EPILOGUE

MACK

“Those are new,” my client says, nodding toward my ears.

I look up from my work. He’s not the first person to notice or comment and he won’t be the last. When I began wearing my hearing aids I was self-conscious. That passed quickly, though. I didn’t even grow out my hair to cover them.

The woman who loves me accepts me for who I am and doesn’t get annoyed when I fiddle with them and blast us both with high-pitched whistling noises from the aids. Even better, now I can hear every word she says.

I no longer feel lost during conversations or miss key information when people are speaking with me. Yes, it took some getting used to. All completely normal, my audiologist assured me. The benefits far outweigh the cons, which were mostly soreness in my ears and my brain hurting from the sudden rush of hearing background noise which I was no longer used to.

Overall, I’m pretty happy I finally got my head out of my ass and did something about my hearing issues. I wish I had done it sooner.

No matter. What’s done is done.

“Yeah, had them about five months now.”

“Too many concerts blasted out your eardrums?”

Laughing, I shake my head. “Unfortunately, not the case.” I gesture to the band logo design I’m inking on his leg. “You going to see them in March?”

“You know it!” My client starts talking about all the concerts he’s been to, and I go back to work, my hearing aids forgotten once more.

It’s a light day so I get home early for me around eight. Sadie looks up from her place on the couch where she’s been practicing signing along with a video on her laptop.

At this point, I’ve chosen not to learn sign language. Sadie respected that decision and out of her own curiosity read the books herself. I still remember the morning I woke up to her bouncing on the bed. Sadly, not bouncing on me, but that came later.

She had discovered the community college had ASL courses and she wanted to enroll. Her manager Doug proved to be a dick and didn’t want to move her schedule around so she could attend classes, so I encouraged her to quit. I had told her I would take care of her, and I meant it.

Sadie is now interested in a career as a sign language interpreter. It’s been wonderful to see her so excited and passionate about something.

Hopping up from the couch, Sadie runs across the room and jumps into my arms, her mouth crashing into mine. I gotta admit I love her greetings.

My cock stirs in my pants, and I grin while kissing her. I love everything about my girl. Wildly enough she seems to feel the same.

Our friends Yvonne and Henry got married recently and I tattooed their ring fingers for them. Sadie said she wanted us to get tattoos of each other’s name on our ring finger when we’re ready to take the plunge into marriage.

It’s a dick thing to say, but tattooing someone’s name on your body seems to be the kiss of death for some relationships, so I absolutely refused. Sadie’s face went through a wide range of emotions before she finally burst out into giggles.

She’s fun, sweet, and talks my ears off, and I adore her from the top of her head down to her toes. Now I’m just waiting for the perfect moment to propose. We got her settled into my house two months ago so maybe in two more I’ll pop the question.

My breathing is ragged when our lips part. “Good day?” I ask.

“Yes! And Charlie caught a mouse.”

Horrified, I look over at the blue cat tower where Charlie is curled up in a ball snoozing peacefully. I don’t know what to be more alarmed over, that we had a mouse in the house or that Charlie killed it.

“You didn’t let him eat it, did you?”

Sadie wiggles to be let down. “No, I took it from him and put the poor thing outside.”

The ‘poor thing’ probably promptly found whatever opening he had used in the first place to get inside and is now back busy chewing on our things and doing other things mice do. I keep my lips shut about that and give Sadie another kiss.

“Feel up for a late night picnic at the park?”

Sadie’s blue eyes gleam. “Did you get the gazebo again?”

Desire flares as memories stir of the last time we were there. “I did.”

She squeals and throws her arms around my neck. “Then yes! Let me go change.”

I watch as she rushes upstairs and smile fondly. For years, she tempted me. Even so, I never could have imagined the joy and happiness Sadie would bring to my life. She likes to tease how we weren’t ever really matched.

I know differently.

Matchmakers might not have set us up, but they certainly played a part in our story. I’ll forever be grateful for that.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed Sadie and Mack’s story. Please leave a review as I love hearing what my readers think.

Ready for the matchmakers to set up Fred’s grandson? Check out Aaron and Cher’s story in the upcoming book Surprising the Solemn Guy .

Want to stay up to date on my latest releases, get access to all bonus content, and get alerts for free book events? Sign up for my newsletter .

And as always lovely readers, read on!