Epilogue

Epilogue

Gemma

One Year Later

P laying for keeps is a long game.

It is a beautiful day to plate it safe. The skies streak with pinks and oranges as the sun rises over the glittering tower skyline. Chicago is beautiful in the morning. Today is going to be a beautiful day no matter the weather.

Heart fluttering, I walk across the front porch of the adorable cottage that is now our home. Gideon leads me inside, taking time in each room as if we have not seen the place a hundred times. It is when he leads down the hall that I notice there is something I have not seen.

“Gideon,” I gasp to see us staring back at us in the floor to ceiling mirrors. A long bar runs the length of the mirror, and I even see a pole in one corner. “A dance studio? But I thought…”

“It was never going to be an office, kitten. You want to dance, you can dance here. You can dance at a theater, do cabaret, whatever you want. I wanted to give you a place to start. I love you, Gemma.”

Tears flood my vision as I spin to wrap my arms around his wide shoulders. Laughing, Gideon picks me up to spin us around the room. I laugh too, watching us twirling in the mirrors. When I see how we’re smiling at one another, I cannot look away.

How is this my life? How is all of this mine? Gideon is the best man I have ever met. I cannot believe he is real. That he meant all the promises he made to me. He has kept every single one since the night I took almost all his money at the blackjack table.

“I love you. You’re amazing,” I whisper as he sets me on my feet. I gaze up at him, love flooding me as I smirk at him hanging back. “Would you feel like adding on to the cottage again?”

“Do we want a gambling den?” He teases with a peck at my lips.

Shaking my head, I sober as I let the secret out. “No. A nursery.”

Gideon blinks before he pushes me back, eyes dropping to my soft stomach. “Fuck. A baby. We’re having a baby? Well, I guess that leaves me no choice,” he says in a teasing tone, before he drops to his knee.

“Oh shit,” I gasp the words, nodding before he even speaks.

“How about we go all in forever, kitten? Be my wife?”

“Yes! Yes, I am all in, Gideon. Forever all in.”