Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
I love my life.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
SLATER
Five Years Later
Ipace the room, my stomach churning and my heart thumping hard in my chest. Today’s the day. I check my watch and swallow hard.
“She should be here any minute,” I mutter to myself.
I walk over and reset the bucket sitting on the cart, settling the bottle of champagne a little deeper into the ice. Looking at the plate of chocolate-covered strawberries, I frown then rearrange the whole setup for about the ten-thousandth time. I want everything to be perfect. No matter how many times I rearrange things, though, I just can’t get it to a point where I’m ready to call it that, and it’s really irritating the shit out of me.
My heart leaps into my throat when I hear her car pull into the driveway. Running over to the back doors, I quickly throw them all open, letting in the scent of the sea and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Why I hadn’t thought about that touch earlier is beyond me. I guess I’m so nervous, I’d forget my head if it weren’t attached. That done, I stand beside the champagne and strawberry-laden cart and face the front door.
The door opens slowly, and Sierra, fresh off a full day of classes, walks in tentatively. She sees me standing there and gives me a sly smile and a curious look.
“And what are we doing?” she asks.
“We are going to have a glass of champagne and a couple of amazing chocolate-covered strawberries,” I reply.
She walks over to where I’m standing, her eyes darting left and right as she tries to take in the whole room around her. The perplexed expression on her face only deepens. As I give her a minute to soak it all in, I pour the glasses of champagne, put a strawberry on a napkin, and then hand them both to her. She takes them but cocks her head with an uncertain grin on her full lips.
“Slater? What is this place?” she asks.
“This place?”
“This place,” she says with a laugh. “What is this place?”
I give her a nervous smile. “This place is our new home.”
Her eyes widen, and she looks around, an expression of shock on her face. She looks unsure but pleased, which makes me happy.
“For the last year and a half, I’ve had a crew building this house from the ground up,” I tell her. “I designed it myself.”
“It’s perfect. It’s exactly the kind of house I wanted,” she says in an awestruck tone. “And it’s on the beach. How?”
“I listen,” I tell her. “I know what your tastes are like. And I’ve seen the sort of houses you prefer when we go out looking. I took all the features you liked most, cobbled them all together, and had this place designed.”
“Slater,” she gasps. “Oh my God. This … this is amazing.”
“You like it?”
“I absolutely love it,” she cries. “But how did you do this without me knowing?”
“Maybe I’m magic,” I say with a sly smile, throwing something she said to me a long time ago back in her face.
She laughs. “Maybe you are. I had no idea…”
“That was by design. I wanted to surprise you.”
“You did, baby. You really did.”
Tears well in her eyes as she looks around, taking in all the small features I made sure to incorporate into the design, knowing how much she would love them. She finally turns her eyes back to me, looking completely thunderstruck.
“Slater, I can’t believe you did this.”
“You deserve the best,” I tell her. “I wanted us to have our own place.”
“We have the condo.”
“That we share with a hundred other people,” I reply. “I wanted us to have our own place and not have to share walls with anybody. I want—”
“To be able to have the freakiest, loudest, dirtiest sex without anybody else hearing?”
“Well, that wasn’t my first thought, but now that you mention it…”
We share a laugh as I pick up my champagne flute and tap it against Sierra’s. She smiles and raises her glass to me.
“Welcome home, baby,” I say.
“I don’t even know how to say thank you.”
“Oh, I can think of a few ways.”
We both laugh again and take a sip of champagne. Then I lead her through the house, giving her the full tour and pointing out all the features. She soaks it all in and seems over the moon about it. She’s happy—ecstatic, really. It was the exact reaction I was hoping for.
We make our way to the back deck and watch the waves break against the shore as the sun slips toward the horizon. It’s beautiful, peaceful, and perfect.
Sierra turns to me. “I was thinking…”
“About?”
“One of those rooms.”
“What about it? Want to change something?”
“Sort of.”
“All right, what can we change?”
“I think we’re going to need to turn one of them into a nursery.”