me that I can help you carry on your family’s legacy. Say we’ll be each other’s kiss keeper forever.”
“I’ve always been yours. It just took six Jakes to get to you,” she answered with a teary, teasing grin as a chorus of cheers broke out, but the applause abruptly stopped when he stepped back and took a knee.
“Jake, what’s that?” she asked, staring at the box in his hand.
He glanced at the sparkling ring. “We’ve only known each other a week, and it might seem crazy to do this after such a short time, but when I saw this ring today, I knew it was the ring I was meant to give to you when I asked you to be my wife.”
“A week isn’t that short,” Hal called from underneath a garland of wildflowers.
“And, it’s seven times longer than I knew her grandfather before I married him,” Bev added.
“What’s that all about?” he asked.
She grinned. “It’s another long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“We get to have a later?” he asked.
Her eyes sparkled. “Yes, but you should probably hurry up this proposal. We are kind of hijacking my grandparents’ vow renewal.”
He chuckled and then blew out a shaky breath. “Natalie Callahan, you’ve had my heart since I was thirteen years old, and you always will. And if you’ll have me, I will love you every day, and I will keep your kisses every night. Will you be my wife?”
“Aunt Nat and Uncle Jake should get married now!” Annabelle called.
“Yeah! Up with Mimi and Poppy,” Josie and Maddy chimed.
Hal gestured to the altar. “There’s plenty of room up here.”
“What do you say? Should we close this deal?” Natalie asked with a sly wink.
With his parents and, he suspected, the ghosts of Muriel Boothe and Otis Wiscasset smiling down on them, he slid the ring onto her finger, then gazed into her ocean eyes.
“Lead the way, Heels.”
Epilogue
Jake
“I think I understand why podiatrists can barely control themselves around your feet, Heels. You do have damn perfect arches,” he growled, holding his wife’s ankle as he pressed a kiss to her perfect foot.
“Do I have to add you to my foot pervert list?” Natalie teased with a sweet sigh.
“Oh, no. As your husband, I’m tasked with being your foot protector,” he replied.
With her hair fanned out on the pillow and her hands gripping the iron rods of the bed’s headboard, Natalie captured his gaze with hungry eyes. “And, as my husband, you’re also tasked with another very important job, and it’s got nothing to do with my feet.”
“Your knees?” he teased, pressing a kiss to each.
“You’re getting warmer,” she purred.
“This freckle on your thigh?” he asked, trailing his tongue farther up her leg.
“Even warmer,” she answered on a dreamy moan.
“How about here?” he asked and began rubbing tiny circles to her most sensitive place.
“Hot,” she breathed as he worked her with his hand and watched her naked body writhe beneath his touch.
Growing slick with desire, she rocked against him, and a fiery jolt of lust went straight to his cock. He’d never tire of this view. And, thanks to the help of a horny nun and a fake curse that turned out to be a real blessing, he’d never have to.
The moment after Natalie Callahan became his wife, in true Jake Teller form, he’d thrown her over his shoulder and high-tailed it back to the little Sunfish where he’d sailed them back to camp, then carried her all the way to their cottage. And that’s where they’d stayed for three days in a gloriously sweaty, orgasmic haze.
They were smart to take that time because once they emerged, life moved fast.
Hal and Bev had turned Camp Woolwich over to them, but he’d made damn sure that Natalie was the sole owner. Not because he didn’t trust himself, but because he did. He trusted that the life he was going to build with her was the kind of life that could weather any storm.
He didn’t need property or millions of his own. He’d gained the security and love he’d craved when he gave his heart to his kiss keeper.
And as far as the Kiss Keeper Curse, they’d decided to preserve Otis and Muriel’s secret and keep the Camp Woolwich legend intact. Sister Evangeline had shared Muriel’s letters with them. Crinkled and worn, the old ink spelled out how Muriel and Otis did have their first kiss at the well before heading out west to make a life together. A life that in Muriel’s words spoke