Epilogue
6 MONTHS LATER
BRAD
“Hey, honey,” I said when Nicole’s voice flowed through the speakers in my car.
There was the sound of cars honking on her end of the phone. Then a door slammed, and there was silence. “What’s up, Daddy?”
She sounded chirpy, as she always did these days. It had taken her a month after Jordan and I started dating before she’d finally come around. She still flinched at first when she saw us touching each other, as innocent as those touches might have been. The first time she saw us kissing, I thought she actually went green, but she’d been fully supportive of us since, anyway.
In a way, we were closer now than we were before Jordan and I got together. I definitely saw more of her. I hadn’t realized quite how much time Jordan and Nicole spent together before, and while their relationship had initially been strained, they’d long since made up.
It was a fair bet that Nicole would’ve shown up at the house later anyway, but I needed to make sure that she did.
“Could you come over later? There’s something that I want to talk to you about. Say in about an hour or so?”
Nicole paused, then replied hesitantly. “Sure. Everything okay?”
“Everything’s perfect,” I said hastily. The last thing I needed was for her to jump to conclusions and arrive riled up, possibly with Jordan in tow. “It’s nothing to worry about. We’ll have dinner after?”
“Okay, see you then.” She still sounded cautious, but a little more curious now than she’d been earlier. “Bye, Dad.”
“Bye, sweetheart. See you later.”
Music from the station I’d been tuned to before my call to Nicole replaced her voice with low, sultry jazz tones. The I-5 was relatively clear, given that I’d left the office early to get things set up for dinner.
The skies outside were dark and gray, the low clouds creating an early dusk and wetting the earth with fine sheets of rain. I was planning on getting away with Jordan soon, if all went according to plan. A tropical destination maybe, somewhere she could shed the winter coats and heavy sweater and spend a couple of weeks clad in bikinis or less.
The thought of Jordan bathed in bright, early morning light stretched out beside me completely naked as some filmy curtain danced in a breeze was enough to make me press down on the gas, eager to get home and implement the next phase of the plan that would hopefully make that mental image a reality.
With the little extra speed, I was home not ten minutes later, finding it filled with the spicy aromas of the Indian food I’d hired a caterer in for. A quick peek at the dining room and into the kitchen told me that all was well and that the caterer was executing my instructions perfectly.
“Mr. Brooks,” Juliana, the caterer, said when she spotted me in the doorway to the kitchen. She was a gorgeous woman with raven hair and round, chocolate brown eyes. Exactly the type who would’ve roused my interest prior to Jordan, but she did nothing for me now. Neither had any others over the last six months.
My transformation into a one-woman man had been swift and complete the second Jordan had set foot in my office that day. I just hadn’t known it at the time.
“We’ll be out of your hair within the hour,” Juliana told me, turning back to the various pots of deliciousness she was whipping up. Her assistants were already starting to clean down the areas of the kitchen they were done with and carrying neatly stacked trays to their vans.
“Thank you,” I said. “It smells wonderful in here.”
I hadn’t wanted anyone else around once the girls arrived, so I’d specifically told Juliana and her team that they had to be done and gone by five. They seemed to be on track, so with a satisfied nod, I left them to it.
Nicole arrived about ten minutes later than she was supposed to, shrugging out of a raincoat and dropping her keys into the silver bowl by the front door with a light clamor. “Freaking rain. How is it that everyone forgets how to drive as soon as a few drops start coming down?”
Chuckling as she vented, I leaned a hip against the wall and waited it out.
“I mean, they live in Seattle. Surely, they should be used to it.” She lifted her eyes to mine, and the annoyance in them melted away. “Hi, Daddy. Sorry I’m late.”
I opened my arms, and she stepped in them for a quick hug. “It’s okay. We still have plenty of time.”
Nicole released me from the hug, her eyebrows raised in question. “Plenty of time for what?”
“Before Jordan gets here,” I answered, somewhat cryptically. “Drink?”
“Yes, please. Many. It’s been a hell of a week, and that traffic on the way over here didn’t help any.” She bounded past me to the entertainment area and its fully stocked bar.
It had stacked glass doors to keep out the cold, and the fire I’d started earlier danced lazily in the hearth. Nicole went straight for the wine rack and uncorked a bottle of her favorite red, holding it up to me. “Want some?”
“Sure.” Unfamiliar nervousness was starting to stir in my stomach, spreading slowly but surely to my extremities. Despite how well things had been going in recent months, Nicole’s reaction to the talk we had to have might not go as smoothly.
But I had to have faith. I was doing this either way. It would just make it significantly more joyous of an occasion if Nicole was on board with my plan. She pushed the glass of wine to me and lifted hers for a sip before she settled onto one of the bar stools.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.
I brushed a hand through my hair, took a seat across from her, and swept up my glass to take a sip of my own. Taking a deep breath, I met her eyes and got right to business. “I’m going to ask Jordan to marry me, and I wanted your blessing.”
Nicole’s glass thudded on the wooden counter as her eyes grew wide and her cheeks flushed. Then her lips curled into a smile of magnificent proportions, and she rounded the bar to launch herself at me in a huge hug. “Of course. I’m so happy for you, Dad.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I returned her hug and held her close to me, immensely relieved that she was genuinely happy for us. Tears wet my neck, and I pulled her away to take a good look at her. Sincere joy shone from her watery eyes, and that smile was still there.
“Yeah? You’re okay with this?” I needed to hear her say it, just in case she hadn’t fully realized the ramifications yet. “You’re okay with having Jordan as your stepmom, essentially?”
“I’d be honored to,” Nicole said earnestly. “I couldn’t think of a better woman for the job. Honestly, Daddy, I’ve seen how happy the two of you make each other. Some part of me knew right from the very beginning that this was going to happen. It’s part of why it took me a little longer to accept it at first. I had to prepare myself for this moment, too. And I did.”
“You’re a smart girl. Have I told you that lately?”
She’d actually managed to surprise me with her answer, having been a step ahead of me all these months.
Nicole giggled and shrugged. “What can I say? I was raised by a smart man.”
“Maybe so, but at some point, you surpassed me.” It was a proud realization to come to, and it somehow made the night seem so much more full than it had already been shaping up to be.
Everything I’d wanted for so long was right there. I could almost reach out and touch it. Speaking of which, Jordan appeared in the sliding doors that led into the entertainment area from the living room beyond.
“Am I late?” She glanced at her watch, then crossed the floor to hug Nicole and plant a big kiss on my lips. “I thought you said six?”
“I did. Nic was early.” For dinner, anyway.
Jordan turned toward Nicole with amusement shining in her bright eyes, but she remained in position standing between my legs, where she’d ended up she greeted me. “Has hell frozen over? Or have you been body-snatched? Because there’s no way you were early otherwise.”
Nicole threw her head back and laughed, patting herself down. “Nope, not body-snatched, I think. And I don’t know what the state of hell is.”
Their friendly banter warmed my heart. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined things could be this good. That Nicole would accept my relationship with a woman that I loved. More than accept it and actually support it and love the woman almost as much as I did.
I especially never imagined that it would be the case if the woman was Jordan, or that it would be Jordan, at all.
Leaning forward, I pressed a kiss to Jordan’s shoulder and then stood, suddenly unable to wait any longer. “Come on. Let’s go have dinner. I had Indian made.”
“You had dinner catered? Why? Nicole and I could’ve made something.” Jordan laced our fingers together as she followed me to the dining room.
I burst out laughing, though nerves were starting to bundle inside me again. “As much as I love the both of you, I felt like something a little more special than grilled cheese or oven baked fries tonight.”
They were both extremely talented in their own ways, but cooking didn’t really make it onto either list of talents.
“There is nothing wrong with grilled cheese or fries,” Nicole retorted, laughing and taking a seat at the dining room table.
“Besides, why do we need something special?” Jordan asked. “Are we celebrating something?” Excitement sparked in her eyes when her gaze moved to Nicole. “Are you finally launching the app?”
Nicole shook her head with a sly smile. “Nope.”
Confusion crossed Jordan’s features when she looked back at me. I took both of her hands in mine.
“But I hope we’ll still have something to celebrate,” I said.
“Yeah?” The excitement sparked again. “Did you close that deal with Zach’s client?”
I shook my head and mimicked Nicole’s answer. “Nope.”
Jordan pouted, gaze alternating between mine and Nicole’s until I squeezed her hands and slid to my knee. For a couple of heartbeats, Jordan just gaped, her eyes growing wider and wider as she started putting things together. When one of my hands reached into my pocket to withdraw a velvet box, her free hand flew to her mouth.
Opening the box, I revealed the stupendous princess cut diamond that sat on top of a solid platinum band. Two smaller diamonds winked from either side of the center stone. If I was putting a ring on it, I wasn’t fucking around. I wanted every man who so much as thought about glancing in her direction to know that she was taken.
Mine.
With that in mind, I searched for the words I’d rehearsed, but looking up at Jordan and the exhilaration in her beautiful eyes, I couldn’t find a single one of the prepared words. My mouth went dry, but I took a deep breath and spoke from my heart.
“Jordan Hall, for the longest time, I thought that my days of loving and being loved were so far behind me that I could barely even remember them. In you, I have found a different, greater love than I would ever have imagined possible and the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Can we do that? Will you marry me?”
Jordan stared at me, stunned. For several extremely long, excruciating moments that seemed to stretch into eternity, she didn’t say a word. Then she dropped to her knees in front of me and tackled me into a hug, peppering my neck and jaw with kisses. “Yes, yes, yes, yes. Forever yes.”
Nicole howled with laughter at Jordan’s reaction and then started clapping. “Woo hoo!”
Drawing Jordan into my arms, I kissed her deeply, reached for the ring, and slid it onto her finger. I sighed happily to see it where it belonged. “Perfect.”
Jordan held her hand up to the light, which reflected on the stone in a prism of color.
“Wow,” she said admiringly. “It’s beautiful, Brad.”
“Yeah,” Nicole agreed, sinking to her knees beside us and hugging each of us before yanking on Jordan’s hand to examine the ring. “You did good, Dad.”
“Thanks.” I grinned so widely that I was sure it was about to split my face in two, but I couldn’t bother to dial it down. “Did you ever doubt me?”
“Never,” she swore, rising to her feet. “I’m just going to give you two a minute.”
Jordan clambered onto my lap, threading her arms around my shoulders and looking down at me with intense, unconditional love as clear as daylight in her eyes. “I had no idea. You could’ve given me a heads up.”
“That would’ve ruined the surprise,” I told her, enveloping her in my arms.
“It was a great surprise,” she said, leaning down to slant her lips over mine for a long, leisurely kiss that was only broken when Nicole coughed from the doorway.
“I said a minute. Jeez.” She laughed. “But I think I’m going to get out of here anyway. I’ve packed some food to take with me.”
“You don’t have to go,” Jordan protested, but I couldn’t say that I shared her objection. Sure, I wanted to celebrate with Nicole, too, which was why I’d invited her over in the first place. But there was plenty of time for that.
For now, I just wanted to be with my fiancée. Nicole’s gaze met mine, and whatever she saw there strengthened her resolve. “I know I don’t have to, but I want to give you guys some time.”
She already had her bag slung over her shoulder. Jordan sighed but popped up from my lap to hug Nicole again. “Fine, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You better,” Nicole said, smiling with unbridled enthusiasm from ear to ear. “We have a wedding to plan.”
“That we do,” Jordan repeated, her voice filled with wonder. Nicole waved and started to turn, but Jordan reached for her arm. “Just one last thing. Will you be my maid of honor?”
This time, it was Nicole’s turn to look stunned, but she laughed and pulled Jordan in for a full-on jumping hug. “Of course, I will be.”
“Good,” Jordan said. “Thank you.”
Nicole released her from the hug, eyes shining with unshed, happy tears again. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”
“Tomorrow,” Jordan repeated. “Bye for now.”
“Bye,” Nicole said, giving us a last wave on her way out.
“She didn’t have to leave,” Jordan said, a brief worried expression crossing her delicate features.
I tugged her to me, back into my lap, nuzzling her neck and planting soft kisses on every bit of exposed skin I could find. “Nah, but I’m glad she did.”
Jordan melted into me, winding her arms around my shoulders again. “Me too, I guess.”
“You have any thoughts on the wedding?” I asked her, continuing with my reverent kisses.
She sighed and pulled back to look me right in the eyes. “Not really. All I care about is that it’ll be you waiting for me at the other end of the aisle, and that it will mark the beginning of our lives together.”
“That was the perfect answer. You know that?”
Jordan nodded, then bent her head, claimed my lips with hers once more, and kissed me with a passion that defied description.
I returned her kisses fervently, cupping her face in my hands and thanking my lucky stars and every deity out there that this beautiful, wonderful woman was mine.
THE END
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