Molly rolled her eyes and stood to go investigate. “They’ve been alone for like only sixty seconds.”
Gavin followed her, as did April and Kaiya.
Sadie said her goodbyes and headed toward the front door.
“You two have a good night,” she hollered behind as she pulled the door closed.
Rachel took in Travis. He was grinning a goofy smile. “Where’d they get slime?”
“They kept it from their birthday party.” She shrugged. The stuff was water-based. A good dose of the hose, and the slime would come right off.
Only a month ago, she would’ve lost her utter shit over the slime situation. But it didn’t seem to matter as much these days. Not with the lightness she felt all the time.
The happy.
Oh, for sure, things were still a bit of a mess, but she was making do.
She’d dipped into her emergency fund to make the mortgage payment, but James was looking to increase her hours—during regular business hours, of course—and things seemed promising with Kaiya. Even Sadie and April had asked if she could do some side jobs for them.
Most of all, though, she’d been getting an appropriate amount of sleep at night. Therefore, the weight of her world didn’t feel quite so heavy.
She stared at Travis. He wasn’t looking at her, though—he was watching the chaos happening at the trampoline.
There was literally slime everywhere.
Where the hell had they gotten so much of it?
“I love you, Rach,” he said, out of the blue, but like he’d been trying to figure out how to say that for forever.
Rachel’s heart seemed to stop beating for a moment, encapsulated in the feeling that she’d been alone, and now she wasn’t. Everything seemed to be all right in her extremely imperfect world.
“Took you long enough,” she replied, finally catching his gaze and holding it. She savored the moment, because it was definitely a moment worth savoring.
All the moments with Travis were. Then she stood, and kissed him.
“I love you, too,” she said against his lips.
She hoped, really hoped, this would be enough to get them through whatever the future tossed their way, because she had no doubt their story was only beginning. The last chapter ended for her, but it wasn’t the end. It simply led to the next part.
There would be fractures, and splinters, and she’d probably want to invest in poisoned toaster tarts at some point.
But, then again, that was the funny thing about perfection being measured by degrees. The imperfection—the ugly and dirty and messy parts—those are the bits and pieces that brought meaning to her life.
She understood that now.
The ugly parts were the ones that made the goodness shine extra bright.
EPILOGUE
FOUR MONTHS LATER
TRAVIS
He was late, and that was unacceptable.
Rachel was expecting him for dinner, but he’d gotten caught up with a supplier at the office.
Finally off the phone, he grabbed his wallet and his keys and headed out the door.
