Epilogue

Ten months later

 

“Happy birthday to you…” I sang, trying to keep the candle from going out that was in the cupcake I bought at one of the best bakeries around. I stepped farther into the dimly lit one-bedroom where we had recently moved. The glow of the early morning summer sun seeped through the curtains. The place was small, but it was all we needed, and having a bedroom separate from my living room felt lavish to me.

Hunter groaned and rotated onto his side, stuffing the pillow over his head. He had been out late pre-celebrating his twenty-first birthday with his coworkers from the shop. Today, we both had the day off, knowing this date would forever be hard for Hunter. Colton was always there, and instead of pushing against his presence, we welcomed it and found comfort in the memories of him, knowing he’d always be part of our lives.

Our life together.

“Come on, birthday boy.”

He rolled onto his back, peeking out from the pillow before hiding underneath it again.

“Don’t you want to make a wish?” I teased, crawling onto the bed, my legs straddled his hips, his naked body moving deliciously under the sheet. My fingers gripped the plate, and my hips moved just enough to elicit a deep growl from him.

He flipped the pillow to the side, his blue eyes razor sharp with heat; any sign of sleepiness evaporated.

“I got everything I want.” His hands went to my hips, rubbing over my underwear and thin T-shirt of his I wore to bed.

“You sure?” I curved an eyebrow.

“My sexy, barely dressed girlfriend straddling me while holding a delicious cupcake?” His teeth nipped at his bottom lip. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Make a wish anyway or I’ll start singing again.” The wax from the flame dripped down the candle.

“Shit. I better come up with something then.” He grinned, shifting himself to sit up, holding me firmer to him.

“Funny.” No one in my family had a good singing voice, and it became a joke to torment each other on birthdays with who could sing the worst. Now that he was part of our family, I had no doubt Mom would call and get Reece to sing later today.

The relationship between my dad and Hunter was shifting. Slowly. But last time they visited, Dad spent a whole day at the shop with Hunter, hanging out and watching him work. I could see respect and maybe friendship building between them. Mom didn’t need any more time. by last Christmas she had fully accepted Hunter into our family, buying him Christmas presents and forcing him to be part of the family picture we took each year holding our stockings. This rattled him, because as rich as they were growing up, his parents never spent the holidays with them, leaving their sons in a cold, empty house. Nor did they get them things that were meaningful. My family was small and not well off, but we filled the house with love. And a lot of food.

Julia came for the holiday to be with Hunter and Cody. My mother wouldn’t hear of Christmas in a hotel and invited everyone over, including Cody and Krista, who had a baby girl, Emlyn, a few weeks later.

Hunter draped an arm around me while we watched Cody and Reece tear into their presents, giggling and making a mess. It was probably the best Christmas I’d ever had.

Now Hunter’s gaze stayed on me as he leaned over and blew out his candle. He grabbed the plate from me and set it on the nightstand.

“Don’t you want your cupcake?”

He rumbled, tossing me on my back, moving over me, settling between my thighs. “I’m about to eat something even sweeter.” He curved his hips into me as his mouth trailed up my neck, shooting fireworks over my skin. I arched my back with a gasp.

Our schedules were crazy between school, the museum, and his job. I bragged to everyone who would listen that in only nine months he had become the most sought-after artist and designer at the shop. His dragon and bird designs had become so popular a TV network had contacted him, and they were now in the final contracts to do a TV reality show about their shop. Having “The Haze” designing and making bikes for both personal use and supercross had the network drooling to get started. I was proud of him, and his work had brought Rebel Custom Shop so much publicity and clients, the owners Jack and Jon, who were brothers, had offered Hunter a partnership. He would become part owner next month.

But no matter how long our days were or how busy we were, we always found time for us. We still couldn’t get enough of each other. Our desire for each other didn’t lessen over time, only becoming more passionate. Our connection had always been strong, but now that we were together with no obstacles between us, our feelings only intensified.

It reminded me of when I was in Italy and Colleen told me about meeting her husband.

“When we met I was happy with my life, who I was. We met and it was magic, like both our paths had been leading to each other, waiting for us to work out all our problems so we were both ready to really be in a relationship. To let love in. He wasn’t the reason I was happy, but he added to it.”

Hunter and I had worked through our stuff, and our paths always led back to each other.

I talked to Colleen quite often, and she told me Sammie had come back to visit Florence, met one of Colleen’s husband’s friends, and fallen in love. Now they lived in Florence, and she worked as an English tutor, which made me stupidly happy.

Hunter tugged my T-shirt over my head, his mouth finding my breast. “Oh god…” I groaned, my nails digging into his hair.

“So far, my birthday wish is coming true.” His hands slide along my sides. “Except, in my birthday fantasy, you didn’t have these on.”

The fabric slid down my legs, my heart beating with desperation, when a loud ring trilled in the air, his phone buzzing on the nightstand.

“Shit,” he grumbled, biting at my neck. “Forgot to turn it off last night. Ignore it.” He kissed me, breathing me in as his lips devoured mine.

“You better get it, birthday boy.” I pulled back, gripping the sides of his face. I wanted nothing more than to continue and ignore the whole world.

Hunter muttered crankily under his breath, then sat back and grabbed his cell.

“Jones. The fact you can cockblock me from another state is a serious talent, asshole.” His eyes stayed on me his free hand skating up and down my bare skin along my sternum.

“Hey, Jones!” I yelled at the phone.

Hunter shook his head, responding to whatever Jones said. “I’m not going to play telephone between you two. I’m putting you on speaker.” Hunter stabbed at a button, tossing the cell on the bed next to me.

“Hey, Jayme. I see birthday boy is being even more of a bastard this morning,” Jones’s voice rang out.

“Call back in an hour; I promise I will be in a much better mood.” Hunter’s empty hands found their way back to me, his mouth nipping at my shoulder.

“Hour my ass.” Jones snorted, his humor dying off. “When are you guys coming down? You know the baptism for Emlyn was moved up to this afternoon.”

Emlyn was a pretty little blue-eyed blonde girl, taking after both her mother and father, but extremely tiny for a six-month-old, I thought. She was a fussy eater, and when she did eat it was very little. She slept a lot more than I remember Reece did at that age, but Krista kept saying all babies were different.

“When did that happen?” Hunter stared at the phone like Jones would pop out of it. “We saw you guys a few weeks ago at Cody’s birthday and no one mentioned it.”

Hunter and I went for a quick weekend for Cody’s birthday, which was a blur because we couldn’t miss work, but we wouldn’t have skipped him turning three for the world. I had become very attached to him over the past months. Last time we saw him he even called me auntie, which made Krista twitch, but she didn’t say anything.

“Weeks ago. Did you miss the group email?”

“Guess so.” Hunter frowned as I tugged back on my T-shirt, his head shaking in veto to my act.

“You’re lucky.” Jones tapered off. “Jason’s called me about ten times already about the party after.”

The thought of Jason McKee being a daddy still boggled my mind. He had been around since the baby was born, which sadly surprised me. I had no idea what was going on, if anything was between him and Krista, but against his parents’ ultimatum, he seemed to want to step up and claim his daughter.

Unlike Colton.

“Krista must be in her control-freak mode,” Hunter said, but his attention was back on my figure, his hands running over my stomach to my breasts, forcing me to take a deep breath.

“Oh yeah.” Jones chuckled, all of them knowing Krista’s domineering personality. “Megan and I are hanging with Cody while they get everything ready, but he’s been asking when Uncle Hunter and Auntie Jay-Jay are coming.”

The mention of Cody tipped Hunter back on his heels with accession.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Okay,” Jones replied, but an odd paused followed.

“What?” Hunter picked up on it, knowing his friend so well.

“It’s Chris.” Jones sighed. “I don’t know, man. Something is up with him. He’s acting weirder than normal. Hasn’t hung out with us in weeks. Keeps saying he’s busy or not feeling up to it. Really quiet and short-tempered. Kind of like you, but that’s not normal for Chris. Maybe you can talk to him when you get here.”

That wasn’t normal. Chris was the happiest, most easygoing guy besides Dougie.

“Yeah. I will.” Hunter’s feet hit the wood floor, strolling to the dresser and grabbing a shirt from the drawer. “Jayme and I need to finish packing and hit the road.”

“Okay, man, see you later.” Jones said. “Oh, and happy birthday!”

Hunter snorted as the line clicked off.

We changed quickly, tossing last-minute stuff into our bags. The museum allowed us two vacations a year. We decided to use this one and visit home briefly before taking a trip to the Smoky Mountains on our way back before things got crazy at the shop. Whenever we could, we explored and took weekend trips to different places. Returning to Europe was always in my mind. I wanted to share that world, those experiences with Hunter sometime soon, though Stevie demanded I bring her as well this time. She swore she’d now been through most of New York’s singles and wanted to try the international “cuisine.”

Stevie had finally graduated from the art school this past month with even less of an idea of what she wanted to do. She was still working in a record store and was in a grunge-rocker-girl stage. Still, she came down a lot on weekends to hang out with us.

I sensed something going on with her, a restlessness I had never seen before, a darkness she wouldn’t talk about, which hurt. Stevie wasn’t the type to divulge her deepest secrets to anybody, but I wasn’t anybody. I was her best friend. I hoped one day she would let me in past the “fun, good-time” girl.

“Hunter?” I strolled back into the bedroom, seeing if he were ready to go. Hunter stood at the dresser, staring at a framed picture. I knew the picture well. I slid my arms around his waist, leaning my head against his shoulder, studying the image.

It was one of Colton and Hunter in their preteens, their arms draped over each other, smiling like nothing in the world could touch them.

“That was taken on our eleventh birthday,” he said softly. “The guy was such an asshole sometimes, but I miss him so damn much.”

“Of course you do. He was your brother. No matter what, you guys had a connection no one could ever understand.”

“I want to believe he would’ve been a good father to Cody, but sadly, I doubt it.” He rubbed his face. “I hate that Cody has to grow up never knowing him. But then there is another part that wonders if he’s better off. Colton might have fucked him up much worse. I know what it’s like for a father to not want you.”

All I could do was squeeze him tighter.

“I’ve never cared about my birthday. Colton loved it… but since his death, I detest this day.” His hands clung to mine, lacing our fingers. “Having a reason to celebrate for Emlyn today feels right though. A fresh start, like this day can be something positive again.” He twisted around to face me, his fingers sliding along my jaw. He stared at me for several moments, his gaze devouring me in a gulp. “You know at Cody’s birthday last week, I realized more than one amazing thing came from that day. It was the same night I was on a date with my brother’s girlfriend.” He tipped his head into mine. “Trying not to fall in love with her.”

The sheer luck of Cody deciding to come the night of my anniversary with Colton of all nights spoke of fate. I was always supposed to love Hunter.

“I should have known the moment you let me eat pizza in the back of the car it was you.” I glided my thumb over his lip. “And the moment you kissed me… It was always you.”

Hunter’s frame pressed into mine, walking me back to the bed.

“Don’t we need to go?”

“We will. I never got to finish my birthday wish,” he muttered against my mouth, his voice gravelly with need. “And I was thinking we never got to finish what we started on our first date.” He grabbed the hem of the sundress I put on moments earlier, ripping it off me. “I wanted nothing more than to fuck you then.”

“You turned me down.” I tugged at his jeans. “Such a gentleman.”

“Won’t ever make that mistake again.” He shoved down his jeans and pushed me back on the bed. My breath caught at the feel of him sliding against me.

I wrapped my legs around him as I cupped his face. “When I told you I loved you that night, I meant it.”

“So did I.” He grinned before his mouth crashed into mine. The whole world disappeared as our bodies moved together.

Whatever was in front of us could never breach the strong walls we’d built from our past. We had been shattered and broken. Marked with deep scars. Except, now I realized those scars were like tattoos, only telling a piece of our story.

So much was left of our story to tell, more wounds along the way inking their bits of our tale.

All I cared about was him being by my side and together we would continue to shed our feathers and soar into the sky.