EPILOGUE

HARPER POLSEN

FIVE YEARS LATER

“Harper, you’re sure you don’t want to stop and get coffee?”

I rub at my eyes and shake my head in response to Zane’s question. We got on the road super early to avoid the worst traffic leaving the city, but I’d much rather get some ginger ale than a cup of coffee in my system at the moment.

“Let’s just get to the house as quickly as we can,” I tell Zane, settling myself in the passenger seat again.

After five years of living in New York City, Zane still let me drive us out of the city proper before taking over the driver’s seat at our first rest stop.

“It’s going to be ridiculous, you know that, right?” I grin in spite of the way my stomach is roiling and tumbling inside of me, because Zane is right.

All four of our parents have been aware that we’re dating since we came home for Christmas together the first year that we started dating. My mom quickly realized how happy Zane made me and what a good relationship we had.

Any lingering feelings she might have had about my previous visit disappeared quickly and she has never stopped letting me know that she is thrilled I am with someone. I suspect my mom is also thrilled that I am home for the holidays as I don’t need to visit an out-of-town boyfriend’s family.

But for some reason, both Zane’s parents and mine have continued to insist that we have to stay in our own rooms, separately, whenever we’re both in town.

“As always. Even if we do get to stun everyone with some news,” I say, sighing.

Zane knows about the one piece of news that we have for our parents. But he doesn’t know about the other bit of news that I’ve been keeping to myself. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell him today.

I look down at my hand and half-smile to myself, reasoning that since Zane managed to hide the fact that he was saving up to buy me a ring for a good three months, I can be excused from hiding my own news from him.

Our parents have no idea, none whatsoever, that we’re engaged. I thought about hiding my ring until we could get all four of them in a room and tell them, but after talking it over with Zane late into the night, we decided that we’ll just tell them as soon as we get there.

“Let’s get one last little break in before we go on to the houses,” Zane says.

I look up in confusion for a second as I’m lost in thought to see he’s pointing out where the parking is for the lake. I can’t help but laugh.

“We have to stop here every time we visit town, don’t we?”

Zane nods in response to my question, grinning at me unabashedly. “Of course we do. It’s practically the spot of our first date,” he says.

I shake my head, grinning and closing my eyes even as I blush. “That is not something we are going to admit to anyone, is it?”

It’s hard to really say what our first date was, it all happened so quickly, but the night we went skinny dipping at the lake stands out as the point when things changed between us. Then too, there’s the fact that it’s the place where we had sex together for the second time. Zane and I have agreed to disagree on the subject of whether our first time together, in his parents’ bathroom, really counts.

“Why not? We don’t have to tell them what we were doing,” Zane says, even as he begins to pull over to get into the parking lot.

I smile to myself. Part of me, the part preoccupied with the uneasy state of my stomach, is hoping that Zane won’t want to do anything more than kiss me, but another part of me thinks that it would be nice to once again relive the second time we ever had sex right before we go to see our parents to let them know, officially, how wrong they were about us getting together.

Zane parks and we both look around, making sure there isn’t anyone hanging around. It’s early morning, so there would only be a few people at the worst. We seem to have lucked out, because neither of us can spot anyone.

I get out of the car and my stomach gives a little bit of a pitch, but after a second of holding onto the frame of my beat-up old sedan, it passes.

“Are you okay?”

I smile at Zane’s question and wave it off, stepping around the car to get by his side. “Actually, maybe I should just go ahead and tell you,” I say as we walk down from the parking lot to the lake itself.

“Tell me what? You’ve been looking a little green this morning. You’re not nervous about telling our parents about the engagement, are you?”

I press my lips together and look at Zane for a few moments, trying to decide if it is or isn’t the time. “I might as well say it, since I hinted,” I tell him.

“Say what? Come on, Harper, just tell me whatever it is,” Zane says, taking both of my hands in his and pulling me close.

“I guess you haven’t noticed how I’ve been avoiding coffee this morning,” I point out, resting my head against his chest and looking up at his face out of the corner of my eye.

“I just figured you’re tired after that big project at work, and you got turned off to coffee after drinking so much of it last month to finish,” Zane says with a shrug.

Since my first big project five years ago, I’ve taken on more and more responsibilities at the company we both work for, something I haven’t really thought about in light of my new state. I smile and my heart’s going a thousand beats a minute in my chest, what if he hates what I have to tell him? But I might as well get it over with.

“It’s because I found out this morning that… I’m pregnant,” I say, the words tumbling out in a rush at the end.

For a few seconds Zane just stares at me. I look back up at him, hoping that this isn’t a precursor to him telling me how awful this is, hoping that he’s at least going to be able to come around to thinking it’s a good thing.

“You’re pregnant? Really?” Zane’s eyes are getting bigger and he steps back to look at me.

“Really and truly,” I say.

“Wow! We’re going to have to get married a lot sooner then,” Zane tells me. I shake my head.

“No, we’re going to get married in a year, just like we planned,” I counter.

“You want to get married after you’ve had our baby?” Zane laughs.

“Well, I sure as hell am not walking down the aisle fit to pop with some ugly maternity dress on me,” I say firmly.

Zane laughs and pulls me back to him, lifting me up a little bit to kiss me. At first it’s sweet, just Zane showing me love and affection, and how happy he really is. Then, like it almost always does, the kiss turns into something else. His hands start to move over my body and in spite of the fact that it’s early and I’m tired from not sleeping much the night before, and everything else going on, I feel myself getting turned on.