Epilogue

Lexi had fully expected her parents to be shocked that she and Matt were together.

She had not expected Elsie, who had joined the four of them for dinner at Lexi’s parents’ house, to smack the table at the news and yell, “Hot damn, pay up!”

Matt and Lexi exchanged bewildered glances. They’d expected a reaction, but not quite this one.

Lexi’s dad sheepishly pulled out his wallet and dropped two hundreds on the table, which Elsie promptly slid to her side.

“Um, what just happened?” Lexi asked.

“I just won the bet,” Elsie proclaimed as she stuffed the cash in her bra. “And another hundred from the ladies at the village, plus a pair of dentures. Gladys said they’re hers, but I think she lifted them from Melvin, that old geezer down the hall. Haven’t seen him with his teeth in a good long while.”

“You bet on us?” Matt asked. The fact that neither he nor anyone else batted an eye at Elsie’s story almost made Lexi laugh.

“Of course she did,” she said. Honestly, she wasn’t surprised. “But my own parents?”

Lexi’s dad glanced at her mom, whose eyes shone with unshed tears, then back to Lexi. “You two stretched this out a little long. That two hundred bucks is coming out of your wedding budget.”

“It is not,” Lexi’s mom said. “We’re so happy, truly. However long it took, I’m just glad we’re all here now. You can have anything you want. You’ve certainly given us all we could have asked for.”

“Except grandchildren,” Elsie said, wagging her finger at Matt. Then, in a stage-whisper aside to Lexi’s parents, Elsie added, “Though I’d bet they’ve been at least practicing.”

“That’s great, Elsie,” Matt said. “Really great. Thanks for bringing that up.”

“Well, I don’t hear you denying it,” Elsie harrumphed.

“You do know Lexi burned up your Napoleon pan, right?” Matt asked, nodding toward the half-emptied dish in the center of the table, earning a sharp elbow from Lexi.

“Hey!” She hadn’t loved Elsie’s implication—in front of her parents, no less—that she and Matt had had copious amounts of sex, but he was supposed to be on her side.

Elsie frowned and peered. “It looks fine to me. Lexi, this tart is better than mine ever were. Keep this up and you can make your wedding cake yourself!”

Next to Lexi, Matt choked, coughed, and drained his glass of water before daring to glance at Lexi. “No. No she cannot.”

“Well, it would help the budget,” Lexi’s mom said, stifling a grin.

“Thank you, but we don’t need you to pay for the wedding,” Matt said, laughing. “Especially not at the cost of allowing Lexi to bake.”

Lexi shot him a dirty look—the tart wasn’t terrible, though she’d be the first to admit that Elsie was being uncharacteristically kind—but all the intent behind giving him the evil eye dissolved when she saw his face. Not because he wore any kind of heart-melting expression, but because of his adorable, cocky grin and how warm and familiar and soul-jarringly hers it felt.

Across the table, Elsie and Lexi’s mom had fallen into a discussion about who should do the cake, which morphed into a conversation about the catering, and Lexi’s dad pointed out that they really needed to decide on a location before they chose a menu.

Lexi leaned back in her chair and took it all in. Family. Just like it had always been, but it had never felt so complete. Sometimes she wondered how she could have missed it for so long. Others, she couldn’t believe she and Matt had actually risked all of it for sex. Granted, it had been a lot more than just sex, but sex had definitely pushed them over the edge.

Over the edge was her new favorite place.

Matt leaned close, his fingertips landing on her thigh. “Do you think we should just elope?” he whispered.

She sucked in a breath. Her skin pebbled instantly against his touch. The table blocked the view, thank goodness, but nothing kept her mind from fleeing into territory that was decidedly unsuitable for mixed company. “No way,” she said in a low voice. “They’ve waited forever for this.”

“Me, too.” He grinned, walking his hand farther up her thigh.

“Matt!” she hissed when he breached the hem of her shorts. She glanced toward her parents and Elsie, who were still in the throes of their discussion. Elsie mentioned something about the retirement village, and how it probably wasn’t suitable for a reception because they no longer allowed nudity in their pool. Lexi groaned, and not just because Elsie had just dived into the indignity of being escorted, naked, from the deep end.

Matt was killing her.

“If memory serves,” he whispered, “You considered this behavior perfectly acceptable for the dining table. Or was that acceptable for the workplace? Your call.” His lips grazed her ear.

Lexi glanced across the table. As close as Matt was, there was no way they hadn’t noticed. Maybe they were politely ignoring them. “You are going to pay for this later,” she muttered, shifting in her seat. He, like she had before, took full advantage…and with it, her breath.

“Oh, I’m counting on that,” he said. He lightly stroked her through her clothes, giving her serious thoughts about dragging him upstairs to her old bedroom.

“So what do you think, Lexi?” Her mom’s voice.

Lexi blinked her into focus. “About what?”

“The venue,” she said, with an arch of her eyebrow and a pointed look at where Lexi and Matt sat glued at the seam.

The wedding. Lexi somehow kept forgetting that part. She already had so much. Matt and Waffles had moved into her house with its newly remodeled kitchen, and his would be on the market as soon as they put a fence between the backyards. Everything was the way it always had been, only better.

She had Matt and a picket fence and…Elsie asking if they’d get married at the retirement village if she got them to raise the ban on nude swimming.

“I would marry her literally anywhere but there,” Matt told Elsie, much to Elsie’s consternation and to the amusement—and probably relief—of Lexi’s parents.

Lexi barely heard him. She was too distracted by the ring glittering on her left hand. She’d never been big on jewelry, but that ring was glorious.

She had the rest of her life to admire it, but nothing in the world compared to knowing that Matt would be part of every moment.

She couldn’t wait.

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