Epilogue

Callie

– One year later –

Abigail and Carter were back in Austin to celebrate their one-year anniversary. They had bought a house here after they had gotten married, but they were barely home. They traveled while they could, seeing the world, and I only got to speak to Abigail once every couple of weeks.

I didn’t mind. My friend was happy, and that was all that mattered to me. Her marriage to Carter had been perfect from day one, and I had never seen a closer couple in all the years I had been a wedding coordinator.

“Are you sure you want us out here with you?” I asked when we sat down at the restaurant where Carter had made reservations. “It’s your anniversary, and you should celebrate it without us.”

Carter shook his head. “Not without our best friends. We hardly see you two. We definitely want you both here.”

I glanced at Grayson, who shrugged. He took my hand and kissed my knuckles. I smiled at him.

“You’re adorable together,” Abigail said. I blushed, and Grayson rolled his eyes.

“So, tell us about your travels,” Grayson said.

Carter and Abigail told us about the Contiki they had joined that had covered the United Kingdom, the cruise they had done that had visited a cluster of Indonesian Islands, a hike in New Zealand, and visiting the black beaches of Alaska.

“I can’t believe you’ve been to all these places,” I said.

“It’s been amazing,” Abigail said.

I would have loved to travel, but my life had gone in a different direction, and I was happy where I was.

“I can’t believe a year has already passed,” I said. “Time flies.”

“It does,” Abigail said. “Sometimes, it feels like it was just yesterday we got married.”

I nodded. I felt the same. Somedays, I felt that Grayson and I had barely got to know each other, and others, I felt like we’d spent a lifetime together. Grayson laced his fingers through mine, and I smiled at him. He touched me often, craving physical contact, and our connection was stronger than ever. It had been there from the start, but it grew every day.

“Are you planning on traveling more?” I asked.

Abigail glanced at Carter and shook her head. “We’re thinking about settling down, actually,” she said shyly. “Maybe start a family.”

I squealed. “I can’t wait until I get to be the crazy aunt.”

Abigail laughed. “That’s still some time in the future, but we’re talking about it.”

Carter nodded and looked at his wife with a loving expression. He shifted closer to Grayson, and they chatted, catching up while Abigail and I talked about married life.

“What about you?” Abigail asked. “You look like you’re going strong.”

I nodded, glancing at Grayson. “Very strong.”

“Would you marry him?”

“If he asks,” I said. I had thought about it more and more recently. If Grayson asked me to be his forever, I would say yes. When I had met him, he had been an arrogant son of a bitch, but I had gotten to know him inside and out, and he was a wonderful person hiding behind male bravado. I loved him more than I could put into words.

Grayson had moved to Austin from Dallas to be with me. He had insisted he wanted to come to me so I didn’t have to move my business, even though I’d been willing to make a plan for him.

When Grayson had moved to Austin for me, I had discussed with Isaiah the idea of starting a new branch in another town. Isaiah had wanted to set off on his own, but I hadn’t wanted to lose him. So Isaiah had moved to Dallas and opened up his own branch of Somewhere Special Weddings. With him gone, my business had needed a bit of help. Instead of hiring someone new, Grayson had stepped in to help.

He didn’t help with any of the wedding matters like venues and coordinating, but he helped with administration and he did the books, making sure the two different offices worked well and that everything was in place. Grayson also stepped in and assisted with some of the more difficult clients. Perhaps as he had been once in their shoes, he knew that weddings were a difficult time for some people. Isaiah had built up Somewhere Special Weddings in Dallas into something popular enough that he could afford to get his own part-time assistant, and if he continued the way he was, we could open office number three.

It was all just planning for now, and when I explained it all to Abigail, she told me everything sounded like it was going great.

I agreed. It was fantastic. I’d had the best year yet, in every aspect of my life. From business to my relationship to having made peace with my past.

The conversation turned to a topic we could all join in on. Carter wanted to throw John a surprise birthday party, and we were all on board. John was an important figure in Grayson’s life, and he and Deborah had become very close friends of mine too. Grayson and I started throwing ideas around, planning, discussing venues and caterers. Abigail laughed.

“You can see where your strengths are,” she said.

The waiter arrived and put a slice of cake on the table in front of me.

I shook my head. “I didn’t order this,” I said.

“Oh, no. It’s a specialty. On the house from us.”

I looked at the cake. It was a wonderful lemon meringue, my favorite, but it didn’t make sense.

“Does everyone get it?” I asked.

The waiter nodded, but I looked around, and no one else had a slice of delicious cake in front of them. I glanced at Grayson, who shrugged.

“It would be rude to refuse.”

He was right. And it was my favorite. But I was suspicious. What was going on? For a moment, I thought maybe Grayson would try to propose, but I shook off the thought. He would hardly do it with lemon meringue, would he? Besides, there was no ring in my cake. I checked as I ate.

I felt silly for thinking Grayson would do something like this. I was ready for marriage, and I knew how I felt about him, but that didn’t mean he was ready. I didn’t doubt his love for me, but we were happy. We lived together and worked together, and I knew he was fully committed to me. We didn’t have to sign papers to know we would be together forever.

Besides, he had never mentioned anything to me. It was silly of me to jump to conclusions like this. It was merely because I watched weddings happening every day, and I was so deliriously happy that I was starting to think that it was something I wanted for myself. But I didn’t need it to be happy.

The waiter brought flutes of Champagne to our table. This was for the anniversary, I was sure.

“Let’s make a toast,” I said, lifting my glass.

“Excuse me, miss,” the waiter said next to me. “You dropped your ring.”

I looked at the ring the waiter had in the palm of his hand. It was beautiful. It was rose gold with three diamonds mounted in a row.

“That’s not mine,” I said.

“It can be if you want it,” Grayson said. When I looked at him, he was kneeling on the floor next to me. I didn’t know what to say. He had caught me off guard.

“I love you, Callie Scott. I want to share my life with you. Will you marry me?”

It suddenly hit home, and I nodded. Grayson took the ring from the waiter and thanked him before sliding it onto my finger. It fit perfectly. Tears rolled over my cheeks when Grayson kissed me.

“Congratulations,” Abigail said, hugging me. Carter shook Grayson’s hand and gave me a hug.

“Did you know?” I asked.

“It’s why we invited you with us,” Abigail answered. “We couldn’t be happier to be a part of the start of your journey and the beginning of your married life together.”

I shook my head, smiling at Grayson. This was more than I could ever have hoped for. Who would have known that when I had met the arrogant best man that I would end up with him? Who knew there was a happily ever after in store for the woman who made it happen for everyone else?