by Tijan
She groaned, but took the water.
It wouldn’t have been correct to say that Faith and I stopped being rivals after that race, but it was close. We weren’t friends, but there was respect for each other. And no matter how much she wanted to beat me, she never could. I always loved rubbing it in her face.
I’d run for years, but I never realized until this year how fast I was, how unique a runner I had become. I don’t know if it was family genetics—Garrett was athletic, but he told me he never enjoyed running. That made me think of Analise. Had she been the one to give me this gift? Or was it more complicated? Genetics mixed with practice? Maybe I was blessed, but I’d honed it into this ability to run longer and faster than anyone else I knew.
At least until I qualified for the Olympics.
After that, I was no longer the fastest person I knew.
But I was among them.
A year later.
I ran through the back hills near Fallen Crest, feeling the burn in my legs. I loved it, just like I always had, and I picked up my pace.
So much had happened over the last year.
Mason graduated and was drafted to the New England Patriots. His first year with them had been good, and he was happy to start a second, but he’d been restless. Logan and I had remained in California to finish school while he went to Massachusetts, and I knew it hurt. He was clear across the nation. The winter was hard, but every free moment we had, Logan and I flew out to see him. Then when it was off-season for him, he came back to live with us. But all that was done now.
Logan and I graduated last week.
I got a degree in health and wellness—yes, I’d finally picked a major. Logan was on to law school next, but for now we were back home for a couple weeks until Mason had to fly out for summer training. I was going to go with him this time. I could train wherever I was, and the Olympics were always on my mind.
Logan would join us at the end of August. He’d gotten in to University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth. We bought a huge house where all five of us could live: Mason, Logan, Nate, Taylor, and me.
Matteo had been drafted to the Los Angeles Raiders right out of school, and he was glad to stay in California, as it put him closer to his family, and closer to Grace. Those two were still together.
As for Courtney, she was headed back to Ohio for a teaching job. She’d only been there a couple weeks, but already life was boring. She wanted another dancing night with the girls.
I was all for that, and I pumped my arms harder at the thought. I kicked off with a bit more speed.
Mason and I had plans to hang out with Heather and Channing tonight. Heather wanted me to scope out a location for a second Manny’s with her tomorrow, but she said tonight we’d all get fucked up, laugh till our sides split, and take our men home to have hot and heavy sex.
Sounded good to me.
I still had ten miles to go, and I approached the clearing at the top of the hill where Mason first proposed to me. We hadn’t really discussed marriage since Mason had announced our engagement at his press conference—not at length anyway.
We had an understanding. Mason would wait until I felt more comfortable with the idea. As much as I tried, old scars from Analise and David’s marriage ran deep in me. Or they had.
Now I was ready. More than ready.
I wanted to talk to Mason about it this summer, but I wasn’t sure yet how to have the conversation. Uh, honey? You can propose to me any day you want. Yeah. It felt weird. Maybe I could slip him a note. I smiled to myself at how foolish that seemed as I crested the hill. The clearing opened to me, and I stopped in my tracks.
Mason stood in front of me.
He wasn’t alone.
Logan, Taylor, Nate, Heather, Channing, Malinda—I scanned the group quickly. There were so many. Mark. David. Even Garrett. Sharon was there, holding my little sister, who waved, her cheeks and lips covered in chocolate. Helen was there too, looking like it was the last place she wanted to be, but she folded her hands in front of her and even managed a small smile.
Analise and James held hands, a few feet to the side and behind everyone else. My mother waved, a tentative smile on her face, and drawing in a deep breath, she stepped closer to the group. James patted her back, and she flicked a hand up to her eyes.
She was crying.
Why was my mom crying? Wait. I went back to Malinda. She was crying too. Taylor. Heather. Courtney. Grace. Even Matteo, who was holding Grace’s hand. They were all blinking back tears.
I focused on Mason again. He was in front of everyone, waiting for me.
“What’s going on?”
He knelt down and held up his hand. There. Right there between his finger and thumb was a ring.
I stopped breathing.
It sparkled, and it was beautiful, and it was huge, but I didn’t care about any of that.
“Are you sure?” I asked hoarsely.
He laughed, his own voice raspy, and nodded. “Will you marry me, Samantha? Will you become Samantha Jacquelyn Kade?”
My throat filled, and I nodded. I couldn’t stop nodding, and I couldn’t stop smiling, and then I felt the tears on my cheeks, and I couldn’t stop crying.
“Yes,” I managed, just as he stood and swept me off my feet.
I wrapped my arms tight around him, whispering it again, just for myself. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“I love you,” he whispered, carrying us a few feet away.
He set me back down, and I looked at him. “I love you too.” I touched his lips. “So goddamn much.”
“So goddamn much.” And his lips were on mine.
EPILOGUE
Six months later.
“Tomorrow you’ll become my wife,” Mason murmured, lifting our hands.
We were in bed. I lay in the shelter of his arms, my head propped in the corner of his arm and chest.
“I am.” I grinned up at him. “You’re going to become my husband.”
A soft smile crept over his face, lighting it up. “Husband.”
“Wife.” My grin matched his.
We were defying tradition.
We were supposed to separate, sleep in other beds, but there’d been no discussion. We both knew that wouldn’t happen. And it was now close to five in the morning. The first light of the day would be showing soon, but there was no tired bone in my body. I knew there wouldn’t be all day.
“Are you sure you want to marry me?”
I had settled back into his arms again, but lifted my head once more. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged, his smile gone. “I mean, are you sure? We were high school sweethearts. It’d be normal to think about being single at some point in your life. Right?” His eyes flashed and tense lines formed around his mouth.
“Mason.” I shifted on the bed, propping myself to lie on my stomach. I tucked some of the sheet over my breasts, but they were pressed against his chest. I watched him. “Are you having second thoughts?”
Logan said their bachelor night had been epic. Maybe too epic?
At my question, the tension lines softened, and he slid his hands into my hair, cupping the sides of my face. “No. I’m just worried you might regret this one day.”
“Not possible.” I said those words softly, but they tore at my heart. He really thought that?
“Are you sure you’re not going to regret this?” I asked, feeling my throat burning.
He laid his head back against the headboard and moved it from side to side. “Not possible.”
A thrill went through me as he used my words, a loving smile on his face, and I felt my heart skip a beat. Nope. The words regret and second thoughts would never enter my vocabulary when it came to my relationship with him.
I sat up, drawing more of the sheet around me. It slipped from his waist, so I lifted a corner and spread it out over him.
He snorted, grinning. “What are you doing?”
I shrugged, holding back my own grin. “I have somethin
g to say, and I don’t want to get distracted.”
“Distracted?”
I nodded. “Yes. Distracted.” I crossed my arms over my chest and fixed him with a sturdy look. “I want to know more about where this came from. You’ve never mentioned second thoughts to me before.”
He reached over and caught my hands, tugging my arms back down to my lap. He slid his fingers against mine, resting our hands on his chest. “Logan said something earlier about how he got to be free and slutty. He was glad he met Taylor when he did, because he got the wild side of him out and he could be content with her for the rest of his life.” He paused, swallowing. “Got me thinking. You went from Sallaway to me, and you’ve never been single since.” His eyes flicked to mine, a haunted agony lining them. “It’d break my heart if you ever regretted us.”
And that, right there, broke mine.
Feeling choked up, I could only shake my head. “You want to know what I was going to say to you tomorrow?” I murmured, hoarse around the big fat lump in my throat.
“What? No—”
But I’d already started. He was too late, and I knew this was the perfect time to say these words.
“On this day, Mason James Kade, you become my future. You are already, Mason James Kade, a huge part of my past. On this day, Mason James Kade, you are my ever-living present.” I gripped his hand. “I will be side by side with you no matter where our path goes. I have walked with you. I have run with you. I have laughed with you. I have cried with you. I have supported and been supported by you. I have yelled at you, for you, and with you. I have cursed with you. I have felt pain. I have felt joy. I have felt peace. I have felt every emotion a person can experience. Some have been because of you. Some have been because of others, but it was always with you that I could feel what I felt. From the moment I met you, you took me in and loved me as family. We evolved. We became more, and we will continue to evolve, but there is no one else I would choose to have next to me. Ever.”
I had to stop. The tears were drowning my words, but he needed to hear them.
I needed to say them.
“I declare right now that I am not choosing to become Samantha Kade. I have always been Samantha Kade. It will be official tomorrow, but that’s the only difference. That’s it. I am already your wife in every sense of the word.”
I took a deep breath. I had more to say, but then his lips stopped me.
He kissed me, and I felt his tears against my face.
When we parted, he rested his forehead against mine, and before I could stop him, he spoke his own words. He said them as he lifted me onto him, and he continued as he entered me.
He kept saying those words as I gasped, cried, begged, and then screamed my release, and he didn’t stop whispering them until I finally fell asleep.
Just a few hours later, I stood at the end of a rose-strewn aisle, my bouquet in hand. My wedding dress had been fitted over me, and my bridesmaids were already waiting for me at the front of our little wooded paradise.
This was my wedding. This was my dream come true.
I’d gotten the family I dreamed about, but what I’d said to Mason last night was true: I always had it.
Today it was just legal. That was all.
The music changed. The volume rose, and everyone stood.
All eyes turned to me, some misty-eyed, some blurred with tears, and others smiling widely.
I walked past people from Fallen Crest Academy. I walked past people from Fallen Crest Public High School. There were others from Cain University, some from the country club, still others from the carnival. And even more from my family, biological or not. But this wasn’t about them. I didn’t really see them.
This was about Mason and me.
This was about me getting the happily ever after I’d always had; I just never knew it.
And then there he was. I saw the same wetness swimming in his eyes that had been there last night, but he wouldn’t shed them this time. Not in front of others. That was only for me to see.
Hi,” I whispered, swallowing back my own tears.
He laughed. “Hi.”
Then he took my hand, and I remembered his soft plea from right before I fell asleep. “Don’t leave me. Please.”
We weren’t linked by that plea. We’d been linked so long ago, and it wasn’t even a request he had to make. He’d broken down his wall for me when we first fell in love. He’d taken care of me over the last years, and I knew others sometimes forgot to take care of him back, but not me. I would never forget, and just as I had this morning, I reached out and took his hand.
I glanced down at the tattoo both of us had gotten.
As we exchanged vows and professed our commitment to each other, we each stole glances down at our fingers. The tattoos were permanent, and the butterflies stood for our sanctuary. Mason’s was sketched in black, whereas mine was colorful, but one at a time, we placed our rings over them.
We said “I do” and my fingers slid through his and clasped down. Forever.
“Okay.” Logan raised his glass, holding a microphone in the other hand. He tapped it softly against his glass to get everyone’s attention.
The room was filled with conversation and laughter, but he gave the signal, and the deejay cut the music.
“It’s that time, folks.” He dipped his mouth closer to the mic so his voice boomed, “Toast time.” He laughed. “Say that five times fast, huh?”
A smattering of laughter came from our wedding guests.
He smirked at everyone, then turned to Mason and me. He had a twinkle in his eye.
“Aren’t you guys lucky? I like you both. No, that’s not true. I love you both.” He laughed, glancing to where Analise and James sat. “And you guys are lucky too—that it ain’t your wedding. I never did get the private jet, Dad.”
James sat back, his arm resting on my mother’s chair. He raised it now and motioned to his youngest son. “Anytime. Let me know.”
“I will.” Logan leveled him with a hard stare. “I mean it. I’m taking that jet.”
James gave him a thumbs-up, appearing unconcerned.
“Dude.” Nate leaned forward from the other side of Logan’s empty chair. “Toast, please. Some of us are in line still.”
“Chill.” Logan motioned toward him. “Simmer down. Your time is coming, but now it’s mine.” He focused on us again, and I saw him melting already. He was softening, but with the slightly glazed look in his eye.
I wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Logan was unpredictable.
Mason’s hand touched mine under the table.
I had to laugh.
We were literally hanging on now.
“Talk, Logan,” Mason ordered.
There was no quick retort for his brother. Logan merely rolled his shoulders back and turned to the crowd. “I think you all know how much I love my brother. I worshiped him growing up, and then I started worshiping Sam when she moved in too. You guys all know the story. Mason and I were like orphans.”
People began laughing.
I did too.
Mason cracked a grin.
Logan winked at us. “Our mother cheated constantly on our dad, and when he decided to leave her, he left us too. Then we found out our mom wasn’t even our mom, and we were really in a situation. Who was our real mom? Could it be a magical lawyer from Boston? Maybe it was our neighbor across the road the whole time. Maybe we really had a secret brother? No one knew.” He kept a straight face until the end, then he began laughing. “I’m kidding. That’s Nate’s life story.”
“Hey!”
Logan ignored him. “For real, this is a weird moment for me, because I remember when Sam and Mason first met. I was there. I think I was there for everything, except a few sex scenes. Although . . .” His grin deepened, and a dimple appeared in his right cheek. “I heard plenty of those too. That’s the uncomfortable part of living together, and holy shit—we lived all over the place. The mansion. Nate’s house. Mom’s house.”<
br />
He glanced to Helen, then turned back. “Malinda’s house. The house in Cain. Shit. I’m sure I’m forgetting places, but we lived in a bunch of different spots. And no joking here, but we may have switched houses, but I never felt like I didn’t have a home. You guys were my home. You guys were my family. You guys are my family. That’s never changed, and I know it never will. Through everything, we were there for each other, and holy fuck—”
“Logan, there are children here,” someone hissed.
“Oh. Sorry.” He held a hand up, but didn’t look away from us. Only Mason and I saw the moisture building in his eyes. He stopped, and his Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. Then he gripped the microphone with both hands. “We’ve been through a lot—a lot of hospital visits, a lot of middle-of-the-night phone calls, a lot of good old-fashioned schoolyard fights, and some nastier ones. Yeah.” He drew in a breath, so solemn now.
I felt a tear slipping free, sliding down my cheek.
Logan saw it and gave me a soft grin. “I love you guys. And I’m so goddamn honored to have you in our family, Sam.” A rueful laugh slipped out. “Despite your bloodline.”
“Logan!”
He ignored James, and his voice dipped low. He said softly, “I am proud to be in our Threesome Fearsome, and I wouldn’t do a damned thing to change us.” He kissed the side of his fist and met it to both of ours, then rocked back on his heels.
He raised his glass. “So I’m ending this toast, because I have a feeling it’s the most sober one you’re going to get tonight. Please help me welcome Samantha officially into our family. You know, besides the fact that she’s already our stepsister.”
His grin turned wicked, and he looked back at us. “Welcome to the family, Samantha. And just so you know, you’ve always been one of us, whether you wanted to be or not.” He raised his glass one more time, then finished it in one gulp.
Everyone drank, and Logan added, “Now I send my apologies, because you have to endure everyone else’s toasts.”
Nate stood up and his chair scraped backward. He held his hand out.