Epilogue

It’s been just about a year since the beautiful day we wed. Our families and friends were there to watch our real truthful relationship emerge to the world. We both took special care to explain the reason for our complicity in the pretense of our fake dating, especially to our parents and loved ones. We never took that break to pretend to actually fall in love as we had planned. Nope, we jumped right into the joy of publicly showing each other our true love.

Like everyone was surprised. NOT!

Jake is now my partner in love and life, but he is so much more. He is the stable force that’s allowed me to trust after so many years of anxiety and fear. I’ve thought a lot about my mother abandoning me and my dad, and I’ve spent too much of my life letting it tear me up inside, no matter what I told others.

Jake has done what no therapist has been able to accomplish for me. He’s helped me understand, deep inside, that none of that was my fault. It was on mom. Her leaving made me feel like a nothing. A nobody. I thought I was the worst daughter in the world, for why else would she have left?

Therapist after therapist tried to counteract all that self-talk but it was so firmly entrenched in my head, my heart, and my soul. But now I have Jake. I know in every bone in my body that he is, and will continue to be, the stable, loving, permanent force in my life. I don’t have those fears of abandonment holding me down like I did for years.

And what a relief. I still own my three businesses, but they are for fun and profit, not for my safety net anymore.

People have been asking us about Sophia and Alex here and there. Of course, each has been a persona non grata in the Reynolds’s world and near my businesses, but that doesn’t seem to be any problem because neither has been heard from or seen anywhere in town since Bella’s wedding weekend.

A rumor did pass by me a while ago that Sophia dumped Alex as soon as they left the wedding getaway, but that’s just about all any of us have heard. Bella has recovered from her sense of guilt for not acting on the truth sooner, and the entire family seems to have put them both out of mind.

Jake and I had a few conversations of support and love for one another to be sure we were both 100% ‘cured’ of our disastrous past relationships, closing those doors for good.

We see Britt and Ryan all the time, and they still bicker like teenagers. But, and this is a really big ‘but,’ they now end those squabbles with hugs and kisses.

A diamond ring sparkles on her left hand, and I’m told to expect an important announcement very soon! Guess I’ll be buying a bridesmaid’s dress in the near future! Who knew ?

One thing we’ve been tackling together is where to settle. Currently, we are living in his apartment. Although it’s gorgeous, I miss walking out into a backyard and squeezing my toes in the garden dirt. Deciding that neither of our homes exactly fit us as a couple, Jake and I began the process of building the home of our dreams soon after our wedding. Well, actually even before.

With Jake being an architect and his family owning a construction business, one would think this would be a snap. One would be wrong.

Those exact factors have created the fodder for change after change. Why? . . .Because we can! Change orders raise eyebrows at his company, but not charges. Aren’t we lucky?

It’s been a blast designing and redesigning. It’s a blessing I never imagined having. Sure, I designed and built my shops and bar, but this is like a serious gift.

Jake is such a doll and only wants me happy, so this is how our conversations go:

Me: Can we do a craft room? Jake: OK.

Me: How about a gardening hutch off the patio? Jake: Sure thing.

Me: We really need not one, but two guest rooms, don’t you think? Jake: No problem!

Me: Fourteen-foot ceilings with clerestory windows at the top? Jake: Great idea!

Me: A polished concrete floor for the full first floor? Jake: You got it, babe.

Me: Oh, and about those house changes, sweetheart? It seems we need yet another bedroom, but pink or blue is the question.

Jake: Wha, wha, what?

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