Epilogue
Six Months Later
Jacey
“Blow out your candle, Emma!”
My niece gazed around the table from her seat in the high chair, her eyes serious and quizzical. In front of her, a single birthday candle flickered on the small white cake. As we all watched in anticipation, Emma reached out one chubby hand to grab a fistful of icing.
“Nice move, princess.” My brother leaned over the back of the high chair and blew out the candle for her. “Look at how smart my daughter is. She goes for the good stuff.”
“She loves her sweets.” Leah bent down to kiss her daughter’s cheek. Emma clapped her hands together, sending the frosting flying and making all of us laugh.
“I can’t believe she’s a year old.” Samantha picked up a paper napkin decorated with pink flowers and wiped her cheek, where some of the icing had landed. “It doesn’t seem that long ago we were setting up your wedding, Leah.”
“I know.” My sister-in-law leaned into her husband’s side and kissed his cheek. “The happiest day of my life.”
Kade wrapped his arm around her waist. “It was the day my life began.”
“Awwww . . .” Max grinned, wagging his head. “Look at you, still all romantic and shit.”
“Language,” his wife reprimanded. “Must I remind you of last week when we were babysitting and Emma went home saying damn, damn, damn?”
Max winced. “Hey, no one can prove she picked that up from me. How do we know Kade and Leah aren’t letting her watch documentaries on beavers?”
A groan rippled through the crowd. “Seriously, Max. I think this is one of those times when you just have to admit defeat.”
Next to me, with his arm slung around my shoulder, Owen added, “Back at the academy, we’d recommend you use the phrase, No excuse, sir.”
“And on that note, who wants ice cream?” Leah lifted a scoop.
“I’ll cut the cake,” volunteered Harper. She picked up the knife, and I smiled at the sight of the diamond sparkling on her left hand. She and Jake had gotten engaged last month.
Once we’d all been served cake and ice cream, the room was quiet as we enjoyed the dessert. Emma, tired of playing with the frosting and freed from her high chair, toddled around the room, examining her birthday gifts and more importantly, the boxes they’d come in.
“Guess we all better get used to boxes.” Delia licked her fork. “We got the scheduled date for the movers today. Fort Carson, here we come.”
“I don’t want to think about it.” Tasha sighed. “I can’t believe you’re all going to be PCS’ing over the next three months. You’re my best friends. What am I going to do without you guys while I’m still stuck here?”
Next to her, Derek coughed, and I saw the unhappiness on his face. In about six weeks, he was leaving Fort Lee to attend a six-month long course in Fort Bliss, Texas before he PCS’d to another post. Tasha had to finish her residency in physical therapy here in Virginia, so the two were facing a long and potentially difficult separation. We all felt their pain. I couldn’t imagine leaving Owen now that we’d found each other. I was fortunate that the career I’d chosen in freelance photography lent itself to the frequent moves that would be part of my life as a military spouse.
“Everything’s about to change, isn’t it?” Harper glanced around, her eyes resting on each of us for a moment. “It sucks.”
“It’s life in the Army,” Tasha answered. “We make friends, we enjoy our time with them, and then we leave them. We move to a new duty station, and we make new friends.”
“But we never forget the ones we leave behind.” Delia reached over to squeeze Harper’s hand. “And our paths will cross again.”
“Maybe.” Shaw sipped his coffee. “But the likelihood that we’ll all be stationed at the same place, at the same time again is pretty slim. Some of us might retire. This is probably one of the last nights we’ll all be together.”
“Way to bring down the room, dude.” Owen rubbed my back. “I thought this was Emma’s big bash, not our hail and farewell.”
“It is.” Samantha stood up. “We’re here to celebrate, and we have a lot to be thankful for. I know we’re all moving, and I know it’s going to be hard to leave each other, but over the last year or so, we’ve all found so much . . . joy.” She smiled, although I caught the gleam of tears in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter where we end up. We won’t lose touch.”
“This feels like the final graduation scene in Grease.” Shaw balled up his napkin and threw it at Derek. “Who’s going to volunteer to ride the bitchin’ car off into the sunset?”
Everyone laughed, and the sadness in the room seemed to ease a little. Next to me, Owen nuzzled my neck.
“Hey.” He whispered against my skin. “I saw a bottle of wine on the counter over there. Do you think anyone would notice if we stole it and snuck outside?”
I smiled, turning in his arms to look up into his face. “Hmm. I don’t know. The last time I did that, I ended up falling in love with the guy who shared my bottle with me.”
“And that dude fell pretty damn hard for you, too.” He brushed the hair out of my face. “That was my best day ever.”
“I don’t know. It seems to me that every day we’re together only gets better.” I kissed his jaw.
“I’d have to agree. I’m glad I shared my hiding space with the most beautiful girl in the world.”
“It worked out pretty well for both of us, didn’t it?” I touched my finger to his lips. “I love you, Owen.”
“It’s a good thing you do, because I don’t want to take just any chick with me to my new duty station . . . which I found out today is going to be Schofield Barracks.”
“Schofield?” Excitement filled me. “Hawaii? We’re moving to Hawaii?”
“Aloha, baby. I’m taking my California girl to the land of beaches and gnarly waves.” He framed my face with his hands. “Are you cool with that?”
I turned my lips to press a kiss into his palm. “I’d go to the end of the earth with you, Owen Hughes.” Standing on my toes, I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tight as I murmured into his ear.
“But Hawaii will be the perfect place to begin our forever together.”
The End