Forever, you lunk.
I can feel the brushfire on my face, slowly rising up my cheeks.
I load up my plate more than usual, if only to hide the embarrassment.
I love my fam, but we’ve never been good at being vulnerable.
Even when Ethan was spiraling, locked in a little cabin with empty bottles strewn around the floor, he wouldn’t face his feelings. Not until I gave him a serious reality check.
But now here we are.
Kane, cutting through the Blackthorn family freeze with his honesty.
Telling everyone how devoted he is, how much he loves me, without even dropping the big L-bomb.
“Okay, Gigi,” Hattie whispers in my ear as she joins me. “It’s official. You’re getting married.”
“Um,what?”
She just grins.
I glance back at my family, my parents talking with Ethan and Kane and the over-the-top breakfast Mom arranged for us. All in her ridiculously fancy living room.
Sometimes, you have to scratch the surface to find the love, especially in a dysfunctional mess like ours.
But if you look hard enough, you’ll find it.
And sometimes you’ll accept it like new skin over scar tissue.
PopPop would be proud of us today.
As Kane looks up, I smile.
All teasing aside, my bestie might be right.
If the day comes when this rock of a man pops the question and wants to make me one with the mountain, with his kids, with eternity, I can’t imagine any reason why I’d ever say no.
26
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME (KANE)
A Few Months Later
The lake house has a different vibe in the winter.
The fall was an explosion of colors and vibrance.
Now, as I drive Margot and the kids up the familiar gravel road to the front door, everything sparkles under a pure white sheet.
There’s snow everywhere, casting a thousand shades.
The lake looks iced over, the center still cracked, the water dark and still as ink splashed on a white page.
We’ve only been back once since everything went down with the Babins and Lee Glazkov. Just the two of us. Margot came up to see the property to take care of it, and I insisted on being by her side.
I wasn’t having her go alone, even with the danger neutralized.
Yes, the Babins are locked up and waiting for trial, but they tried to burn the place to cinders along with my woman.
