I’d been missing Ronan.
“Come here,” he told me, and I was right where I needed to be.
Epilogue
“You’re stunning.”
I spun around to look at Kiya. “Me? What about you? You’re breathtaking!” I told her, and Taylor and Victoria agreed. So did Kiya’s sister, the matron of honor, and so did her best friend from college. I decided that we all looked amazing, but it had been a struggle for me.
Ronan hadn’t thought so. “Are you kidding?” he’d asked, and he had been genuinely shocked. “You’re worried about how you’ll fit in that bridesmaid dress? You’re perfect. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world. When I see you, I think…” He had shaken his head. “I think you’re some kind of Greek goddess walking around on the Earth. One of the beautiful ones and not, like, the kind with snakes growing out of on her head. I’ve always been glad that you don’t have snakes for hair, because I love being close to you and reptiles would make that hard.”
“And you wouldn’t like turning to stone,” I’d said, and he had agreed.
But I really had been worried, and I’d worked hard over the past few months. I now felt a lot more like myself, and just in time for Kiya’s wedding. She had been working hard, too, but in a different way.
“I’ve changed from the person I was when I met him,” she had told me earlier today, as we got our makeup done. “I think I grew up a lot.”
I thought she had made some strides but I also thought that she had been great to begin with, which was what I’d told her.
“Yeah, but I was looking at relationships like how I ran track,” she said. “Sprint, clear the hurdles, be aggressive, and finish first.”
“I’m not even competing,” Taylor had commented. Her lids had been closed for liner, so she didn’t see Kiya roll her eyes. Tay was very happy not to be in any kind of relationship, and despite the growing-up that our other friend attested to, they would never agree on that strategy.
“Anyway, I didn’t need to push so hard,” Kiya had told us.
“And a wedding doesn’t mean that you won,” Victoria had added, but then turned to her son. “Finley, let Mama do it.”
Her little boy had been trying to put on his own shoes and had fallen onto his small butt several times. We may have looked pretty, but this guy in his ring bearer outfit was definitely the cutest person in the room.
Vic and my former boss had settled into co-parenting their son but not into a relationship with each other. She wasn’t in anyrush to find someone else, though, and neither was Beau. He had left the Woodsmen after Finley was born, first to stay home with the baby, and then to start his own business as a fashion and home design consultant, mostly focusing on the Woodsmen players.
He was actually doing great (it helped to have wealthy friends who had given him plenty of seed money, introductions, and publicity). It was a job that suited him a lot better, since he was so good with ties and pocket squares and so interested in paint. But the thing that suited him best was fatherhood: he had demonstrated over and over that he was wonderful with his son, and with babies in general. I really, really hoped that his skill with them was in full effect today.
“Kiya, it’s time,” her mom said.
The bride stood up, so lovely and totally calm. “Myles is a lucky guy,” Taylor told her.
“I’m a lucky girl,” Kiya said.
I had started to believe in luck myself. It had been lucky that I’d been hired for the Office of Special Projects, not only because I had made three wonderful friends. I’d also had the opportunity to help Ed and the Junior Woodsmen. And that had led to my current position, in the office of the Woodsmen vice-president—I’d gotten a call about changing jobs on my way out to the practice facility after Beau and I had our triumphant meeting in the conference room, almost four years before. They had been impressed by me, too, they had said. Was I interested in trying out something new?
Maybe it had been luck that Ronan was still with the Woodsmen, too. But I thought his skill and talent had led them to promote him to the starting job after his rookie season, and he’d been in that position ever since. He was, obviously, the best one on the field. I was glad that it wasn’t only Ed and me noticing it now.
“Let’s go,” Kiya urged. We went downstairs to the lobby of the church, where the groomsmen waited to walk us down the aisle. They all clapped when they saw the bride, but one of them had eyes only for me.
“Baby, you’re…I don’t even know what to say,” Ronan told me. “You’re so gorgeous that I’m afraid to touch you.”
“It’s ok?” I pointed at my chest. That had gotten bigger in a way that still wasn’t comfortable for me.
“It’s different, but that’s not a bad thing,” he said. “I love them at any size. Later, I can help you out of this dress and show you exactly how I feel.”
I felt myself smile. “Later,” I promised. But first, we were walking down the aisle. Finley, Victoria’s son, went first with Kiya’s flower girl niece, and there were collective sighs from the congregation at their extreme adorability. We followed, pair after pair, until Kiya appeared.
My eyes were on her but also on Beau, who was seated in one of the front pews. Kiya and Myles had decided that kids were definitely allowed today, no matter how they acted. My former boss held both of mine, twin boys who looked so much like their dad and had been so large that as my pregnancy had progressed, I’d needed my husband to pull me out of the car, out of chairs,out of bed, and finally, out of the shower. They were nine months old and were already getting the urge to walk.
“Ronan started early,” his mom had said, so we were trying to prepare ourselves. They spotted me and their father up near the altar and got excited, wiggling enough that I foresaw trouble. But the ceremony wasn’t too long and Beau really was amazing with them. I was able to relax and watch my friend marry the guy she loved, just like I had three years before.
Because it was a funny thing—Ronan and I hadn’t been roommates for very long before we’d decided that marriage was definitely in our future, our near-future. We hadn’t had a big ceremony like this, but it had been perfect for us.
