If We Never Met by Barbara Freethy

Epilogue

The dressing roomat the church was filled with beautiful women, but the prettiest one of all was the red-haired bride with the pale skin and the smattering of freckles on her face and shoulders. Keira smiled at Hannah as they gazed at each other in the mirror. Hannah's off-the-shoulder dress clung to her bust and fell in a soft drape of silk and lace to the ground.

"We look amazing," Hannah said.

"I agree." Her bridesmaid's dress was a bold blue that was short and sexy and could definitely be worn again, as long as she made sure none of the four other bridesmaids were wearing the same dress at the same time.

"Let's get a photo with everyone," Hannah said, holding up the phone in her hand. "A selfie. Everyone squeeze in."

"Isn't there a photographer around here somewhere?" Gianna asked.

"I want one that's just us, as we are," Hannah replied as the other women crowded around, and she took the group photo. Then she turned around to face them. "You are all my best friends and having you here with me today makes it so much more special. I was never sure I'd actually get married, but here I am, marrying a guy I spent a lot of time hating."

"Sometimes you can't get out of your own way," she teased.

"Look who's talking," Hannah said pointedly.

"True, but I'm working on that." She cleared her throat as her gaze swept the group. "I told Hannah this last night, and she insisted I tell you all today, so since we have a few minutes, I'm just going to say it now. I'm in love with Dante."

"Oh, we all knew that." Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, maybe you did. But you probably don't know that I'm leaving Whisper Lake." She held up a hand at the sight of their distressed expressions. "Don't say anything yet. Let me finish. This is good news. I'm moving to Miami with Dante, but it's not just for love. The move is also going to mark the launch of my design business. I'm turning over my interests here to my managers, and I'm going to give my design dream one more shot."

"That's great," Gianna said.

"I think it will be great. And I may not be starting from zero. I got a call from Jessica Stillman's stylist, and I'm going to meet with Jessica next week. She loved your dress, Chelsea, and she has three events she may want me to dress her for."

Chelsea clapped her hands. "Yay. I'm so happy. And she would be lucky to get you."

"It's not a done deal. She still has to like what I design, but if she does, it could be very lucrative."

"Wow," Chloe said. "That is a huge change. I'm going to miss you, Keira."

"I'm going to miss all of you." She blinked back a tear. "And I cannot start crying yet."

"None of us can," Gianna said with a sniff. "I'm really happy for you, Keira, even if my face is saying something different."

"I'll be back to visit. My mom is here."

"And you're sure about this move?" Chloe asked. "You haven't known Dante very long to move across the country for him."

"I'm not doing it for him; I'm doing it for me. I've met someone I'm crazy about, and I don't want to let geography get in the way. Dante said his contract is up at the end of this year. He'll try to move close to wherever I need to be."

"That's amazing," Lizzie said. "Can he do that?"

"He says he can. We'll see how things go." She paused. "You've all been telling me for a while now that I'm spreading myself too thin, and you were all right. I couldn't seem to pick a lane, make a decision, but meeting Dante and having my home burn to the ground really kicked me out of my rut."

Hannah gave her a dry smile as she shook her head. "Not the way any of us wanted it to go."

"It's how it went. I'm really happy, which seems bizarre considering how much I just lost. But I'm in love, and I'm going after my dream again. It turns out that's all I need. Being in Miami, with no other distractions, will also help me give the design business the focus it needs."

"I think Dante will be a big distraction," Hannah said with a laugh. "But, yeah, maybe in between all the hot sex, you can design some kick-ass dresses."

She laughed. "I will find the time."

"We should do a girl's trip to Miami," Lizzie said. "Just because we're all getting married, having babies, and making big changes doesn't mean we have to lose each other."

"I'm in," Hannah said. "And I'm happy for you, Keira. Remember when the four of us used to play our imaginary games in your backyard?"

"Yes. You were the nurse or the doctor."

"I was the mom or the cook," Chloe said.

"I was the artist," Gianna put in. "And you were always making clothes and playing fashion show, Keira. We're all doing what we were meant to do."

"Really?" Lizzie asked, surprise in her gaze. "You all knew what you were going to do when you were kids?"

"We did," she said. "It just took me longer to get back to that dream."

"Because you took care of your mom," Gianna said. "And look at your mother now. She has a boyfriend. She's healthy. You got her back to that point."

"She got herself back, too." She blinked back more tears. "I'm going to miss you all so much. I would love to have you visit any time. Dante showed me photos of his apartment, and it's spectacular. He also has a boat. I had no idea he had so much money."

Lizzie laughed. "He's a professional baseball player. What did you think?"

"I guess I just didn't think about it."

"Probably why he likes you so much," Chelsea said dryly. "You saw the real him. Trust me, as a celebrity, that isn't always easy to find."

"I know. I'm lucky. But I don't care about his money or celebrity. Dante gets me. He pushes me in the ways I need to be pushed, and he believes in me. And we laugh a lot. Now I'm going to stop talking." She opened her arms. "Group hug."

She opened her arms up and they ran into each other's arms. She loved these women with all her heart, but she loved Dante even more.

When they broke apart, she said, "I'm going to find my plus one."

Hannah laughed. "I'm taking credit for getting you two together. That first date was only because of me."

"All right, I'll give you the credit," she said with a grin. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"I'm going to check on Leo," Chloe said. "It will just take a second."

"Don't worry. I'm not going down the aisle without both of you," Hannah said.

"I'm really happy for you," Chloe said, as they walked down the back hall of the church.

She gave Chloe a sharp look, hearing sadness in her voice. Then she stopped walking. "We'll still see each other. I'll be back."

"I know. Don't mind me. Weddings are just hard…" Chloe cleared her throat. "I always think about Kevin, how I thought we'd be together forever, but now we're divorced, and I'm raising a kid by myself. I never saw that in my future. Not that I don't love being a mom, because I do."

"You just didn't want to be a single parent."

"I did not."

"I'm sorry." She hesitated. "Are you going to be sitting with Adam at the reception?"

Chloe shook her head and gave her a pointed look. "No. And you all need to stop trying to put us together. We're just friends."

"It seems like it has been more than that."

"No. It hasn't. Adam is a great guy. He has been very supportive, but we're not in love. There will be someone else for him."

"And someone else for you."

"Maybe. We'll see. I'm not in a hurry. I have my hands full with one very demanding male, so I'm going to focus on Leo. I better find him now. He's sitting with Gianna's mom, but I want to make sure he's not too much for her." Chloe paused. "I'm glad you found Dante, Keira. I have a good feeling about you two."

"So do I. I never thought I'd find the right guy by sitting down at the wrong table, but I did."

Chloe laughed. "I might have to try that sometime. Come on. We don't have much time."

Dante got to the church parking lot about fifteen minutes before Hannah was due to walk down the aisle. As he got out of the car, he grabbed his suit coat from the backseat and shrugged it on. There was a crowd of people still streaming into the church, but it was one beautiful brunette slowly hobbling her way down the steps who caught his eye. She'd gone without her walking boot so as not to ruin Hannah's photos, another unselfish gesture that was pure Keira.

He hurried across the lot. When he reached her, he threw his arms around her, because even though he'd seen her two hours earlier, it felt much longer than that.

She gave him a bright smile as she lingered in his embrace. "You look very handsome."

"And you look spectacular. I like your dress." His gaze moved down the clingy dress, appreciating the way it clung to her body. "I can't wait to take it off you."

She gave him a playful punch on the arm. "That will be hours from now. Anyway, wait until you see Hannah's wedding gown. It's the show-stopper."

"I'm looking forward to that."

"I'm so glad you were able to stay for the wedding. This will be our last chance to hang out together with all my friends for a long time."

"We'll keep in touch with them, Keira, I promise." He knew it would be difficult for her to give up so much of her life, and he intended to make it as easy as he could.

"I know we will. I'm actually more worried about missing you at the moment. It's going to be hard not to see you for two weeks."

"It will feel like forever," he agreed. Keira would head to Los Angeles on Monday and then return to Whisper Lake to organize her life and get her managers up to speed. After that, she would fly down to Miami. He couldn't wait for them to be together in Miami, but he was also excited to see her take her first steps toward a full-time design career. "The time will go fast, and you'll be busy in LA with Jessica Stillman."

"I am eager to hear what Jessica wants. It will be fun to work with someone new. Hopefully, she'll like my design drafts and will want to sign a contract."

"I'm sure she'll love you. How could she not?"

"You're prejudiced."

"I might be," he admitted. "But I know how talented you are. Jessica would be lucky to have someone as dedicated as you are to creating the perfect dress."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. By the way, my mom and Mark are saving you a seat. They're in a great mood, because Mark just officially bought the house around the corner."

"That's exciting." He'd heard there was an offer but not that it had been accepted.

"It is. They're both thrilled. My mom gets to stay in the neighborhood, and she'll be close enough to walk over and watch the rebuild. Until that house is out of escrow, they'll live in the cabin that my friend owns."

"Our cabin?"

"Well, not technically ours," she said with a laugh. "Although, we did make some memories there."

"Some smoking hot memories. When is the cabin going up for sale?"

"About a month. There are still a few things to be done, but my mom can oversee those as well. She's actually excited to have more work to do. I'm excited to have less."

"The perfect trade-off. Maybe I should buy the cabin."

Surprise filled her beautiful brown eyes. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I love it. Because it always felt like ours, and we'll need a place to stay when we come back to visit, which will be often."

"There's still my house. I'm not sure what we'll do with that once it's rebuilt."

"True. We can think about it."

"I like that you want to buy a place here, though."

He pulled her closer to him. "I want you to be happy, Keira. I know you're making sacrifices for me."

"I'm really not, Dante. We need to be together, and I'm more flexible than you."

"For now," he agreed. "But the future can be anything we make it."

"As long as the future is us together, I'm good."

At her words, he thought he might just be the luckiest guy in the world. "Me, too."

"It's funny that we met because Hannah insisted that I needed a plus one for the wedding. That's the only reason I went on that date. I sat down at the wrong table, but I met the right guy. And now you're here—my plus one. How different would our lives be if we never met?"

"I don't even want to think about it. I love you, Keira."

"I love you, too. Now, I better go get Hannah married."

"I'll be waiting for you when you're done. I'll always be waiting." She gazed into his eyes with so much love, his heart ached. The loneliness he'd grown up in and lived with for most of his life was gone now. Keira was filling all the empty spaces. "My mom would have loved you," he murmured. "I wish you could have met each other."

"Me, too. I want to keep hearing about her. I want to keep hearing about everything."

"That's good. Because when you're around, I can't seem to shut up."

She gave him a loving kiss filled with the promise of happily ever after. Then she took his hand, and they walked up the steps and into the church.

One day, there would be another wedding, and Keira would be in a white gown, and he'd be standing in the front waiting for her. He'd never thought he would make a good husband or a family man but meeting her had changed that. Now, it was all he really wanted. And he didn't intend to strike out.

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