“Agreed. Let’s do this.”
We turn to the priest, who looks slightly exasperated by all our chatter, and just as he’s about to begin, Will whispers, “Hey, that’s quite the dress. You remind me of Sleeping Beauty…”
Epilogue
Mr. & Mrs. Happy Forever
Arabella
One Year Later – Paradise Bay
“Oh, hang on, Mrs. Banks,”Will says. “I need to carry you over the threshold for good luck.”
“You did that last time,” I tell him, secretly thrilled that he’s about to pick me up and carry me inside our beachfront villa.
“And I’m doing it again,” he says, opening the front door and lifting me under my knees.
Once we’re inside, he kicks the door shut and sets me down in the sun-drenched foyer that’s about a five-minute bike ride to his sister Emma’s and ten minutes to the resort. It’s our winter home where we’ll live, well, in the winters actually. The rest of the year, we live in a cottage just outside Valcourt.
(Okay, so some would call it a mansion because of the size and grounds, but it looks like a quaint cottage, so I call it a cottage.) Anyway, living in Avonia most of the year allows me to be close to my family and continue my work with my various foundations. It also allows Will to be near our production company headquarters, EarthMax Films, dedicated to highlighting the best of nature and human achievement. We sell most of the shows to ANN, but on our own terms, and when we get the adventure bug, we find a new place to explore where we can have fun, test our limits, and highlight various charitable and environmental causes.
“How long until my family arrives for dinner?” Will asks me as he walks me in the general direction of the bedroom.
“About an hour.”
“That early?” he asks, looking slightly put out.
“Libby and Harrison need to leave by seven to get baby Will to bed.” Baby Will—as much as I love the sound of that, I’m a little jealous there’s no niece named Arabella. Although Emma’s going to have a baby girl in four months, so I’m hoping…
“What do you say we make use of the next sixty minutes and break in the bedroom?”
“I’d say let’s do this.” I give him my best smoldering look.
“In that case, we’re going to have to make this fast,” he says, pulling me to him for a lingering kiss.
“No time to get into my edible knickers?” I ask with a laugh. It’s our running joke because I will never wear edible undies again in my life.
“Not today, I’m afraid. Maybe when they leave?” he asks.
I scrunch up my nose and shake my head. “Probably not.”
He kisses me again, and when our lips part, he grins. “Did you ever think your life would turn out this way?”
“No,” I tell him, shaking my head. “Until I met you, I pretty much thought I had a life of sitting in drawing rooms sipping tea and having the same ten conversations over and over until I died. You?”
He shakes his head, pulling me closer to him. “I thought I’d be alone forever, just swinging from vines and climbing mountains.”
“This is better, yes?” I give him a quick kiss before he can answer.
“So much so,” he tells me. “But there is something missing…”
“What?” I ask, slightly panicked that he’s not as completely wonderfully happy as me.
“A tiny Arabella to love.”
I tear up immediately and give him a huge squeezy hug, then whisper, “Or a tiny Will?”
“I think I’d prefer a daughter first, actually.”
