I laugh, “I missed you so badly I’m never traveling away from you again. Prepare to be sick of me.”
“I ran into Aiden coming out of Harper’s shop, he said you were destroyed.”
“I was. ” I admit as I ease out of her. “I was miserable,” I call over my shoulder as I go into my en suite for a washcloth. After we’ve cleaned up and found our underwear, I get into my bed and pull my wife down into me.
“I was miserable too,” she says as she nuzzles into my chest.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah and get this. I was asking the Nativity baby Jesus for a little help about whether I should fly across the ocean and try to convince you to stay married to me and guess what?” I can’t help but start laughing already, “I saw the damn mayor, Ben.”
I sit up dramatically, “You saw the man, the myth, the legend? The reindeer mayor named Bear with the one gimpy antler?” She laughs and nods, “Well then why didn’t you bloody lead with that? We’re saved. Clearly fated to be. It’s a sign from both baby Jesus and Father Christmas, we’re going to be fine.”
“Why,” she gasps between more laughs as I shift to cage around her, covering her with my weight, “why are you like this?”
“I don’t know but it’s a good thing I’m so handsome, yeah?”
She responds by leaning up to grab my face and kiss me like she believes in me and in us. Like she thinks we can make this work or she’ll damn well die trying. She kisses me like she loves me.
And I kiss her right back.
EPILOGUE ONE
JANIE
“Say what you will about weirdo billionaires and their arranged marriages, the honeymoons are legit.” Skye says to me from her lounger. Behind her I can spot the Moroccan coast.
True to his word, as soon as I solved Mellman’s missing money problem, Ben whisked me away for an extended honeymoon on his yacht. Starting from London, we’ve cruised all over Italy, Greece, parts of the Mediterranean that seem too beautiful to be real.
“Agreed,” I say.
“You sure you don’t mind us barging in for this week?”
I glare at her, “I wouldn’t have sent the invite if I didn’t want you guys here.”
“Yeah, but I hear your man is constantly making friends everywhere you dock and having parties on board, not to mention his brothers and their wives have also crashed your trip, right?”
I chuckle, “Yes on all fronts. But he can’t help that he always makes friends. I’ve been encouraging him to do things for himself because he tends to obsess over ifI’mhaving fun and ifI’mgetting what I want. Plus, he never pops in with new people without asking first.”
She agrees, “Hate the pop in.”
“So much.” I sit up a bit so I can see the boys and she does too. Ben and her husband Matt are playing around at the above deck wheel, as if we don’t have a professional captain and crewto man this thing. “Those social things are really only once every couple weeks. Most of our time is spent just lounging together or exploring Europe.”
“It’s not too much? I don’t know if I could do such a long vacation. I need my routine to keep my anxiety at bay,” Skye admits.
“Some days it is but I just tell him if I need to be alone for a day. And he’s trying too. Like he made the chef stick to our meal routine. He’s French and I’m pretty sure he said he didn’t want to serve that many burgers and soups and pizzas at sea.”
We both laugh.
“Well, that was sweet. Are you still fighting your doubts about him getting bored with you?”
“I would, except he FaceTimes me almost constantly when he’s gone and he always seems more than ready to cut a trip short to get home.”
We both settle back into our loungers. After a minute she speaks up again. “And at home, normal day-to-day life, how’s it been?”
“Great. We live mostly in Juniper Falls, surprisingly.”
“Really?”
