“Can we go home and see our daughter now?”
She laughed. “Yes. But I still expect a date night every week. And I’m not moving in with you right away.”
“We’ll see.”
“Brooks.”
I set her down and cupped her face. “Bee?”
She sighed. “Yes?”
“I love you. That’s all that matters.” I grinned. “And I’ll make sure you know it every damn day.”
Epilogue
Gina
January
“Why on Earth would you move in winter?” Luna grunted as she tossed another bag of clothes into the back of the U-Haul I’d rented.
“You should be happy since you’re moving into my place. And believe me, it is clean. Between my mother and my sister, there isn’t even a speck of lint in there.”
I rolled my planter off the curb and onto the ramp. I blew out a breath and shoved it up the rollers.
“I appreciate it. It has decent energy too. I’ll be cleaning the crap out of it though. Between the sex vibes in the building and the ghost hanging out on the third floor, I have a little work to do.”
I shook my head and collapsed on my hassock that Jared and Mason had loaded onto the truck before they took off. Jared’s brother was very handy with his big Dodge Ram pickup. They’d taken my mattress and box springs for the spare room.
It had been Jared’s storage and dumping ground for useless junk. His secret Monica closet. He hadn’t gotten the reference. My guy wasn’t much for pop television.
After I introduced him to Friends, we’d been binging it on date night. True to his word, once a week Jared found ways to do something romantic.
Sometimes it was his version of romance, which meant sex and a steak. Handily, I enjoyed both of those things, as well. But other times he got more creative.
Like a drive through the lights in the park for Christmas in Syracuse, which included a very off-season custard place. Evidently, no one got between the people of Syracuse and their frozen treats.
But mostly, we just got to know each other on another level. We’d been best friends for years, but there was a surprising array of things I didn’t know about Brooks.
Like he loved to take photos of trees. He’d been rebuilding a boat with his dad for a while now. And in the secret shame room, he hid a model train set he’d kept since he was a boy.
He didn’t know it yet, but that train would be set up next Christmas. I’d already found some online places to buy tracks. It seemed like the perfect thing to build up every year as a little something between us.
Luna disappeared for another load of clothes. They were the last bits we had left to move. The guys had done all the heavy lifting, thank God. I collapsed back on the hassock and willed myself to move.
My will was not strong.
“Attention, people of Crescent Cove!”
I sat up. What the hell? I peeked out from the truck. Who the hell was using a megaphone? My apartment was above Brewed Awakening, which was right across from the park near the gazebo and the lake.
“I have an announcement to make.”
No. He wouldn’t. That couldn’t be him.
“Regina Maria Ramos, I see you over there.”
I ducked back into the truck. “No Regina over here.”