16.

 

Monica typed the last few edits on her blog post and scanned it over for the final time. She had written it at record speed, and she had enjoyed each and every moment of it whilst she had been inspired up on the mountain.

After Reggie had burst into the cabin and shaken things up, everything with Evan had only gone from strength to strength.

They were falling in love, married, and all was right with the world.

After her first week in town had come to an end, Monica was just about ready to press publish on her new story for her website, and it looked as if she had finally found her muse.

Her mountain man had saved the day in more ways than one.

“Are you done?” Evan said as he bounced down on the couch next to her and peered at the screen. “Can I read it?”

“Of course, you can,” she smiled. She turned the screen to face him fully and she saw his lovable smile crack out across his face.

“No way,” he laughed. “This is brilliant…”

Monica raised her eyebrows and grinned too. She had no idea how the world would receive her new project, but it was certainly something that deserved to be written about…

“Dating in Reverse…” Evan said aloud. “The Story of an Impulse Marriage.”

He looked at her and grinned.

“I love it,” he said, and he reached for her and pulled her face to his before planting a sensual kiss on her lips.

As the hours and days had passed, all Monica had wanted to do was tell her story. She wanted to blog about her life, about her experience, about the fact that she had done something completely crazy, but it was ultimately something that was going to change her life. And something she knew now she was never going to regret.

She had found someone important, and now she wanted to share it with the world.

“People are going to love reading this,” Evan mused. “I can just imagine them thinking, hell this is bullshit, no one would get that wasted and marry someone they just met in a bar in the middle of the mountains… But it’s all factual and we have the witness statements and the CCTV footage to prove it.” 

“I’m going to document it all,” she said. “Without giving up our privacy, of course…”

“Of course…,” Evan smiled.

“It’ll be anonymous… it’ll be like one of those kiss and tell blogs, diary of a call girl or whatever, except this will be about you and me, and how one crazy night changed us both forever.”

“You’re awesome,” Evan said as he kissed her again.

They smiled at each other as their lips broke apart and they looked back toward the screen.

“Go on,” he said. “Just do it and worry about it later.”

“Are you sure?” she asked nervously.

“Deadly,” Evan said as he took hold of her hand and placed it back on the keyboard.

She moved the mouse to above the publish button and she said a silent prayer.

Please let this be well received, please let this capture people’s imagination… Please let this reach far and wide…

All she wanted was to be able to tell stories and to have people read them. All she wanted was for her voice to travel and for her to be able to explore that.

She took a deep breath and then she did it. She pressed the button.

Publish Now.

She looked across at Evan with excitement in her eyes and he pulled her to him and gave her a hug and kissed her on the top of the head.

“I’m proud of you,” he smiled. “Really fucking proud.”

“Thank you,” she said as she nuzzled into his warmth.

She felt so safe when she was next to him, and she could have stayed there like that forever, but she knew they had plans and places to be. After spending their week on lockdown and ensuring that Reggie had well and truly scuttled back to where he had come from, now they were finally going to have a night out on Grey Mountain as an official couple.

“Are you ready?” Evan asked her as he stood and held out his hand to help steady her to her feet.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she smiled.

“Well, good, because we have plenty of reason to celebrate…”

They wrapped their hands up together and as they passed the counter, Monica grabbed her bag.

“Let’s go,” Evan said as he opened the door and let her walk out ahead of him. He never stopped being a gentleman, not for one moment.

 

As they pushed open the door to the bar and made their way inside, Monica felt nothing but pure joy. They were back in their place. They were back where it all began… and as Evan approached the exact same seats where they had sat both times they had been in there, Monica could do nothing but smile from ear to ear.

She jumped up onto the stool and Evan slid onto the one next to her. She turned her body to face his so their legs could lock in together, and she smiled up at her incredible man.

Behind the bar, Jack was busying away serving customers and the place was packed. But it didn’t take long for his eyes to travel their way, and when he saw them, he mouthed oh my fucking god… and he came down as quickly as he could.

“I was wondering what happened to both of you!” he said as he slapped his hands down on the countertop. “And so has everyone else who was in here that fateful night!”

Monica laughed and her and Evan smiled at each other.

“So, you didn’t skip town then?” he asked her.

Monica shook her head.

“And you? You haven’t gone back into recluse mode?” he said to Evan.

Evan looked at Monica and they both gave each other a knowing grin.

“And what about the annulment?” Jack asked with wide eyes. “I take it that’s all done and dusted, the paperwork has been filed and it’s all in the works?”

Monica bit her lip and Evan’s face cracked too. Neither of them could keep their faces straight.

“Oh my god,” Jack said. “Are you two… a thing…?”

He pointed from one of them to the other and back again, and Evan reached out and took Monica under his arm and pulled her close to him.

“What do you think?” he asked Jack cockily. “I’d have to be fucking crazy to let this one slip through my fingers.”

He kissed her on the lips and they smiled at each other.

She felt exactly the same.

“So that’s it… you’re just married now?” Jack asked, totally gob smacked.

“For now,” Monica said. “We’ll see where we are in six months’ time…”

“Wow,” Jack said with real, genuine happiness. “That is like completely incredible news! And it happened here, people! It happened here!”

He rang the bell above the bar and everyone turned and cheered.

“Evan and Monica got married!” he shouted to the room. “Mountain Mojitos for everyone!”

Monica and Evan laughed and hugged each other tight.

“Oh God,” Monica said. “Here we go again…”

The drinks landed in front of them and they both took hold of them and went to make a toast.

“To us,” Evan said. “Mr. and Mrs. Mountain…”

“To us…” she agreed.

It was all perfect, Evan and Monica had both found their happy ending.

 

 

THE END