“I don’t know,” I said, a smile in my tone. “Maybe? Anyway, with my smaller office, I hardly have anything there anymore, so if you guys could just box up my personal items, I’ll have someone come by and pick them up.”
“Sure. And don’t worry about working the next two weeks. I’ll have payroll cut your last check.”
This bitch. If I wanted to steal any future story ideas from Willow, I would have done it before putting in my notice. And it’s not like I could overhear anything while working from home. But as soon as she hung up, Liz would send out a company-wide email telling everyone I’m no longer employed by Willow and anyone who speaks to me about any ongoing things there risks termination. She liked making it sound like she fired people even when she didn’t.
Joke’s on her, though. I told all my friends at Willow I was quitting yesterday.
“That’s so nice of you, thanks,” I said. “Best of luck, Liz.”
“Same to you.”
Liz hung up the phone on me for the last time and I let out a little cheer. I immediately felt lighter. Why had I thought staying at Willow was my only professional option?
I planned to take a break from work for the next couple of months. I was going to start boxing up some of Ben and Lauren’s things to give to their children one day, and selling some pieces of furniture.
It didn’t feel sad anymore. I was going to let Annalise help me pack up some of her mother’s beloved baking pans and cooking appliances, knowing that one day she’d have a kitchen of her own to use them in. Wes and I were going to work on Ben’s study together, carefully packing up hockey memorabilia for both kids. We had already rented a fireproof, climate-controlled storage unit for most of the stuff we were saving as well as a safety deposit box at a local bank to store some important paperwork for the kids.
It was time. Wes and I had won the court case and Patrick and Susan had left town immediately after. Wes was the kids’ permanent legal guardian, and we’d also had wills created for both of us that left full custody to me in the event he died. I hated the thought, but we knew all too well that life could change in the blink of an eye. Ben and Lauren’s deaths had left us stunned, but the clouds were lifting and we were finding a way forward together.
And like I had told Wes, it was okay that I wasn’t the love of his life. We would always mean a lot to each other because of what we’d been through together, and I hoped our unconventional little family would work for a long time.
The only promise we had made to each other was that we’d always do our best by the kids. It wasn’t the promise I’d expected to get from a man I’d fallen hard for, but it was something.
“Aunt Hadley, I need your help!” Annalise cried, running into the master bathroom as I was drying my hair after a shower.
“What’s up?” I asked her.
“It’s, uh…there’s a big, huge animal in our backyard! It’s so huge! Come help!”
I furrowed my brow, sensing a tall tale. “What? How can there be a huge animal in the yard when there’s a fence?”
Her eyes widened and she spoke solemnly. “It crushed right through the fence. It’s so mean and huge, I think it might eat Benny! Come quick, Aunt Hadley!”
I hurried into the closet and closed the door, hanging up my towel and talking to Annalise as I got dressed.
“Where’s Wes? Is Benny seriously alone in the backyard right now? I told Wes I was taking a shower and he said he’d take care of both of you.”
“Uncle Wes needs your help with the big huge animal!” Annalise cried. “It’s true! This is all true!”
She was the worst liar ever, just like her mother. I smiled.
“I’m kind of scared, though,” I said. “What does the animal look like?”
“It’s big! With brown hair and fur and sharp teeth and claws. You better hurry. It’s going to eat Benny!”
“Okay, I’m on my way.”
I went into the bathroom and ran a brush through my wet hair and then followed Annalise downstairs.
“Hurry!” She ran to the kitchen and slipped out the back door.
I glanced out the French doors she’d gone through and saw pops of color. Spring had sprouted tulips, hyacinths and other perennial bulbs Lauren had planted in the yard. Knowing her hands had touched those bulbs reminded me that parts of Lauren were still here with me. I planned to dig up the bulbs after they’d finished their blooming cycles and take them with us when we moved. We’d plant them in our new yard and have a small piece of Lauren there.
When I put my hand on the door handle to open it, I frowned as I saw Drew and Nina. Something was definitely up, and it had nothing to do with a big, hairy monster. Glancing down at my cutoff sweats and gray UCLA T-shirt, I shrugged and decided I knew Drew and Nina well enough to wear my comfy clothes in front of them.
But as I walked outside, I saw that it wasn’t just Drew and Nina. I rounded a corner and saw several more Mavericks players. Annalise was on Lars’s shoulders, beaming.
“There’s no monster,” she said gleefully.
“I see that,” I said, arching a brow at her.
I turned, looking for Wes so I could ask what was going on. I found him behind me, down on one knee. My breath left my lungs in a whoosh as I took him in, grinning nervously.
“Come a little closer, babe,” he said, holding a hand out to me.
My heart and mind couldn’t seem to catch up with what I was seeing. Was this what I thought it was?
When I reached him, Wes took one of my hands in both of his. I still hadn’t managed to close my mouth, still shocked at the site of him on one knee. On. One. Knee.
“Hadley Ellis, I’ve never known anyone like you,” Wes said, his eyes shining with affection. “You make me want to be better in every way. You’re smart and tough, but you also have a huge heart. You don’t take any of my bullshit. You pick me up when I need it most. You and me and Annalise and Benny have become a family, and our family means—” He stopped to clear his throat, tears welling in his eyes. “Our family means everything to me. You mean everything to me. I should have told you sooner. If you’ll let me, I’ll tell you every day for the rest of our lives. I love you, Hadley. Will you be my wife?”
A single note of stunned laughter escaped my throat, and tears blurred my vision. I couldn’t believe this was real. Wes loved me. He was looking up at me with hopeful eyes as he reached into his pocket and took out a small blue box, popping open the lid.
“Hadley?” he asked softly.
A smile spread across my face as I cried, “Yes! Yes, of course I will!”
He jumped up and swept me into his arms, spinning me in a circle as everyone cheered.
“There was no big animal, Aunt Hadley!” Annalise said from on top of Lars’s shoulders. “I made that up to get you out here!”
“You had me scared there for a minute,” I said, playing along.
“Let me put this on you,” Wes said, taking the ring from the box.
It was a simple, round platinum solitaire, and it was enormous. I smiled, tearing up again as Wes slid it onto my ring finger.
“I measured your finger while you were sleeping the other night,” he said. “That was fucking nerve-racking. I was so worried you’d wake up.”
“We’re getting married?” It came out as a question, because I still couldn’t believe it was real.
“We are. I was thinking this summer.”
“This summer?”
“I’m not waiting ‘til next summer,” he said, frowning.
“But there’s so much to do. What if we can’t get a venue booked? And I have to find a dress.”
“I kind of thought we’d do it right here, in Ben and Lauren’s backyard. It’s as close as we can get to having them here. One last great memory here before we buy a new home of our own.”
I absolutely adored he’d thought of that.
“I love that idea,” I said, wiping the tears that had fallen down my cheeks. “And I can find a vintage dress
if I can’t get a new one fitted in time.”
“The saleswoman at Tiffany said we can get a vintage wedding band for your ring, too. I thought you’d want to pick it out yourself.”
I put my palms on his cheeks and leaned up to kiss him. “Look at you, being all thoughtful.”
He kissed me back, a laugh rumbling in his chest. “If Ben and Lauren could see us right now.”
It was definitely not a turn of events I had seen coming. I’d been so wrong about Weston Kirby. He was actually an incredible catch. And he was all mine.
Annalise tugged at Wes’s legs, asking him for a piggyback ride. Our moment alone was over, but we’d make up for it tonight.
“Welcome to the family, Hadley,” Nina said, hugging me.
“Thank you.”
All the other Mavericks players there hugged me, too—except Lars. He gave me a warm congratulations, though.
Wes leaned down and whispered in my ear. “You’re gonna be my old lady. Can you believe it?”
I gave him a look and said, “Call me your old lady again and you’ll have to find someone else to wear this ring.”
He laughed and kissed me lightly. “There’s that fire I love so much. Don’t ever change.”
As I looked around the yard, and thought about this place, this new life I’d found myself in, I felt Ben and Lauren here with us. Life had taken all of us in directions we never saw coming. The two of them were gone now, but still with us in so many ways. I’d lost my best friend in Lauren and found another one in Wes.
She would have laughed so hard if she could see us now. Until tears were running down her cheeks. Lauren would have loved every single thing about seeing me and Wes together. And thinking about it made me just the tiniest bit happier than I already was.
Epilogue
Wes
I wore a suit every single time I played a hockey game, but something about wearing one in the backyard of our house as I waited for Hadley to walk down the aisle to become my wife was different. My collar itched; it felt like the buttons of my double-breasted jacket were too tight, and my feet felt sweaty in my leather dress shoes.
I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to breathe through the hot, muggy air. We had fans going and the dais where the ceremony would take place had been set up with a canopy of sorts to protect us from the late July sun, but I was sweating bullets. I didn’t think it had much to do with the weather, though.
“Relax,” Nash said under his breath. “You look like you’re ready to bolt.”
“Nah.” I grinned over at him. I was battling a lot of emotions, but none of them included wanting to run. The backyard of our house—Ben and Lauren’s house—was filled with the people we loved and cared about most in the world. My teammates, coaches and their significant others, my parents, Lauren’s parents, and a handful of friends and neighbors. It was only about seventy-five people, so it felt incredibly intimate.
Exactly how we’d envisioned it.
We hadn’t wanted it to be a big ordeal. It was a final hurrah before we moved to the new house we’d bought and started the next chapter of our lives together. As husband and wife. Mommy and Daddy to Benny and Annalise. Benny had already made the transition, babbling all kinds of words these days, but Dada and Mama were reserved specifically for me and Hadley. Annalise was still on the fence, but we’d explained as best we could that she could call us whatever she wanted. We’d noticed in private it had become more Mommy and Daddy, while in front of others she stuck to Aunt Hadley and Uncle Wes.
Whatever she wanted was fine with us; we just wanted the kids to be happy.
They were so excited about the wedding. Well, Annalise was excited and Benny was just excited because the rest of us were. Marrying Hadley was the icing on the cake of my life. I hated that we’d had to lose Ben and Lauren to find each other, but we had and making her my wife was all I’d thought about since that last trip to Miami.
“Here we go. You ready?” Nash grinned over at me and I turned.
The light jazz that had been playing stopped and the “Wedding March” began. I might have replied to Nash, but I wasn’t sure because the moment I caught sight of Hadley, I couldn’t think straight. I was completely mesmerized.
Since her parents were gone, and she’d been extremely close to both Lauren and her parents, Lauren’s father, Greg, was walking her down the aisle.
Hadley was a vision in white. Though her dress wasn’t a traditional wedding gown, it was pure Hadley. It was white and lacy, with what looked like silky material, but I didn’t know what all that stuff was called. All I knew was how gorgeous she was. The dress was calf-length, appropriate for an outdoor, backyard wedding, and both summery and classy. It hugged her curves in all the right places but was strapless so it showed off her shapely shoulders and the elegant line of her neck.
God, she was beautiful.
How had I never thought so until recently?
Then her eyes met mine and she smiled.
Suddenly my suit fit perfectly, I wasn’t sweaty, and the funny feeling in the pit of my stomach disappeared. She was walking down the aisle. Toward me. Toward our new life together. I took a second to look down at Annalise, who was throwing rose petals on the path ahead of Hadley, and she grinned up at me happily.
“Hi, Daddy!” she called out, oblivious to the rules and traditions of wedding ceremonies.
I noted that Hadley’s step faltered for a second, her eyes meeting mine, but I winked at Annalise before mouthing, “don’t cry,” to Hadley.
Her lips turned up into a tremulous smile and then she was standing next to me.
“Dear friends,” the nondenominational pastor we’d hired spoke up. “We are gathered here today…”
“Well, Mrs. Kirby,” I said, holding my new wife in my arms as we danced our first dance. “How does it feel?”
“Amazing,” she whispered. “We did it.”
“We did.” She gazed up at me. “Ben and Lauren are totally laughing at us right now.”
“Totally.” I shook my head. “I can literally hear his voice in my head, telling me what a dumbass I was and how much time I wasted.”
“Same. Except in Lauren’s voice.”
We laughed together as I pulled her against me. “I love you, Hadley.”
“I love you too. Much as it pains me to say it.” She was teasing. We joked a lot about how we’d felt about each other until recently, and it always made us smile.
“Ready for a week alone in St. Lucia?”
“God, yes.” She frowned for a moment. “Though I hate leaving the kids.”
“We need us time. They’ll be fine. Tasha and Greg are going to take good care of them. Plus they need special time with their grandchildren.” Despite Tasha’s MS, she and Greg had offered to take the kids while Hadley and I went on a honeymoon. We had Tori staying with them so she could help out overnight, though Benny didn’t really wake up much anymore, and Drew and Nina were on call for any emergencies that might come up. Tasha was okay most days, and Greg would be with them, so we weren’t worried. It actually made us feel good to know the kids would get to spend quality time with Lauren’s parents since we felt like they might be their only present biological grandparents. We hadn’t heard from Patrick and Susan since the judge awarded us custody, and while we wouldn’t keep them from the kids, we also weren’t going to seek them out. If they wanted to see the kids, they had to come to us for now. That might change when they got older, but I wasn’t playing games with Ben’s kids.
My kids.
Our kids.
Damn, it felt so natural to say that.
“I want more babies,” Hadley whispered as we moved.
“What?” I snapped back to the present and dropped my gaze down to her pretty face.
“Not now,” she said quickly. “But I’d like one or two more.”
“I’m glad you said that because I was thinking the same thing.” I glanced over to where Annalise was talking Lars’s ear off. “Although
we probably need to wait until Annalise gets to kindergarten and we only have one kid at home.”
Hadley chuckled. “Agreed.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Kirby.” A big, burly man approached us as our dance came to an end.
“What’s going on, Cal?” We’d had to hire security for the wedding, simply because I was a local celebrity—as were my teammates—and the public could sometimes be thoughtless and overzealous.
“Someone here to see you named Len Harris; says he’s an attorney but he’s not on the list.”
“Oh god.” Hadley paled a little. “You think Patrick and Susan…” Her voice trailed off.
“Let me go find out.”
“I’ll come too.” She slid her fingers through mine and we hurried into the house.
“Wes. Hadley.” Len was standing by the front door. “I’m so sorry to intrude but I had strict instructions from Ben and Lauren.”
Hadley’s fingers squeezed mine tightly. “B-ben and Lauren?” she whispered, clearly startled.
He smiled. “Apparently, those two were mind readers or something, because they left a letter that was to be given to you on your wedding day or as soon thereafter as I was able.”
“Oh my god.” Hadley sagged a little, but I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her into my side.
“Anyway, I didn’t mean to cause a fuss. I just wanted to abide by their wishes.” He handed me an envelope. “Congratulations. And I’m sorry again for intruding.”
“Thank you so much for bringing this,” I said, shaking his hand. “You’re welcome to stay.”
“No, thank you. My grandson has a T-ball game in an hour and if I miss it, my wife and my daughter will both have my head.”
I chuckled. “All right. Thank you.”
Len headed out and I looked at Hadley. “What do you think the letter says?”
She shook her head. “I can’t imagine.”
I grinned and handed it to her. “You want to do the honors?”
“We’ll read it together.” She slowly lifted the seal and pulled out a sheet of paper.
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