Epilogue

Bo

the future

I walked hand in hand with Izzy, looking around at the now familiar town that I would call home, at least for a few months out of the year.

Izzy teased me when I made the decision, saying that now the town had sixteen-hundred and three residents. If I was being honest, the moment we decided to be together and give this a shot, the number no longer mattered to me, especially if she wanted to officially count me in. Sure, it was small and everyone seemed to know everyone (and their business), but I wanted to be wherever Izzy was.

And every time it came time for me to leave Silver Springs and head back to New York, it felt like a piece of me was missing. That was because I was leaving her behind. That was why we decided to make some changes.

We had been together for a while now and it was obvious Izzy and I had something special, so on my last visit to town we talked about my working from here when I could. One of the perks of being CEO, you could say. No longer under my father’s thumb, I was able to finally make decisions for the company that I saw fit. You had no idea what that did for a man, especially when you had the parents I did.

Well, that and Izzy—okay, so maybe there were two things that changed my life recently. That was the whole reason why I wasn’t ready to let her go, not yet. Dare I say, not ever.

Which brought us here. . . I pulled open the door to the new tattoo parlor in town.

Do you remember that motorcycle that breezed through town without a care in the world and almost ran Izzy over? Yeah, well, that motorcycle was owned by Flynn Cavallo, as was this tattoo parlor. And yes, I was over the fact that he could’ve hurt Izzy. It wasn’t good to harp on things, especially things we couldn’t change—at least that was how Izzy told it to me.

Anyway, this place didn’t get the warmest of welcomes at first, but I liked it. It brought a new angle to the small town, something interesting. Now, as for Flynn— yes, we all know you’re curious about him —well, his is a story you’ll have to wait for because he had been keeping to himself and no one knew much about him or what brought him to town, so I couldn’t exactly say.

I looked around and studied all the sketches on the walls, sketches of tattoo designs. I wondered if Flynn had drawn these himself. Some tattoo artists were known to sketch their own designs, but others didn’t. And these sketches were certainly unique. I’ll give you an idea of what I was talking about:

A horse with a sword in his mouth as though getting ready to charge toward someone or something.

The back of a woman with long blonde hair that seemed to be glowing.

A green chameleon with its tongue sticking out.

A frying pan with a sun emblazoned on it. This one almost looked mystical. Except why a frying pan, I wondered. What was with that?

I looked over at Izzy, who was staring at the curtain hanging on a doorway separating the front from the back. She stiffened beside me and her eyes grew wide. “You know what, we can just go home. Yeah, let’s go.”

I squeezed her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

I knew she was worried about my decision to get a tattoo. She said that it was too permanent a decision and that I needed more time to think on it. But I had considered it many times before and always thought getting one would be cool. It wasn’t getting a tattoo that was the problem, it was what I should get it of. What did I want marked on my skin forever?

Then I met Izzy and I knew the answer to that one.

And no, it was not of her face. That would be creepy. Sorry to anyone who had a tattoo of their partner’s face, but that wasn’t something I’d be doing.

Plus, I was pretty sure Izzy wouldn’t find it endearing.

“You’re sure about this?” she questioned.

I nodded slowly, completely sure about this and my decision. At one time I might’ve given a sarcastic or quipped response, but now I spoke from my heart. “As sure as I am about you.”

Just then, Flynn walked out from the back, raking a hand through his brown hair. “Hey, what can I do for you?” he asked, looking from me to Izzy.

Walking over, I went to shake his hand. “I’m Bo and this is my girlfriend, Izzy.”

I didn’t need to look at Izzy to know she was blushing, her cheeks turning that shade of red I’d seen dozens of times before. It happened every time I called her my girlfriend and I didn’t hate it, either, when she used the label boyfriend for me.

“I’d like a tattoo,” I said, stating the obvious.

He laughed and slapped his hands together. “You don’t say? You know, you’re the first, and I got to say, I’m pretty glad to see someone walk in here,” he remarked. At least him being glad didn’t mean he was smiling like the Cheshire cat. No, that was more my M.O. these days. Give the dude some time here, though, and knowing this town, he’d be humming happy tunes as he walked down the street to get to the grocery store soon enough.

It was nice to see a face like mine, er, my old one—straight-lipped and serious.

I offered him a smile. “Yeah, well, I always wanted one, so I figured why wait any longer. Let’s do this.”

Flynn nodded. “Sounds good to me. Come on back. Will you be coming, too?" he asked of Izzy, who now had her attention on a sketchbook on the counter.

Looking at her, too, now, I shook my head to Flynn and laid a hand on the small of her back, whispering in her ear, “I’d like to surprise you, if you don’t mind.”

She looked up, her attention back on me and the look of fear returning to her eyes. “Okay, but I’m still nervous.”

You don’t say, I thought to myself.

Her eyes looked deep into mine, as though searching for an answer. “What are you getting again?” she asked, her eyebrows raised as she waited for me to tell her.

There we go, that was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

But we both knew I wasn’t saying. She had asked me a dozen times before and I didn’t tell her then, so there was no chance I was telling her now. I stuck to what I said before. “Something special. Something to signify the way you changed my life.”

Grimacing, she bit her bottom lip. “All right. Be like that.”

I walked over and kissed her on the cheek. “It’ll be fine and you’ll love it.”

“It’s going to hurt,” she warned for the umpteenth time since I brought the idea up. Then she turned to Flynn and looked for confirmation on that one. “Right?”

He laughed. “It’ll barely tickle,” he answered her and walked to the curtain, holding it back. “You ready?”

I nodded and rubbed her shoulder before turning to join him in the back. “Relax. I’ll be out before you know it. Then we can go home and—”

Her eyes grew wide and looked over to where Flynn was standing, waiting.

“Order takeout,” I finished and her eyes went back to their normal size.

“I can’t wait,” she replied. She clutched her purse to her chest and nodded, a smile finally crossing her lips. That was a smile I needed to see, one that I now craved. It was funny how things changed, wasn’t it?

I returned her smile before walking through the curtain with Flynn.

* * *

“You know, that was better than usual and I especially liked the sticky rice,” Izzy noted of our dinner.

We were sitting on the couch, her feet curled up on the couch as she leaned into me, her head on my shoulder and my arm draped over hers.

The number of times she’d asked me if she could see it or if I could just “put her out of her misery” and tell her: eight.

Although, I had a feeling we were inching close to nine at this point.

I had a timer on my phone that would ding when it was safe to take the bandage off. Good thing I didn’t get a larger tattoo because that would’ve made the wait time even longer and I didn’t think Izzy could handle that.

I checked my phone that was on the arm of the couch and saw we had three minutes left. That wasn’t so bad, right?

“The sticky rice was good,” I agreed, trying to appease her with small talk.

She threw her head back now and groaned. “Bo, this is torture. If you just tell me, then I won’t give a hoot when that thing comes off. But you’re killing me here.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“Yes,” she said, “but that’s not a virtue I possess.” Then she pointed a finger in my face. “And you know that about me.”

I took her finger and kissed it before pulling her close and kissing the top of her forehead. “Yes, I do know that.”

“So you accept that about me because you have to,” she told me. “Just as I accept that you’re putting me through this when you could easily tell me. He who has the knowledge and all of that,” she said, her words trailing off.

What? I cocked a brow.

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.” She blurted out, “I can’t believe you won’t tell me, show me, whatever.”

“One more minute,” I informed her after looking at my phone again. “When you hear my phone go off, you can do the honors and take the bandage off.”

“Really?” Her whole face practically lit up. “I’ll be really gentle. I’ve been watching videos, actually.”

“I know.”

“You know?” She arched a brow. “How do you know?”

I shrugged. “I’ve walked in the room and seen you staring at your screen watching videos.”

Looking unashamed, she turned to face me. “Well, I just wanted to make sure I knew everything there was to know about tattoos and caring for them, so that I could take care of you.”

No one had ever wanted to take care of me before. For so long I could only depend on myself, so it was nice to know that I had found that with Izzy.

At the noise coming from my phone, we were finally alerted to the fact that it was time for me to take off the bandage. Although, if the timer didn’t alert me, then Izzy would’ve because she was already standing up, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her excitement level practically through the roof, which had to have been contagious because I said, “Okay, okay. You can take it off,” as I smiled at her.

She sat back down next to me and carefully rolled up the sleeve of my shirt and studied the bandage. “If you want, you can do it.”

I grabbed her hand that was in her lap, bringing it to my lips. “No. You got this. I trust you implicitly.”

Her face aglow at my words, I chuckled. “What? Like you didn’t know that to be true already?”

She leaned over and brushed a kiss on my lips. I pulled her in by the back of her neck and tried to deepen it, but she pulled back. “No way! There’s no time for that right now.” She wagged a finger at me. “I want to see this tattoo.”

“And to think,” I began, feigning disappointment, “I thought kissing me would get your mind off of it. I thought I was a world-class kisser.”

She blushed. “You’ve got skills, I’ll give you that.” Then she added, “And we’re definitely going to go back to that, but right now I really want to see your tattoo.”

“I’m counting on it.”

With a hand near the bandage, she looked up at me momentarily before focusing her attention back on the bandage. She rubbed the skin around the bandage before finding a corner and lifting it off. In the slowest reveal ever, she finally sat back, bandage in hand, and gasped softly.

My gut clenched at the sound I knew so well, the sound she made when she was truly surprised, but also truly happy.

Her eyes began to water and in that moment I knew I made the right decision, not just about the bandage, but about her. I didn’t think I could imagine the cookie crumbling any other way for me. I was meant to come to this town and plan a wedding—our friends’ wedding—with this woman.

And to think, I thought no one could care for a beast like me.

But she did.

She did, and it quite literally saved me.

Her voice was barely above a whisper as she croaked, “It’s a rose.”

“For you,” I pointed out, knowing I really didn’t need to, but wasn’t sure what else to say.

“It’s beautiful, Bo.” Then she took my face in her hands and leaned in to give me a kiss on the lips.

It was a short kiss again and I would’ve preferred that we stayed like that for a while longer, but she pulled back and smiled, looking at the opened red rose that now adorned my arm. “It’s a rose for me,” she repeated as though letting it fully absorb in.

I grazed my thumb over her cheek to wipe away a tear that had fallen. “What did you expect me to get?”

She looked at me. I mean, really looked at me, her eyes going from one to the other and then back again. “I have no idea.” She exhaled, clearly trying to avoid having more tears fall. “Not this. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

I wrapped my arms around her, bringing her close.

She rested her head on my shoulder.

“It’s a tale as old as time,” I explained. “Beast meets girl and girl shows him what it’s like to truly be loved.” I kissed her hair and, not for the first time, really appreciated how far we came and all that she did for me, for my life.

“It’s an enchanting story,” she said, amusement in her voice.

That it was, but, in fact, it was better because it was real. This story was ours. “As enchanting as you, as enchanting as my rose.”

For Izzy Rose Monroe changed my life and I, Bo Grant, was no longer the beast I saw myself to be, but a prince among men for having landed a woman as special as her.

Did you know the paperback copy has a unique wrapping paper inspired inside cover? Check out the paperback.

I hope you enjoyed reading Bo and Izzy’s grumpy x sunshine rom-com!

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