Epilogue

The Royal Palace

Ralavia

"Fox, are you really wearing that? Did you murder the designers the studio sent?"

Patrick is still Patrick. Even six months and one criminal case in which he was the star witness—though not the only one—later, he's still a pain in my ass.

I'm wearing jeans and a sweatshirt that declares Ralavia is for Lovers. That was totally my idea. We have merch and everything.

And the tourists are pouring in for the royal wedding. We even have a couple of Windsors showing up for this sucker. Of course I'm not wearing jeans to my rehearsal dinner.

Which is being filmed along with the wedding for twenty million that's going straight into the coffers. When Pinnacle dropped the project, another production company picked it up and paid through the nose for it. They re-edited it and The Road to a Crown became one of the biggest hits of the year all around the world. "No. There's a nice dress waiting for me, but I got hungry. You know damn straight no one's going to let me eat the food at the dinner."

"Because it looks terrible on camera. No one can eat pretty on camera. It's an awful gross process, and I won't be filming it," Patrick says, an implied duh in his tone. He glances over at the lighting crew. "Hey, be careful with the stained glass. Harper gave me a whole lecture about how it's five thousand years old, and I'll be stabbing history in the back if we break anything." He sighs. "She's going to be fun to work with."

I smile. Patrick's got a new job. He was hired to run production on the royal wedding specials, and he's got a brand-new reality show. A Gilded Renovation.

Also my idea. What we realized was that Ralavian Production Studios didn't have to just shoot in Ralavia. We have seed money and our first big project. We'll be filming the renovation of a Gilded Age mansion with a world-famous designing brother duo and the most amazing construction manager I know. Harper. It doesn't hurt that Harper and one of the brothers hated each other on first sight and have a whacked-out chemistry. I can't wait to see where it goes.

We're going back, all three of us. Me and Harper and Ivy. Back where our dreams began, where my love story grew, where we learned to dream. The mansion in the Upper East Side is getting a glow up.

But first I'm getting hitched.

"You could have taken the other job," I say as I walk past the ballroom toward the craft service table.

"The Hannah and Riley Show?" Patrick shakes his head as though it's the most terrible idea in the world. "Save me from small-town lesbians taking on the big city and fighting injustice."

"I think it's going to be fabulous." Shelby is already dressed to kill. She'll be starring in Island of Skanks…I mean Lovers. We joke, she and I. We've gotten kind of close, though she Karens out every now and then. "I, for one, want to see the moment she tells her preacher father that she went on a reality show to try to marry a king and ended up with a graphic designer with spectacular tits."

Riley grins from her makeup chair. "And they're real, too."

Hannah's eyes roll, but she chuckles. "He handled it better than I thought he would. Though he told me he's planning to show the first episode to his bible study group. I'm not sure that's going to go so well. I think he means it as a cautionary tale. He told me if I went to New York, I would become a lesbian and I did."

"Uh, you always were one, babe." Riley winks her way. "Me, too. I was afraid to admit it until I found someone worth risking everything for."

"Eww, they're so mushy." But Shelby sits beside them and starts talking to Ashley F.

The gang's all here. My bridal party. My friends.

Up ahead my two maids of honor are talking to my moms. That's how I refer to them now. Mom and my bonus mom. Tonya's been a far better parent to me than my dad.

"I like the relaxed look." Tonya nods with approval.

"I've got an hour or so," I hedge. "I will look stunning when the cameras roll. I'm sure there's a makeup artist waiting to make my eyelashes look like they were made for a fashionable Godzilla."

Ivy blinks. "Yeah, they're ridiculously long. You know where I don't have to wear a ton of makeup? When I'm coding. It's the best job because no one expects me to be beautiful."

"And yet you are," Heath says from where he's sitting with Darnell, both of my amazing guy friends looking dapper in suits.

"Hey, did you see the news?" Darnell asks. "Jessica Wallace is out as CEO after the stock drop and how she handled the Joe Helms case."

Ivy frowns. "She still got a fifty-million-dollar severance package. At least Helms got jail time."

It had been deeply satisfying watching them take him away. He's only doing two years in a minimum-security prison, but he won't be in a position of power anymore.

I feel sad about Jessica, but I did what I had to. "The money won't mean as much as her reputation. Where are the moms?"

It's what we call CeCe, Ivy's mom, Diane, and Heath's grandma, Lydia. They've formed their own weird girl gang.

"Oh, they're at the casino," Tonya explains. "They invited us, but your mom insisted on overseeing all the catering."

"My baby is getting married. It's the biggest most important production of my life," my mom announces. "I'm not leaving this palace until the job is done."

Tonya smiles brightly. "But then we're heading to someplace called Ibiza. CeCe and the girls invited us along. I think it's going to be fun."

Heath waves at me. "I've got a plan in place to bail them out when the inevitable happens. Don't worry. Your honeymoon is safe."

"CeCe would never let them get arrested," Ivy promises. "She'll bribe the cops or use her mob connections."

"Not making me feel better," I shoot back. "She's like the queen mother now. Or she's about to be."

"I don't think that's how that works." Darnell always has to be the smartie.

"Baby, I made a sandwich for you," my mom says. "I also made some pasta but it disappeared."

Ivy winces. "I was really hungry. It wasn't just me. Heath and Darnell are pasta thieves, too."

Harper looks stunning in her blue cocktail dress. "I didn't eat a thing because if I do this dress will explode, and I've been told it's perfect for the lighting in here. I'm going to hate getting what I wished for, aren't I?"

She's nervous about the show. "You're going to be perfect."

"I know someone who is already perfect," a deep voice says.

Just like that my heart rate jumps. I turn and Luca is there. He's not ready either. So there, Patrick. He's looking deliciously rumpled in his riding clothes. Or maybe they're his polo clothes. I don't know. I'm still learning. I only know he looks absolutely sexy.

"I like the way you think, Your Majesty," I reply with a grin.

"I like the way you do everything, Your Majesty." He moves in and hauls me up into his arms. "I think I need a shower before we film. Come along. You'll find this is one of your sacred duties as queen."

"Get a room," Ivy calls out.

"I don't need a room. I have a whole palace," Luca replies without looking back.

"I would never shirk my duties," I vow. "Ich liebe dich, mein K?nig."

I've got a tutor now.

"I love you, too, my queen," he says, and he carries me away to our future.

* * * *

The Park Avenue Promise series will continue…