Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Josie

Three months later

“Why did you let her go? I don’t think we’ve gotten a good one yet because you were scowling the first few minutes.”

Fox grunted and shook his hand out. “Damn thing just bit me. Again.”

Daisy bolted across the lawn. Opal chuckled. She was standing a few feet away trying to take our holiday picture. Fox’s mom, Hope, was next to her. Neither had stopped smiling since they arrived an hour ago.

“Uh, boss. I think she did more than nip at you.” Opal gestured to Fox’s shirt. “You might want to look down.”

Fox groaned. “Jesus Christ.”

I tried not to look amused. “Some people would say that’s good luck.”

“How the hell is a duck shitting on you lucky?”

“Well, we’re lucky I couldn’t decide which shirt I liked better for the picture and bought you two, aren’t we?”

“I didn’t need one flannel, much less two,” he grumbled.

“I disagree. Go change. We’ll let Daisy run around for a few minutes so she’s happier when you come back.”

Fox mumbled something under his breath I didn’t catch, but stalked to the house.

Hope watched her son disappear. “I can’t believe you got him to wear a red plaid flannel.”

I didn’t think it would be appropriate to tell her what I’d had to promise to get him to do it, but hey, I didn’t mind. The Paul Bunyan look really worked for me.

“So how many cards are you going to send out this year?” Opal asked.

“One-thousand four-hundred and eighty-eight.”

“That’s pretty specific.”

“I’m doing the entire Laurel Lake phone book. I just finished entering all of the names and addresses into a database.”

“So every person in this town is going to get a picture of Fox wearing a red flannel and holding a duck with a matching bow in its hair?”

“Yep.”

She smiled. “My, oh my, how times have changed for the bossman.”

And they had. But they hadn’t just changed for Fox. A lot had changed for both of us. After Fox drove up to New York, I’d quit my job, packed everything I owned, sublet my apartment, and said goodbye to anyone who meant anything—all in a week’s time. I’d even taken Fox with me to my mother’s house when I went to tell her I was moving. As expected, she wasn’t happy. I got a lecture about throwing away my career for a man. But then late in the day, something unexpected had happened.

After we’d finished eating, I was antsy to leave. Fox asked if he could talk to my mother in private before we took off. I knew he was tough, but my mother was a pro at cutting people down to half their size. So I was nervous when the doors to the study closed. They didn’t come out again for ninety minutes. And my mother was smiling and laughing when she emerged.

Talk about a shocker.

Fox hugged my mother goodbye like they were old friends, then went to wait in the car, giving the two of us a few minutes alone. I’ll never forget what she said.

“I made a lot of mistakes in my life. Many of them with you, Josephine. But the one thing I did right was marry your father. Something about Fox reminds me of him. There’s something pure within. Hold onto him and don’t ever take him for granted. Life is too short.”

Tears had stung my eyes as I threw my arms around my mother.

Maybe her approval shouldn’t have meant so much to me. But it did. We weren’t ever going to be best friends, but we spoke every few weeks now.

Opal interrupted my thoughts. “When are your new tenants moving in?”

I smiled. “Nilda and her sister arrive next week.”

A month after I’d relocated to Laurel Lake permanently, Nilda and her sister came to visit. They fell in love with the little town as quickly as I had, and they’d decided to move down together. It just so happened that I was going to start looking for a tenant soon, since I’d finally agreed to move in next door with Fox. So everything seemed to be falling into place. I’d even interviewed at Rehnquist University a few weeks ago and had a second interview on Monday. If things went right, I’d be an adjunct professor of pharmacological sciences come January.

Fox walked out the back door of his house, still tucking his flannel in.

“Daisy is over there with her friends.” I pointed. “I’m just going to give her a few minutes more. If she doesn’t come back on her own, I’ll grab a treat.”

Fox shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Honey?” his mom called. “Do you think you could come by one day this week and pull my tree out of the basement?”

Fox looked at her, but didn’t answer. His mind was obviously elsewhere. So I nudged him.

“Your mom asked you a question…”

“She did?”

I nodded.

He lifted his chin to Hope. “What’s up, Ma?”

She repeated the question. But a few minutes later, Opal asked him something about a job and the same thing happened.

I had to nudge him a second time. “You okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know. You seem distracted all of a sudden.”

Fox shrugged. “Fine.”

I chalked it up to him being more miserable than I’d thought taking the holiday card picture, so I figured we should get it over with. “I’m going to get a treat for Daisy, and then I’ll grab her so we can get the photo done.”

I lured Daisy away from her friends with a baby carrot and picked her up. I went to hand her over to Fox, but he shook his head. “Why don’t you hold her?”

I’d had my heart set on a picture of us in front of the lake with Fox holding Daisy for our Christmas card. He looked so damn adorable when he held her. But at the moment, he looked more miserable than anything. So I didn’t argue, and we got into position in front of the lake with Daisy in my arms.

Opal held up her phone and smiled. “Rolling! Ready when you are, bossman.”

Rolling? As in a video? I was just about to tell Opal I wanted a photo, not a recording, when I felt Fox moving around next to me. I glanced over, and my heart stopped.

He was down on one knee.

“Oh my God!” My hand flew up to cover my mouth. But the screech I’d let out had already spooked Daisy, and she started flapping her wings all over the place. I would’ve dropped her if Hope hadn’t run over.

She smiled. “I’ll take her.”

I couldn’t breathe. Is this really happening?

No wonder Fox seemed so distracted! Though at the moment, my giant Paul Bunyan looked more nervous than anything. It was forty-eight degrees out this afternoon, yet he had a sheen of sweat covering his forehead. He wiped it with the back of his flannel sleeve and took my hand.

“Josie, since the minute you ran over my mailbox, you’ve been the center of my universe. I tried to keep away, but something about you pulled me back like gravity. I just needed to be close to you, even if it meant hanging sheetrock on weekends and acting like having a wild duck for a pet was normal.”

“Hey.” I smiled. “It is normal.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’d have a flock of birds if it made you smile the way you are right now.”

I covered my racing heart with my hand.

Fox looked down for a long time. When he looked up, his eyes were brimming with tears. “You brought me back to life, Josie. And I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my days with you. I want to be in your stupid Christmas card, and have dumb holiday cards hanging on my walls in March. I want you to be the last thing I see every night before I close my eyes, and the first thing I see when I open them every morning. You make me a better man, and you make me want to strive to improve each day, because every one I spend with you outshines the last. So, please tell me you’ll be my wife.” He looked over at Opal and his mother, both of whom beamed with camera phones pointing at us. “If not because you love me, then to save me from having to move, because those two are recording right now, and their videos of me getting rejected will be all over Laurel Lake within thirty seconds.”

I laughed and leaned forward, pressing my forehead to his as tears streamed down my face. “I would love to marry you, Fox Cassidy.”

Fox slipped a beautiful emerald-cut diamond ring onto my finger and climbed to his feet, lifting me off the ground as he came to full height. He pressed his lips to mine. “I love you, doc.”

“I love you, too. But you do know this is going to be our Christmas card, right? You down on one knee. It’s like I’ve come full circle. I dreamed about a fairytale life in Laurel Lake since I was a little girl. Now you’ve given it to me.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s you who’s given it to me, babe.” He winked. “But I’ll give you something even better later.”

THE END

(But scroll to the next page to see how their Christmas card photo came out!)