Love, Artifacts, and You by Sarah Ready
Epilogue
Emma
I curlinto Andrew’s side. An involuntary bubble of laughter comes up. He yawns and looks over at me wryly. It’s not quite six in the morning, and neither of us got much sleep last night.
“What are you laughing at?” he asks. He tugs on a lock of my hair and there’s a new lightness and happiness to him. He’s completely free of the past. So am I.
Except the good parts we wanted to keep—our love for each other.
I snuggle closer to him under the covers of the bed at our new home. Andrew bought the beautiful old house he was renting in downtown Romeo as a wedding gift. I love it. We were married yesterday, and this afternoon we’re flying to Andrew’s private island for our honeymoon.
“Well?” he asks.
I drop a kiss on his lips. “I was only thinking of how unhappy Mrs. Charles, the bookstore owner, was that we didn’t have our wedding on your island.”
He grins at me. “She didn’t like the meadow wedding with the cavern tour?”
I snort.
“That shows a sad lack of an adventurous spirit,” he says.
I nod in agreement. “Absolutely. And you know how I love adventure. In fact, I can count at least a dozen new positions…er, places you took me last night.”
Andrew lets out a deep, rumbly laugh that hits me down low and causes a responsive clenching. “There are plenty more places to travel,” he promises.
He rolls on top of me and brings the blankets with him. We’re in a cocoon, wrapped up together. He leans down and kisses me.
“You’re happy?”
“Ecstatic,” I say.
We’re breaking ground on the settlement dig next month, and plans for the museum are underway. Andrew has pulled back from his role in Suffolk Auction House, instead concentrating on our joint project—Romeo’s first historical living museum and dig site.
We had the wedding in the grassy meadow, right on top of the buried Viking settlement. We invited all our new friends in Romeo, and all our old friends, Justin, Dominic, and my dad and Linda. My dad has recovered more of his speech and mobility, and after the wedding he asked to speak with Andrew alone. After they came back, they both seemed more at ease with each other.
“By the way, what did my dad say yesterday?” I ask.
Andrew rolls to his side and pulls me into him. He presses a kiss into my hair. “Not much. That he accepted any censure, recompense, or reparation I required. He acknowledged everything he’d done and told me I was welcome to do whatever I wanted to him.”
I pull in a breath. “What did you say?”
He rubs a strand of my hair between his fingers. “Did you know, sometimes your hair shines just like a copper coin from Rome circa 68 BC?”
I smile at him. I’ll never get tired of him. But, “Don’t distract me. What did you say?”
The edges of his eyes crinkle with mischief, and he drops my hair. “I said that the only thing I wanted as recompense was your happiness. And if he admitted that I was integral to your happiness, then we wouldn’t have a problem.”
I hug him close to me and smile into his shoulder. “You are the best man I know.”
He puts his hand under my chin and lifts my eyes to his. “Does that mean I get a present?”
I laugh. “Yes. A thousand presents. But maybe one special present today…”
I drift off mysteriously and Andrew looks at me with interest. “Yes?”
I lean in and whisper in his ear. “You know how you dreamed of a dig site, and tours, and kids programs, and maybe a passel of our own kids running around too?”
He grows still and then slowly nods.
“You get your wish,” I whisper. I reach out and take his hand and place it on my abdomen.
He turns his face to mine and his eyes are wide. “You mean…?”
I nod.
He doesn’t move, and for a moment I’m worried that he’s not happy. Then I realize that there are tears in his eyes.
“Happy?” I ask.
“How could I not be? All my wishes just came true.”
Then he leans in and kisses me, and the rest of the world disappears as the sun rises and bathes the room in light.
THE END
