“Kennedy, the first time I saw you, I knew you were special. Sure, a little weird, but that was what made me fall in love with you.” She giggled through her shaky hands. “You are the definition of powerful. You are the brightest part of my day. Your love heals the cracks in my heart that I thought were doomed to be broken forever. You are my best friend, my soul mate, and my favorite flower, and if you allow me to do so, I’d love to be the one to make you smile for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” she cried, pulling me up from the ground. She began planting kisses all over my face, making me laugh.
“You have to let me put the ring on, I think,” I joked.
“Oh, right! Of course.” She held her hand out, and everyone cheered around us. I couldn’t believe how my life had changed. It felt as if all the pieces were placed back together and the storm had finally passed to bring about better days.
I knew life would have its troubles, but I also knew I’d be okay because I was surrounded by love, by friendship, by Kennedy. She was my sun, I was her moon, and for the rest of our lives, we’d remember to dance in the rain.
Epilogue
Jax
Three years later
“Oh my gosh, Kennedy, I always knew you were something special! Didn’t I say that the first time we’d met her, Kate? Didn’t I go on and on about how special Kennedy was?” Louise swooned as she stood in front of a table across from my wife.
My wife.
I loved the sound of that.
It was amusing watching Louise, along with everyone else in town, swoon over Kennedy at the book signing in Havenbarrow for her most recent successful novel. Over fifteen months ago, Kennedy signed a deal with a major publishing company. When her book, Trespassing, hit the shelves, it became an instant success.
Kennedy cried the day Oprah’s Magazine included it on their ‘must read’ list. She just about vomited when she hit the New York Times—where she stayed for ten months so far.
After some convincing from the townspeople, Kennedy agreed to do a local signing, and the twins were the first in line.
While Kennedy could’ve been nasty toward the women who had been nothing but cruel to her since the day she arrived, she wasn’t. She was kind, thankful, and showed so much gratitude. Sometimes, I wished she could’ve been an asshole like me, but alas, she was the sun. She was my sun. I fell in love with the sun, and she kept my cold heart warm.
“Thank you for coming, ladies, but I think I’m going to have to cut this signing short,” Kennedy said, standing up. There was a huge line going out the door of Gary’s café. People began groaning at the idea of Kennedy leaving, seeing how they hadn’t gotten their books signed yet.
I raised an eyebrow at her, confused at what she was doing.
“I know, I’m sorry everyone, and I’ll be sure to reschedule the first chance I get. It’s just that, my water just broke, so I think we have to get to the hospital,” she explained.
Oh. Right. That made sense.
I stared at her blankly for a few seconds before her words clicked in my head.
Oh!
Right!
That made sense!
We were having a baby! Well, she was having the baby, I was along for the ride at this point. Ride. Truck. Keys. Baby! Oh hell, I was panicking.
“Don’t panic,” Kennedy said, walking my way with her hands on her stomach.
“Panic? Why would I be panicked? I’m not panicked! I just need my keys,” I said, patting my pockets. “Keys, keys, I need my key—”
“Here,” she said, dangling them in my face. “I drove here, remember?”
“Right, of course. Okay. Let’s go.” I shot out of the front door, leaving her behind, until I realized that I left my very pregnant, very in labor wife behind. I dashed back inside. “I forgot; I need you to come with me.”
She giggled as she controlled her breathing. “Yes, I think you do.”
We got to the hospital, and everything went smoothly. Except for the part where I blacked out, but we didn’t need to talk about that.
After twelve hours of hard work from my beautiful wife, we were able to hold our beautiful daughter.
Elizabeth Daisy Kilter.
Named after my mother and her daughter, of course.
Elizabeth was a dream come true, and when I held her for the first