“It’ll take a while to earn back some trust, but when I heard Cherry was being bought up I had to come back,” Mike Matthews explains as he takes a seat again.
As if he has to explain himself to me.
I glance at Jacinta who gives a tiny shrug, she looks the happiest I’ve ever seen her and that's all that matters.
Okay, second happiest I’ve ever seen her. But that’s not a conversation for coffee and cake with her parents.
“I guess it’s my turn for announcements, and it has nothing to do with business,” I tell them both.
Wondering just how they’ll all take the news.
Jacinta included.
“I guess it won’t be a secret for long, but Jacinta and I are a couple now. We’re a partnership.”
Her mom and dad don’t even blink, but I hear Jacinta coughing on something that’s gone down the wrong pipe.
Her mom nods knowingly. And her dad looks like he’s already been brought up to speed by her mom, I’m assuming.
“Archaeologist’s friend,” her mom says smiling, teasing me about the story her daughter spun about the reason I had to have her with me.
Both of them know the ins and outs of an older guy dating a younger girl, and they don’t have an issue with it I see.
“She’ll be well taken care of,” I promise them both. “You all will be.”
“It was following your career that helped me get myself back on track… financially,” Mike confesses with a tinge of emotion in his voice.
But I’m not here to beat my chest.
I wanted to ask Jacinta the second I saw her, but that was a little too soon. But now it feels like the only question that needs to be answered.
I get up out of my chair, and taking a knee in front of Jacinta I hear her mom and dad gasp simultaneously.
But Jacinta looks like the cat who’s just licked the cream.
Like she’s been hoping I’d ask.
“Jacinta. It’s only been a little short while I know, and you don’t have to say yes right now, I won’t push you… But I’d prefer it if you did,” I say, taking a steadying breath, feeling like my heart is about to break out of my chest as I ask her the most important question of my life.
“Marry me, Jacinta. So I can be the happiest man alive and I can have the chance to show you every day how much you mean to me. Say you’ll marry me.”
“I-I do. I mean yes. Of course, I will… Yes!” Jacinta shrieks, and both her mother and father cheer, hugging each other before we all stand and hug.
The tears of joy in her mom and dad’s eyes make me feel like I might’ve just picked up the family I never had long before we have one of our very own.
Jacinta and me.
The way things are gonna be from now on.
EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER
Jacinta
“I know it's great news,” I call out to Kyle from the bathroom. “I just don’t think mom renewing her vows with my dad is the kind of wedding present we should accept from them.”
Especially after all those years of not knowing. But more than that, it’s supposed to be our special day.
Kyle and me, man and wife ya know?
Plus there’s the other thing…
I growl under my breath, chickening out again.
I mean, we’re not even married yet. And yes, I know Kyle wants a real family.
But has he forgotten our first night together? I mean. We both felt it.
And now I’m staring at the proof.
“What are you doing in there anyway?” Kyle asks, stopping by the door on his way to his home office.
“You okay in there?” he asks through the locked door, genuinely concerned.
“I’m fine,” I call back, noticing the tremor in my voice.
I can feel the tears in my eyes, I promised myself I wouldn’t let fall, no matter how great my news is.
But seeing the tiny little shape, and the even tinier little hands and face in the next photo, I can’t help it.
I put the ultrasound picture back in the equally tiny blue envelope.
Why is everything ‘baby’ so damned tiny?
I guess I’ll find out in around six months.
We did leave Cherry, but only so Kyle could spend some more time with his team, working from home in the city and right above the damned office.
I had a bit of an eye roll moment there, but he’s been doing Lundstrom towns and real estate for so long, it’s all he knows.
It’s just gonna take some time for him to let go of the wheel completely. Doing whatever he needs to convince himself he’s ready to finally step back.
To let someone else run his company while he starts his new life away from it all.
You’re gonna have to tell him…
I know, I know.
I was just hoping we could avoid all the drama I know it’ll create.