Epilogue

Sixteen months later

Jensen

“Jensen, we’re going to be late.” Bailey frowned at me as I took a detour. “And where are you going? Why are we on the freeway?”

“Would you trust me?”

“Okay.” She leaned back in the seat, nervously wiping her hands down her thighs.

She looked stunning in the floor-length gown she wore. It was a pale lavender and clung to her body like a second skin. It was sleeveless and strapless, with tiny Swarovski crystals adorning the bodice, and a slit up her right leg that had made my mouth water when she first put it on.

Tonight was the premiere for “Love and Other Simple Things.” She’d written it, was an executive producer, and starred in it. We were going to walk the red carpet along with Manny, who’d played her love interest in the movie. The four of us, Bailey and me and Manny and Lucia, had discussed it at length, and in the end, Bailey had wanted someone she felt comfortable with—even if making out with Manny on screen might be a little awkward—over a stranger. This had been her first project since the accident, and she’d needed that kind of security.

Lucia and I had been on set the day they’d filmed the main sex scene, standing just a few feet away, and it wound up being a lot easier than any of us had anticipated. We’d laughed a lot, and there had been more takes than we could count to make up for the laughter, but in the end, it wasn’t that bad and the results we’d seen during post-production had been breathtaking.

Lots of our friends were going to the premiere tonight, and I had a surprise for her later, but I had another surprise for her right now.

I turned down the street and she immediately sat up.

“Jensen, what the hell are we doing here?”

I pulled into the driveway of her old house in Manhattan Beach. I put my SUV in park and pulled a set of keys out of the center console. I’d tied them with a red ribbon and handed them to her. “Welcome home, baby.”

“Welcome…” She stared at me. “What are you… Jensen?”

“I bought it. We bought it.” I cleared my throat. “I had a realtor watching, and then had her approach the owners with a cash offer. They accepted.”

Her mouth fell open.

“You…bought my house back?”

“I did—don’t cry! Alexa will kill me if you show up on the red carpet wearing one of her dresses with your makeup running down your face!”

“Babe!” She bit her lip, blinking rapidly and fanning herself to stop the tears. “Oh my god, Jensen!” Without a word she threw open the door and slid to the ground, practically running up the drive to the front door.

I grinned as I watched her, marveling at how strong and healthy she was.

She still had a limp, but it was only noticeable when she was barefoot. The difference in the length of her legs was less than an inch now, and it was easy to add lifts to most of her shoes. We walked and jogged and hiked these days, and she was blissfully pain-free. There was occasionally soreness, and every once in a while, she overdid it and got some nerve pain, but it was nothing like it had been before.

“Would you wait for me?” I yelled, following in her wake as she fumbled to unlock the door. “Don’t you dare walk inside without me!”

“What?” She turned in confusion.

“Wait for me, dammit.” I scooped her up, bride style, and then stepped over the threshold.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” she demanded.

“Yeah, I am. About you.”

“Ditto.” She looked around.

The house had been left in a mess, but it didn’t matter. I had a professional cleaning crew coming tomorrow and we could move in this weekend.

“I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered as I set her on her feet.

“I know how much you wanted it back, so I had a realtor watching it for me. Now that you’re able to climb stairs again, I decided to get serious about buying it. When an opportunity came up, I jumped on it. Consider it your engagement gift.”

She looked down at the diamond on her left hand that I’d given her just a couple of weeks ago. “That’s a hell of an engagement present.”

“I want to give you the world, Bailey.”

“You are my world.”

I leaned down to kiss her and she gazed up at me with warm, loving eyes.

“We have to go,” I said after a moment. “You don’t want to miss your red carpet debut. And even if you do, my mother will never forgive you.” My parents had flown in for the event and I’d hired a limo to take them there with some of my teammates.

“Your mom is pretty excited.”

“Ready to go?”

“This is really ours?” she asked as she slid her hand into mine.

“It’s really ours.”

“Let’s get married here,” she whispered. “In the back yard.”

“Okay.”

“Soon. Before hockey season starts, so your family and all your teammates can be here.”

“Okay.”

She let out a happy little squeal. “Oh, my God, Jensen, this is the best day ever!”

Her eyes shone with happiness and that was the most beautiful sight in the world.

I took her hand as we headed out toward our future.

She was my Empress and I planned to be her Phantom Knight forever.