Three little words, and suddenly everything in my world was right.
I might not have been looking for love when I met Pierce, and he certainly hadn’t wanted it, but it found us anyway. As Ms. Weatherby said, the heart always gets what it wants.
I was just lucky that mine wanted someone so amazing.
Epilogue
Pierce
This was so stupid. I couldn’t believe I’d let her talk me into this.
I felt the eyes of every single person in the room staring at us, waiting with bated breath. Waiting to see if we were going to fail or succeed.
Christ, even Tali and Nick had gotten in on the action. They were currently at the station beside ours, looking way too damn smug. Bastards. Sure, yes, I was thrilled they’d worked their shit out and were now happier than ever, but did they really need to come here every week just to rub mine and Marin’s faces in our lack of skill?
When Marin had suggested we sign up for a couple’s cooking class a few weeks ago, I’d initially felt my balls shrivel up inside my body at the thought of it. But she’d just looked so damn adorable, all sure of herself and excited to share something like this with each other, that I couldn’t say no.
I’d regretted it from the very first class. But we were in this now. No backing out . . . unless of course, the instructor kicked us out of this one too.
Ignoring the curious looks from everyone else, I turned to Marin. She was anxiously chewing on her bottom lip, gnawing away like crazy as she stared at the stove, waiting for the timer to ding.
Leaning over, I whispered in her ear. “You know what they say. A watched oven never dings.”
She turned to me and glowered. “That’s not the saying, dummy. It’s a watched pot never boils. That damn oven is going to ding no matter what. I’m just worried what’s going to come out of it when it does.”
Before I could reassure her that it didn’t matter, that I’d love her anyway, the sound of the timer going off at the station beside ours caught our attention.
As a couple, Tali and Nick pulled the oven door open and slid out a perfectly roasted chicken.
But seriously, what kind of cooking instructor had their students doing a roasted fucking chicken on week three? It was like she wanted us to fail.
“Look, baby!” Tali said much louder than necessary, shooting a snide look toward her sister. “We cooked it perfectly!”
“You know what you can do, Tali?” Marin started, her tone one I recognized all too well, a tone that meant I was going to need to hold her back or hit up an ATM for bail money. “You and Nick can take your perfect chicken, grease it up nice and good, and shove it right up—”
“All right.” I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back against me, slapping a hand over her mouth so she couldn’t finish. “You’re letting them get in your head, baby. What did we talk about, huh?” I spun her around to face me, placing my hands on her shoulders and crouching so we were eye to eye. “Keep cool. Keep calm. And whatever happens, happens.”
She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. Even if that chicken is a block of charcoal when it comes out of that oven.”
“Exactly.”
“But I really want to win this.”
“It doesn’t matter—wait, what? Win what?” She smiled sheepishly, giving me those freaking doe eyes she knew I couldn’t resist. “Marin,” I said in warning, “what did you do?”
“Nothing major.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Hey, Mar?” Tali called. “Don’t worry about bringing your own cleaning supplies. You can use ours.”
I turned back to my woman with an arched brow. “Cleaning supplies?”
She let out a huff before speaking in rapid fire. “If we screw this chicken up, we have to clean Matt’s bathroom every Sunday for the next two months.”
I stumbled back, bracing on the counter to keep from falling to my ass. I’d been over to Tali and Nick’s house plenty of times now, so I knew for a fact that their son Matt’s bathroom was literally a hell pit.
“Why would you do that?” I cried. “You put way too much faith in us!”
“I know! I just get so excited when I’m watching those cooking shows, and I think, if they can do it, then I can too, right? I mean, they make it look so easy it gives me a false sense of confidence! It’s all Food Network’s fault!”
The timer on our oven dinged just then and we both turned to look at it like we were waiting for Satan himself to climb out.
“Well, I guess it’s now or never,” she mumbled before looking back at me. “No matter what happens, just know I love you.”
I glared at her. “You’re just saying that because you don’t want me to stick you with that bathroom all by yourself.”
“This is partially true. But I do love you.”
I sighed in exasperation. “I love you too.”
“Oh for the love of all that’s holy!” our cooking instructor, a normally congenial woman named Nancy, yelled. “Just take the damn bird out of the oven before you burn my classroom down!”
I slid the oven mitts on my hands and bent down next to Marin as she pulled the oven door open.
I held my breath as I carefully pulled the roasting pan out. The chicken looked good, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
I sat it on the worktop cautiously, and Marin and I took a step back so Nancy could come over and shove the meat thermometer in the bird’s ass—or wherever you were supposed to put a meat thermometer.
A hush fell over the room, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Then, “It’s at the perfect temperature!” Nancy announced, and the whole class started cheering.
“Yes! I did it!” Marin yelled, throwing her hands in the air. “I did it! Suck on that, Tali! Your son’s bathroom can stay a pit until the end of time!”
“Babe, I think you mean we did it.”
“Yeah, of course. That was implied, wasn’t it?”
Christ, just when I thought I couldn’t love this woman any more, she went and proved me wrong.
“You know how I think we should celebrate?” I asked, looping my arms around her waist and pulling her into me. I burrowed my face in her neck, inhaling her fragrance before pressing a kiss to her lips.
“H-how?” she asked as she melted into me.
Pulling back, I looked down at her, smiling bigger and brighter than I had in years before she’d come into my life. That was just the effect she had on me. She made life better.
“By packing up your apartment and moving you in with me and Eli.”
She beamed back up at me. “It just so happens, I bet Tali that if we pulled this meal off, she and Nick had to come over and box up my entire apartment by themselves.”
“Ah,” I chuckled. “So you already knew I was going to suggest it.”
She snorted loudly. “Of course I did. I’m a very smart woman.”
“Yes you are. I love you.”
Her arms banded around my neck, her fingers sliding into the hair at the nape of my neck. “Good, because you’re stuck with me forever.”