He cut me off with a kiss. “You knew,” he murmured against my mouth, and I relaxed into his arms.
“I always knew.”
Epilogue
Meghan
Six Months Later
“I think that’s the last of it,” Kyle said, dropping my suitcase in the middle of the bedroom floor. “I thought there would be more stuff, with you being a woman and all.”
I lightly punched his arm. “Now, I know you don’t subscribe to that sexist bullshit, Web; otherwise, I’d have to beat the crap out of you.”
“You know better than to push her buttons. Did the skating rink incident teach you nothing?” Adam asked, kissing the back of my neck.
Kyle shuddered. “Dude, I’ve repressed that particular memory. The humiliation has haunted me ever since.”
“That’s what you get for telling Meg she skated like a chick. What’d you think she was going to do? Go and cry? Of course, she was going to show your pansy-ass up,” Skylar said, opening a box and pulling out my sketch pads and pencils.
“Those are going in the studio downstairs,” Adam told her.
“The studio?” Skylar asked. “That sounds fancy.”
“Adam insisted we convert his workout room to a studio for me to paint in. I told him I can paint anywhere, but you know how stubborn he is.”
Adam wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me flush against his side. I fit perfectly. I had always fit perfectly. “Yeah, because I’m the stubborn one in this relationship.”
The four of us all exchanged knowing glances then busted up laughing.
Adam started wheeling my suitcase into the walk-in closet. He had already cleared out the right side for my clothes. When I agreed to move in with him, he had hired a decorator to redo the entire house to my specifications.
“This will be as much your house as mine. I want it to feel like home.”
I knew he didn’t want me to feel like I was moving into the house he used to share with Chelsea. He worried that it still bothered me, no matter how often I told him that she didn’t matter.
And it was true.
Chelsea had signed the divorce papers and moved to Miami not long after Adam and I got back together. By the end of the year, after the twelve months required separation, they’d be officially divorced. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Adam hadn’t heard from her since, except through her attorney.
Skylar moved into a cute house downtown and was working from home. Adam hired her to revamp their website and to come up with some new marketing materials. She was working closely with Robert, Adam’s other partner. I noticed they seemed to be putting in a lot of hours on the project. I knew not to ask about it until she wanted to tell me. Skylar was funny like that.
I could relate.
The doorbell rang. “People are starting to show up. Come on, baby.” Adam took my hand and pulled me out of the room. The term baby no longer made me want to run away screaming. Now I kind of liked it.
We opened the door to find the porch crowded with people.
My sister handed me a lovely potted plant. “Don’t kill this one, okay?” she said as I put it on the table inside the foyer.
“I killed one plant, Whit. One,” I replied with a roll of the eyes.
“Hey, Whitney,” Kyle said, moving to stand close to my sister. She gave him a sweet smile in return. The way he looked at her, I knew that was a childhood crush that had never gone away.
I still hadn’t been able to find out what happened between them that week years ago, but I’d weasel it out of one of them eventually.
“I made you two a carrot cake. And Tom thought you could use an electric bottle opener. I told him that Adam had all the kitchen gadgets he needed. It’s not like you’re moving into a brand-new home. But he insisted.” Marion kissed my cheek, and Tom handed me a bag overflowing with tissue paper.
“Thanks, Dad. We appreciate it. My old one actually broke not long ago.” Adam hugged his dad.
Lena was the next to arrive, and I noticed she did so exactly five minutes before Jeremy Wyatt showed up. I wondered if that was planned so it didn’t look as if they were together. Though Adam was still oblivious, I was pretty certain something was going on between those two.
It seemed there was a lot of that going around.
Mrs. Hamilton arrived not long after that—with her son Daniel. It seemed he was, in fact, out of town for work and had held down a job for the last eight months. He had moved in with his mother and seemed to be taking care of her. Adam was still wary of his intentions, but it made her happy to have her son home, so he refrained from snarling every time we saw him.
Our house—it felt so good to say that—was filled with our friends and family. With every person that mattered. That we loved.
I didn’t miss New York. Not for one second. Except for Damien, the city held nothing that I wanted. My friend had laughed in delight when I told him I was staying in Southport.
“I knew it!” he had cried in delight and then promised to come to visit as soon as possible. And he had. He had come down at least six times since I decided to stay put in my hometown.
The mural was a huge hit. It was a surreal moment to be at the official unveiling on Bicentennial weekend. Everyone in town had been enthusiastic about the piece, and it resulted in multiple commissions. As a result of the uptick of work, I decided to rent out a gallery space on the same street as Adam’s office, where I could display my art. I wasn’t making a ton of cash...yet. But the interest in my work was encouraging.
Adam was my biggest fan. The painting I had done of us all those months ago hung in pride of place in the living room.
My mother was looking at it now, tears in her eyes. “Your dad would be so happy for you,” she said, and I put my arms around her slight frame, hugging her tightly.
“Are you happy, Mom?” I asked her.
“If my girls are happy, I’m happy,” she assured me. She looked over to where Adam was laughing with Robert and Skylar. “And he makes you happy, doesn’t he?” She didn’t ask it as a question. She knew the answer.
“More than anything,” I said.
Our eyes met across the room.
You and me, he mouthed.
My heart was near to bursting.
You and me, I mouthed back.
And that’s how it would always be.
Adam and me.
Always.
Forever.
The End
Dear reader,
First of all, thank you so much for reading my books! It’s passionate readers like you that allow me to live my dream and do the thing I love most on earth, which is writing books and entertaining people!
Do you want more steamy romance?
Then make sure to keep on reading! I’ve included a preview of my novel “Unexpected Heat”! ;-)
Preview: Unexpected Heat
Chapter 1
Mila
I love my studio, and right now, it’s super tidy with everything on my desk arranged neatly and the easels standing side by side. My gaze falls on my three work-in-progress portraits, and I know they’ll soon go to the trash can. They look terrible.
A heaviness comes over my body.