Epilogue

ONE YEAR LATER: EVE

M y phone buzzed: You here?

I smiled. Tapped away. Didn't you hear me cheering?

When do you get in? You must be exhausted!!!

I tucked my phone away, smoothed out my hair. Pulled out my compact and checked my lipstick. Then I knocked on his door, three rapid taps. My pulse rate picked up and I felt my cheeks flush, rising excitement tightening my chest. He still had that effect on me, even a year in.

"Marco?"

He flung the door open. I jumped into his arms. He caught me and spun me and kissed me all over, my forehead, my eyelids, my cheeks and my lips. I ran my fingers through his helmet-mussed hair. I needed to feel him solid and real, holding me like he'd never let go.

"I'm all sweaty," he said, and pushed me away.

"I don't care. I like sweat, as long as it's yours." I stole a five-o'clock-shadow kiss, all rough and scratchy. Marco chuckled into it as he kissed back.

"When'd you finish shooting?"

"Midnight last night. Then I couldn't get out of the party till three. I got off the plane and ran straight to the track. Slipped the driver a fifty to get me in for the start. Congratulations, by the way. You were lightning out there."

Marco pushed my hair back to examine my face. He rubbed the pads of his thumbs under my eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for eye bags."

I slapped him off. "No bags. I packed light." In truth, I'd been up nearly forty-eight hours. Forget bags — I had suitcases. Entire shipping crates. But I didn't feel tired, not in the least. What I felt was feather-light, floaty, elated. I was here at the track with my speed-demon boyfriend, and in a few minutes, he'd sweep me off home. We'd make up for the eternity we'd just spent apart, five entire days while I shot a pilot.

"You look gorgeous," said Marco, and kissed me again. "You know how you build people up in your head? How they're never as amazing as you remember? Well, you're the flipside of that. However perfect I think you are, you're twice as good."

"So are you. Three times." I nuzzled at his jawline. Nibbled his ear. Pressed up against him to make him shiver with need. I'd missed him so bad next to me in the night, snuggled together like peas in a pod. When he held me, he was it for me. He was my whole world. Nothing mattered outside the circle of his arms. Tonight, I'd have that again, all through the night. Tomorrow, we'd wake up all happy and tangled.

"I should get changed," he said. "Then we can go."

I thought about letting go of him, and then I didn't. Marco laughed, wriggled free, and guided me to the couch. He sat me down gently and kissed me one more time. "Five minutes, I swear. Then I'm all yours."

I watched as he stripped off his tight driving gear, admiring the body I loved more than life. He'd kept up with his workouts while I was gone, and his tight muscles rippled under golden-bronze skin. His hair was all messed up from his tight collar, spun into a cowlick at the nape of his neck. I smiled at the sight of it, so unruly, so familiar.

"Let's not go home," I said. "Let's get a room here."

Marco let out a snort, half-trapped in his shirt. I reached out and ran a finger down his belly, making his abs jump and break out in gooseflesh.

"Let's stay here tonight, and maybe tomorrow. Lock ourselves in our room till they have to throw us out."

"We can't," said Marco, shrugging out of his shirt.

I pouted. "Why not?"

"Because I promised my uncle I'd stop by tomorrow. Tony's picking his ma up at the airport, so Uncle Sal needs me to fill in at the shop."

"What, at the bakery? Since when do you bake?"

"Tony'll do that part before he heads off. All I need to do is stand at the counter."

"But tomorrow , though? I just got back."

Marco pulled his pants on, a quick, hopping dance. He knelt, took my hands, and kissed up my fingers. "We'll have all night tonight. I thought we'd stay at the farmhouse. The roof's all up now, and they've finished the windows."

I grimaced. The farmhouse? That was hours off. Hours on the road before I could have him. I wasn't sure I could take it, but I managed a smile. "The farmhouse it is, then. But you'd better drive fast."

And Marco did drive fast, so fast my heart pounded. The city flew by us, then the countryside, and we raced the sunset into the hills. We pulled up at the farmhouse right around twilight, the sky mauve and purple, studded with stars. I hadn't seen the place since Marco closed on it, and I caught my breath at how it had changed. He'd added a patio enclosed by flowerbeds, just dirt for now, but soon they'd be blooming. Where the roof beams had jutted like old, broken teeth, a red roof now rose, bright terracotta. He tapped on his phone and lights blinked on inside, a soft, mellow glow spilling out the new windows.

"What do you think?" He sounded almost nervous.

"It's stunning," I said. "Like a country estate."

"It still needs some work. I might add a guest house."

"Your family would love that when they come and visit."

Marco took my hand and squeezed it tight. I couldn't tell if he was shaking or if my heart was just racing. Something felt different, a charge in the air. A sense of unknown, electric potential.

"What—" I started.

"Come inside." He pulled me up the front steps and inside the house. It was mostly unfurnished still, but I hardly noticed. All I could see were the lilies all over — lilies and fairy lights, like a scene from a dream. The roof beams all sparkled like a lattice of stars. Flowers hung in garlands and stood in huge pots. The air smelled like dessert, so sweet my head spun.

"Marco?"

He let my hand drop. When I turned to face him, he'd dropped down with it, down to one knee on the new hardwood floor. He'd pulled a box out from somewhere, deep blue velvet. I tried to say something, but no words would come.

"Eve." It came out hoarse, and he cleared his throat. "I brought you here once, a year ago to the day. What I never told you was, you were the first. The first woman I could be open with, be myself with. The first one I'd want here — and the only one." He cracked the box open. My eyes blurred with tears. All I could make out was a band of bright sparks. Stars in a blue sky, winking at me.

"Marco…"

"I told you back then, how I loved coming here. How I wanted to bring my family up for the summers. Well, I want that to be our family. Our thing, together. I missed this the most, up north in those lonely years, me and my cousins running around. Ma on the stoop, calling us up for dinner. If that sounds good to you, if you think you could?—"

"Yes, yes…"

"If you could see us up here, our family, our kids?—"

" Yes! "

"Then, Eve, will you marry me? Will you share my life?"

I snatched the ring, dropped it. Marco caught it mid-fall. He took my hand gently and slipped the ring on my finger, a perfect fit. Like Marco and me.

"Yes. Yes. " I held the ring to the light. It sparkled and dazzled, all rainbow fire, a diamond so blinding I could hardly make out its shape.

"I can't wait to tell Ma." Marco bounced where he knelt. "And Uncle Sal, Uncle Tony…"

I stifled a groan. "Uncle Sal, damn it! I can't believe you said yes to that! You'll be slinging pastries all day, and we just got engaged!"

"I won't be," he said. "I just made up the bakery shift so you'd come out here. So you wouldn't insist we get a hotel."

"So, you're all mine?"

"All yours, forever."

I grabbed both his hands and pulled him up from his knees. When I kissed him, a million fireworks flared in my head. I lit up from within, my whole heart and body, joy rushing through me like nothing I'd known. This was it — this was mine, a life of my choosing. A long life with Marco, living our dream. When I closed my eyes I could see it, our future unspooling: days at the races, on the red carpet. Children, a brood of them, ours and his cousins'. Gabriella's as well one day, a whole sprawling clan. I couldn't wait to watch it unfold. To live every second of it, and make it count.

"I can't wait," I whispered. "I love you. I can't wait."

The End