Page 108 of Ashes of Us
"It's perfect."
She cut us both pieces. We ate standing up at her counter while morning light filled the apartment and turned everything soft-edged and new.
"Best birthday cake I've ever had," I said.
"Liar."
"Best everything I've ever had." I set down my fork, pulled her close. "You. This. Us trying. All of it."
She looked up at me with those eyes that saw everything: every mistake, every effort, every stupid hope.
"We're really doing this," she said.
"Yeah." I kissed her forehead. Her nose. Her mouth. "We really are."
And when she kissed me back—deep and hungry and sure—I finally let myself believe it.
We were going to be okay. It wouldn’t be perfect, and it wouldn’t be easy, but…
We were going to be okay.
And that was enough.
EPILOGUE: PIPER
SIX MONTHS LATER
Liam was going to kill my stand mixer.
"Gently," I said for the third time, watching him wrestle with the dough hook like it was a piece of firefighting equipment that required brute force. "You're making brioche, not defusing a bomb."
"It's not mixing." He frowned at the bowl, which was indeed not mixing because he'd put the flour in before the wet ingredients and now had what resembled a small desert landscape instead of dough.
"That's because—" I reached over and hit the off button before he could destroy both the mixer and Maya's birthday bread. "You have to add the flour gradually. After the eggs and butter."
"You didn't say that."
"I absolutely said that."
"You said a lot of things. I got distracted." He gave me that look, the one that still made my stomach flip even six months into whatever we were calling this. Relationship, second chance, controlled chaos with feelings.
"Distracted by what?"
"You." He said it simply, like it was obvious, and I felt my cheeks heat despite the fact that we'd been doing this dance for months now. Despite the fact that I'd woken up in his apartment more often than my own lately. Despite everything.
"Flattery won't save you from my sister if you ruin her birthday bread."
"Your sister terrifies me."
"Good. She should." I dumped his failed dough into the trash and started pulling out new ingredients. "Maya takes her birthday very seriously. And after she threatened to set your truck on fire if you hurt me again, I'd think you'd be extra motivated to get this right."
"She was joking about that, right?"
I didn't answer, just handed him the eggs.
He looked at them suspiciously. "How many?"
"Four. And Liam?"
