Epilogue

One year later

Igazed up at the platform and finally felt ready.

Luke, to his credit, hadn't pushed the bungee jump issue once in the past year. Had even been surprised when I woke up this morning and suggested it. True, since meeting Luke, I'd been happy to learn that I enjoyed some of the same thrill-seeking activities that he did. I rode Jet Skis regularly now. Enjoyed parasailing when he was up for it.

At Christmas, I surprised him with a trip to Moab and he took me whitewater rafting for the first time, surrounded by red rocks and warm sun. I'd had so much fucking fun I made him book us a second trip immediately.

I wasn't a surfer, though I liked watching Luke do it. Didn't want to cage-dive with sharks. Rock climbing held no interest to me.

But in the back of my mind, I'd never stopped thinking about Luke winking at me before falling backward off that bridge. Totally free and completely alive.

"What do you think, sweetheart?" Luke asked, stepping up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "You still feel like today is the day?"

I raised an eyebrow. "It's higher than I remember."

"Yeah, that never changes," he said with a laugh. "It's always higher than you remember."

I turned to face him and kissed the tip of his nose. "That was nice of you to invite a cheering section."

As if on cue, the family and friends that Luke had invited to witness my first bungee jump let out a raucous cheer from the guest viewing section. Harriet's bright pink hair was obvious, and I could see our nieces standing next to her girlfriend, Kat. My brother, Christopher, was there with Shana, and our nephews held a sign that read, "Good Luck Uncle Eli!"

The sight of them hollowed my stomach with affectionate appreciation. I'd spent the year spending as much time with my family as I possibly could. And discovering just how much I'd missed by chaining myself to a job that never allowed me to enjoy the world beyond my clients' minute-by-minute schedules. We did weekly movie nights now. And Christopher and I met up for diner breakfasts or runs on the beach, catching up on all that we'd missed.

Luke's brother, Preston, stood in the middle of the throng, looking much more comfortable and at ease than he had when he first started coming around. Luke described their progress as "slow but steady," a careful mending of childhood wounds and adulthood hurts.

It helped that Preston was so involved with the foundation that Luke was setting up to give his father's money back to the Cape Avalon community. Preston was even preparing to sign away a significant portion of his trust fund to be the seed money. And I'd seen the emotion on their faces when Luke proposed that they call it the Stella Rush Foundation—named for their mother, the queen of the carrot monsters.

Luke was busy now and very happy. Like his mother, he started his mornings with a brisk swim in the ocean before heading off to oversee the creation of the foundation and the dissolution of TBG. Sunrise Village remained open and full of artists. And Luke had been delighted when Clarence, Mía and Nora joined the new foundation board. The trio had tons of ideas for where to start directing the funding, from the tidal wetlands to more affordable housing.

The details of Luke's kidnapping had sent shockwaves through the Hamptons. Senator Wallace had postponed her presidential run, and her campaign team was currently under investigation for fraud. Grady was awaiting trial on kidnapping charges. From what had been shared in the paper, Grady had been solely responsible for the threats against Luke's life, taking increasingly reckless risks without Rosamund's full knowledge. The people Grady had hired had been responsible for the majority of the threats, although Grady had masterminded the kidnapping scheme on his own. They'd broken into Lincoln's office. Left voicemails and emails. Had Luke and me followed, took pictures, then sent them to us.

Though Vincent Maura had planted the car bomb in this very parking lot, Grady's men had already been following us. So while the picture they caught of Luke and me post-explosion had been mere coincidence, Grady later confessed that seeing it had given him the inspiration to take things in a darker, more dangerous direction.

Luke placed his hands on my shoulders and gently pushed me forward. "To be clear, you can join the cheering section at any second and not jump at all. The platform will still be here. And as you know, I'd follow you to the ends of the earth. Say the word and we can come back and try again."

"But I might lose my nerve, my liege. I'm ready now."

He cracked a giant smile. "Then let's do it."

He tugged me inside the elevator, which delivered us to the platform. Luke squeezed my hand, sensing my nerves. He'd done the same thing when I sat at the table in his house—our house now—and applied for an online program to get my degree in social work.

I was only a few weeks into classes, but as I'd tried to figure out what I wanted to do next in my life, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened to me and Luke and Preston and Christopher when we were kids. And I knew that there were schools and community centers and colleges where social workers could help kids like us.

I had known it was right because applying had been scary the way that whitewater rafting had been scary. Scary as in exhilarating.Scary as in unknown but not necessarily wrong.

Something told me bungee jumping might feel the same.

Luke offered to go first, and just like the first time, my stomach lurched violently as the love of my fucking life fell backward off a bridge with a flirty wink in my direction.

I didn't have time to worry too much because the team was prepping me to go next. The music blared as they expertly locked my harness and bound my feet. We were close to the edge, much too close, and our cheering section of friends and family appeared ant-sized from this vantage point.

"First time, right?" one of the crew asked.

I nodded, heart in my throat. But I whipped my head around at the sound of them pulling Luke back up to safety from the other side. As soon as he opened his eyes, he brightened at the sight of me trussed up and ready to jump.

He mouthed I love you so much and blew me a kiss.

Within seconds of my first jump, I understood exactly why Luke loved it.

There were the first terrifying moments of free fall and then the sharp yank of the cord, tossing me back up into the bright blue sky. Exhilaration couldn't begin to describe the sensation of flying, the way my body was suffused with ecstasy. Exactly how I'd seen Luke appear that first time.

It wasn't sexual, but something more primitive than that. A thirst for life, for experience, for adventure.

When I was dragged back onto that platform, the crew had barely gotten me out of the harness before I was prowling toward Luke, bending him backward for a dramatic kiss.

He laughed against my lips. I whispered, "I love you, I love you, I love you."

It was true—no one told me it would feel this way. That living a full life would be so rich with emotion. More than that, that I was allowed to feel this way. But I was here now and present for all of it—the mistakes and failures, the lust and the affection, the lazy mornings and busy weekends, all the boring moments and the thrilling ones.

I was there to bandage up my nephew when he skinned his knee. To laugh with Luke's sister while he cooked us dinner. To walk the beach with Luke at night, our pant legs rolled up and the surf crisp against our feet.

It was impossible to parcel out tiny bits of happiness anymore. It was all there, mine for the taking, messy and complicated and real. I was greedy for it now, eager to reach for the joy we all deserved.

Eager to live this full life with Luke by my side.

THE END