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Epilogue

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“How’s the presentation going?” Aron asked me, as he kissed all over the back of my neck and snaked his arms around my waist. His touch still warmed my heart, even after all this time. I didn’t think I’d ever get bored with having him around.

“It was going well into you came in here,” I mock moaned as a reply. “You are always such a distraction.” I lolled my head to one side and slid my eyes shut for a moment, just enjoying the sensation of having his wonderful, plump lips all over me.

“You shouldn’t have come to live with me then!”

Well, that was true. I should’ve known that living with him would turn out this way. We had been together for a year before he asked me! By that point it was my own fault, I knew how he made me feel and how challenging it was to remember that there was a big wide world outside those doors.

“Fair enough.” I spun in my chair and planted my lips up against his. Then I rested my forehead against his and I lost myself in his warm, dark eyes like I seemed to do at least once a day. “It’s going well, I think today will be good for me.”

Now that things had calmed down at the hospital, and everyone was used to me and Aron being together, it felt strange to recall that he was ever just a fantasy man. Actually, all the years I’d spent thinking about him really didn’t do him any justice. The Dr. Turner that I’d created in my mind was wonderful, but the Aron that I got to be with every single day is fantastic.

Still, I needed to use the difficulties of that experience to help others. It was what drove me every single day, just like being a nurse did.

“It’s got to be better having Nancy by your side?” he asked me nervously. Even though a long time had passed, Aron still found the subject of my complex friendship a difficult one to tackle.

“It is,” I answered honestly. “And not just because we’re friends again now, but because it shows another side of things. Workplace bullying often goes undetected because people don’t think it can happen out of school, and she’s living proof that you might not even realize that you’re doing it. I’m glad she’s working on my charitable foundation with me.”

“Well I’m proud of you too, and Edna would be as well.” Aron knew that I still liked to remember Edna, even though it had been a long time since she passed. She touched me and affected me in ways that no one else ever would. She was special to me, and would always be in my mind somewhere. “I bet she’s looking down on you now, thinking how well you’ve done.”

“I doubt it! I bet she’s spending time with her husband again, she missed him too much after he died...what are you doing?” I suddenly trailed off as I noticed that Aron was no longer standing next to me, but he was on the floor instead.

On one knee.

Holding out a small jewelry box.

Oh. My. God.

“Speaking of husbands...” he announced with that wonderfully wicked smile of his. “I think it’s time that you made me yours. You already know that I love you and that I’d do anything for you, and I hope I show you how happy you make me every single day. I want to make it official, I want to world to know that I’m yours.”

I could barely breathe, this was all so unexpected. One minute we were just having a normal conversation, and now he was asking me to marry him? He was insane!

Then again, his spontaneous nature was one of the things that I loved about him.

“So, will you do me the most wonderful honor of being my wife?”

“You’re insane,” I gasped with tear flooded eyes. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Well, I’m sort of hoping that one of the words you’ll say will be yes,” he chuckled, but there was a definite awkwardness there. “That would be ideal.”

“Yes, you idiot! Of course, yes!”

As he jumped up and he scooped me up into his arms, I felt my heart thunder in my chest. Dr. Turner was the man who could never be mine, who was always at arms-length, but now Aron was forever mine and all I wanted to do was weep.

“I love you, so much,” I gasped, while crashing my lips into his for a second.

“I love you too, even if you did call me an idiot after I proposed,” Aron smirked back. “And I’m glad to be yours forever because you honestly are the best person I’ve ever known.”

A happy ever after for me, who would’ve ever thought it?

THE END