Epilogue

epilogue

. . .

Demi

The last fewweeks had been a whirlwind. Romeo and I had bought a home. Well, he’d bought a home with the money he’d earned from his fight, and for whatever reason, he’d insisted that both of our names be on the title.

So, whether he liked it or not, I was insisting on pitching in for the renovations. And we were practically gutting the place now. We were going to make it our own, and I loved everything about it.

Romeo had flown with me to Boston and listened when my brother had opened up about being miserable living there with no family and no friends. It was a tough way to deal with sobriety.

So, Romeo and my grandfather had come up with a plan. Slade would stay in Boston for three months and continue to attend meetings at the rehab there. If he stayed clean, he’d come back to Magnolia Falls. Romeo had agreed to let him rent out his little apartment behind the gym and work at the gym, as well. I didn’t know where that generosity came from. Especially after what Slade had done to Romeo and River all those years ago. But somehow, he’d been willing to help Slade under the agreement that he’d take a drug test twice a week.

I knew that he was doing it for me, and it only made me love him more. But if Slade messed up, I would have no problem sending him back to Boston. I was still skeptical, but there was more hope there now than there’d been in a long time.

Maybe because everything was out in the open. There were no secrets where my brother was concerned. He’d owned his mistakes, and he’d been given a second chance.

Now it was up to him what he decided to do with that.

“You look fucking gorgeous,” Romeo said, as he pulled me onto his lap.

My boyfriend looked so freaking good in a black suit that my mouth had gone dry when he’d walked into the room all dressed up.

River, Hayes, and Nash were all wearing black suits, as well, but Kingston had stayed true to his desire to wear a baby blue fitted suit, which they’d all razzed him about since we got here.

We were sitting at a table with twinkle lights all around us, eating dinner. Everyone in town was here.

“Thank you,” I said, nuzzling my nose against his.

“Damn. I need to find me a woman like Demi,” Kingston said.

“Didn’t you find one last night?” Nash teased. “Seems like you find yourself a new woman every week.”

“Hey now, don’t be hating on me like that. I’m just saying, a woman who takes care of me and wants to renovate a house with me sounds appealing.”

“You’d make it one week and be bored,” River said.

These guys had become family, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them.

“I think when King finds the right woman, he’ll be knocked on his ass.” I smiled at him because he loved when I took his side when the guys were giving him a hard time.

“And it’s such a good ass, too, isn’t it?”

“Please make him stop,” Hayes groaned. “No one wants to think about your ass.”

Everyone was laughing as Cutler made his way over to me. He was wearing a white suit with a blue carnation in the pocket. His hair was slicked back, per usual, and he had on white, shiny dress shoes that Nash had groaned about earlier because they were going to be filthy in a few hours. Cutler moseyed over to me and pulled out the flower.

“What’s up, Beefcake?” Kingston said, fist-bumping Cutler.

“I saw you all watching me on the dance floor, so I thought I better come over here.”

“We weren’t watching you,” Nash said with a laugh. “Although I did see you eating a chicken finger on the dance floor, and it caught my eye.”

Cutler smirked at his father before turning his attention to me.

“Demi, don’t worry about me dancing with Lexi. She goes to my school. She’s not my girl.”

“Well, she’s awfully cute,” I said.

“But she’s not you, is she?” he said, waggling his brows and matching the swagger of the men that had taken part in raising him.

Romeo leaned forward. “You moving in on my girl, Beefcake?”

“Well, you’re the champ now, Uncle Ro, so I’m not going to fight the champ. But if you don’t marry her, I’ll grow up and marry her myself.”

“Shots fired,” River said over his laughter, as he high-fived Cutler.

My head fell back in laughter, and I looked up to see my father watching me from the other side of the party. He’d pushed to attend, and my mother didn’t want to completely exclude him.

Romeo must have caught it, too, because he leaned close to my ear. “You want me to go with you to speak to him?”

He’d been encouraging me to talk to my dad, as he’d called multiple times since I’d returned from the fight. It shocked me that Romeo wanted me to repair my relationship with my father after the way he’d treated him.

“No. I’ve got this.” I kissed him quickly before leaning down to kiss Cutler on the cheek and walking toward my dad. My long white dress swooshed at my feet.

He was standing alone, which made me feel bad. He’d burned a lot of bridges lately, and my mother didn’t know if she could forgive him for all the lies. I’d never imagined a world where my parents weren’t together, so it hurt me to think of them both being alone. But at the same time, he’d done some horrible things, and I didn’t know if I could forgive him either, so I understood her struggle.

“Hey,” I said when I came to a stop in front of him.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart. You aren’t wearing the splint anymore. Does that mean you’re healing well?”

“Yeah. It’s been a few weeks and it’s healing nicely. No boxing with Pinky right now, though, or lifting anything heavy for a while.”

He nodded. “I’m glad you’re okay. I am sorry that I blamed Romeo for what happened when it ended up being Ronny behind the attack.”

“You know what, Dad,” I said, holding my hand up when he attempted to interrupt me. “You say I’m sorry a lot, but it doesn’t mean anything anymore because you do it all again the next time something doesn’t go your way.”

He looked away, gazing out at the water. “I’m not a perfect man, Demi. But I’m doing the best I can.”

“That’s not good enough anymore. So, you have two options. You can keep lying and protecting the wrong people, or you can step up for your family. Romeo and I are moving in together. I’ve never loved anyone like I love him. And you’ve done some horrible things to the man I love. You need to try to make that right, or you and I will never be okay.” I let out a long breath. “And Slade is working hard to move forward, and releasing all those secrets he was carrying helped. But you could go there. You could own your part in what happened. Help your son get his life back.”

“I don’t know where to start,” he said, his eyes locking with mine.

“Well, you’ve done nothing so far, so anything will be an improvement. Saying I’m sorry to the people you’ve hurt and following that up by not repeating the same mistakes again would be a good start.”

“I don’t know if your mom can forgive me,” he said.

“I don’t either. But the only way to find out is to start being the man she thought she married.”

“I don’t know how I got so lost along the way.” He shrugged.

“Just because you’re lost doesn’t mean you can’t find your way home. I hope you do the work that you need to. Because I miss my father.” I pushed up on my tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

That was enough for today.

We had a long way to go, and I wasn’t certain we’d get there, but I hoped we would.

When I made my way back to Romeo, River was on the phone, and everyone was quiet and watching him. I gave my boyfriend a curious look, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

River ended the call and reached for his drink, taking a long pull. “Lionel had a stroke.”

“What the fuck happened?” Kingston said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

River ran a hand down his face. “I don’t know. That was Doreen calling. Apparently, it happened at the bar when he was getting ready to head over here for the party.”

“He’s not that old. How the fuck did he have a stroke?” Romeo asked.

River glanced around at each of us, and then he cleared his throat. “He’s dating that woman who’s a lot younger than him.”

“And we’re blaming her?” Hayes asked.

“We’re blaming the double dose of medication he took, along with a shit ton of supplements to help him with some issues—down south.”

“Jesus. I never knew good loving could be the death of me.” Kingston shivered.

“He’s not dying. He’s going to be fine. But he’s going to be in the hospital for a while and then need physical therapy. He won’t be up and moving for a few months.”

“What can we do to help?” I asked. “Should we leave and head to the hospital?”

“No visitors until tomorrow. So we can take shifts. I don’t know what the fuck will happen with the bar. Doreen said she called Ruby. They’re hoping she can come to manage the bar until he gets on his feet.” Lionel’s daughter, Ruby, hadn’t lived in Magnolia Falls for the last few years, but she and Lionel had always been close and she visited when she could.

“Wow. Isn’t Ruby Rose the only person that ever beat up the champ?” Kingston said over a fit of laughter as he waggled his brows at Romeo.

“The girl had a mean left hook. And I wasn’t about to hit a girl back,” he said with a wicked smirk on his face.

“Yeah, she was a bit terrifying when we were young. She hated all of us back in the day. She’s an angry little demon. But she does love her dad, I’ll give her that.” River shook his head.

“Well, someone needs to run that bar, or it’ll go under quickly.” Hayes took a long pull from his beer bottle.

“I think she’ll come home,” I said, and everyone turned to look at me. “Yes. I know Ruby. She used to ride with me out at our barn. She won’t let her dad’s bar go under.”

Romeo nodded. “We’ll figure something out if she doesn’t come back. We can rally and cover things for him if we need to.”

“Agreed.” River stood, shaking off the fact that he was clearly upset. He and Lionel were close.

The guys all went to the bar to get another drink, and Romeo pulled me to my feet. “Want to go down by the water and you can tell me about your talk with your dad?”

“Sure.” I took his hand, and we walked down to the beach. The water splashed against the shore, and he pulled his coat off and laid it beside him before tugging me down to sit there.

“It was fine. I told him that I didn’t really need any more apologies; I needed action. And I made it very clear that you’re in my life now. You’re my future. If he can’t get on board with that, there is no place for him.”

“You don’t need to do that for me, baby.” He pushed the hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ears.

“Yes, I do. And you’d do the same for me. We’re a team, right?”

“The best team I know.” He smirked and then pulled me to my feet to walk down to the water. “I can’t wait to wake up to this sound every day. To the water splashing on the shore.”

“I know,” I said, as I lifted my long dress and splashed my feet in the water. It was gorgeous out tonight. “It’ll be a nice way to start the day.”

He tugged me closer and looked down at me. “Well, the best way to start the day is with my head buried between your thighs and my name on your lips. But if the water is splashing against the shore in the background, I wouldn’t complain.”

I unbuttoned his dress shirt so I could slide my hands up his chiseled abdomen.

“You’ve got a filthy mouth, Romeo Knight.”

“And you fucking love it.” He smirked.

“I do. How’d I get so lucky?”

“I’m the lucky one. You gave me what I never thought I’d have.”

“What’s that?” I asked, as he dropped his forehead against mine. The sun was just going down, and the sky was all sorts of pinks and oranges melded together.

“The kind of love that lasts forever. The kind of love you can’t live without once you have it.”

I could feel my eyes welling as I reached for his jaw, bringing his lips close to mine.

“Sounds like we’re both playing the long game. Forever has a nice ring to it.” I brushed my lips against his. “I love you.”

“Love you doesn’t seem like enough,” he whispered against my mouth. “But I’ll just keep telling you until we’re old and gray.”

And his mouth crashed into mine.

I may not have known it at the time, but forever started the day he’d come into my coffee shop.

And I’d been living it every single day since.

The End

Read a special bonus scene with all of your favorites from Magnolia Falls HERE: BONUS SCENE

If you’d like to see River fall hard and fast for his fierce heroine, you can pre-order Wild River HERE: WILD RIVER

Have you met Romeo’s brother and sister-in-law, Lincoln and Brinkley before seeing them in Loving Romeo? If you haven’t read their story, an enemies-to-lovers, sports romance, On the Shore, you can head over to Cottonwood Cove HERE: ON THE SHORE