Page 124 of Choosing Cassidy
He laughed softly.“A family business, huh?”
“Something like that.”
The fire ticked in the stove, steady and warm.The night folded itself around us, quiet and sure.
I looked down at our joined hands, my ring catching the lamplight, and thought about all the versions of myself that had come before this one.The girl who thought survival was the end goal.The woman who learned it was only the beginning.
Now, this was living.
Brody touched my cheek, brushed away a tear that quietly slipped free.“Hey,” he whispered, “How are you feeling?”
I nodded.“I’m happy.”
And for the first time in my life, happiness didn’t scare me.
I had everything I had ever dared to dream of right here in this small space, wrapped in the safe arms of my childhood crush, growing our future.A future we chose.
Epilogue
Late afternoon sunlight spilled across the back porch, honey-gold and unhurried.Somewhere in the yard, Brody’s laugh rose above the sound of little feet pounding the grass.
I looked up from the page just in time to see our oldest, Lily, dart behind our tree, curls flying, her brother a few steps behind her with a foam sword and the kind of determination that could change worlds.Brody scooped their youngest sister off the swing, spinning her once before she squealed, “Again, Daddy!”
“Last one,” he called, already giving her two more.
The porch boards were warm beneath my bare feet.My laptop hummed softly on the table beside me, cursor blinking at the end of a sentence that would wait patiently until after dinner.Book four.I still couldn’t quite believe that sentence belonged to me.Four books.Four covers lined up on the office shelf inside the beautiful library we had built.My name in embossed letters that no longer felt like a disguise.
The screen door creaked behind me.Marin appeared, sunglasses perched on her head, holding a bottle of wine and a bag of chips like she’d come to save the day.
“You’re officially impossible to schedule,” she announced.“I had to bribe your husband with brisket just to get an invite.”
I smiled.“You are one to talk, I thought you said you were going to slow down after you retired .”
“I amselectively available,” she corrected, setting everything down beside the stack of paper plates.“My most important client doesn’t even answer her phone before ten.”
“I have children now,” I said.“And I am your only client, now that you are 'retired'.”
She laughed.“Few can figure out the balance, like you have.I’m proud of you, you know.”
I didn’t need to say thank you.It was in the look we exchanged that quiet understanding between two women who’d fought too hard to be here.
The gravel crunch of tires pulled my attention toward the drive.Mason’s truck appeared first, windows down, Clara’s hand waving from the passenger seat.Jackson tumbled out before the engine stopped, already calling for Brody.A smaller blur, Hannah, dressed like a princess and full of opinions, trailed behind with a determined “wait for me!”
A second truck followed, Adam and Chase, still bickering mid-sentence like an old married couple, instead of the still happily single bachelors that they were.Adam carried a cooler.Chase carried absolutely nothing and somehow made it look like he was the one doing the work.
They joined the noise in the backyard, friends, family, laughter weaving through the smell of charcoal and wildflowers.My mom arrived with a salad no one would touch until she insisted, and my dad with a bag of fireworks, because grandpa was a lot wilder than dad.Brody’s parents came next, Judy armed with dessert, Dean with stories he’d already told but that everyone still loved hearing.
The yard filled the way my heart did, overflowing but never too much.
From my seat on the porch, I took it in: Brody kneeling to tie Lily’s shoe while holding our youngest, Evie, on his hip.Jackson is playing tag with Hannah and Caleb, our boy.Marin perched on the steps beside Clara, wine in hand, laughing.The hum of conversation and the low crackle of the grill.
All the people who had saved me without ever calling it that.
The breeze shifted, carrying Brody’s voice: “Hey, love of my life, you planning to write through dinner again?”
I laughed, stepping off the porch and into his arms.“I’m taking a break, I promise!”
He shook his head, smiling the way he always does when he thinks I’m not looking.The same look he gave me the first time we kissed, and every day since.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting the light catch the gold band on my finger, the faint smudge of ink on my wrist, and breathed in deep, the scent of grass, the BBQ and something uniquely Brody.
Once, I’d thought survival was the goal, just getting through, just breathing, just not breaking.Once, I had thought that I wasn't worthy of my dreams.The life I so wanted but didn't think I deserved.
But standing here now, surrounded by everything and everyone I chose, I understood it.
Surviving was never the end.
Living was.
And this life we were living, that we chose, was so much fuller, so much more rewarding than anything I ever dreamed of before.
