Epilogue

Haven

“Do you have everything?” Debra asks me.

She’s especially nervous today and has spent the morning rushing from one end of the apartment to the other.

After three months during which the only time we’ve been apart was for work, we’re living together.

And this time it wasn’t planned or decided—it just happened.

One day Debra forgot her toothbrush at my place and the next she started leaving more and more belongings behind, until everywhere I looked I found traces of her.

The logical thing—Debra used those exact words—was to take the next step: have our fathers finally meet. And today is that day. Which is why my morena is climbing the walls. She wants everything to go perfectly.

During these months together, she hasn’t wanted to come see my father with me.

She says it’s a moment for the two of us and she doesn’t want to intrude.

I understand, because she also visits hers without me, but that will change from today on.

Once they meet, there’ll be no excuse not to be one family.

I think Debra knows that too, which is why she’s like this.

It’s a big moment. Bigger than moving in together, since that happened naturally.

“All I’m missing is a kiss from my morena,” I answer when she’s within reach and I catch her to steal one.

“Thank you.” She smiles. “I needed that.”

“Anytime you want.” I capture her lips a second time.

When we go downstairs, her father is waiting patiently on the sidewalk. We’ve only met a couple of times. The first was a formal introduction. The second time, he called to speak with me privately, which is when he explained, very politely, that if I ever hurt his little girl, I’d pay dearly.

“Hi, Dad.”

Debra hugs him and he rewards her with a smile that lights up his face. Even if you don’t know them well, you can see the love they have for each other. Neither my father nor I have a relationship like that, though we’re closer now than before we accepted the Whittemore Corporation partnership.

“Haven.” He greets me with a nod and extends his hand.

“Corbin.” I shake it firmly.

The man nods and gives a small smile, letting me know without words that he’s happy to see his daughter so content and that he knows I have a lot to do with that.

I think I’ve finally received his approval and, strange as it may seem, I feel proud of myself.

Though I’ve never done anything to please Debra’s father.

If his daughter is happy by my side, it’s because I’m happy by hers.

“We need to go or we’ll be late.” Debra checks her watch and hurries us along.

I’m driving and my morena insists her father sits in the front, so now I have him right next to me and I’m not sure what to say to him or whether I should say anything at all.

Luckily, my father-in-law and his daughter strike up a conversation that keeps them busy for most of the drive.

And although I manage to chime in now and then, they look so comfortable together that I feel like leaving them to it and simply enjoying the interaction.

Especially when Corbin decides he wants to tell me embarrassing stories about Debra that have us all laughing.

“You can relax now, Haven,” he says when we’re left alone while Debra greets my father. “I’m not an ogre. Now that I see how happy my daughter is, we’ll be friends.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” I smile.

“She’s the only thing I have left of my wife and all I want is to spare her from suffering. I know something happened between you two here, though she never told me what. And she tells me everything.”

“She walked away from me,” I explain so he knows it wasn’t my doing.

It’s not that I’m trying to justify myself, but I think he deserves to know the truth.

“Because she wanted me to choose my own path freely. She fought hard to win me that freedom and I’ll never be able to thank her enough.

Not if I lived a thousand more lives. But I can make her happy in this one, and that’s what I intend to do. ”

“I like you, son. We should get together more often from now on.”

“I’d be delighted, Corbin.”

My father approaches, still with his arm around Debra, and she makes the introductions.

“You’ve been a turning point in my daughter’s life, Mr. Odell,” he says, shaking his hand in a warm greeting.

“That was my son, not me.” He laughs.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Barnie.” My morena is smiling as she speaks. “Our last conversation gave me a lot to think about, and I made some changes in my life after that.”

“I changed too.”

Now he looks at me and my chest swells as if he’d paid me the greatest compliment in the world.

Debra

Reuniting with Barnaby has been like meeting up with an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time.

Last time we’d nearly made peace, but today I feel like we’re starting fresh.

Still, I know he wants to talk to me privately, so when he takes his place at the grill, after making sure Haven and my father are busy, I join him.

“When Haven told me you two had found each other again,” he begins, “I thought you’d come much sooner.”

“I didn’t want to intrude on the family.”

“You are family now, girl.”

For a moment, the name brings back memories, but they don’t bother me now. I feel like it had to be that way for everything to turn out as it did. So I smile.

“I’ll come more often,” I promise.

“I need to thank you,” he continues after a moment of silence.

“All I did was convince you to sign. The rest has been all you.”

“I’m not talking about the factory, girl,” he huffs. “I knew it would do well once we signed—that’s why I was so reluctant.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Barnie.” I laugh.

“It does to me. But don’t change the subject—I’m talking about my son.”

“I… didn’t do anything,” I repeat, more self-conscious now.

“You gave him everything,” he states with feeling. “He was withering here. I could see it, of course I could, but I was afraid of losing him and I preferred to look the other way. And then you arrived with your annoying persistence and you gave him life.”

“I abandoned him,” I remind him.

“You repaired the wings I’d clipped,” he says. “He had a hard time, of course. He was so in love with you… He reminded me of myself when I met his mother. Without her, he was lost, and Haven went through the same thing for a while.”

“But he moved forward.”

“Because Joe dragged him along.” He laughs at the memory. “That boy is almost as relentless as you. Now my son is happy and all I can do is thank you both. I’ve already told Joe many times, but with you… well, damn it! You’ve been hard to pin down.”

“You could have come to see me too,” I protest.

“I’m too old for running around,” he scoffs.

“Don’t be impertinent, girl.” I can’t help laughing at his outbursts.

I know he doesn’t really mean it, but it’s clear he’s been gruff for so long he doesn’t know how to say things any other way.

Maybe he was already like this when he met Haven’s mother.

I have no idea how he managed to make her fall in love with him. “I just wanted to ask you one thing.”

“Anything, if it’s in my power, it’s yours.”

“It might be too heavy a commitment,” he suggests.

“If I handled you, I can handle anything,” I joke.

“Take care of my Haven. Sometimes he clings to things and doesn’t realize some of them are hurting him.”

“You’ve made it sound like you’re about to disappear from his life. Don’t say your goodbyes yet, Barnie.”

“Certainly not, girl. Weeds never die,” he feigns offense and I can only laugh again and hug him.

“I promise I’ll take care of Haven. He’ll be so happy it’ll dazzle you with his radiant smile every time he comes to visit.” I laugh, though there’s a good deal of truth in that.

“Don’t forget to come with him,” he reminds me. “Oh, and one more thing… I want grandchildren before I die.”

“Barnaby!” He leaves me speechless.

“I’m sure you do worse things with my boy, so don’t pretend my request shocks you.”

“I knew you had a mischievous streak under all that gruffness,” I tell him, not just to change the subject, but because I’ve just discovered I love joking with him. Who would have thought, when we first met!

“I’ll deny it if you tell anyone.” He points the barbecue tongs at me.

My father and Barnaby get along well. During the meal they practically ignore us to talk between themselves, but I don’t mind. It’s lovely seeing them together, like two old friends.

“I like this,” Haven whispers in my ear, watching them.

“So do I.”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

He holds out his hand and I don’t hesitate. I know they’ll be fine even if we leave—they probably won’t even notice we’re gone.

“It looks like your father and you have signed a truce.”

“More like a peace treaty.” I smile.

“No one can resist you.” Though he’d offered his hand to walk side by side, now he wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close to leave a kiss on my neck.

“Behave yourself, sir,” I say, trying to pull away. Not because I mind what he’s doing, but because we’re in the woods and I know where this will lead.

“We could relive old times,” he insists quite effectively, now placing a kiss on my collarbone.

“You’re playing dirty, Haven.” I turn to face him, but his mouth prevents me from saying anything more.

For a moment, all I can think about are his lips and what they make me feel. I don’t think the fire he lights in me will ever go out. Every day, the love I feel for him is stronger and, apparently, it goes hand in hand with the passion because every day I want him more.

“I want to ask you something,” he says between kisses.

“Yes to anything,” I answer, jumping onto him by surprise so he’ll hold me up in the air.

My legs wrap around his waist, but instead of carrying me to a tree to lean against while we keep kissing—as I expected—he helps me set my feet back on the ground.

“Wow.” I turn serious. “It’s important, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

“What is it? I saw you talking to my father. If he—”

“He only asked me to make you happy,” he shakes his head. “I think mine had the same conversation with you.”

“Looks like they’ve been conspiring.” I attempt a smile, but I’m worried about what he’s going to say.

“You see, Debra.” He starts pacing and I worry even more. “I’ve been thinking a lot about something these past weeks. I…”

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” I encourage him when he falls silent.

“We started with an intense romance here. Then we spent a year apart,” he recounts. “And now, since we found each other again, we’ve been running nonstop. First moving in together, now this meeting so our fathers could meet…”

“Running?” I latch onto that word. “Do you regret going so fast? Do you want to—”

“I want to run a marathon with you, morena.” He grins with that mischief that drives me crazy and moves toward me with a decisiveness I can’t react to quickly enough—I’d been thinking he wanted to break up.

When he wraps his arms around me, I do the same by instinct.

“I want to go even faster. I want to end up gasping by your side from the lack of breath. I don’t want to slow down—I want to accelerate.

Seeing your smile every morning when you wake in my arms isn’t enough.

Making love to you every night before we sleep isn’t enough. I want everything with you, morena.”

He kneels before me and my heart skips several beats. When he manages to open the box he’s pulled from his pocket, I’m already crying.

“I want you to be my wife, legally. I want you to marry me, morena. And if you say no, I’ll die in the same forest where I made love to you for the first time.

” I understand what he means and I’m moved even more.

“This ring belonged to my mother. She gave it to me when she knew she was dying and wouldn’t see me married or meet her grandchildren.

She asked me to give it to the woman who stole my heart.

‘Choose well, my son,’ she told me, ‘true love is only found once.’ And I know you are that person.

The only one I’ll love more than my own life.

Would you do me the honor of marrying me, Debra? ”

By now I’m kneeling in front of him, crying so hard I can barely focus on the ring.

But I don’t care whether it’s ugly or beautiful because the meaning it holds makes it the most precious thing in the world to me.

I wipe my tears with the back of my hand and offer him my ring finger so he can place it on. I can barely speak from the emotion:

“I’ll marry you, Haven. In this life and in any other where we find each other. I love you so much!” The moment the ring is on, I punch him in the chest with that same hand. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. I thought you wanted to leave me.”

“How could I, morena?” He shows me a grin because he did it on purpose. “My heart belongs to you. If I walk away, I’ll die.”

He doesn’t let me respond because he kisses me with such passion it steals my breath. He lays us down on the ground and when a rock digs into my back and I protest, he rolls us over so he’s the one against the earth.

“Let’s find somewhere more comfortable,” I suggest.

“I need you now, morena. What do a few rocks along the way matter when the reward is having you?”

We don’t even manage to undress fully. I ride him in a hurry, letting myself be consumed by the fire his hands ignite across my body.

And when he slips one between us and strokes my clit, I explode in a cascade of desire that melts me from the inside.

Haven doesn’t take long to follow and cries out my name in ecstasy.

When we return to the house, we’re both wearing a knowing smile that tells me it doesn’t matter whether we’re going fast or not, because the love we feel for each other is strong enough to overcome any obstacle we encounter along the way.

After all, isn’t that what love is about? Baring your soul and betting your heart. And, of course, always winning.