“I’m not your wife yet,” she teased.
He hummed. “But it sounds so fucking good, Firefly.”
Dakota playfully rolled her eyes. “He might want to give me all the credit, but Braxton got the two of you to Pipes, even if it wasn’t his intention for you to end up together. I’d say it worked out pretty well in the end.”
Snuggled against the man I loved, I was never more thankful for the friends who were there for me in my darkest hour, knowing they would always have my back.
“Thank you both,” I whispered.
Smiling softly, Dakota made a shooing gesture with her hands. “Go on, then. Get out of here. Live your happily-ever-after. I think you’ve earned it.”
Lord knows I’d walked through fire to get to this moment, but if given the choice, I would have willingly done it all over again. Heartbreak was a part of life, and until you experienced it firsthand, you couldn’t appreciate the beauty of true love when it stared you in the face.
So, as much as I hated him, I had to thank Nix for shoving me aside. Because without that push to branch out on my own and find myself, I would never have discovered Maddox. I wouldn’t know what it felt like to be at the center of his universe, where he worshiped and cared for me like I was the most precious thing ever to walk this earth.
And this was only the start. The best was yet to come.
Epilogue
Bristol
Five months later
“You look like aprincess,” I gushed at Dakota. Dressed all in white, she was finally ready to marry the man she loved.
She peeked over her shoulder from where she’d been viewing her reflection in the floor-length mirror inside the in-law suite of Jaxon and Natalie’s Minnesota lake house. “Lucy knows a thing or two about that.” Dakota winked at the petite raven-haired woman in question who had designed her gown.
Lucy wore the same strapless lavender bridesmaid dress as the rest of us gathered in preparation of Dakota and Braxton’s wedding. “Everyone should feel like a princess on their wedding day.”
“Unless you’re like me and walking bow-legged down the aisle because you got railed the night before like the good little slut you are,” Hannah chimed in, slinging back her third mimosa. Or was it her fourth? It was hard to tell because they were strong as hell, and my vision was beginning to blur after only two.
Natalie sighed. “We’re trying to have a nice moment here, Hannah.”
Hannah pointed her empty glass at Natalie. “Dakota’s not a blushing virginal bride. We’ve all read that book. Sex in the sin bin? Fuck.” She fanned herself. “I thought the things Cal and I did were hot. She’s got us beat.”
“No one is ever gonna forget about that book, are they?” Dakota groaned.
I stepped up beside her to apply another coat of lipstick in the mirror. “Don’t put your personal life in print. Rookie mistake.”
“I didn’t have much of a personal life before Braxton,” she grumbled.
“You skipped kissing all the frogs. I think it worked out pretty well in the end.”
A smile tugged at the corner of her lips at the thought of her groom. “Yeah.”
I looped an arm around her waist. “I’m so happy for you.”
Smirking, she said, “You’re next.”
Here we go again.
Rolling my eyes, I was used to her constant suggestions that Maddox and I make our relationship more permanent.
I was beginning to sound like a broken record with how often I was forced to repeat the following words. “I’m happy with what we have.” And I meant it. We were together and committed, and that’s all I needed.
Dakota pursed her lips. “So . . . you’re saying that if he asked, you’d say no.”
My gaze dropped to the floor as I felt my cheeks heat. “No, I didn’t say that.”
