Epilogue Ben

“I’m telling you, I’ve never seen you look better than you do now. Married life definitely agrees with you!”

“Or maybe it’s the very hunky man over there staring at you.” She giggles and pats Steph’s knee.

Stephanie glances over, her sapphire eyes sparkling with wicked laughter. I groan when the camera pans over to me. She knows that I hate being on camera when she does these damn interviews.

“Say hi, honey!” She sparkles at me and I grit my teeth as the audience for the morning talk show claps and hollers for me to come out and sit with her. The toothy blond anchor interviewing her waves me forward and I stomp over to sit next to her. I lean over like I’m kissing her cheek.

“I’m gonna make you pay for this later, sweetheart.”

She turns her eyes to me and grins happily. Her hand comes up to touch my cheek as she whispers in my ear. “I look forward to it.”

“So this is your inspiration for you second book?” The blond woman eyes me up and down like I’m a steak and I glare at her.

“This is my best friend since I was a kid. You might remember Blake from my first book.”

The audience gasps and the blond claps her hands like this is the first she’s heard of this. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.

Steph’s publicist went over all of this with the network when she signed up for this interview.

“Oh my god! This is Blake? And now you two are the most adorable couple I’ve ever seen!” Her voice hits a level that only dogs can hear and I wince, turning to stare at the audience who are equally enthralled.

“I don’t know about that. But Benjie is the man that I counted on when I was growing up and he still is. He is the best man I’ve ever known. A true hero.”

Sighs and awww’s echo around the room and I hunch my shoulders. Jesus! I hate this shit.

But then my eyes drift to my wife who is glowing with happiness. And I can’t complain anymore.

Because if I can make her happy, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Even these horrendous, gut-wrenching interviews that suck the life out of me.

“How did you two find each other again?”

Steph looks over at me and she reaches her hand out to me. “I came home looking for something to make me feel right again. Something to give me back my heart and soul. Little did I know that the reason I needed that was because I gave my heart away to my best friend when we were growing up and I never got it back. It’s always been his.”

More sighs and flutterings and I tune it all out, staring at her, mesmerized by the magic of my wife.

I never thought I’d be this lucky. Never thought I’d have her as my own but we’ve been married for over a year now and it just keeps getting better and better.

Of course, when she’s writing, I tend to lose her but I understand it. It’s her life’s work. It’s the thing that gives her life purpose and joy.

But there’s more to life than just work and when she’s not working, she’s my goddess. My beauty who sighs in my arms and comes apart, taking me with her over the precipice and straight into beautiful ecstasy.

And tonight, when I take her home, I’m gonna crawl up over her body and take her over and over while she screams my name and scratches my back with her nails until she leaves her marks on every part of my body, my heart and my soul.

She’s mine. And she always will be.

That’s the beauty of fate. It gives you what you want most in this life. If you wait for it. If you hope and live for it.

If you pray every damn night, sooner or later, it will come.

She’s the answer to every one of my hopes and dreams and she’s all I need.

Until she’s falling apart in my arms that night and she whispers. “I love you so much. I’m pregnant.”

Just like that. Just when I thought I had everything, she gives me more.

I hold her and hug her close, breathing in the unique smell that is all her and whisper, “Thank you, baby.”

Because none of this would ever be possible if she hadn’t come home to me.

And now I’ve got it all. A home, the woman I love and a family on the way.

I’m one lucky fucker!