“What about the fourth and the fifth?” she says.
“If I have energy left.” I wink at her.
She laughs. “I love you, Luke Haverbrook. You are the perfect man for me.”
“And you, Mia Bishop, are my beautiful angel—the love of my life, the key to my heart, the future of my being. You, Mia, are my everything. And please never forget that.”
“So, I’m not just another summer romance then?”
“No, my darling. You are the rest of my life.”
epilogue
Mia
six months later
“Man, it’s kind of cold today,” I say to Juniper as I pull on my sweater. “I feel like I need a coat and a scarf and gloves.”
“It’s not that cold, Mia. I suppose it’s cold for Coconut Beach. That’s because we’re in wintertime. We don’t have snow though.”
“That’s true,” I say. “Get in any new books this morning?”
“Yeah, I’m about to start unpacking them and putting them on the shelves. You want to help?”
“Sounds good. I think Wendy, Silvie, and Summer are going to go to yoga, and they asked me if I wanted to come.”
“And you’re not taking up yoga now, are you?”
“No. I may have a fiancé now, but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely lost my mind. I will never be into yoga.”
She starts laughing as I grab a box of books and start putting them on the shelves outside of our bookmobile.
Even though we’re no longer in the summer, the weather is still nice. It’s much cooler, but the snowbirds have hit town, and they love to shop at our bookmobile. I look out at the water and smile to myself.
I’m so glad Luke decided that he wanted to move back to Coconut Beach. Ultimately, I loved him enough to go wherever he wanted to go, and if he had decided he didn’t want to be in Coconut Beach, I would’ve gone with him wherever he wanted to go. But this is where we met, where we fell in love, and this is where we are going to raise our kids.
“So, how long is Luke going to be surfing for? I thought he was bringing us lunch.” Juniper looks at her watch, and I start laughing.
“It’s not like I can call him. He’s in the ocean.”
“I know, and I’m so happy for you. You guys are so in love.” Juniper’s eyes glaze over. “I’ve never seen two people more ridiculously in love in my life.”
“Yeah, well, I’m trying not to throw it in your face or anything, Juni.”
“You don’t. Don’t make me slap you.” She laughs. “Joking. I’m joking. I would never slap you, but I’m happy that you’re happy. And also, I kind of saw this coming a long time ago.”
“What do you mean, you saw this coming? Are you psychic or something?”
“No, but you forget that I met you guys at a time in life where I was able to see that Luke had a thing for you, and you were always going on about him and about how great he was, and I was like,These two are going to end up together. They just don’t know it yet.”
“Did you really think that?”
She nods slowly. “Why do you think you never found a serious boyfriend and you went after tourists and surfers and never really dated or did anything with them? Because it was always Luke. It was always Luke, Mia. You just didn’t realize it yet, but you guys were practically in a relationship anyway. You were always on the phone and chatting, and it was like he lived here even though he was in New York. But it’s so much better that he’s here now. You love him.”
“I do.”
“Did I hear my name?”
