Page 151 of When Fate Breaks
I sweep her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
“We’re going to get everything we want in life, Evangeline. I’m sure of it.”
EPILOGUE
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Annie
“C’mon, Jacks, look alive!”
I turn to look over my shoulder just as I reach the top step of the porch, a smile instantly spreading across my face at the sight behind me.
“Jackson, really. Let’s just make it inside and then you can finish your coloring, dude,” Blake says, holding his hand out. The sunlight glints off of the silver band on his ring finger, and I can’t help but look down at my own. This ring is much smaller than the one I previously wore, and so much moreme. It’s a modest diamond cushioned in a silver band resembling a twisted vine; nestled within it are leaves made of the most specific shade of aquamarine gemstone. I think back to the night Blake gave it to me. When I whispered through tears how beautiful the stones were.Like they were made for you, his response had been.
“But I’m almost done!” Jackson calls back as he approaches Blake, stumbling over his short legs as he tries to shade in his coloring book while walking. I don’t miss the way one of his eyes shuts and his tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
Like father, like son.
“Jacks, baby, listen to Daddy,” I say, hiding a chuckle, as I knock on the door.
“Hey, I’mfour! I’m not a baby!” Jackson grumbles, still not taking his eyes off his coloring page.
“Yeah, listen to Mommy and listen to Daddy,big kid.” Before Jackson has a chance to respond, Blake scoops him up off the ground and starts tickling him. The mixture of his high-pitched squeals and Blake’s low-belly laugh are like music to my ears. I only tear my gaze away from them when I hear the front door open.
“Well, hey there, rat!” Leah cries, pulling me into a hug. “Ramer has missed you.”
“Believe it or not, I think I’ve missed it a little, too,” I say as we pull back. “Just a little though.”
“Uh huh,” she nods. “Can’t say I blame you.” Her eyes focus behind me as Blake and Jackson approach. “Hey, little Jacks!” she smiles, mussing Jackson’s light brown curls.
“BigJacks,” Blake corrects her out of the corner of his mouth, shaking his head as he leans in for Leah to hug both him and Jacks at the same time.
“Oh, right, of course. How could I?” Leah plays along as she leads us into the house.
Blake sets Jacks down and he immediately makes a beeline for the coffee table in the living room, plopping down on his bottom to continue shading in his pirate themed coloring book.
“Hubs is in the garage if you care to join him, Blake,” Leah says. “Or you can sip mimosas with us and talk about glitter.”
“Very tempting offer, but I think I’ll joinhubs,” Blake chuckles, pressing a kiss to the top of my head before he makes his way to the garage.
Leah has been married for five years and has not called her husband by his real name since the moment they signed the papers; he is exclusivelyhubsnow. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, seeing asrathas been sticking over Annie for over thirty years now.
“Glitter? Really?” I question, shaking my head.
“Hey, anything to get a little alone time with my rat,” Leah winks, pouring champagne into our glasses. “So, how’s work? How’slife?”
I let out a heavy sigh, but it ends with a smile. It’s not a sigh of stress or sadness, but one of true bliss and happiness.
After I tracked Blake down in Lake Placid and was finally honest with him (and myself), everything else just sorta…fell into place. Emily’s news of the investment fund Kyle left behind for Blake was the last thing either of us could have expected. Though the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, nor would I have ever asked it of him, Blake was adamant about the first use of the large sum of money left in his name: he wanted to buy Jacks Hardware out from the Van der Michaels. I think my heart nearly burst at that moment.God, I loved him.To my surprise, Remy and his family didn’t even put up much of a fight when we made the proposal. It turns out the blow I had made to their pride by the gossip of me leaving Remy a month before our wedding was worth more to them than the value of the store. So, they took the money and ran, and Blake and I became 50/50 partners with my dad. I’ll never forget the look on his face when I told him.You said we’d figure it out, Dad, I had told him.We always do, he had replied, hugging Blake and me tightly. He held us close as he looked up at the ceiling.Thanks, brother, he muttered, just barely audible.You son of a bitch.
Though we were partners financially, my dad didn’t truly need us on a daily basis at the store. Blake, however, did still have a business that very much did need him present back in Lake Placid. Di Fazio Landscaping & Design was just as much his baby as Jacks Hardware was my dad’s, and I’d never ask him to give it up. I happily agreed to move to Lake Placid with Blake, promising dad that I would help him out with bookkeeping and any other administrative things I could from afar. Though Blake loved the idea of having me in Lake Placid and knew he never wanted to be apart again, he had one condition: I had to have my own baby as well. My owndream. He knew me well enough to know I needed work and passion to thrive, and he wasn’t willing to let me give that up. So, I looked into opportunities and, after a late night phone call with Riya, found the most absurdly perfect solution.
Briar & Brooks had an associate marketing consultant position open. Upon reviewing the job description, two lines immediately stuck out to me:remote work optionalandoccasional travel required. I nearly screamed when I saw it. It was perfect. I could live in Lake Placid with Blake and work from home while taking the occasional work trip to see all the cities and meet all of the new people that I always dreamed of. I thought it surely must be too good to be true, but I didn’t even have to go to the second round of interviews before I got the role. It turns out that some people on the hiring board still remembered my presentation from the conference all those years ago and knew they had to have me.
So, we did it. Blake and I did it all. I worked my job I loved during the day while helping my dad over video call in the evenings as needed. Blake kept up and continued to grow his landscaping business as a household name in Lake Placid, coming home covered in dirt and sweeping me off my feet every single night. I would occasionally take business trips, bringing Blake along with me if it was a weekend or he could take time off (which was a little easier when you were your own boss). A few times a year, we would take somewhat grander vacations, Blake determined to show me every city skyline the world had to offer. It was nearly a year to the date after I tracked him down at The Olive Pit that we stood at possibly the most incredible lookout point I’d ever seen, in Sydney, Australia, that Blake got down on one knee, asking me if I’d keep doing this with him forever. It was the easiestyesI’d ever said. The easiest decision I’d ever made. Not a second of thinking required.
In short, life was good.
