Epilogue

_______

 

Leah

Nine Months Later

 

 

 

“Are you coming back to my place after this?” Dom muttered in my ear, coming up behind me. I leaned back into him, and he wrapped his arms around my stomach just as he dropped a soft kiss on my neck.

“Definitely. Can we leave now?”

He chuckled. “If you want to skip out on your own graduation party, that’s on you. I wouldn’t personally recommend it, though.”

I gave a great sigh of disappointment. “Fine. Stop pawing me, then.”

“Can’t help myself. I can’t wait until this is over. I have to give you your graduation present.”

He’d been hinting at this present he was going to give me, and I was dying to know what it was. “Does it involve nakedness?”

“It could lead to that. But then, any situation with you would lead to that if I had my way.”

“You do have your way, and quite often, remember?”

His answer was a groan into my neck.

“Can you two keep your hands off each other for five minutes?” We both looked up as my sister approached, glamorous in a black and white striped tank tucked into a high waisted red skirt that was short on her long legs. “Seriously, it’s gross. No one wants to see that.”

Dominic was slow pulling away from me, slyly making it clear he wasn’t heeding to Eleanor. He loved to tease her, and she lived to annoy him. “What do you want, brat?”

“I’d be careful how you speak to me, Dominic. Dad’s looking for Leah, and I don’t want to have to tell him she’s over here being felt up by you.”

He groaned and fully pulled away, reacting both to her words and to the mention of my dad.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go find him and get this over with.”

He didn’t argue about accompanying me, but I knew he wasn’t overcome with warm feelings about it, either. Dad and Dominic’s relationship was still a little touch and go. I mean, after their first real interaction had ended with my dad screaming at him to get the fuck out of the building, it was a bit of a challenge. To say the least. But my dad and I had gotten closer since we’d talked about my mom, and we communicated more easily these days. I’d had more than one talk with him concerning Dominic, and things had gradually become slightly better. They could even maintain polite conversation at the occasional dinner now, which showed how far they’d come.

Dad was in the back of the room by the wine table, which I’m guessing was more Liz’s influence since she was the one currently tipping a glass back.

“Hey, Dad,” I said as we approached him. “What’s up?”

He gave me a half hug and eyed Dominic over my shoulder with a closed expression. “Just wanted to get my daughter alone for a minute and have a few words.”

“Oh, sorry,” Dom said. “If you want to be alone, I can…”

“No,” my dad said brusquely, cutting him off. “You might as well stay, too.”

I shared a quick but meaningful look with Dom. That was practically a warm welcome coming from my dad.

“I know you didn’t want me to make a speech or any announcements,” Dad continued. “So privately I want to tell you how proud I am of you. I’ve watched you grow and blossom into a smart and capable young woman, and I don’t worry about you quite as much as I once did. Admittedly, part of that is because of this one.” He sort of gestured to Dom, though he didn’t look at him. “If you had to choose someone to get involved with, I suppose you could have done worse than a trained bodyguard. But back to the point. I love you, I’m proud of you, and all that jazz. I respect you for going out and doing your own thing, but I’ll always have a place for you at the company. Not because you’re my daughter, though I have no shame in nepotism, but because any company would be lucky to have you, including mine.”

I was trying so hard to stay unemotional, but I couldn’t keep the tears out of my eyes. “Dad…” Unable to say anything, I came forward and gave him a huge hug. “You have no idea what that means to me. I love you so much.”

He cleared his throat and I pulled back. “Thank you for making me proud.” Then, to my utter disbelief, he extended a hand to Dominic. “Good to see you, Mr. Weber.”

I could tell Dom was just as stunned as I was, though he hid it well as he shook my dad’s hand. “Pleasure to be here, sir.”

My dad stepped back after that without another word, but Liz stepped in and took over, hugging us both and making light conversation until she and my dad finally excused themselves.

“Wow,” I said after they walked away. “My dad loves you now.”

“I would use the phrase ‘mildly tolerates’, but at least it’s progress from ‘full out loathes’.”

“That was so weird. And nice.”

“It was really nice. But, yeah. Also very weird.”

At the end of the night, Dom and I made our way back to his apartment, where I spent most of my time, anyway. Officially I was living at home now that school was over, but more often than not, I was at Dominic’s. His ex-roommate had moved into the apartment his new husband lived in, freeing this one up for Dom. Something about the husband’s sister getting back together with her boyfriend and no longer needing the apartment.

Once inside, I started jumping up and down excitedly. “Where’s my present?”

“Do you want something to drink first? You might be hungry…”

“No! Stop pretend stalling. Gimme.”

“Alright, jeez. So impatient. You’re kind of hard to shop for, by the way. What do I get for the girl who has everything?”

“I do have everything,” I agreed, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my chin on his chest so I could peer up at him. “Because I have you.”

“That’s sweet,” he said. “And also incredibly cheesy.”

I shrugged, unbothered. If you couldn’t be cheesy with the one you loved, what was the point? “No, seriously. You could give me, like, a hand-made card with second grade level drawings and I’d be happy.”

“I have to say, I’m glad your standards are so low. It’ll make your actual present seem that much better by comparison.”

“What is it?” I demanded.

He carefully extracted himself from me and went into the small kitchen to grab a manila envelope off the table. “Happy graduation,” he said, handing it to me. “I love you.”

I reached up and gave him a quick series of kisses on the mouth. “I love you, too.” Then, I wasted no more time in tearing the envelope open and pulling the contents out. They were flight confirmations, I found, scanning the printout. Flight confirmations to…

“Denmark?!” I screamed. “Oh, my God, are you serious?”

“Are you happy right now? I sort of can’t tell.”

“Yes!” I threw myself into him with an excited whoop. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the best present ever. I love you so much. When are we going?”

“Beginning of next month. Before you start your new job.” I was starting at a non-profit toward the end of July as a financial analyst, and I was nervous but also incredibly excited. Dominic had gone back to work for his old employer after leaving Canton, but a couple months later Davis had reached out to offer a position at the private security firm where he worked. So far, Dom loved it, and he was making some pretty decent money to boot.

“Will you be able to get off work?”

“Yeah, I put in for the time months ago.”

“You’ve been planning this for that long?”

“Pretty much the first time we talked about it, I thought, I want to take her to Denmark.”

“You’re the best,” I said, kissing my way up to his mouth. “I’m so excited. I want to start studying Denmark culture right now. I want to learn everything.” But then our mouths caught and held, coming open in a wet, dirty, desperate kiss, and everything in me sharpened and called out to him, like always. I was panting and breathless in seconds, a mindless thing of want. “Well, maybe that can wait.”

“Good call,” he said, pulling me back to him. And the papers floated to the floor somewhere between the kitchen and bedroom, along with pieces of our clothing. In his bed, which really felt like my bed too, we came together hard, fast, and with our eyes wide open. At the end we were left trembling and out of breath and completely vulnerable. But we were comfortable with being vulnerable in a way I knew neither of us ever had been before. I’d never known what it was like to feel this secure. To be this loved. To take my chance on something huge and scary and knowing my world could be completely changed as a result. To watch my world change and to change right along with it. Dom was my breathtaking now, my limitless future, my everything. And I wasn’t scared, not anymore. I was free, and ready to embrace it all.