Page 90 of Friend Zone to End Zone

“I love you too, Cole,” she whispered. Then lifting a hand to my face and caressing my cheek with her thumb, she said, “I think I’ve loved you for a long time. Until now, I just never thought I’d ever deserve someone as amazing as you.”

Warm shivers raced along my skin with her touch, and my heart felt like it might burst with how much I felt for her in that moment.

“I’m sure you deserve far better than me,” I said, not understanding how she could ever feel she deserved less than anyone else. “But I hope you’ll be okay settling for me, anyway.”

“I’d be lucky to have you.” She shook her head gently, just looking at me in a way that I could only describe as quiet awe. “But as long as you’re okay slumming it with me and all my flaws, I think we might just make each other very happy.”

“I think you’re right.”

I knew I should probably say something more—make some sort of grand romantic statement. But all I could think about was how I was sitting with the most beautiful girl in the world and she was telling me everything I’d ever wanted to hear from her. And that maybe, for the first time since we’d met, she might actually be waiting for me to kiss her.

So, after taking in the way she was currently biting her bottom lip and the way her gaze seemed to be flitting from my lips and to my eyes and then back to my lips again, I whispered, “I think it’s only right that I show you just how much I love you now.”

She leaned closer to my ear and whispered, “I think it’s actually time that I showed you.”

And just the way she gazed at me through hooded eyes was enough to send my heart racing into hyperspeed because she was so dang sexy right now.

So before I could decide who was showing who what, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. By the time the sun had fully set behind the mountains, neither one of us was confused about where we stood with the other.

And it was perfect.

Epilogue

Arianna

Five Years Later

“I can’t believeAxel and Adalynn are already turning one,” I told my sister-in-law, Emerson, as she put the candles into her and Vincent’s twins’ smash cakes. We were standing in the kitchen of their beautiful home, just making the last finishing touches to the cakes while everyone else was waiting in the dining room to sing happy birthday to their miracle twins. “It seemed like we were just celebrating the Dragons’ Super Bowl win and you were planning to tell Vincent you were expecting.”

“I know, it’s so crazy how fast time flies.” She glanced at my stomach as she put the blue candle shaped like a number one into Axel’s football cake. “But before you know it, you’ll be celebrating your little one’s first birthday.”

“I know.” I looked down at my belly, my hands reflexively smoothing over the bump that had been growing bigger and bigger over the last eight months. “It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating Malia’s first birthday. I don’t know how I’m going to handle taking care of two kids.”

“As long as the ultrasound was right and there’s only one baby in there, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Two at a time though…” Emerson shook her head, probably remembering the memories from the past year with her own twins. “Well, I’ll just say that I’m glad Vincent retired before they got here, or I’m not sure we would have survived the first month.”

“Yeah, Cole and I already decided not to risk that.” I laughed, imagining how crazy it would be to have multiple births. “We’re pretty sure Malia and this little guy are going to keep us plenty busy as it is.”

“I’m sure they will.”

Emerson unwrapped the pink candle and placed it in the center of Adalynn’s princess cake. “Wanna help me carry the cakes in?”

“Of course.”

So while she carried Axel’s cake into the dining room where he was not so patiently waiting in his high chair, I carried Adalynn’s cake and set it in front of her.

Since this wasn’t Vincent’s first rodeo when it came to first birthday parties, he was ready to light the candles before the twins could attack the cakes and had the room full of the twins’ closest family and friends sing “Happy Birthday!” a few seconds later.

While we sang the traditional birthday song, I walked over to where my husband stood on the side of the room with our three-year-old daughter on his hip. And as I looked at the handsome man I got to call mine and our adorable daughter with the beautiful dark curls I got to brush through every morning before we spent the day going on walks, reading books, and playing with dolls before her daddy got home from football practice, my heart was so full.

Because this was what life was all about. Making memories with my family was what made life good.

If the eighteen-year-old version of me could just get a small glimpse into what her future held, I knew she’d hardly believe her eyes.

Because all her dreams really had come true.

She’d just had to go through some difficult things to get there.

And even though there were times when she thought her life was over and that there would be no happiness in it again, there would come a time when she’d meet a guy at a birthday party like this—a guy who would become her best friend. That after a few years of ups and downs, she’d finally realize they were perfect for each other and that she deserved to be happy despite the mistakes in her past.

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