My grin is bigger than the lake. “I absolutely do.”
She turns to him. “And do you, Jackson Pearce, take this man to be your husband? To love, to cherish, and to take care of for the rest of your life?”
He swallows roughly, then says two simple words. “I do.”
Peace flows through my whole body. Peace and happiness and promise.
“I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss the groom.”
I don’t need to be told twice. We kiss before our friends and family.
Tomorrow, this kiss will go up online, since Zane is recording it.
I don’t mind that my fans will see me kissing my husband for the first time in front of the lake on a beautiful summer day in Maine.
Because they know—they’ve always known.
And they’re getting it, just like I am.
Jackstone.
For the rest of our lives. Yes, our love belongs to us, but before it was ours, others wanted it too. In a way, our love story is everyone’s, and I’m a lucky man to share a little bit of our life with the world.
That is an incredible gift—to live and to love in a world where our ship is someone else’s wish come true—and my reality, for the rest of my life.
I slide a hand around Jackson’s neck, curling my fingers over his skin, whispering just for him, “Did I ever tell you about the rock star who fell for his bodyguard?”
“Let me guess. Did the bodyguard fall hard for him too?”
“So damn hard.”
“Sounds like our love story. And maybe your next song.”
“It absolutely does.”
We walk along the dock to join the party with our families, stopping to kiss one more time. Me and the guy who changed my life. Who shows me love every day.
The guy who makes me feel like a rock star in every way, but most of all, in the way that matters the most.
With love.
Another Epilogue
Stone
Next year
Life is good.
I still tour, and Jackson comes with me sometimes, when he’s able to get away.
His business is booming, and I’m so damn proud of him. I love what he and his friends have built. Something of their own. Something that lets them all lead the lives they want.
Cruz and his wife had another baby, a little girl, and she’s absolutely adorable. We see them a lot when we go to their house for barbecues. Because Jackson’s friends are obsessed with barbecues, something I will never truly understand, but hey, at least the salads they serve there are good.
The next one we go to is for Isabella’s birthday, and she has a bounce house.
Bounce houses are officially awesome. She is the cutest kid ever, and we discuss important topics as we bounce, like unicorns and chocolate cake and books she wants to read someday.
After we leave the barbecue, Jackson and I go home to Venice and walk on the beach.
No bodyguard this time.
Sometimes we leave home without one.
The fact is, I feel safe with this guy. Jackson looks out for me. He protects me. That didn’t stop when we fell in love. It didn’t stop when we came together. That’s just who he is.
A protector.
He can’t not have his eyes on me.
His arm around me.
His mind watching out for me.
Tonight, we walk across the sand toward the Pacific, the waves beckoning, and I tell him how thankful I am that he’s by my side. Then, because it’s us, I need to tease him. “I’ve gotta say, being married to you isn’t too shabby.”
“Glad you find it tolerable,” he says dryly.
“That’s a fair way to put it,” I tease.
He ruffles my hair. “I don’t mind you so much either.”
“Good. Let’s keep each other around.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
A little later, we walk back up the sand toward our house, weaving our way past a volleyball net.
A group of college guys, from the look of it, are smacking the ball around, shouting in Spanish. One of them serves the ball, but it rolls away.
Jackson grabs it, lobs it back to them, and says something that I think is “Here you go” in that language.
That gets the wheels in my mind turning.
They turn some more that weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, we head over to the ballpark for a Major League Baseball game.
We go to a private suite, meeting Nadia, who’s friends with the woman who bought this team recently.
Cruz joins us too, along with his wife and their two little girls. He takes them to a playground inside the park, telling us he’ll be back soon.
As the players go through batting practice, Nadia introduces us to some of her friends, including a guy from the New York Comets, a major leaguer named Declan. His team’s not playing today, so he’s here to scope out the competition.
I shake his hand, furrowing my brow. The tall, dark-haired dude looks familiar. I try to place him. “Don’t I know you?” I snap my fingers. “Wait. Weren’t you that guy who was all over that charity auction a few years ago in New York?”
Declan laughs. “You follow the player charity auctions in New York?”
“Yeah, Stone. Do you?” Jackson asks pointedly. “Or were you bidding on Declan? Wait. Don’t tell me. You lost out on the bidding?”
I roll my eyes. “Please. One, I didn’t bid. Two, if I did, I wouldn’t have lost. I remember you because my publicist showed your pics to me. Candi thought it was cool when that guy in the three-piece suit won you, and she was hoping you’d become a couple. Guess she likes ships too. Did anything ever come of that?”