Page 209 of The Exit Strategy

The ring is a perfect fit.

His lips are the perfect touch.

Our hearts are the perfect match.

“She said yes,” he yells out over the marsh.

And as anticipated, The Haven residents respond exactly the way I’d expect them to—with cowbells, golf cart horns, and Stanley’s whoop of joy through a megaphone.

“We have about four minutes before they come racing up that driveway,” Cole says.

I laugh and hug him tighter.

They arrive in less than two.

“Junie.” Nana Mae reaches me first with the help of Hudson.

“Hey, I thought you weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow?”

Hudson winks. “You think we’d miss this?”

Behind him, Nolan and Fen are helping The Havens out of their golf carts.

“You said yes,” Nana Mae says. She doesn’t say anything else for a long moment. She kisses my hands, the right and then the left. Then she kisses Cole’s cheek. She takes one long look at us before she assigns herself mayor and starts handing out champagne.

Nolan and Fen join us next.

“I drafted a prenup,” Hudson says, hugging me awkwardly. “Cole rejected it. But I want it on record that I tried.”

“Noted,” I say. My eyes roll so hard they ache.

Fen hugs me next. His is longer, and true to character, more theatrical. He lifts me off my feet and swings mearound. “What are we going to call you now that we’ve retired Spite-Berry and Petty-Betty?”

“Oh,” I laugh. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

“I don’t think she’s lost the Spite-Berry side of her,” Nolan says. “I think she just finally learned when to utilize it.”

Fen sets me down on my feet. “That true?”

I shrug. “Maybe.”

“I love you, you little menace.”

“Love you too, Fen.”

Nolan stands off to the side with his hands still in his pockets. Then he pulls them out and opens his arms wide. I fall into him just like I did when I was five. “Junebug,” he whispers into the side of my head.

“Noley.”

“I think,” he keeps his voice low. “You’re the most amazing person I know, Junie. Despite who Anna tried to make you, you chose love. That’s something she was never able to do.”

I hug him harder. Over the last few months, I’ve opened up to him and Cole about what Anna used to say to me. I think it broke my brother in ways he’s still trying to come to terms with. But opening up to them did what Bea’s trying to teach me to do now—it released the shackles caused by a hurt woman who only knew how to hurt others.

“I’m so damn proud of you for fighting for this, Junie. This love that you and Cole have? Not everyone gets it. I’m so happy you found it and let that love in, baby sister.”

“Thank you, Nolan,” I sniffle into his chest. “Thank you for always loving me, even when I made it nearly impossible.”

Cole growls at my side right before he pulls me back from my brother. Stinking Neanderthal.