Inside the private room, we’re the first to arrive. There’s a bar set up at one end and a bartender, organizing the bottles.
“Champagne?” Jack asks me.
“What are we celebrating?”
Jack grins, that boyish, hopeful grin that makes me so happy. “What aren’t we celebrating?”
The bartender fixes us our drinks, but before I can take a sip, Jack produces an iPad. “I have something for you.”
I narrow my eyes. “An iPad?”
Jack chuckles. “Sure, you can keep the iPad, but let’s play the video on it.”
He stands it up and presses start and the screen comes to life. It’s a video of the road outside of Wilde’s Farm. The camera sweeps down and it’s as if a car is driving along the road with Wilde’s Farm on the left.
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I saw you here, outside the farm when I arrived in Star Falls after losing you in New York. I didn’t realize it was you at the time. You were standing by the fence.”
I reach up and stroke the side of his head and we both turn back to the screen. Is this going to be some kind of sentimental film of our history that he’s had made?
The camera passes the farm and then turns right, down a driveway that I know for sure doesn’t exist. “What’s this?” The driveway is flanked by beautiful iris plants that lead up to a huge, two-story, stone-and-timber house. Or hotel maybe. It’s huge.
I glance at Jack, wanting to understand what I’m looking at, but he’s just staring at the screen, smiling. “Look,” he urges me.
The camera is giving a bird’s-eye view of the house, a pool behind it, and what looks like an ornamental pond, overlooked by various balconies and terraces at the back of the house. Then the camera sweeps down into the drive and it’s as if a person enters the building. Inside is a huge entryway with thirty-foot ceilings and a stone fireplace.
“What is happening?” I ask. “What is this place?”
“It’s just a suggestion of what we can build there. Obviously we can change whatever we like, but the land is ours.”
“The land?”
“I bought the land opposite Wilde’s Farm. I thought it would be a perfect place to build our home in Star Falls.”
My heart soars in my chest. “You bought land—why didn’t you tell me?”
“I probably should have. I just wanted to surprise you. Plus I didn’t want you to tell me all the reasons we didn’t need somuch. If I could buy the entire goddamn town, I would. I have so much to be thankful to Star Falls for.”
“Star Falls doesn’t need you to buy it. You just need to believe in its magic.”
“Oh, I do already.” He grins at me. “So, you like it?” He lifts his chin at the iPad. “We can build whatever you want to build on there. I just wanted to get something together that looked like a home?—”
“A mansion,” I correct him.
He shrugs. “I know we’ll also have a place in New York, but this is the place we’re going to have everyone stay. Our kids are going to grow up here. We need the space. And then, if your father needs to move in later on—there’s a guest cottage in these plans. I don’t know if Bray will want to take over your family home one day. If he does, there’s room for your dad to stay with us.”
Jack has thought of everything and everyone. He’s the most generous, thoughtful man I know. New York was lucky to have him as long as she did.
He’s mine now.
I wrap my arms around his neck and lift myself up on tiptoes, pressing my lips to his, just as the doors to the dining room fly open and voices crash in, disturbing our moment. But they’re more than welcome.
“I’m Sophia.” A beautiful woman pulls me into a hug before Jack can start the introductions. “I’m Worth’s wife. I’m so happy to meet you. I just knew Jack would fall hard when he found the right woman. Someone to make him believe in love.”
My heart aches a little for the Jack before me. And for the me before Jack. We were both lost before we found each other. Together we’re the best versions of ourselves. We’re stronger. Happier. Better in every way.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” I say. “And Worth. And all of you.”
“I’m Jules.” Another woman pulls me in for a hug. Then Juniper and Rosey and someone else who must have been Efa.
