Page 120 of Forever Mine
With his lips on mine, he said, “I am, you know.”
When I raised my eyes to his, I asked, “Know what?”
“Yours. I’m forever yours.”
He took my mouth and made love to me with his tongue, sweeping deeply and tasting me thoroughly.
“Feel how my heart beats only for you,” Julien whispered in my ear.
I did. I could feel its strong beat speak its love to mine.
“By the powers vested in me by the state of Hawaii, it is my honor and delight to declare you married and partners in life… for life. You may kiss the groom.”
Cheers eruptwhen I dip Elijah in my arms and kiss him.
Forever his. Forever yours. Forever mine. Forever always.
Epilogue
TWENTY YEARS LATER…
JULIEN
“Oh, shit.”
Liz shields her eyes from the glaring summer sun and lets out a shrill whistle.
“Grant Alexander Jameson Barnes! You get your Romeo lips off my daughter right now!”
She twists around and punches me in the arm.
“What did I do?” I rub at the soreness. Liz isn’t dainty with her punches.
“He’s your son.”
“Well, Charlotte is your daughter. She kissed him first.”
Liz falls back onto the beach blanket and throws an arm over her face. “I’m not ready for her to grow up yet. With the boys, they have Ryder to go to about… stuff.”
“Sex, Liz. It’s called sex. Rounding the bases. Getting lucky. Smashing. Sneaky links. Clapping cheeks.”
She punches me again. Hard. “Shut up, Julien. She’s seven, for fuck’s sake.”
Charlotte and Grant have been thick as thieves since the day we put them in the same portable crib together. I hate to break it to Liz, but I think our children are destined to walk the same path she, Jay, and I did. Hopefully, that path won’t be mired in all the heartbreak and drama like ours was. Who am I kidding? Once they become teenagers, we’ll be drowning in teenage hormonal angst. God help us all.
Speaking of Jay, I need to call him today and check in. He put roots down in California. Got married. Had a kid. Our relationship never recovered after he left, but at least he’s in my life in some capacity. Jay still refuses to come home and hasn’t set foot in North Carolina since he walked away. So, we go to him. Elijah and I take the boys to San Francisco once a year. I want Grant and Nicholas to have some kind of connection with their uncle and cousin. Family means everything to us. Even a broken one. Which is why we allowed Beverly a presence in our sons’ lives. It was brief but good. Elijah never forgave her for what she did, but they made peace before she passed away. He needed that closure. To not hate her anymore. To hear her say she was sorry. To hear her say she loved him.
“Is there anything hotter than our husbands all wet and sexy and playing with our kids?”
I look toward the breakers. Grant and Charlotte found a spot on the beach to build a sand castle, but they keep getting distracted by Marcus’s loud laughter as Ryder tosses him into the swells. A little farther out on a surfboard is Elijah and Nicholas. Sitting between Elijah’s legs on the surfboard, Nicholas excitedly points to something in the distance. A large spray of water jets upward right before the back of a whale arches from the ocean’s surface and quickly disappears.
As I gaze at my husband and our two perfect boys, love swells my heart to almost bursting. Elijah and I will celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary next week. Twenty years of love and happiness that never dim, only grow with every day we’re together. I’m more in love with him now, something that should be impossible, but soulmate love is infinite in its capacity.
As I watch my husband and our sons, the sight fills my heart with a warmth that no sunrise could ever match. This is my life—this beautiful, chaotic, and love-filled existence that I never could have imagined all those years ago when I first met Elijah. Back then, we were two souls navigating a world that didn’t always understand them. But now? Now we had built something so perfect, so right, that it oftentimes took my breath away.
Liz sits up and digs through the cooler. She takes out a chilled bottle of water and hands it to me before taking one for herself.
“The kids are excited about Utah.”
