Epilogue
Six weeks later . . .
“Here, let me do it,” Cy said with exasperation.
“Cy!” Gemma chided as Reagan’s father snatched the veil from his wife’s hands.
“I designed it. I know how to put it on,” her father explained as Reagan simply kept her eyes glued to the full-length mirror and refused to look over at her sister, the matron of honor, who was practically crying with laughter.
Her father, bless his heart, was a father-of-the-bridezilla. He’d overseen the decorations, the food setup, her makeup, and now her veil placement. But Reagan had to admit the dress he’d designed with Sydney was absolutely stunning.
The white satin dress had a band that ran from off her shoulders to straight across her neckline. The bodice was fitted and the full skirt gathered at the waist before cascading down to the floor. There were no big flowers, no sparkling designs; it was breathtaking in its simplicity.
“There,” her father said as he fluffed the veil trimmed in white satin.
“Thank you, Dad.” Reagan squeezed her father’s hand as Riley and her mom stepped up next to her.
“You look beautiful,” her mother said as tears shone in her eyes.
“Are you ready to get married . . . again?” Riley asked, pretending to sound mad. Riley hadn’t let her forget she’d gotten married with their brothers in attendance and not her.
“I am,” Reagan said, taking a deep breath. She’d felt married before, but there was something about standing in a white dress with all your friends and family surrounding you to celebrate that made it seem like the first time.
“Let’s get this show on the road. I took a peek in the kitchen and saw the wedding cake. I need a slice of that wedding cake,” Riley joked.
“Then we better get married pronto!” Reagan teased her sister as her mother and Riley gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried from the room.
Her father held out his arm and Reagan placed her hand in the crook of his elbow. “I thought it would get easier the second time, but this one’s harder.”
“I love you, Dad,” Reagan told him as she leaned her head against his shoulder. The music began to play, the doors opened, and Reagan saw her past, present, and future waiting for her at the end of the petal-lined aisle.
“That was beautiful,” Gemma sighed as she kicked off her shoes under the round linen-clad dinner table and watched couples dancing the night away. The reception room’s walls were made with hundred-year-old wood that had recently been sanded and polished to a shine. Large rustic chandeliers made of wrought iron hung from the ceiling. Historic pictures of Barrel Creek and blueprints of the distillery hung on the walls. The warm glow of the lights and lush honey-colored wood walls made the room appear magical. It was if they stepped back in time.
“That Cady Woodson is so sweet. She’s done a remarkable job with the place already. It really was a stunning ceremony, Gemma,” Dani sighed as she took a seat next to Gemma.
“It was,” Tammy said, rubbing her pregnant belly. “I do believe I’ll be in this chair for the rest of the night, though. I feel as if I’m about to burst.”
“Both you and Sienna look as if you could go into labor at any minute,” Morgan, Gemma’s sister-in-law, said looking between Tammy and Sienna Ashton Parker as she danced with her husband, Ryan.
“Not tonight,” Tammy said before her brows knit. “Where are Reagan and Carter?”
“They disappeared again,” Kenna answered with a smirk. “I can’t believe you didn’t notice that before.”
Gemma gasped and slapped her hand on the table. “You knew?”
Kenna looked smug as she nodded. “Of course I knew. They slipped out of every event for a short while—sometimes a longer while. And that could only mean one thing.”
“Do you . . . no, it couldn’t be them, right?” Gemma asked as she nibbled on her lower lip.
“You need to be a little more clear, “ Annie said dryly.
Gemma leaned forward and dropped her voice. “Could they be the panty droppers?”
Katelyn’s eyes widened and Kenna looked as horrified as Gemma felt.
“I always thought it was Gabe,” Dani said about her son.
Annie laughed. “I thought it was you,” she said to Dani who blushed.
“It’s got to be Nikki,” Paige said with certainty.
“Does Nikki even wear underwear?” Tammy asked as the table broke into laughter. “But seriously, I know who it’s not. Look at my daughter.”
Gemma looked to the dance floor as Cassidy, beautiful with her long blonde curls, danced with several of Colton’s firefighters-in-training. “I can’t believe she’s twenty-one.”
“Not Cassidy. Piper. Look at her. It’s as if the weight of the world is on her shoulders. Bless her heart, she needs the panty dropper.”
“Tammy!” Katelyn gasped as she gently swatted her sister-in-law.
“That’s that then,” Dani said with finality. “Piper is the next name in the notebook.”
“Maybe she can meet one of the men coming to the Keeneston Training Center in a couple of months,” Bridget suggested.
“Oh, what about Luke Tanner from Moonshine,” Kenna suggested as the table turned to look as the deputy held out his hand and asked Dr. Ava to dance.
“Oh,” they all said with disappointment.
“Or the firefighters. Firefighters are hot,” Annie said, nodding to a couple of them standing near Piper.
“They’re a little young, right?” Tammy asked.
“No, we’re getting that old,” Morgan teased.
“Well, her name is in the book. Fate has been sealed. Piper will find love if she wants it or not,” Dani decreed as she closed her notebook and held up her champagne glass. “To Carter and Reagan and another job well done.”
Miss Lily shook her head at her sisters. “They don’t have a clue about what they’re doing.”
“Bless their hearts,” Miss Daisy and Miss Violet said together as they shook their heads at the table of mothers.
“Thank goodness they have us. After all, who provided cover for Carter and Reagan sneaking around?” Miss Daisy said, taking a sip of the special iced tea she’d smuggled into the reception.
“Remember that time we had to distract Cy for thirty minutes at Gabe’s wedding?” Miss Violet asked.
“As I recall, you simply smothered him in your breasts, Vi,” Miss Lily said with a roll of her eyes.
“It was worth the dirty look from my husband. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make so those two young lovebirds could get their relationship moving along.”
The three women looked over at their husbands and smiled innocently. They knew better by now. Now when the guys saw their wives give them that look, they knew trouble was going to follow. Smart men.
“While our sweet friends fumble about trying to find someone for Piper, I think there’s someone else who needs our help,” Miss Lily said as her sisters followed her gaze.
“Ah, yes. They’ve had long enough,” Miss Violet agreed.
“What are you ladies plotting?” John Wolfe asked, placing a light kiss on his wife’s cheek.
“Plotting? Us?” Miss Lily answered. John snorted in disbelief at her innocent look.
“How about a dance?” Anton asked, holding out his hand to his wife.
“I’d love to, dear,” Miss Violet answered, placing her hand in his. They weren’t up to busting a rug anymore, but the three married couples stood swaying by the table as they soaked up the love that surrounded them.
Reagan slipped her hand into her husband’s as they talked to her cousins from South Carolina. Her family may have had a rift before, but it was now fully mended. All of her cousins came to her wedding, and right now were even talking to Colton about helping build the fire station and FEMA office.
“Carter? Rea? Can I steal you away for a moment?” Sydney asked.
“Of course you can. It was good catching up,” their cousin Gavin Faulkner said with a smile. “Enjoy your honeymoon.”
“And I’ll be back. I want to talk to y’all too,” Sydney happily said to their new family. “But first I have a wedding gift I want to give you. Now, it’s not all the way ready, but by the time you get back from your honeymoon it will be.”
They walked through the crowd and Sydney waved Ahmed over. “Can you help me give them their wedding present?” Sydney asked.
“Of course,” Ahmed said solemnly as he followed them out back and over to Sydney’s car. Deacon opened the door and reached inside.
Reagan gasped when he turned around. Sydney’s smile grew as she plucked the little puppy from Deacon’s hand and handed him over to Reagan and Carter. “Syd, you’re giving us a Robyn puppy?” Reagan asked as she was already nuzzling the pudgy puppy with loose skin and the best puppy smell. It wasn’t just any puppy. It was the one puppy that always snuggled Reagan and Carter when they came to visit.
“Yes. You’ve spoiled Robyn like crazy since she helped you, and I thought it would be fitting for you to have one of her puppies. It was actually Carter’s idea.”
Reagan looked to her husband as he winked at Sydney and Deacon. “Thank you all!” Reagan cuddled the puppy against her neck as she kissed her husband and cousins. “Now he needs a name.”
“We’ll figure that out during our honeymoon,” Carter said, leaning forward to baby talk to the puppy.
“Oh, and Ahmed. I do need your help,” Sydney said, turning to Deacon. “Can you help Deacon with this?”
Deacon reached back into the car and when he turned around, he held the little runt of the litter. The little girl that might have been small in size, but she was fierce with attitude. And she’d claimed Ahmed as hers from the moment she was born. The little puppy squirmed in Deacon’s hands as the small, baby-pink collar flashed in the lantern lights surrounding the distillery.
“What is the little demon doing here?” Ahmed asked as the puppy struggled to get out of Deacon’s hold and over to Ahmed.
“She wants to see her daddy,” Sydney said. When Ahmed quickly looked up to her, she nodded and Ahmed rushed forward.
The puppy leapt into his arms and Reagan turned to see Bridget smiling with tears of joy building in her eyes. It was well known that Ahmed hadn’t had a dog of his own in more than ten years. But he’d been with these puppies every day. And this one in particular showed the most talent as a military dog and absolutely loved Ahmed. Reagan, and everyone else, had assumed that was the dog going someplace they’d never know about to do dangerous things for the good of the country.
“What are you going to name your new puppy? Lilith, since you call her demon?” Bridget asked her husband as Reagan and Carter snuggled their little boy.
The little puppy was licking Ahmed’s face before grabbing his tie and shaking it with a playful little growl. Ahmed shook his head. “Nemesis, the goddess of retribution.” Ahmed’s voice pitched as he kissed his puppy. “You’re going to get all the bad guys, aren’t you, Nemi?”
Nemi shook her head with his tie still in her mouth and growled in response. “That’s right, my little Spawn gave me an angel.”
“Your little ones will be ready to go home in two weeks,” Sydney told them as Reagan reluctantly handed back their little puppy.
Ahmed placed Nemi in her crate and Deacon left to quickly drive them back home. Bridget, Ahmed, and Sydney went back inside, giving Reagan and Carter a moment alone.
“It’s nice to have a moment alone together. When you married me in the back of the SUV, you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But tonight, you take my breath away. I love you.” Carter trailed his hands down her arms as he leaned in to kiss her.
Reagan sighed into the kiss as she leaned against him. Carter’s arms came around her back as his tongue stroked and his lips caressed. Kissing Carter every day for the rest of her life was something she was very much looking forward to.
“The dress is too beautiful to bunch up and get dirty outside like old times.” Carter chuckled as he trailed a line of kisses down her throat.
“I figured, but I finally learned my lesson.”
“And what lesson is that?” Carter asked.
“I’m not wearing any panties for you to pick up,” Reagan said as she stuck her tongue out at her husband. When he reached for her, Reagan squealed and darted away with a giggle.
“I’ll make you pay for that,” Carter promised. Reagan tossed back her head and laughed as she held out her arms and spun in the golden light of the historic distillery with the gentle sound of Barrel Creek next to them. Carter slipped his arm around her waist as they walked back inside to begin their very own fairy tale.
His jaw tightened as he shoved up her dress and stripped the panties from her body, all the while never breaking their searing kiss. They were getting desperate in their time together, and he didn’t want to leave the panties behind again, so he shoved them into his jacket pocket, his pants having already been shoved down to around his ankles.
They had to stop doing this. It wasn’t right to take such risks of being caught. But one look at her swaying her hips on the dance floor, and he was a goner. It didn’t matter that they had been having these adventurous romps together for years. When she began to dance, her eyes would seek him out and as soon as they were connected he was hooked. She knew it too. She’d dance just for him. And when neither could stand the anticipation anymore, she’d duck out, leaving him to find her and they’d come together in a combustible moment of sheer desire. It didn’t even matter that they’d just been together earlier that night. He wanted her more now than he had the first time they’d been together. Every time it became something more. More hot, more passionate, more explosive.
She opened her eyes and looked at him as he began to move within her. The sounds of music wafted out to them as he pinned her against the side of the building cloaked in darkness.
“Don’t stop,” she panted as her legs squeezed tighter around his sides.
“Never,” he swore as all their plans to stop these illicit escapades fell away into the shadows of the night, right along with the panties that spilled from his pocket.
Piper laughed at her South Carolina cousins as they teased each other by telling funny stories from their childhood. Even Ryker, the serious cousin, was smiling. It was probably why Nikki was zeroing in on him. But then he turned to Addison Rooney, the new town prosecutor, and asked her to dance. She did not inherit her father’s brazen approach to romance. Addison blushed and looked nervous as Ryker took her hand in his and led her to the dance floor.
“Piper,” Cody Gray, the deputy sheriff, broke her concentration, “would you like to dance?”
Piper smiled and placed her hand in his. It had been since Walker and Layne’s wedding that she’d hung out with a man who wasn’t either a lab employee or a family member. And Cody was perfect to dance with. He could make her forget her troubles. And she certainly had trouble as one of her projects that was supposed to help people was actually something that could kill in the wrong hands. All she’d worked on for the past year was now a waste, unless she wanted to sell it to a government in order to weaponize it. Her cousin Sophie could help her with that, but Piper didn’t want to kill people. She wanted to save them. And she’d been so sure that this experiment would do that. Maybe she just needed to look at it a little differently. Another trip to Rahmi and the international nanotechnology lab she help create was called for if she couldn’t figure out a way to fix this.
Cody’s hand slipped lower down her back, but Piper was too lost in chemical compounds to notice. It wasn’t until her watch buzzed, showing she had an incoming call, that she came back to reality with Cody looking sadly down at her.
“Oh, sorry, did you say something?” Piper asked, embarrassed that the song was about to end and she hadn’t heard a single word from the deputy.
Cody smiled kindly as he stopped dancing and brought his hand up her back to a respectable grip. “I asked if you wanted to get out of here for a little privacy, but considering you didn’t hear a thing I said, I’m going to guess that’s a no.”
Piper felt her cheeks heat. “I’m so sorry, Cody. There’s this thing going on at work, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I understand. Call me anytime if you’re interested.”
“In what exactly?” Piper wondered. Cody was a nice guy. A couple years younger than she was, but that could be overlooked if he was actually asking her out on a date. He was handsome, kind, but also a bit of a player.
“Nothing serious if that’s what you mean.”
“Ah,” Piper said, getting it. If she wanted to end her one-year drought, she’d found the man to do it. She just couldn’t count on cuddling in the morning. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Cody smiled again and his eyes twinkled with a promise that it would be worth it if she took him up on the offer, but then her watch began to buzz in earnest as she looked down at the UNKNOWN CALLER flashing on her watch again.
“I’ll let you go. You know where to find me. Good night, Piper.”
“Good night, Cody,” she said, thinking seriously about his offer. She probably did need a night to let go completely. She’d forgotten what that was like. Piper hurried from the reception and out the side door as she raised her watch to answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Davies.”
“Who is this? I told you to stop calling me,” Piper said with as much steel to her voice as she could manage.
“But this time I come with an offer. An offer of purchase.”
Piper began to look around. No one knew what she was working on. “My bulletproof clothing line will be out soon.”
The man chuckled. “Not that product. The one that isn’t in your lab.”
“You’ve been in my lab?” Piper asked, her voice cracking with fear.
“I’m giving you one last civil opportunity. Take it. I’ll purchase your notes and samples for ten million dollars.”
Panic shot through her. In the wrong hands . . . “No. And never call me again.”
“A door never closes without a window opening, Dr. Davies. Goodbye. For now.”
Piper was shaking as the call disconnected. Someone had broken into her lab looking for the disaster project. Someone had been calling her every couple of months too. This someone. And then there were the anonymous notes.
Piper shivered. All she thought about was the need to be around her friends and family. She needed to feel safe. First thing in the morning, she’d have Nash and Nabi set up more security at her lab and at the Keeneston lab no one knew about except her father—the lab where her project had been relocated when she discovered its danger.
As Piper turned to shove her way back inside, she was so upset she didn’t notice the panties on the ground. Instead, her mind was made up. She either had to find a way to fix her work or destroy it for good.
The End
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