CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Epilogue
Payton
Four suited men stood in a line, their arms over each other's shoulders and smiled for the cameras. The family resemblance was unarguable: the height, the firm jaws, the faces that had been sculpted from stone. But my eyes were fixed on only one, the one whose grin became wider as he saw me.
There was laughter, then Seph pushed Callum as their bickering continued and my man strode over to me, his hands automatically finding my waist and closing the gap between us. "It's been an amazing evening," he said. "I think you'll be taking on more staff at Van Marketing after this."
Jackson was probably right. I'd had several people come over and enquire or take our business cards. Grant Callaghan had spoken about us in the speech he'd given, only briefly as it should be, but enough to ensure that we'd receive a mention in the magazine that was reporting on the event. "I'm not thinking about that for the rest of the night," I said, my hands slipping under his suit jacket, sliding over his shirt.
We'd had an almost blissful few weeks since I'd moved in. There had been a couple of disagreements, mainly around him being determined to pick me up every time I went out with friends and another over my takeover of the bathroom, but they were what I'd expected. I'd discovered his moods and ways to improve them and we'd started to transform the house into something other than the monotone palate that it was. It was becoming ours.
"The band's about to start," Jackson said. "That means everyone can relax." Most people already had; champagne had been consumed since just after midday, afternoon cocktails and beers after that and I knew it was almost time for the whiskey to be brought out. It was Grant Callaghan's final official function as the lead practitioner at Callaghan Green and he'd thrived on the occasion, his face never short of a smile.
Jackson, on the other hand, looked nervous. He'd given a speech, as had Maxwell, both of them as smooth as scotch and not using notes. But other than that, he'd occasionally appeared twitchy, his attention elsewhere. "You can relax too," I said. "You've been nervous all day."
He laughed although I didn't get the joke. "Come with me, Vanessa."
I looked around the room, still wary that this was my company's event, although Alice had been the lead. "I should..."
"I need you to come with me."
I followed him out of the room as the band began, down a darkened corridor. One hand held him, the other clutched the skirt of my fishtail dress to avoid standing on the hem. "Where are we going?"
He slowed, stopping outside a door. "Here."
The door opened. A room filled with pillar candles and flowers was presented to me. I looked around in stunned silence, unsure, my chest echoing with the heightened beat of my heart.
Jackson closed the door behind us and took my hand again, leading me to an antique chaise lounge. "Vanessa," he said, his jaw clenched and he bit his lips together. "Maxwell told me I may as well give you my balls in a case when he saw what I'd done with this room."
"You're nervous," I said, reaching to touch his face. "What's bothering you?"
He smiled. "Van, I have a room filled with candles and flowers. My brother thinks you own my balls. What could I possibly be nervous about?"
"Oh." Realisation dawned.
I sat down on the chaise longue and wondered how many beats per minute my heart was at and whether it was setting a record.
He dipped to one knee, his hands holding my leg. "Van, it's probably too early for this and I should be waiting for some set period of time first but I don't want to. I think I knew when I saw you doing pull-ups in my gym that I'd met my match in every way there is and I want to be able to call you more than my girlfriend."
I knew my eyes had tears in them but there was no way I was going to let them fall. He studied me, watching my expression. "I love your independence, your determination, your intelligence. I love how your mind works and I love how you make me feel."
"You haven't mentioned my body or the sex," I teased. "Or even my boobs."
He glanced down and tried to hide a smile. "I was aiming to be as romantic as possible, but all that too. I love making you come and hearing you say my name when you do. I want a future with you and our own family. There's no one else I'd rather share my life with." He let go of my leg and fumbled in his jacket pocket, pulling out a small box.
"Vanessa, you don't have to say yes, because I'll ask again if you don't and keep on asking until you do, but," he pulled out the ring, a diamond surrounded with light blue sapphires. "Will you marry me?"
I held out my left hand, spreading my fingers as an answer because my brain was currently incapable of getting my mouth to say one word.
He grinned, pushing the ring onto my finger. "I'm assuming it's a yes as you're not running from the room."
"It's a yes," I managed to exhale, not realizing I'd been holding my breath. "I'll marry you."
He looked up to the ceiling. "Thank fuck for that." And then I was in his arms, pulled up from the chaise and his lips were on mine, hands on my waist and ass and I was devoured. It went from demanding to tender and lasting.
Our mouths broke apart, hands still encasing each other. "Does everyone know what you were going to do?"
Jackson smiled, reaching for my left hand and looking at the ring. "My family. Your dad – I told him I was going to propose." They'd met twice, once in London and once in Derbyshire when we had escaped for a weekend. "Everyone's going to know when we go back out there."
My eyes skipped between him and the ring. He looked elated yet disbelieving at the same time, as if he was stunned that I'd agreed to marry him. "The ring's beautiful."
"It was my mother's," he said. "She had three rings. Dad said a few years back that there was one for each of her boys when we found the person we wanted to be with. If you want something new I can do that though."
I shook my head. "No. This is perfect. Did you have it resized?"
"I borrowed one of your rings. Shall we go out and tell everyone? We don't have to stay until the end of the night either," he said, his arms back around me.
"Let's go," I said. "Let's tell everyone and then I can have you to myself."
All eyes fell on us as we entered the large room where everyone was. A loud cheer was led by Marie and Payton, the rest of the room catching on fairly quickly, which was no mean feat for four hundred guests.
"She said yes," Jackson said and then held up his fist in victory. I stood next to him, amazed at the euphoria he was showing and knowing it was reflected right back. I felt high, as if someone had administered this amazing drug.
"We clearly did something right with bringing you up if you managed to persuade this wonderful lady to marry you," Grant said, shaking Jackson's hand and the kissing my cheek.
"Congratulations," Claire said, moving closer in. "Let me see the ring."
I held out my hand so she could examine it, pulled away from Jackson momentarily. I wanted to head back home where we could be alone but first I wanted to remain here and just enjoy the moment and being wrapped in a family.
I saw Killian shaking Jackson's hand and saying his congratulations and then Jackson was pulled away by Max and Seph, both of them slapping his back and making crude comments along with disbelief that he'd found someone daft enough to agree to marry him.
"You will have sisters, and irritating brothers," Claire said. "Package deal."
"I can't wait," I said, studying the ring. "I was so surprised."
"Really? No one else was!"
I laughed. "Clearly. It was a good job I said yes."
Seph shimmied over, his contact lenses replaced with wide rimmed glasses making him look like an utter geek. "So when am I going to be an uncle?"
I smacked his arm.
"You're allowed to hit him harder than that," Claire said. She glanced around. "Where's Killian?"
"He's had to make a phone call," Seph said. "He didn't look too happy."
Jackson found me, sweeping me against him, muttering sweet words followed by dirty ones that no one else could hear. The band started up and he pulled me to the dance floor to a round of applause that barely registered because all I needed was the warm heat from my man. Then we were surrounded: Jackson's parents, Seph and Payton, Max, Callum and Ava, my friends, our whole world surrounded us and the center of mine still held me, and I him, as we would do forever.
The End