I get started on dinner, a pot roast and potatoes, while Ethan sets Riley up to play in the living room. It’s late in the afternoon, and after dinner, it’ll be time to get Riley ready for bed. I look over at Ethan playing with Riley. It’s some kind of memory and matching game with pictures on cards, something to get her ready for daycare that she also just genuinely likes, at least for a few minutes at a time.
After a while Riley starts playing a solo game and Ethan comes into the kitchen to check on me. He wraps his arms around my waist and presses a kiss to the nape of my neck.
“Long day already, maybe it’s a good opportunity to go to bed early?” His hands wander a bit and I giggle as quietly as I can.
Riley doesn’t know about us yet. Of course, there’s no real way to explain it to her. But we’ve long since abandoned the idea of keeping things platonic between us, and the bedroom we share is as comfortable as it can be.
“Right after we get Riley to bed, I think I’d like to go to bed, too,” I reply.
At two-and-a-half, Riley manages to stay asleep for about a good five or six hours before waking up and wanting attention. That’s more than enough time to get some action in. Ethan’s hands drift down the front of my body, reminding me of the fact that it’s been a few days since we had enough energy to play between the sheets, and we’re both more than a little eager.
“Maybe she’ll do us a favor and sleep in, and we’ll have a chance in the morning, too,” Ethan suggests. I laugh at that a little louder.
“What are the odds? We’ll have to take what we can tonight.”
I feel a twinge of regret that my sister’s marriage was devoid of these exchanges, but I put the thought out of my mind completely. Whatever relationship Alexis had with Ethan, it’s long since over. Her death parted them, for good. I know Ethan thinks about my sister a lot, but I don’t think there’s a ghost between us.
I lean back against Ethan and think about how good it will feel to be with him again as soon as we get Riley to bed. I feel the heat starting up in my veins, and I can’t wait to be alone with the guy I used to think I would have a happily ever after with, and who, with any luck, I may yet have a happily ever after with again.
Epilogue
Ethan
A few days before Thanksgiving
“You’re sure you’re up for this,” I say to Lara as we close the doors to the car.
“If I wasn’t up for it I wouldn’t have gone along with it,” she counters, giving me a quick smile. She looks a little pale, but she doesn’t look worried at all.
“Your dad isn’t going to like it, you know that, right?”
Lara rolls her eyes in response to my question, and I have to wonder why I seem to be trying to almost talk her out of what we’re planning on doing.
“He’s made his peace with most of this, so if he can’t handle us getting married, formally making it official, then we’ll just have to deal with that,” she says.
“I just know how upset you were the whole time you had to keep him out of your life,” I point out. We start heading to the front of the courthouse, and Lara slips her hand into mine. I give her hand a quick squeeze.
It’s only a few days until Thanksgiving, and Riley is spending the day at Lara’s father’s house, which is why we chose today to come to the courthouse and get married.
“I am not about to back out at this point,” Lara says, giving me a significant look. I get a little tight feeling in my chest. I’d been suspecting for a few days that there was something up with her, but when she told me the night before that she’d been to the doctor, who’d confirmed that she was pregnant, I’d known that she was serious about what we were about to do.
“And you’re sure you don’t want an actual, real wedding with a dress and all that?” That was the one thing about what we were doing that I thought Lara would actually regret.
“I’m sure. Think of all the drama that would come up for that,” Lara points out.
“Oof, yeah,” I agree, as we get close to the entrance. I stop her there and give her a quick kiss.
“I’d much rather just tell people that it’s already done and not give anyone a chance to try to talk me out of it, including you,” Lara says, before we go in.
There aren’t that many people in line, and before too long we’re in front of the Justice of the Peace, with two witnesses who we managed to scrounge from the lobby while we were waiting.
“Do you, Ethan Parks, take Lara Hampstead, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, cherish, and honor in sickness and in health for as long as you both shall live?” For just a second, in my mind, I’m back with Alexis, standing at the front of the little church we’d married in, looking down into her eyes, seeing the tears standing there. But the memory fades in an instant.
“I absolutely do,” I say.
“And do you, Lara Hampstead, take Ethan Parks as your lawfully wedded husband, to love, cherish, and honor in sickness and in health for as long as you both shall live?”
There isn’t even a moment’s hesitation from Lara to the question.
“I do,” she says, and I feel
