Epilogue

“Mark, are you ready?”

Mark headed into the living room, where he found Shaina on their floor, scratching Pepper, who had her belly exposed, even though she wanted her neck scratched. Shaina, no stranger to the cat’s antics, ignored the belly for the neck. Behind her, the fish swam in the tank, ignoring the cat as the cat mostly ignored them. Mark and Shaina had bought the condo two months prior, a bigger place for both of them, giving Mark an official office space, so he didn’t spread out over the living area.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

Shaina stood, brushing off cat fur. “This might be the first joint birthday celebration I’ll actually enjoy.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “To be fair, my birthday hasn’t technically arrived yet.”

Shaina slipped out of his arms. “If you’re going to start milking these ten days I’m older than you, I can move out.”

He caught her, kissed her. “We’ll compromise: I get five teases a year.”

She splayed her hands on his back. “You’ve already used three.”

“Then it’s a good thing my birthday is in two days.”

She responded with a kiss, which he brought deeper, licking into her mouth. Six months with her in his life and he knew he’d never get tired of her. She rubbed against him, connecting with a certain part of him that enjoyed being hard around her. A lot.

Shaina moaned. “There isn’t time for that.”

He pulled back, checked his phone, realized she was right. He kissed her neck and she angled into him. “Later then.”

Shaina bit her lip, clearly wanting it as badly as he did. Her gaze traveled down his body. “You going to be able to take care of that?”

“I figure fresh air and thoughts of any of the other birthdays we’ve been forced to share would do the trick.”

“Funny, that hasn’t changed a thing.”

“Well, you staring at it doesn’t help.”

She reached out, clutched the top of his pants, yanking him in to her. “We’ll blame traffic.” She sealed her words with a kiss, hands already working at his pants.

They were so going to be late, and certain people would probably figure out why.

He didn’t care.

He picked her up, brought her to the bedroom, dropping her on the bed. “Strip.”

She sat up, pulling her shirt over her head. “Bossy much?”

“You’re going to need time to fix your hair and makeup.”

She shimmied out of her pants, tossing them on top of his on the floor. “Good point.”

He watched as she revealed skin, never tiring of watching her, of enjoying her. Even when she was angry, sometimes especially when she was angry, because normally excellent sex turned explosive.

Naked, he grabbed a condom before covering her body with his. No time for foreplay, but he needed to kiss down her neck, over the necklace he’d given her that she wore all the time, to suck her nipple into his mouth. Her hand clutched at his back, her body arched into his. “I think you like the fast frenzy of having sex when we shouldn’t be.”

She reached around, grasped his erection. “And I think you like claiming me before seeing our parents.”

He pushed inside to their mutual gasps. “That one is a given.” Her ring caught the sunlight bleeding into the room as she clutched the sheet beside her. “You just want to be fashionably late to go along with our announcement.”

She pumped her hips up to his, nearly making him forget what they’d been talking about. “You will never top this birthday gift.”

“True, it’s all downhill from here.” He shifted positions, hit that spot she liked, and she cried out.

“I think I’m going to like going downhill.”

He picked up his pace, felt the tingle, bent to her other nipple. She broke under him, clutching at him, as he fueled her until following her into bliss.

His head went to the crook of her neck, both of them breathing heavily. “I think I can handle the parents now.”

He laughed, still inside her, and kissed her deeply. “Then let’s get dressed.”

…

Shaina pushed into her parents’ house. “Sorry we’re late, there was traffic.”

Mark snickered behind her, but a big bonus of living in Boston was that line nearly always worked.

Her mother came over, hugged them both. “Hard to have a birthday party without the birthday kids.”

“Kids?” Shaina asked. “We’re thirty-three.”

Mark nudged her. “You’re thirty-three, I’m still thirty-two.”

She glared at him. Held up four fingers. “That’s four. You’ve got one left, Goldman.”

“Oh my, I love them,” Lena said, laughing.

They finished going around, greeting everyone, took a few minutes to get updates from Noah and Norah, who had finally made it to their honeymoon.

It took about a half hour before Lena grabbed Shaina’s hand, a question on her face. Shaina looked down to find Lena’s thumb on the new piece of jewelry she owned. “Is this what I think it is?”

Mark placed a hand on Shaina’s hip. “What do you think it is?”

“You brat,” Lena said to her brother, before pulling Shaina into a hug. “Congrats,” she whispered. She shifted to her brother.

“And what is going on here?” Carrie asked.

Shaina locked eyes with Mark, raised her eyebrows. He nodded.

Showtime.

“Lena liked the birthday gift I got for Shaina.”

“I think it’s a bit more than a birthday gift,” Shaina said.

Mark grinned at her. “You could say that.”

Since they had everyone’s attention, and she felt the confusion in the air, she held up her left hand, wiggled her ring finger, showing off a princess-cut diamond solitaire on a diamond-studded band.

Both their mothers gasped.

“You’re engaged?” Carrie asked.

“No, I just like diamond jewelry.” She glanced at her ring. “Of course we’re engaged!”

Squeals followed, and more hugs. Shaina couldn’t stop smiling. She would have never imagined that Mark would be her match, but she couldn’t imagine being with anyone other than him. He completed her, simple as that.

Mark nudged her and angled to their mothers. She tuned in to what they were saying and, yup, wedding-related ideas. She followed Mark over.

“I’d like to make one thing perfectly clear,” Mark began. “This is our wedding and we want nothing to do with anything you conjured up when we were kids. We know you’ve had a lot of time to ponder ideas, but we want control. So, either you can let us do things as we want, or we have no problem eloping.”

“Am I invited to the elopement?” Noah asked.

Shaina studied him. “Only if you behave.”

Lorraine held up her hands. “We’ll behave, but you have to let us talk to ourselves.”

“Fair enough.”

“This is big, something we didn’t think would happen.” Carrie brushed away a tear.

Mark, breathing deep, clutched his mother’s shoulders. “Do I need to explain things yet again?”

She patted his cheek. “No, of course not. I just really didn’t think it would happen, never mind with Shaina.”

Shaina shared a look with Mark. Some things would never change.

Lorraine enveloped Shaina in a hug. “My baby’s getting married.”

Shaina held out a finger, pointed at Mark. “I blame you for this.”

He kissed the tip of her finger. “I’ll take it.”

Conversation swayed from there. It hit Shaina that everyone in that room was family, had always been family. But because of her feud, Mark stayed outside of that bubble. Now, because of him, her honorary family would be her in-laws.

She clutched his arm, lay her head on his shoulder. Stranger things had happened. She loved him, and he loved her. This un-arranged marriage of theirs had somehow become real.

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