EPILOGUE
DECLAN
“So,by the power vested in me by the state of Maine,” Abbott says as he stands in front of Terra and Jake looking like a total smoke show in a black suit. “And with the blessing of her brothers who promise not to kill you….”
Everyone laughs and looks over at Finn, Logan and me, who are standing up next to Jake. “You may kiss the bride, Maverick!”
Jake bends down, lifts Terra completely off her feet, and kisses her like no one is watching. Only everyone is. Because they chose to get married on the beach, at sunset, on what happened to be a perfect seventy-five degree autumn day. In front of them is the ocean. Behind them, the dunes filled with half the town. The half that wasn’t invited but showed up anyway because that’s what Ocean Pines people do. Above us the sky is cotton candy pink. When Jake finally puts her down there isn’t a dry eye in town. Even I’m wiping away a tear and Abbott notices and gives me a broad grin.
“Soft heart you got there, Deck,” he leans over to whisper.
“I blame you,” I reply. “You made me a giant romantic. It’s gross.”
“You love it.” He replies as Terra and Jake walk down the aisle, which is just a path through the sand outlined by sea shells with tea lights in them.
The small invited wedding party claps and cheers and follows them toward our restaurant. Abbott, Nova, Finn and I volunteered to stay behind and pick up the tea lights and flowers to bring back to the reception. So we watch them all disappear from the beach and start to clean up. Well, all of us except Nova, who runs over to the rocks a few feet away. I watch curiously and notice Mrs. Green — who wasn’t invited but was watching from the dunes — is staring at Nova too as she hunches over the rocks. Is she looking for something?
“We stored the bags for the tealights over there… somewhere,” I say looking directly at Mrs. Green. She cocks a white eyebrow.
“Uh-huh…”
I turn to Cassidy. “You get enough pictures for your gossip blog?”
“Yep,” Cassidy says without even blinking. “I bet they turn out better than the ones that pro guy your sister hired took. I’m taking photography courses now. I’m pretty good if I do say so myself.”
“Then stop wasting your talents on that miserable site your mom writes,” I tell her flatly. Beside her, Mrs. Green gasps. I roll my eyes. “Come on. You know we hate your site. You’ve tortured our family with your gossip for decades.”
“Well maybe if you Hawkins could keep your noses out of trouble I would have nothing to write about,” Mrs. Green huffs.
Abbott is by my side all of a sudden. He wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Maybe if you had your own life, Mrs. Green, ours wouldn’t seem so interesting. Have a great night. And if we catch you poking around the restaurant, we’ll call the police. It’s a private reception.”
“You… why… how dare you!” She sputters, but Cassidy is biting back a smile. Something tells me she’s reaching her limit on her mom’s bullshit too. She takes her mom by the elbow and leads her away.
Abbott and I head back to the makeshift altar and start collecting sea shells and blowing out candles. Finn is now over by the rocks with Nova. I lied about the bags. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing over there. “What’s up over there?”
“No idea,” Abbott says with a shrug.
“I wanted to thank you again for getting ordained online so you could marry Jake and Terra,” I say as we work.
“Jake said he’d return the favor if we ever needed it,” Abbott says without looking at me. He just keeps collecting shells and blowing out tea lights. I, on the other hand, am frozen.
“You’re the first out hockey player, and you’re already thinking about making me the first hockey husband?” I say trying to sound light and breezy, like the weather, but my heart is hammering like thunder in my chest. We haven’t had an official conversation about marriage but I know we both like the idea.
Abbott finally looks over at me. His eyes are soft and so is his smile. “You’re not the only one who’s turned into a romantic, you know. But I mean, I’m on your schedule. I’m in no rush to do anything as long as you stay in my life, and my bed, the rest is just semantics.”
I nod. “I’m not going anywhere. And I’m thrilled your coach and team have been very chill about this.”
It’s been a few months since the Cup Day, and despite the fact that the headline almost everywhere was ‘Abbott Barlowe has a boyfriend’ his team has been really welcoming. The season started last week and I spent what I thought would be an awkward first game in the friend and family suite. But all the girlfriends and wives were super kind and friendly. And the reporters kept their comments on the actual game afterwards, and left Abbott’s personal life out of it. It’s been better than either of us hoped for.
And luckily, the Barlowe’s case never made it to court, so Abbott’s coach can’t bitch about him bringing even more drama to the team. Once their lawyer was presented with signed affidavits from my entire family, a child psychologist and Ronan, saying Aspen is a perfectly fit parent, with ample help both financial and emotional, they dropped everything and have disappeared again, thankfully.
“I want to do it on the boat,” I say suddenly. “When we get married. Like my parents. They got married on the boat. Just us and your family and mine.”
He grins. “I like it.”
“Hey!’ Finn’s voice breaks in and I look over and see him jogging towards us awkwardly on the sand. “Do either of you have a tissue?”
I dig around in the pocket of my suit pants, but Abbott pulls a small travel pack out of his suit jacket pocket first and hands it to Finn. He winks at me. “Thought you might need it today.”
