by T L Osborn
Epilogue
Aria
It’s been almost a whole year since the fraud incident with Simon’s mother. She was charged with fraud and theft, then sentenced to probation for two years. Simon also decided if she wants to see Charlotte it has to be on his terms. He’s not going to punish Charlotte because Suzanne hurt him.
I moved out of my family home and in with Simon and Charlotte. Linda gets Friday through to Sunday off work while I work Monday to Friday with Simon at Billington Industries. This way Charlotte gets to have a day with me and I get a day without Simon. She started calling me Mummy not long after I moved into Simon’s place and I was a lot more comfortable with that. Though, she knows not to call me Mummy around Suzanne.
I park my car in my usual spot in the garage, after being out all day, shopping with Steph and Mel. Charlotte spent today with Uncle James and no doubt painted his nails bright pink. I gather my bags and walk inside heading straight for our room. Laid out on the bed is a red dress, flowy with fabric and a plunging V neckline. Simon’s favourite dress that I own.
A post-it note sits on top.
Simon Says,
Put on the dress and matching shoes.
Then follow the roses from our room.
They’ll lead you to me.
I love you.
Standing by our bed I’m a little confused. He’s away in Sydney on Business and has been for the last week. He’s not home but, I’ll humour him anyway. I put on the dress and shoes before making my way into our wardrobe to brush my hair. As I turn I see a rose stuck to our mirror with a tag attached.
Simon says,
I love you.
I smile. He’s crazy. I pick it off and turn to leave our room, heading towards the main bedroom door, as I didn’t see any roses on my way up to our room. I see an entire line of roses, gerberas and candles in between lining the hallway and what appears to be down the staircase. As I reach the staircase it’s scattered with rose petals. I descend the stairs still following the roses only to hear Brad Paisley’s song She’s Everything softly playing through our stereo.
Making my way towards the outside door, I follow the roses as far as the rand sliders. Then I see him. Standing under our gazebo across the yard. Candles lighting my path to him as he stands in a tuxedo waiting for me. Our daughter beside him dressed in pink, hair done up as she waves at me. She’s holding a pink flower in her hand, though I can’t make out what it is. He bends down to whisper something to her and she lets go of his hand to run towards me. She literally leaps into my arms.
“Mummy, you took ages getting here,” she giggles.
“Sorry, sweetie,” I say as I continue to walk towards Simon as I reach him he holds out a hand for me. “I can’t believe you’re here. You told me you were away three more days.”
“Surprise,” he says. He turns around pouring a glass of champagne for us both, hands me one and from another bottle pours sparkling grape juice for Charlotte. I take a sip of the wine and he looks at me.
“I missed you,” he says. “More than you’re ever going to know.”
“No, I think I missed you about the same,” I reply.
“Mummy, I drew you a picture with Uncle James today,” Charlotte announces.
“You did? Can I see it?” I ask. They both step aside and behind Simon in big bold letters on an A3 sheet of paper are the words.
Simon Says: Will you marry me?
“What!” I gasp dropping my wine glass and it shatters all over the ground. Cold wine splashes my feet, but I don’t care. “Simon are you…” I trail off as I turn around only to find him kneeling on the ground, Charlotte in his arms and a ring box out in front of him.
“I can’t imagine spending another minute without you being my wife, so I’m asking you, Aria Thompson, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?”
I shut my eyes as tears spring into them. “Yes!” I nod my head furiously. He slips the ring onto my finger and stands pulling me in for a short but quick kiss. He scoops Charlotte into his arms. “Let’s go back inside and I’ll come back to clean this mess up. I think there might be some people waiting to celebrate with us,” Simon says pointing towards the house.
I turn surprised to see Mel and Steph both with wine already poured, Toby, Jacob and James, even Lara and Linda are there in the window.
“I’m so sorry I broke the glass,” I say.
“Doesn’t matter, baby. I’ll just spank you later, fiancée,” he hisses in my ear. “I can’t wait for that to be ‘wife’.”
“Looks like I have a wedding to plan, but first we celebrate.”
He clasps my hand in his as we stroll back to the house. I couldn’t have asked for a better proposal from a more perfect man. Prince Charming doesn’t just exist in my books, he’s real and I’m never letting him go.
Afterword
Authors work hard to deliver a book that you’ll enjoy. Reviews help a long way with spreading the word. If Simon Says entertained you in the slightest, I’d be more than please if you left a review.
Acknowledgments
First off I would like to acknowledge the endless support of my husband Craig, and the days and nights where I talked his ears off about plot, characters, ideas and sex scenes to no end. He is an amazing support, a wonderful husband and dad.
Secondly to my son, Royce, for being the best little guy in the whole entire world. You provide me with laughter, love and endless chatter all day. Most of all your help when Mummy was trying to work by hand was exceptional, especially when you would draw all over my notes so I couldn’t read them.
To my mum, dad, Brothers Tyler and Connor, for all your endless love and support to help me achieve me dream. Though I know our reading tastes differ you’ve never not supported me along this journey of completing my first book.
To Aunty J and fellow book club member. Thanks for the endless Saturday nights of wine drinking and listening to me chatter on and on about books, characters, plot and adding in your two cents worth about what you think should happen.
To my extended family. You all know who you are I won’t name you all. But thank you to you all for supporting my goal and dreams.
To Paula, Sarah, Danelle, Rachel, and Courtney for the endless love and support you’ve all given me. Even when I’ve chewed your ears off over coffee, wine or tea talking about characters like they’re real people. You probably got sick of me but you all love me no matter how crazy I am.
To Sam J D Hunt, for your friendship and the wine.
To Lauren Smith, for your friendship, support and help with this journey.
To Carey Decevito, for your offer of doing my formatting, then endless chatter over details and plots and just being a friend.
To Ivy Valori, for just being your beautiful self.
To Jen Hayes, and Dede Moreland for the friendship, love and support.
To Torrie Robles and L.M Carr. You have both inspired me to keep writing even when I struggled to get the words out. You’ve both helped with small edits and changes. Thank you both so much.
To KE Osborn, a chance meeting has led to a great friendship.
To Lou Gray and David Wills, the epic team who designed my cover. Thank you to you both. We will definitely be working together in the future because you make an awesome team.
To Dr Keith Small and Dr Neil Avery. Of the Wellington Hospital Ophthalmological (Eye) Department. For the endless amount of eye surgeries and trying to keep my eyes stable. May they remain stable in the future.
To all my other author friends, you’ve all been amazing with advice, do’s and don’t’s and all the mistakes you’ve all made in the past and not wanting me to do the same.
Lastly, to my readers, thank you for at least giving this book a chance and reading it. It’s my debut book and I’m surprised at how well it turned out myself. So thank you for at least reading it.
I can’t thank everyone enough for all their love and support along this crazy journey.
About the
Author
T.L. Osborn is from Wellington, New Zealand. Mother and wife by day, author by night.
She's always had a passion for reading ever since she was a child. Mainly reading Romance and crime stories. She finally decided to take her love of reading to an entire new level by writing her own book.
She's a lover of chocolate, wine and cheesecake.