EPILOGUE
MARY
The New Routine
(Or How You Build a Happy Ending with Paint and Sheep)
August in Scotland means the sun rises early, shines brilliantly, and there’s a solid chance it’ll rain in three hours. But right now, it’s beautiful.
I stand in front of the bedroom window.
Then I turn my head.
Finn is still asleep on his side of the bed, one arm tucked beneath the pillow, the other stretched across the mattress. His hair is messy. There’s the shadow of stubble along his jaw. He looks…
Peaceful.
It’s strange seeing him like this.
For weeks, all I knew was the tense version of him. Closed off. Guarded. Even after we started getting closer, there was always that stiffness in his shoulders, that constant vigilance in his eyes.
But now?
Now, asleep in our bed in the castle cottage, he finally looks like someone who’s let go.
Our bed.
We’re officially together now.
For real.
No fake relationship.
No arrangements.
No manipulation from Maggie.
Well… no new manipulation from Maggie.
She did confess to all the previous ones.
I glance around the room.
The bedroom is a chaotic blend of our two lives: my sweater tossed over his chair, his comic books stacked beside my veterinary textbooks, my makeup bag next to his razor on the dresser.
Our lives tangled together inside fifteen square feet of space.
It was only supposed to be temporary.
My house has been repaired now.
But the cottage became our place somehow.
Our home.
Movement on the other side of the room catches my attention.
Ragnar is asleep at the foot of the bed.
