Page 132 of When Stars Collide
“Hey, you two!” Luke’s thunderous voice echoed across the yard, drawing our attention back to the tent where he and Elle stood watching us.
“Are you guys just going to stare at each other all day?” Elle added.
“Clock’s ticking, Monroe.” Luke mimicked tapping a non-existent watch on his wrist. “Just kiss her already!”
“Yeah, we’re trying to have a reception here.”
Peter chuckled. “We … very much deserve this.”
I nodded. “That we do. And we’d better not let them down.”
Peter leaned in, his lips, at first, barely brushing mine before he allowed himself to crash into me like he needed my touch to convince himself that all of this was real. Satisfied that it was, he enfolded me in his arms, surprising me when he picked me up and spun me around. From inside of the tent, a round of applause erupted. Whether that was also Luke and Elle’s doing, I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was the moment I was in right then, right there.
I pulled Peter closer to me just as he began to pull away, capturing his mouth in mine for a moment longer. Without hesitation, he clasped his arms around my waist, bringing me in flush against his body until, reluctantly, he broke away from me, resting his forehead against mine.
“Well, Peter Monroe.”
“Yes, Mena Straszewski?”
“Here’s the happily ever after you wanted.”
EPILOGUE
One Year Later
Frazzled, I pulled into the parking lot of the park Elle told me to meet her at, trying to gather my thoughts. The last six months had been frantic, to say the least. My transition from New York to Roanoke and moving into Peter’s apartment went smoothly enough, but the sheer amount of change I’d gone through in a brief amount of time left me feeling like I had been run over by a truck.
After returning to New York, I’d fully intended to hand Phineas my letter of resignation from Drake Publishing and find something else to hold me over until my lease was up. Phineas had different ideas, though, offering me an opportunity to work remotely in Virginia, with trips to New York every other month. The guilt I’d felt when I walked into his office the day after I’d returned from the wedding had been indescribable. He, on the other hand, had handled himself beautifully, looking at me no differently than he had the day I’d interviewed with him. His poker face, although admirable, was not infallible, however. Every now and then, he would let his guard down when he didn’t think I was looking, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the struggle in his eyes. He hadn’t been in the office much near the end of my residency in New York. The monumental success of Drake Publishing allowed him to open another office in Manhattan, and he’d spent much of his time there. A part of me wondered whether that was his way of staying away from me without it being too obvious.
Jo and I moved out of our apartment on the same day, promising that we would make time to see each other again whenever I was in New York. We’d managed to keep that promise only once since my move, meeting up for coffee four months ago. Since then, our more frequent interactions had mainly been limited to sharing the occasional meme by text.
I walked down the trail where Elle told me to meet her. After all the time we’d been spending together lately, what with the book tour and collaborating on a second book of poetry together, I would have thought she’d had enough of me. Turns out I was wrong.
As I rounded a corner, I found Elle perched atop a boulder. When I caught sight of the lively little girl balancing on her legs, nothing could have stopped the smile that overcame my face. Born the day after I moved back to Virginia, little Elizabeth—Lizzie for short, as I refused to call her Betsy—had both her parents and her godparents wrapped around her chubby, sometimes sticky, fingers. Elle had taken to mothering Luke’s clone like a natural, throwing herself into late night feedings, play dates, and tummy time like a boss, all while taking on the role of rising star in the literary industry.
“There’s my little bundle of recessive genes.” I stooped down to greet Lizzie, twirling one of her blonde curls around my finger, her blue eyes sparkling. She smiled at me, revealing a lone tooth. Every time she smiled my heart melted into a puddle inside of my chest. “Seriously, couldn’t your genes have shown up … somewhere? Even her toes look like Luke’s.” I glanced up at Elle, readjusting the sunhat I’d bought for Lizzie.
“Tell me about it.It doesn’t seem genetically legal, since my body was the one that made her, carried her, and birthed her. She does have my blood type, though. So, I guess there’s that.”
“It’s a good thing your daddy doesn’t look like hot garbage, then, isn’t it?” Lizzie giggled as I ran my fingertips up and down her bare, cherub-like, chubby legs.
“If ‘hot’ and ‘garbage’ are her first words, I swear I’m revoking your godmother status.”
“Psh … idle threats.” Elle rolled Lizzie’s stroller over with her foot and proceeded to strap her inside. “Are you going to tell me why I had to walk two miles to meet you?”
“Mena, I can see the parking lot from here.”
I looked over my shoulder, catching sight of my car in the distance. “Only because it’s not foggy.”
Elle rolled her eyes and proceeded down the trail without answering my question. Staring straight ahead, her eyes never left the trail ahead of us, no matter how much I tried to get her attention, a dead giveaway that something was up.
“Are you pregnant again?”
“What? God no. I mean, not for a while yet. Mommy loves you, Lizzie.” She pattedLizzie on the shoulder, comforting her from the sting of words she couldn’t understand.
“Okay … Are you and Luke doing okay? Because I meant what I said at your reception. If you decide to go all Elizabeth Taylor on me, you’re going to have to find another maid of honor for your subsequent weddings. Unless, of course, it’s his fault. Then I’ll help you hide the body.”
“Luke and I have never been better.” She chuckled. “Although, it’s nice to know you aren’t above murder. I’ll keep that in mind.”
