Page 139 of Hold Me Before You Go

“Good.”

“Grayson?”

I looked over my shoulder to find my fiancée standing in the doorway in her cute PJs, her bun lopsided. “Hey, Sunshine,” I greeted, smiling at her.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my middle.

“Talking to Mags,” I answered.

She perked up. “Oh.”

In a flash, the phone was out of my hand and against her ear as she walked to the other side of the deck. “Mags! Guess what?” she screeched, holding out her hand to look at the fat rock I’d put on her finger at dinner. “I know you know, but you’re supposed to act excited,” she scolded.

I chuckled, shaking my head.

“Because you’re my friend, and that’s what friends do,” she said, turning to face me.

Pause.

“No, this isn’t like the pinky promise thing,” she sighed, smiling at me when I tilted my head.

Pinky promise thing?

Another pause.

“I know,” she murmured, her eyes shining. “Goodnight, Mags.”

She handed the phone back to me, my screen showing the call had ended.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“That he’ll kill you and put your ashes on Denver’s mountain if you hurt me,” she said plainly.

I reached for her. “Never in a million years, gorgeous.”

She hummed, rising to her toes to press her lips against mine. “Are you happy, Grayson?”

“Yes, Sunshine. I’m happy. Are you?”

She rested her head against my chest, staring out into the night. “I can’t believe I finally got it.”

I wrapped my arms around her, staring at her face. “Got what?”

“My happy ending.”

I chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “No, Sunshine. This is just the beginning.”

The End

Bonus Epilogue

Somewhere deep in Louisiana, USA.

The chapel was brimming with the voices of sinners, pleading with me as if I was powerful enough to lead them to salvation.

A guide to the eternal light.

An instructor reading from a manual written thousands of years ago.

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