Epilogue

1 Year Later

Linny

“I think our spaghetti gets better every week.” I push my plate back. “I ate it all.”

Zach looks over at where I’m sitting. “I still ate more than you, Linz.”

He’s grown at least four inches since I met him a year ago and his voice has deepened. He’s not a child anymore. He’s a young man with his sights set on becoming a doctor.

I know he’ll do it.

I look at Jeremy. He’s sitting next to me. He’s nervous. His bare foot is tapping on the floor. I reach over and squeeze his hand to soothe him.

“Give me a few more months and I’ll eat more than all of you combined.” I chuckle.

Athena’s head pops up. Breccans’s too.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Zach fires back. “You’ve been living here for six months now, and you eat less than any of us.”

“I can’t include Athena in that,” he goes on, pointing at his sister. “She’s at school most of the time.”

She is. She’ll graduate in just a year with a business degree and a bonus certificate. She’s been spending her evenings and Saturdays studying floral design.

Jeremy and Rocco are both eager to invest in her first venture. She’s going to open a flower shop that serves specialty coffee and tea. She’ll offer floral design courses as well.

My firm, Lincoln Dawn Communications, will handle the marketing.

I’ve spent the past year building my business from an office in Chelsea with Hal as my second-in-command. I had a boost after the Rizon vanilla vodka launch party. I picked up two new clients. Jeremy sent them my way when they asked him who handled the marketing campaign.

I’m still doing work for Whispers of Grace and Rizon when they need it.

“Linny, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Athena jumps to her feet. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Breccan looks at her. “I don’t get it.”

His entire world is football at the moment. He’s got a difficult choice to make and regardless of what it is, he’ll be moving when it’s time for him to start college.

He’s been offered full scholarships at several of the best schools in the country.

Jeremy clears his throat. I look over at him.

Since he told his siblings about our engagement three months ago, we decided that I’d be the one to tell them about this.

About our baby.

“We’re having a baby,” I say as I stare at the man that I love.

Zach jumps to his feet. “A baby? Are you serious? We’re having a baby?”

“No shit?” Tears well in Breccan’s eyes. “We’re really going to have a baby?”

I slide to my feet when Athena rushes toward me. I hug her tightly.

Zach is next, and then Breccan.

I savor each embrace before I feel Jeremy’s arms circle me from behind.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” Zach asks. “Do you know?”

“It’s a girl.” Jeremy’s voice cracks. “It’s going to be a beautiful little girl.”

“What will her name be?” Athena moves to stand next to us, her eyes dropping to the front of my gray sweatshirt. “That’s why you’ve been wearing baggy clothes, isn’t it?”

I nod. “We wanted to be sure everything was okay before we said a word.”

That was important to us both after Harmony suffered a miscarriage six months ago. She had been overjoyed at the prospect of having another baby. I was with her at Crispy Biscuit when she started bleeding. I rushed with her in a taxi to the hospital, but there was nothing that could be done.

I held her as she cried in the ER until Reuben got there.

I haven’t told her about my pregnancy yet. I haven’t told my dad either.

I will when I see him next week before he leaves for Florida.

We’ve worked hard to build a new relationship that’s based on respect and love.

It’s a step-by-step process, but we’re determined to make it work.

He wants me to forge a bond with Mitchell, but I’m not ready for that. I may never be.

“We’re going to name her Cassidy,” I say quietly. “In honor of Jeremy’s mom.”

A week after I met Jeremy’s siblings, he told me about his mom.

She had passed away a month before his eighteenth birthday.

Layan Cassidy had been a remarkable woman who loved her son fiercely. She’d raised him with dignity and compassion after her husband cheated on her with the woman who would eventually become his second wife. It never made her bitter. She only drew strength from it, teaching her son about loyalty and love.

“That’s beautiful.” Athena reaches for Jeremy’s hand. “I think it’s the perfect choice, Jer.”

“Me too.” He kisses the top of her hand.

“Did you tell Blythe?” Breccan laughs. “She stopped by yesterday with that big basket of fruit and told us not to eat it. She said it was for Linny.”

We all look toward the large wicker basket in the middle of the dining room table that’s filled with apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and a pineapple.

“For fuck’s sake.” Jeremy fishes his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans. ‘She must have been reading my emails again. Linny’s been sending me nursery design ideas.”

“I want in on that.” Athena smiles. “We can fill it with fresh flowers every day.”

“Wedding plans first.” Jeremy laughs. “Nursery plans second.”

“You’re getting married before the baby comes?” Zach steps back. “You don’t have a lot of time.”

We don’t, but we’ll make it work.

Bethy is headed back to New York in a week and my mom told me she wouldn’t miss my wedding for the world. I want both her and my dad to walk me down the aisle so I can wed the man I adore before our daughter arrives.

“Let’s get out the calendar and find a day that works.” Breccan skims his finger across his phone. “I’m obviously the best man.”

“We’re doing dual best men.” Jeremy points at Breccan and Zach. “I want you both right there beside me. That works, right?”

Their smiles say it all.

I turn to Athena, swallowing back the rush of emotion I feel.

“I know you’ll want your sister to be your maid-of-honor.” She tucks a lock of my hair back behind my ear. “I can design the flowers, Linny. I promise I’ll make you the most breathtaking bouquet.”

“Make one for you too.”

Her eyes scan my face. “Why?”

“I want you to be my maid-of-honor.”

“You do?”

I reach for her hand before I turn to face Jeremy, Breccan and Zach. “You are my family. All of you. We’re in this together, for better or for worse, right?”

“It’s the five of us against the world.” Zach raises his arm in the air.

Jeremy’s hand falls to my belly. “Six. It’s the six of us against the world.”

I reach up to cup his cheek with my hand. “I love our life.”

“I love you, angel.”

“We all love each other.” Zach laughs. “We’ll handle the dishes tonight.“

Jeremy and I watch as his siblings disappear into the kitchen.

“We’re really lucky.” I look up at him. “How did we get this lucky?”

“You put on a tutu and tiara and stole my heart away.” His fingers brush my chin.

“I still have that tutu.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He pulls me closer. “Tell me you’re serious, angel.”

“It wouldn’t fit me now.” I look down. “I’m a little thick around the middle.”

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.” His hand moves to my neck. “Let’s skip the movie and you can model the tutu and tiara for me.”

“We could skip the fashion show and take a bath. It has to be a warm bath, not too hot.”

Lowering his voice, he tugs me toward the staircase. “Or we could skip the bath and I’ll take you straight to bed and fuck you.”

“Deal.” I pop up to my bare tiptoes and kiss his mouth. “Will you always want me this much, West?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’ll want you more tomorrow, and even more next year. By the time we’re eighty, we’ll never leave our bed.”

I throw my head back in laughter. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“You better, angel. You’re mine for life and nothing is going to change that.”