“What?”
“I may have broken a few speed limits.”
She laughs, wiping at her eyes. “Levi...”
“I’d have driven fifty.”
“I know.” Her voice is soft. “That’s the part I still can’t believe. That someone would do that for me.”
“Get used to it.” I turn her to face me, tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you what you’re worth. And when you forget, I’ll just remind you.”
“Even if I try to run again?”
“Even then. I’ll chase you every time.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“Probably.” I grin. “But that’s what love is, right? Showing up even when it’s hard. Choosing someone every day. Staying.”
She rises up on her toes and kisses me, soft and sweet and full of promise.
“Then let’s stay,” she whispers.
“Together?”
“Together.”
The sun sinks below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold. Inside, the party continues, our friends and family celebrating love in all its messy, complicated, beautiful forms.
And on the deck of the Hensley House, wrapped in each other’s arms, we watch the first stars appear and let ourselves believe in happy endings.
Not because they’re guaranteed.
But because we’re going to build one anyway.
EPILOGUE
EMMA
Six Months Later
There are moments in single motherhood that no one warns you about.
The stomach flu that hits all three kids simultaneously at two am. The school talent show where your eight-year-old performs an original song about boogers. The time your teenager discovers existential philosophy and spends six weeks asking “But whatisreality, Mom?” every time you tell her to clean her room.
And then there’s this: standing on a pier at sunset with a fishing pole in one hand and a juice box in the other, watching your son try to catch a sea monster.
“Mom.” Aidan tugs my sleeve for the fourteenth time in three minutes. “Mom. Mom.Mom.”
“Yes, my darling child whom I love more than life itself?”
“If I catch a shark, can I keep it?”
“In what? The bathtub?”
He considers this. “The bathtub is pretty big.”
“The bathtub is on a houseboat. Where would the shark go when you need to shower?”
