EPILOGUE
PEYTON
“Alright, are you ready?”
“Ready?” I cried in exasperation. “I was ready two hours ago!”
We were somewhere outside, that’s all I knew. I could hear the rustle of trees, and feel the wind in my hair. The boys had been driving me for a couple of hours now — way further than I thought, when I first got into the car.
Then again, when you’re about to be bestowed with not one, not two, butthreedifferent engagement gifts? You tended to give your trio of hot fiancés a little leeway.
“Okay, go ahead,” I heard Ripley say. “You can take the blindfold off, now.”
“Are you sure?” I teased. “The last time you boys put a blindfold on me, you didn’t take it off until I’d—”
Someone untied it for me, and pulled it abruptly from my head. The sun exploded in my field of vision, seeming impossibly bright. For a good few seconds, all I could do was squint.
Then my eyes adjusted… and I saw.
The house was beyond beautiful; it was thoroughly picturesque. Whitewashed siding. Wraparound porch. It sat on its own, surrounded by acres of bright green grass, stretching out in every direction.
“W—What’s this?” I swore, mouth agape.
“Summer home,” said Colson. There was an uncharacteristic excitement in his voice. “Upstate New York. Just outside of Kingston, actually.”
“Summer home…” I repeated numbly.
“Yes.”
“Are we renting this?”
“No,” Theo said with a chuckle.
It was too big, too nice, too grand of a house, for anything else.
Craning my neck, I looked past the side of the house and into the cavernous back yard of rolling hills and distant fences.
“Is that a stable back there?”
“Sure is,” said Ripley.
“For horses,” I said numbly.
“Well it’s sure as hell not for unicorns.”
I blinked a few times more, but the house was still there. And I had to admit, it was fucking adorable.
“Welcome to engagement gift number one,” said Theo, gesturing grandly. “Your new house.” He paused awkwardly. “Well…ournew house, really. Because we’re all going to live here.”
“It’s more of a ranch,” said Colson.
“It’s more of a farm, really,” added Ripley.
The others shot him a strange look.
“Seriously, you’re gonna argue with me?” he said, pointing. “Look. There’s chickens.”
There sure were. A good dozen of them, scratching and pecking on the ground, not far from an old wire coop with a tin roof.
