Epilogue

Two months later

I loved my girl, and I felt like I'd done a pretty good job of learning to tolerate her friends over the past couple months, but this was getting fucking ridiculous.

I might have changed for Jolie, but I was still the same grumpy bastard I'd always been, the one who wasn't a fan of most people, and that probably wouldn't change. Not that it mattered, because she loved me and accepted me exactly how I was. She didn't want to change me or turn me into a different man. When I pushed her buttons, she pushed back. We fought, we annoyed each other, but we loved twice as hard.

Currently, I was sitting at the bar at The Drunken Moose, watching as Jolie and her partners, Ryan and Tarryn, along with two other friends, Eliza and a woman named Lilly, sang and danced along drunkenly to the music coming from the jukebox. And it had to be said that if I never heard another Taylor Swift song for as long as I lived it would be too damn soon.

"Christ. How many songs did they queue up in that damn thing?" Ethan grumbled from beside me. We'd come along as designated drivers, knowing the women wanted to tie one on, but had kept our distance, letting them do their thing while we had a couple beers at the bar. Ethan had brought his buddy Quinn along, Lilly's husband and a local firefighter, and so far he'd turned out to be a pretty cool dude.

Quinn lifted his glass to his mouth and drank. "I think they put the entire album on."

Jesus Christ.

"So, how are things going with you, man? You convince her to move in with you yet?"

I returned my focus to my woman, my chest expanding as I watched her throw her head back and lift her arms in the air, her eyes closed as she sang along—badly—about some anti-hero. "Not yet," I grumped.

A lot had changed in the past two months, and while it took some adjusting on my part, it was easy to see all of those changes had been for the better. I still had a reputation around town for being an asshole, but something had shifted once word spread that I was moving to Pembrooke permanently, all so I could be with Jolie. Apparently my standoff-ish demeanor didn't bother people so much when I was a part of the fabric of the town.

And considering Jolie was beloved by pretty much everyone who knew her, they'd started looking at me as some kind of hero. The man who'd swooped in and healed her heart after it had been broken. It wasn't a title I was particularly comfortable with, but it meant something to Jolie, so I learned to deal.

I was learning a lot when it came to being in a relationship, such as having to accept the people—or in my case, animals—that came as part of the package with the woman I loved.

That damned smoosh-faced cat of hers had managed to ruin two more suits, but despite its destructive tendencies, it was still taken with me for some strange reason. Jolie said it was because I was the thing's favorite person, but I was starting to think there were more sinister motives behind it. Like maybe it was just pretending to love me, but it was actually playing the long game when it came to torturing me.

Not that it mattered. I'd take anything the psychotic feline could throw at me. Hell, I was even willing to move the devil cat into my house if it meant getting Jolie there.

Things with my dad were better than I could have hoped for. He was officially in remission, and he and Millie were living their best life. Jolie and I saw them once a month for dinner, and I wasn't the least bit surprised they'd fallen head over heels for her.

Much to Leighton's displeasure.

Speaking of my half-sister, I ended up having to pay Jolie a hundred bucks when she bet me that Leighton's relationship with Barrett would go up in flames before she made it down the aisle. She'd been right. Barrett was currently slinking around town with his tail tucked between his legs, most likely wishing he hadn't been stupid enough to let a woman like Jolie go. Meanwhile, Leighton had taken off for something bigger and better—much like Estelle. She didn't have any skills I was aware of, and after Hershel and Millie informed her they were done enabling her bad attitude and behavior, she didn't have any resources either. It was only a matter of time before she came crawling back, but I wasn't holding my breath. I had better things to focus on.

I'd also grown closer with Jolie's parents and still enjoyed our weekly family dinners in which Lorene got a kick out of torturing her daughter.

We were traveling to Hope Valley the following month so Jolie could see her niece in person and I could meet her brother and sister-in-law, and, surprisingly, I wasn't dreading it.

I was... happy. Every single day, I woke up with a lightness in my chest that hadn't been there since I was a kid, and I knew I'd made the right choice. I finally had a home. A place I was meant to be. A place where I belonged. And it was all because of the woman standing across the bar from me, smiling at me like I lit up her entire world.

"But I'm not giving up," I informed my friends.

Because that woman was my port in the storm, my anchor. She was the lifeline that kept my head above water and stopped me from going adrift.

She was everything, and I fully intended on spending the rest of my life showing her how much she meant to me.

The End.