Brielle’s laughter filled the room, and my world was right. It was full. It was complete.
epilogue
Brielle
One Year Later …
I waved back at Cam as I stood up through the sunroof of the limo. Clara was beside him, holding his hand and wiping her tears while smiling. Mrs. Jo standing beside Kiro Manning on the steps as they watched us leave made me laugh. Everyone we loved was there, outside the Slacker Demon mansion in Beverly Hills. As I looked back at them, even after a year of weaving Dean’s world and mine together, it seemed surreal.
“Better get down. The media is just outside the gate,” Dean called up to me as he held on to my ankles.
I waved one last time before sinking down into the back of the limo. The sunroof closed as I snuggled against Dean’s side.
“Today was perfect. Thank you,” I said, tilting my head back to look up at him.
Dean gripped my chin with his finger and thumb and held it as he locked his gaze with mine. “Promise me one thing,” he said, his tone suddenly very serious.
“What?” I asked him.
“Talk to me. If being Mrs. Dean Finlay ever gets hard, tell me. I’ll move us to a fucking private island if I have to. Just don’t leave me.”
This was his biggest fear. It wasn’t the first time he had brought it up over the past year. When he had asked me to marry him, he’d told me then that he couldn’t live without me. That he’d move heaven and earth to keep me happy. I had to stop him often from going too far in his need to please me. Just being with him was enough.
“I’m never keeping secrets again,” I assured him. “We will talk about everything.”
He bent down and put his lips on mine. It was softer and sweeter than it had been in front of the minister and our friends and family. After ourI dos, Dean had grabbed my face and kissed me as if he needed me to breathe. Kiro and the rest of the band members had cheered him on, making everyone laugh.
I reached up and touched his face gently. This was my husband. I was married. This life hadn’t turned out the way I’d imagined. Dean made me believe in fairy tales. He had shown me how to trust, how to be loved by a man, and what it meant to need someone.
A hand knocking on the window caused me to jump, and Dean cursed under his breath.
“Damn media,” he said. “We’ll be past them soon.”
I laid my head back on his arm, feeling so content with life that it was almost scary. Cam was going to spend a week with his new nephew and nieces at Rush and Blaire’s house. He was excited about it, and I didn’t have to feel guilty that we were heading to Greece without him. Rosemary Beach had become one of his favorite places to visit.
“When we get back, we need to start looking for a house,” Dean said.
I lifted my head to look at him.
Cam and I had been living in his penthouse for the past four months. When my lease had neared its end date, we had been with Dean on tour, and he refused to let me renew it. He wanted us with him. I hadn’t argued with him because we rarely used our apartment much anymore.
I had expected we would just continue to live in his penthouse after we were married.
“You want a house?” I asked him.
“Don’t you?” he replied.
I shrugged. I hadn’t thought about it. “I want you.”
He grinned. “And you have me. But what about a house? A big one. You could have a yard of your own. A pool.”
“Cam would love that,” I admitted.
He’d never lived in a house before.
“Cam would love anywhere you are. You’re his home. What do you want?” Dean asked me.
For a moment, I thought about a yard with flowers and a tree with a swing. All the things I had dreamed of as a child. Being adopted by a family with a home that felt safe. A place that decorated for the holidays and a Christmas tree that needed a ladder to put the star on top.