“If every square is a piece of something special?—”
Her face goes soft, a tear escaping, and I take my turn to kiss it away.
“—when you put them all together, you get something even better than you planned,” I finish, sliding my hand up, pressing it lightly to the spot over her heart.
“Rhodes,” she whispers.
“Something even better than anything I could haveeverplanned for.”
She kisses me then, and it’s slow and sweet.
And a promise.
A promise we explore in great detail.
And much,muchlater—after she falls asleep tucked close to my side—I lie there staring into the dark and thinking about home.
About Chloe.
About the life waiting for us there.
It’ll be messy and complicated and full of a million details I’ve yet to figure out.
But I won’t be alone.
And I won’t be scared.
Because the women in my life need me to be brave.
BecauseIneed me to be brave.
Because…
The future isn’t guaranteed.
But it sure is beautiful.
Epilogue
Finn, four months later
It’s my birthday.
Which I know because Chloe has announced it seventeen times since breakfast and also because there’s a hand-drawn banner hanging over the kitchen table that says:
HAPY BIRTDAY FINN
It’s done in a rainbow of pink shades because—according to Rhodes—she couldn’t decide which wasmyperfect color of pink, so had made sure to use them all.
She’s still a total sweetheart.
And anyway?—
I turn to Rhodes, running my fingers through his beard. “I know you helped color my banner.”
He grins, brushes his lips over mine. “Well, pinkismy favorite color.”
“Obviously.” I gesture to the photographs that line the living room wall. In most of them Rhodes is rocking his glitter-covered, eye-wateringly bright pink shirt.
