: Epilogue

Seven Months Later

“That one,” Isla says as she points at the third one in the past thirty seconds.

“I thought you liked the other one?” I ask her as I point to the front of the store.

“Nuh-uh, this one is better.” She points at the glass case.

“I don’t like that one as much,” Margot interjects. “I still like the first one at the last store.”

I sigh, thinking about driving back to that other store at this hour. Traffic is going to be insane and Isla will be ready to have a meltdown. “You mean the one all the way in Fairfax?”

“I told you that was my favorite! I don’t know why we left,” she says about the Tiffany store we’d been at before this one. She crosses her arms over her chest.

“It just didn’t feel right,” I tell her. I’m waiting for a ring that reminds me of Ellie. A ring that I know just by looking at it that it is the one for her.

“Daddy, can I have a snack?”

I sigh and nod at her as Margot pulls a bag of Goldfish out of her purse and hands it to her. “Why are you stressing? Ellie is going to say yes. It doesn’t matter what the ring looks like.”

I had been thinking about putting a ring on her finger the second Margot and I flew to Ohio after her father’s heart attack. Knowing I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, was what prompted me to get on that plane. I’d been shocked but so proud of my daughter when she asked to go with me so that she could apologize in person and also prove to her that she really was okay with moving to Ohio. “I want it to be perfect.”

“It will be. Ellie loves you so much. She would be laughing at you stressing out this much, honestly.”

She absolutely would.

I’d told Ellie that I was taking the girls out for the day, and SJ, who is also a part of the plan but had zero interest in helping me choose a ring, asked her and her father to take him to a baseball game in the city. SJ’s behaviors vastly improved and I can’t believe he starts middle school in just a few months.

We didn’t move to Ohio. After Ellie’s father got wind of what I was willing to do, he’d been moved that I’d do that for her and told me he wouldn’t have me uprooting my whole family just because he was being a stubborn old man.

His words.

I had his permission to marry her about five seconds later.

With the money he made from selling his house which for the record was a fuck ton, he decided to buy a condo in Maryland to be closer to Ellie—we’d asked him to come live with us to which he declined so he wouldn’t ‘be anywhere that close to where my daughter has relations’— and an apartment in Chicago so that he could go back and forth between his daughters. Eden, when she comes home, comes to Maryland because in the fifteen minutes I’d been talking to Ellie on her front porch, she and Margot had bonded. I’m happy that they did but now Margot has been begging me to let her go visit Eden at Yale without any parental supervision. I may have agreed but I’d overheard Eden telling her this summer about all of the guys that would make her forget all about Gabe who she’d dumped right after prom.

I really need to get the full story about what happened there.

We go back to the front of the store to look at the first ring that all three of us liked. I look down at the three-carat oval-shaped diamond ring. “I do like this one too.” I say and Margot nods in agreement.

All three of my children had been more than on board with me asking Ellie to marry me and I am surprised that Isla has been able to keep it a secret as long as she has. “Now you know you can’t tell Ellie I have this.”

Isla nods between chewing. “I know! I need a new Barbie’s Dreamhouse.” Okay, so I had to bribe her a little bit for insurance.

“She’s going to be so psyched,” Margot says excitedly. “I’m really happy for you, Dad.”

“Thanks, honey.” I wrap an arm around her and press a kiss to her temple. “Love you the most.”

Later that night, Ellie climbs into bed next to me and I immediately pull her against my chest. “I missed you today.” I press a kiss to her lips. I rarely spend a Saturday without her. Usually all of us do something and it’s amazing how much she’s brought our family together.

“Me too,” she whispers. “So…” She presses a kiss to my bare chest and looks up at me with those innocent doe eyes. “Can I see it?”

My heart begins to race and I pull back slowly to look at her. “Can you see what?” Please tell me she means my dick. She raises an eyebrow at me and I blink at her, wanting her to clarify.

“I don’t know why you told her. She can’t keep secrets from me.”

I let out an annoyed breath and shut my eyes as I count backward from ten. When I get to five, I give her a side-eye. “I bribed her. How did you get it out of her?”

“Bribed her with something better.” She blinks at me several times. “I still have so much to teach you.”

“Isla Kincaid. God, these kids,” I grumble.

“For the record…” She climbs on top of me and kisses my lips. “My dad told me too.”

“What?!”

“Sorry, he’s still pissed you beat him last week at golf. I told you to let him win!” I let out a sigh followed by an annoyed laugh and she moves to straddle me. “So…can I see it?” she asks while grinding down on my dick.

I groan in response. “Don’t try to seduce me, Elianna.”

She feigns shock and giggles. “I would never.”

“And no, now I’m going to make you wait even longer.” Lie.

“Oh, good one.” She puts her hands on my chest and moves herself up and back. She’s wearing a tiny silk two-piece set and I can already see the dark spot forming between her legs as the wetness forms. “Please?”

Get her off before she breaks you down, Rowan. “No. That’s anti-climactic.”

“I’ll let you stick your dick in my ass tonight,” she purrs.

My dick throbs and my eyes find the ceiling while I consider her offer. “No, you’re waiting so I can get on one knee and tell you that I love you and I’m utterly obsessed with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Fine,” she says with an eye roll before she goes to move off of me. I grip her hips to hold her in place and give her a smirk.

“Can I still put my dick in your ass tonight?”

She scoffs. “That was not the deal I posed!” She grins and rolls her eyes again. “I mean, yeah.”

I push her onto her back and kiss her, pouring every bit of love and devotion I have for this woman into it. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long.”

Because I’m already planning to ask her tomorrow.