Epilogue Grace Nash

The Best Drunken Mistake

Six Months After the Wedding

"I'm so glad you're home," Dad says to me, and I hug him tightly.

"This is Theo," I say, linking my arm through my great-uncle's.

My dad sticks out a hand for his uncle to shake, and Theo bats his hand out of the way as he pulls my dad into a hug.

"I knew I had nephews, but I never thought I'd actually get to meet them," he says. "And you must be Jimmy," he says to my great uncle, whom he hugs next. "Gracie has told me so much about both of you." He leans in as if he's telling a secret. "Once you get this one talking, it's hard to get her to stop."

I playfully jab him in the arm. He's only about ten years older than my dad, and somehow he was my great-grandparents' best-kept secret…which is a real shame because Uncle Theo is a freaking hoot.

He's like the male version of Nana.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess.

It only took me a month to convince him to come out and meet the rest of the family. Once Spencer got the green light from Nana, we found a hole in the schedule that coincided with Spencer's bye week, and here we are back in Minnesota so Theo can check out Newlywed Vineyard and take notes to bring back to Temecula.

Nana hasn't officially signed anything over to me yet, but the paperwork is in progress. For now, I'm just letting both vineyards run as they always have, and I'm taking a little time off as I get to know everyone in California. It's starting to feel like home, though most days I'm pretty sure I'm waking up in some sort of dream.

When Spencer goes to practice, I drive an hour to the vineyard that will be mine after all the proper paperwork is filed. I check in on the other vineyard that is set to be mine, too, and then I head back home, stare out over the bay, and wait for Spencer to join me for dinner.

Amelia steps tentatively out of her office when she hears voices. She's never been tentative a day in her life, and I can't help but wonder what's up with her.

"Theo, this is my sister, Amelia," I say.

He purses his lips and narrows his eyes. "I've heard about you, too," he says, and I'm certain he's teasing since I've reserved my gossip where she's concerned other than to tell him we don't always get along.

But I do feel like I have a sister I get along with now. Over the last month, I've grown closer to my sister-in-law, Ava…the one whose dress I wore to my own wedding.

She texted me when she heard from Grayson that Spencer and I were back together and I was moving to California, and she commiserates with me about what it's like being married to a football player when he's in season.

She's quickly become one of my best friends, and we're both looking forward to December when the Vegas Aces come out to San Diego to play the Storm—mostly so we can spend the weekend hanging out on the balcony and gossiping about the other football wives we've met.

I mean…sharing industry secrets.

Never gossiping.

"I'm just kidding," Theo says, and he hugs Amelia, too .

"Can I talk to you?" Amelia asks me quietly after Theo spots Nana and beelines for his half-sister.

I nod, and I squeeze Spencer's hand before I head into her office. She closes the door behind me.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"I, uh…just wanted to apologize to you. I know I've been an asshole to you your entire life, and you never deserved that." She lifts a shoulder. "Well, you didn't always deserve that. Especially not the mustard thing. I just got so hellbent on winning that I stopped caring about who I'd hurt. But the truth is that you always deserved the vineyard."

"What's bringing this on?" I ask, not trusting that she's being genuine with me.

She blows out a breath. "I'm pregnant."

"You're…you're what ?"

"Pregnant," she repeats.

"Drew's?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I'm not sure."

"Oh, Amelia," I say. "What are you going to do?"

She sighs. "I don't know."

"It's either Drew's or…?" I trail off to allow her to fill in the blank, and I hope it's only one.

"Pete."

I nod. "You know about the will, right?"

"Yeah. Dad told me when he walked in on Pete and me in the kitchen a few weeks ago." She cringes at the memory.

Sometimes I wonder how it's possible that we're related at all when we're so different from each other. The idea of being in a relationship and stepping outside of it would just never occur to me. Yeah, my own sister is cheating on her husband after she was cheating on my husband back when they were together. It hurts my heart to know that this is how she treats people, but it shouldn't be fully unexpected considering how she has treated me my entire life.

Still, this might be the first time I actually feel bad for her.

I was young when Mom and Dad split up, so I don't know all the reasons why their marriage didn't work. Given the fact that my mother remarried, and my father has remained single his entire life, I have a pretty strong inclination that she stepped outside. I'd venture to guess that he was so hurt by it that he never found it in himself to get into another relationship.

And if Amelia was old enough to witness that, I could see how it might affect her in a way that made her feel like that's what relationships are supposed to be, whereas I was oblivious to what was really going on. Instead, I sympathized with my dad, who I was closer to anyway.

I wish I could sit here and tell my sister that I'm here to help her or that I'll be with her through this as she navigates the difficult situations that will surely arise from being pregnant and not knowing who the father is.

But I can't be that person for her.

We're not close, we've never been close, and a single apology when someone is hit with the blunt force of her own actions would never be enough for me to get over the lifetime of hurt she's caused me.

Still, she's bringing a baby—my niece or nephew—into this world, and that precious child doesn't deserve to have its mother's terrible actions held against him or her.

"Have you told anyone?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "I didn't know who to turn to."

"So you turned to me?" I ask, holding a hand to my chest.

"I know I'm a dick, but I see the way you live your life, Gracie. You're doing things the right way, and I guess I've always been the screw-up. I took that out on you."

Wow. I guess pregnancy really fucks with a mother's brain.

I nod. "You did, and while I can forgive you, I won't forget. I don't know that I'll ever trust you, Amelia. One conversation doesn't change the twenty-five years of hell you put me through."

She lifts a shoulder. "Not the college years when I was gone. Oh, except when I hid all your socks when I was home for break. Okay, fine. Not the years I was a teacher and only came back once in a while."

I flatten my lips pointedly. She still managed to make my life hell even then by waltzing in and pulling Spencer right out from under me.

But I ended up where I was supposed to be. I'm twenty-five, and I own two wineries. I'm married to an NFL star who happens to be the absolute man of my dreams, and our entire future feels like it's right in front of us. The possibilities are endless.

It all worked out how it was supposed to. For me, anyway. I'm not so sure what Amelia's future holds.

And later, once Spencer and I have retired back to my bungalow and we're lying in bed after a particularly exhausting round of sex followed by a shower together, he asks the question he's been waiting to ask all day. "What did Amelia want to talk to you about?"

I pause for a beat as I draw little circles on that perfect abdomen of his. "She's pregnant."

"Oh, shit. Drew's?" he asks.

"She isn't sure."

"Damn."

"Yeah, you lucked out with the Newman sister you ended up with."

He chuckles and taps me on the nose. "I thank the stars every single night for that. And, you know, Elvis."

"You thank Elvis?"

He laughs. "When he said we ‘Can't Help Falling in Love,' and that's what brought us to the chapel that night, I think he was right. He knew even before we did. So as long as you ‘Don't be Cruel,' I promise I won't be a ‘Hound Dog.'" He presses a kiss to my temple.

I giggle as I look up at him, and I see the love he has for me as he gazes down. I shift up to press a soft kiss to his lips.

Wedding the wide receiver turned out to be the best drunken mistake I've ever made.