“Still wanna be chased?” Colby mumbles against my mouth.
“Kinda want something else,” I admit.
He pulls away to push my hair from my forehead. “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you. Anything. Don’t you know that by now?”
I smile up at him, fingers gripping his shirt tightly. “I know.”
Colby only lifts one eyebrow in question.
“Make love to me?”
Colby doesn’t reply with words. His response is to sweep me off my feet and carry me to his bedroom as I laugh at his antics. Before Colby, I didn’t know what making love was. I didn’t know that someone can take their own pleasure in my pleasure. But I do now.
“My Eli,” Colby murmurs as he curls around my sweaty body.
“My Colby,” I whisper back to him.
COLBY’S EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
My first wedding was a grand affair. Marcus had a lot of friends and family, so the wedding was over one hundred people in a ballroom in the city. I loved that day, it’s still one of my favorite days. But today is going to be special to me in its own perfect sort of way. A favorite day for a different reason.
I stare at myself in the full-length mirror for a few heavy beats. Officially forty and starting all over. More wrinkles line my face this go-around, more life experience under my belt—a lot more loss too—but Eli was worth all of that to have this second chance at love. Eli’s the wild thing that I never want to tame. Getting to keep him still feels unreal.
After our week at the beach, Eli spent a few more weeks with me at the farmhouse. We were intentional about dating, finding out if we fit outside of the bubble of the beach house. Thank fuck, we did. Also, thankfully he was able to transfer for the fall semester to be closer to me so we could do it all for real. Not everything was easy though because life rarely is.
He moved into the mother-in-law suite above my garage. He paid me rent too. That was a hard-fought battle, which Eli easily won. But by Christmas he’d moved into the house with me andwe’d settled into a routine. Into a life. I’d taken him to the beach house for a few days over Christmas break and asked him to marry me. His watery grin had been perfect, so perfectly Eli, that my heart mended just a little bit more that day.
And today he’s officially becoming my husband.
“All set?” Beau asks from behind me.
I tug at my tie one more time before turning around. Beau’s decked out in a suit, which is a rare occasion for him. Only weddings and funerals can wrangle him out of his Levi’s and ball cap.
“I’ve been set for a while,” I say around a wide grin.
Beau claps my shoulder to steer me out of the bedroom. “Don’t cry before the wedding.”
When I’d asked Eli the type of wedding he’d wanted, he’d sighed dreamily and saidintimate, something just for you and me and our closest family.I know I’ve accomplished that when I look out over the crowd. The backyard has a handful of people scattered around. My parents, Beau’s mom, our other cousins, aunts, and uncles, Eli’s mom, and a few of his friends. All in all, there’s maybe forty people seated in my backyard, which is just perfect for us.
Beau walks towards the end of the aisle to stand in the middle, the model officiant. I’m so glad for our friendship later in life, Beau’s not just my cousin, but my best friend. I don’t wait long for Eli under the old oak tree. The sun shines through the foliage, shadows moving as the summer breeze blows about the branches heavy with moss. Eli’s smile is blinding as he walks down the aisle to join me, dipping to give his mother a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, boyfriend,” Eli whispers to me, a cheeky smile on his lips.
“Hey, I’m being promoted in a matter of moments.”
He shyly bites his lip and takes my hands in his own. “You’re right. Let’s get a move on, then.”
Beau laughs, so does everyone else in the small crowd.
“Today, we’re all here to witness Eli and Colby becoming husbands. They’ve elected to forgo the traditional process, instead wanting to speak from the heart. So I’ll keep this brief and let them speak. Once they’re done, I’ll make it official.”
I squeeze Eli’s hands as I stare deep into his beautiful eyes.
“When I was a kid, there were fires all over the state. I remember helping the family soak the earth at the farm and our roofs at home in case the fire got too close. It was terrifying, packing a suitcase to prepare to run from the flames. But we got lucky and our land stayed untouched.” I pause for a moment to smile at Eli as he visibly wonders where the hell I’m going. “Afterwards, my grandpa took me out to the burned forests to show me the destruction. It was awful. The trees had scorch marks for years. But what I remember most is finding flowers or weeds growing through the scorched earth. That’s what you are to me. New life after destruction, when it's finally time.”
I bite back tears because we both swore we wouldn’t cry. But Eli’s eyes swim with tears, and I know that he won’t be able to hold them back. I have to tell him though, at least just once.
