Epilogue

Olivia

Two years later

I sat at the desk in my father’s old study and pored over the accounts for Cosmic Perfumes with my tongue caught between my teeth. The business, my dream business, had been live for just about two years, and I still handled everything myself.

Apart from the initial investment, of course, which had come from my gorgeous husband.

The journey from Olivia Abbott to Olivia Price had taken all of five weeks. Within that time, we’d organized everything. A tiny ceremony for me, Beckett, and Penny, and that was it. We’d had our new favorite dinner—hamburgers with extra pickles for Penny—and gone to bed under the stars in my bedroom.

The honeymoon?

Well, we still hadn’t done that yet.

And now, it might be too late.

I chewed my bottom lip and pressed my palm to my stomach, butterflies barreling around in there.

You don’t need to be afraid. He’d never be angry with you.

It was crazy to think that the same man who’d intoxicated me and who’d walked away from me, was now the man who adored me, who’d do anything for me.

He was still a dick, but he was my dick, and that was what mattered.

I licked my lips and focused on the columns of numbers on my laptop screen again, my gaze wandering to the window that looked out on the front yard, the trees, the green grass.

Penny wasn’t due home from kindergarten for another two hours. It was a gorgeous morning, and I couldn’t focus for the life of me.

Time for a walk.

I pushed my chair back and walked out of the study and down the hall, past Penny’s bedroom, decorated in hues of pink and blue and green—colors she’d chosen herself enthusiastically—and glowing stars on the ceiling. She’d begged for those after she’d seen the ones in my old room.

I walked down the grand front stairs and to the front door then wandered out into the yard.

The times we’d spent here over the past two years had been unbelievably happy. Just what I’d always wanted out of life, even with the stress of starting a business. But was that all about to end?

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I muttered and walked toward the great oak tree in the center of the yard and pond beside it. I kicked off my shoes, then sat down and dipped my feet inside.

God, that was perfection. I sluiced the water between my toes and rested my back against the trunk of the tree, smiling, then frowning, rinse and repeat.

I’d always kind of been a hypochondriac—a worrywart, Mikey had called me—but this was totally overblown. I had to chill.

Tires crunched on the gravel of the drive, and I turned my head.

He was here.

He’d finally come home.

Beckett’s Audi parked in front of the house. The driver’s side door swung outward, and he appeared, handsome as ever in a form-fitting T-shirt and a pair of tight jeans. Both items of clothing hugged every curve of muscle, and my mouth watered for him right away.

“Hey,” he called out. “Mind if I join you?” He lifted a brown bag in one hand. “I come bearing gifts.”

“Is it food?” I asked.

“Yeah, Burger King.”

“Then yes, please!”

Beckett came over, worked his shoes off, then sat down beside me and kissed me on the lips. Even now, two years after he’d proposed, my stomach still did a flip whenever he came close.

He placed an arm around my shoulders then opened the bag with his free hand and drew out a burger. He handed it to me.

“You’re the best.”

“I know,” he replied, with a grin. “Although, you might not think it when you hear about my day.”

“Huh? Trouble in paradise?”

“I think it would be wrong of me to call a whiskey distillery paradise, but yeah, pretty much.” Beckett launched into a tale about his day at work, at his distillery, and how one of his employees had decided not to come into work that day.

I listened, the burger still untouched in my lap. I soaked in every bit of him.

Not just the words, but the way he spoke, gesturing with a fry in one hand, his eyes animated, still dark and dangerous, but no longer filled with anger. Beckett Price wasn’t a changed man—he was a happy man.

The side of him that he’d kept locked away for so long was out in the open, and it was perfect. His lips, full, but not too pouty, formed words, and I obsessed over their texture, their color, the quirk at each corner, the dimples when he smiled.

Every detail was my paradise.

“OK, so basically a total shitshow,” I said.

“You bet,” he replied. “What about you? How are things going with Cosmic Perfumes? I thought you were going into work today.”

I shook my head, mute, then opened the burger box to give myself something to do other than talk.

“Is everything all right?” He wriggled me against his side, and my stomach lurched.

I splashed my feet in the water. “Fine.” I picked up my burger, took a big bite, then gagged.

“What the fuck?” Beckett stroked my back and leaned forward, studying my face. “You’re not OK. You’re pale. You’re getting sick.” He checked his watch, ever the businessman, and frowned. “We’ve got to fetch Penny in a couple hours, but we should have time to get you to the doctor for a checkup.”

“I don’t need a doctor,” I said, through a mouthful of drool and half-chewed burger. I grabbed a napkin and spat into it, then swallowed. “Ugh. Well, I do, but not right now.”

“What’s going on?” The starkness in his gaze flickered back into place, then away. “Baby, you can talk to me about anything. You know that.”

I sighed. I hadn’t figured I’d talk to him about this. Then again, there was no better place than under the tree where I’d fantasized about him years ago. Days I’d spent dreaming of him kissing me beneath the branches of this oak, while water swished between my toes.

“Olivia.”

“I’m fine, I promise. Nothing you need to worry about,” I said. “Except, that’s a lie. It’s something we both have to worry about.”

“Woman, you’d better spit it out or I’ll have to spank you.” He laughed, but there was too much anxiety in his tone to carry it.

“Well, you know how we were planning to go to France for our honeymoon? And we wanted to take Penny with us?”

“Of course,” Beckett said.

“Well, I think we’re going to have to put our trip off for a little longer. And when we do schedule it, we’ll have to book an extra seat on the flight.” I gulped. “I’m pregnant,” I said, with as much confidence as I could manage. “And, naturally, you’re the father.”

Beckett’s eyes went round as plates. His mouth dropped. “Are you kidding? You’d better not be kidding, Olivia.”

“I’m not kidding. I took like five home tests this morning just to make sure, and they were all positive. I’m pregnant. Penny’s going to have a little brother or sister,” I whispered.

“Pregnant,” Beckett said.

He grabbed the burger on my lap and dumped it into the brown bag. The napkin followed. He chucked them to one side, then dragged me into his lap and sat me there. He peppered my face in kisses—my cheeks, my lips, either eyebrow and eye. “Fuck, you’re amazing. You’re amazing.”

“Beckett,” I said and giggled.

He tickled my sides, and I squealed a laugh instead.

“Beckett, wait. Aren’t you mad? I mean, I was on the pill. This is kind of a surprise.”

“The best surprise in the world. We’re going to have a baby. We’re going to have a four-person family. You know what we could do with that?”

“No?”

“I dunno, start a band?” He laughed hysterically and tickled me some more, his fingers chasing up and down my sides, over the cotton of my summery dress.

“Quit it. You’re gonna make me pee,” I shrieked.

He let out a bellow of a laugh, then cut off. “Shit, is it bad for me to tickle you while you’re pregnant? How far along are you?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I’m like three weeks late. I’ll have to go see my doctor and talk to him about this.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said and stood, lifting me effortlessly as he always did.

He carried me toward the Audi, holding me like I was the baby.

“We can’t go to the doctor now,” I said. “We have to make an appointment. And we’ve got to fetch Penny soon.”

“I’m just so psyched. I can’t believe this, Olivia. A baby. Our baby. A family of four. Penny’s finally going to have someone to play with, other than those kids at her kindergarten.”

“Someone to play with and to fight with.” I wriggled my eyebrows. “I had siblings, remember.”

“How could I forget?” he said, softly, then glanced up at our house. “We’ve still got some time to kill, Mrs. Price. How about you and I go upstairs and take advantage of it.”

“Now?”

“Yes,” he replied, then carried me up the stairs, and across the porch, into the house and to our bedroom on the second floor, complete with a four poster and white sheets. “Now, and forever.”

And then he laid me down and stripped me naked. Stripped me of all that I’d been and showed me all that I ever would be.

This man who had changed my life. Who had broken me and reformed me.

The man who was my home and who had given me a family in so many ways.

If ever there was any doubt about how much I adored him and how much he cared for me, all we’d have to do was count the stars in the night sky and smell our cosmic dust.

But there never was any doubt.

And there never would be.