Epilogue


    Christian’s [POV]


    I groaned as Gretchen lightly shook my shoulder. I’d been upte the night before. I’d gotten caught up working on the boat out in the garage, and the next thing I’d known, it had been three in the morning, and I still hadn’t gone to bed. Gretchen had to know that I’d gone to bedte, too, since she’d stayed up waiting for me, she’d eventually fallen asleep with a book in her hands.


    I’de back to the room and found her like that, and I hadn’t been able to hide a fond smile as I watched her. It seemed like every new day, every new caring gesture that she made, I loved her more, as though that were somehow possible. But she was so wonderful.


    “Give me five more minutes,” I mumbled, turning my face into the pillow.


    “But then your breakfast is going to get cold,” Gretchen said, and when I cracked an eye open, I saw that she had brought me breakfast in bed.


    But of course, she had because it was Sunday morning, and she always brought me breakfast in bed on Sunday mornings, just like I always cooked dinner for her on her days off. I always insisted that she didn’t have to do that, but she liked doing it, and it wasn’t like I wasining about it.


    I pushed myself up into a sitting position, surprised to see howte it already was. “One o’clock already?” I asked, baffled to see that.


    “Yeah, you were asleep,” Gretchen said, smiling fondly at me. “I didn’t have the heart to wake you up any sooner.”


    “I slept well,” I admitted, stretching broadly.


    “And how’s the boating along?” she asked.


    “Well, actually,” I told her. “I think I’ll have it ready to sail by the time summer starts.”


    “Awesome,” she said. She slipped into bed next to me and pulled her tray over herp as she cuddled up next to me. “You know, I am still worried that you’re just going to sail away and disappear one of these days,” she teased.


    “You know I wouldn’t do that,” I said easily.


    “Hmm,” was all Gretchen said, even though I knew she couldn’t possibly think that anymore. She had finally stopped asking me if I regretted moving to Hawaii, and things had been going great between us over the past couple of years.


    “You’reing to the luau tonight, right?” I asked her, trying to sound nonchnt.


    “What luau?” she asked, frowning at me.


    I shrugged. “Mark told me about it,” I said. “You didn’t hear about it from Mina?”


    “No,” Gretchen said frowning. “I’ve been pretty busy with worktely, what with all the new clients that we’ve been taking on. I think I need to find another masseuse to take some of the work because Mina and I are pretty much booked solid!”


    “I know,” I said. “I’ve missed seeing youtely.”


    “You see me every evening,” Gretchen said, rolling her eyes a little, but she was smiling. “And every day off as well, with the rare exception of the days that Mina and I both take off.”


    “I know,” I said. “But it’s not enough.”


    Gretchenughed. “What about this luau tonight? What are we even celebrating, anyway?”


    “Do you need a reason to celebrate to have a luau?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.


    “Well, I guess not,” Gretchen said, giggling a little.


    I shrugged again. “I don’t know what it’s about, I just know Mark told me about it, and he has his finger on the pulse here, so I’m sure there is one. You’ll go with me, right?”


    “Maybe you and Mark should just have a guy’s night,” Gretchen suggested. “I have appointments tomorrow, nothing too early in the day because Mina said she’d take those, but even still.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I’ve been working a little too muchtely, I think. I’m just tired. As fun as a luau sound, I don’t think I can make it.”


    I sighed and lightly stroked the back of her neck. “I understand that,” I said. “I know just how hard you’ve been working, and your clients do as well. But don’t you think we could have just one night of fun? I’m not saying that we have to stay out untilte or anything like that, but maybe we could just go for an hour or two and then head home? I’m sure there are a lot of people there who’d like to see you and ask how the business is going, and you don’t want to leave all the talking to Mina, do you?”


    “No,” Gretchen admitted, grimacing a little. She sighed. “Fine, I’ll go,” she finally agreed. “But just for an hour or two. And then I want toe straight back here and curl up on the couch with you to watch some shitty TV.”


    “That’s a deal,” I said, reaching out a hand so that we could shake on it. I grinned slyly at her. “Would you wear that pretty green dress that I love on you?” I asked.


    Gretchenughed. “Sure,” she said, blushing a little.This is property ? of N?velDrama.Org.


    That night, when we got to the beach, Gretchen looked around in confusion, even more confusion than she’d sported when I insisted on “dressing up” a little, in khaki shorts and a green button-down shirt that matched her dress. Of course, it was nothing like the dressing up that I used to do in New York, but she’d grown pretty ustomed to seeing me in t-shirts by this point. I had to hide a grin.


    “No one’s here yet,” Gretchen said slowly, looking around. “Are you sure that Mark said there was going to be a luau?”


    “Yeah,” I said, shrugging a little. “Maybe everyone’s getting ate start since it’s a work day. Bute on, let’s take a little walk down the beach. If wee back and no one’s here, then we’ll head home and have that TV date that I promised you.”


    “Okay,” Gretchen said.


    We ambled hand-in-hand down the beach, just on the line where the ocean met the shore. “It’s still so beautiful out here,” I sighed as we walked along. “You know, I am so lucky to have met you and to have you in my life.”


    Gretchenughed a little. “I’m lucky too,” she said. “I never thought I was going to end up loving someone like you.”


    “You are the sexiest, most beautiful, most talented woman that I know,” I continued. “When you want something, you get it. You constantly keep me on my toes. You have from the first day that I met you. That’s what makes dating you so much fun. You’ve got a real spark to you. And I love that.”


    Gretchen giggled. “What, are you trying to make me blush?” she asked.


    “You’re adorable when you blush,” I told her. “Honestly. I don’t know what it is about it, but I love that you still get so shy around me sometimes, as though we haven’t been intimately living together for the past couple of years. And I love hearing you giggle. It’s cute.”


    “Seriously, Christian, what’s going on?” Gretchen asked, pulling me around to face her, looking searchingly up into my face.


    I smiled gently down at her. “I’m just trying to tell you how much I love you, that’s all,” I told her, steering her into walking again. We were almost there.


    “You don’t have to”


    “Yes, I do,” I interrupted her. “I want to make sure that you know, every single day for the rest of your life, how special you are to me, and how much I love you. I want to wake up with you every morning, and I want to go to bed with you every night. I want to stay with you here in Hawaii, or wherever we end up living. I want to build a home and a life with you.” I turned to face her as I led her into the spot that Mark and I had chosen.


    Then, I sank on one knee, as Mark illuminated the fairy lights all around us, showing the borate flower trellises and other decorations that we’d set up.


    “Gretchen Means, I would very much like for you to do me the honor of bing my wife.”


    Gretchen stared down at me, her hands up over her mouth. Then, she looked around at the decorations, and then back at me. “Did you…”


    “Yes,” I told her. “I had a little help from Mark and Mina, but it was my idea.”


    She shook her head and thenughed, reaching a hand down toward me and cupping my cheek. “Yes,” she said, the sound choked with emotion. “Yes, Christian, God, yes. I would be so lucky to be your wife.”


    I smiled at her and slipped the ring out of its box, sliding it carefully onto her third finger.


    “God, it’s gorgeous,” Gretchen said, her fingers tracing the pattern of flowers, dotted with little diamond centers, which swirled around the ring.


    “If you don’t like it, we can return it and get you something else,” I told her. I hadn’t been sure about the design. Something about it spoke to me.


    “I love it,” Gretchen told me, reaching down to pull me to my feet. “And I love you too.” She leaned in to kiss me. As we kissed, cheering and pping broke out around us, and I grinned.


    Gretchen whirled toward the sound and blushed brilliantly as she realized that pretty much everyone she knew was there. They’d been waiting off in the shadows, but they’d seen the whole thing. She turned back to me,ughing. “You did all of this?” she asked.


    I nodded and shrugged. “I know how important everyone is to you here,” I told her. “They’re your family. It was only right that they are here for this special night.”


    “There isn’t a luau tonight, is there?” Gretchen asked.


    “There will be now,” I said. “But I was the one to organize it. You should also know that Mina has canceled all the appointments at the shop for tomorrow, so you don’t have to worry about staying outte. And speaking of Mina-”


    Mina threw herself into Gretchen’s arms. “I’m so excited for you!” she cried. Then, she pulled away, grabbing Gretchen’s hand. “Let me see the ring. Christian wouldn’t let me see it before he gave it to you, even though I told him that I’m good at keeping secrets; I kept this whole thing a secret, didn’t I? But he wanted you to be the first person to see it, other than him. And wow, that is pretty. It suits you too.”


    “Congrattions, man,” Mark said, pping me on the back as he joined our little group. “Seems like just yesterday I was picking you up at the airport.”


    “Oh,e on, don’t get all nostalgic already,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Plenty of time for that when we’re old.”


    “I’m going to file thatment away and make sure I get super nostalgic in my speech at the wedding,” Jeff told me, winking at Mina as he slipped an arm around her waist. “That is if I’m allowed to be part of the wedding.”


    I rolled my eyes again. “You’re going to be my best man, aren’t you?” I asked him. “So, yeah, I think you might have to be there at my wedding.”


    “Hey, I thought I was going to be your best man!” Mark said,ughing.


    I shook my head. “Sorry man, I’ve already destroyed my friendship with my brother once; I don’t need to do it again.” I grinned.


    Gretchen threw her arms around me again, burying her face against my shirt. “You’re the best,” she said.


    “No, you are,” I told her teasingly. I looked around. “Now, I know you all want to congratte our beautiful bride-to-be, but let’s get this luau started!”


    Later that night, it was just Gretchen and me again, walking down the beach. “That was the best night,” she told me quietly, twisting her fingers into mine.


    “It was,” I agreed, just as quietly. I paused. “You know, I am d to be here.”


    “I’m d that you’re here too.”


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