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The living room was already unpacked, but Ralphie’s cage sat on the coffee table. “What are you doing here?” I asked him. I thought Cohen and I had agreed to keep him on the corner table on the weekends.
I went to pick up his cage to move him, but then I noticed a card leaning against the cage. It said.Welcome home.
I smiled at the words in Cohen’s scrawl. At the meaning of the wordhomeand how long it had taken me to find it.
I tucked the card carefully back in the envelope, planning to save it in a scrapbook. I wanted to remember everything about today.
But when I looked up, I saw Cohen kneeling in the arch between the living room and the dining area and Ollie standing behind him. Cohen held a red velvet box in his hands.
“Cohen,” I breathed, shaking my head. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.
He smiled up at me as I walked toward him. “Birdie Melrose. This has been the best year of my life. I’ve never been to an aviary more than we’ve been. And I’ve certainly never encountered so much glitter.” He chuckled. “But I’ve also never laughed so often, and I’veneverfelt as loved as I do by you.”
I folded my hands over my heart. I loved him so much it could have beat right out of my chest and landed in his palm.
“Will you and Ralphie do me the honor of being my happily ever after?”
Ollie kneeled next to him. “Will you be a part of our family?”
Tears fell down my cheeks, and I looked from Cohen to Ralphie to Ollie, smiling wider than I ever had. “Absolutely.”
He slipped the ring onto my finger and took me in his arms.
We were finally,finallyhome.
EPILOGUE
MARA
I stood at the end of the table in Waldo’s Diner where we were celebrating Birdie and Cohen’s engagement. They didn’t serve alcohol, but Grandpa Chester had gotten out a couple bottles of scotch from his office. We were all drinking it on the rocks—aside from Ollie and Birdie’s one-year-old niece, of course.
“I’d like to make a toast,” I said, quieting the rowdy crowd. All of Cohen’s friends had been over the moon about the engagement. And Birdie’s family? At this point, I was pretty sure we were just as in love with Cohen as she was.
Everyone held up their glasses, one by one, and I dug deep inside for the right words to say. Even though I was a romance writer and wrote about love all the time, speaking was hard for me. I wanted to make sure I got it right, especially since I couldn’t edit myself on paper.
“Birdie is... the best friend a girl can have.” Shit. My throat was already getting tight. “And Cohen? If he had a horse, I’d call him prince charming.” Everyone around me chuckled. “We all know it hasn’t been easy for them—with hard breakups, a divorce, and bull shit rules from schools that are still earning back my trust.” Birdie sent me an exasperated smile. “Still, love won. As it always does. I love you two. Congratulations.”
I lifted my glass a little higher and drank the rest of my scotch on the rocks, savoring the burn as it went down my throat. It blended with the aching in my heart.
I loved Birdie so much. She was my best friend and had been since we were twenty. Now, I was almost thirty, still single, and still writing smutty romance with no love in sight. But for the first time, I was starting to feel alone.
Henrietta, our new friend and Birdie’s old apartment manager put an arm around my shoulders. “That was beautiful, as always.”
I grinned at her. “I better get my act together for the wedding, though.” They hadn’t set a date yet, having just gotten engaged, but judging by the way they looked at each other, it wouldn’t take long.
She chuckled. “You know you’ll do great. And then you’ll catch the bouquet and it’ll be your turn.”
I laughed out loud. That was the kind of story I wrote about. My real life story? It had all the early heartbreak of a fairytale. It was full of hot sex, sure. Plenty of new experiences too. But happily ever after? That wasn’t likely to show up on any of my pages.
Birdie worked her way around her family and gave me a hug. “I love you, girl.”
I hugged her back. “I love you too. I’m still pissed at Cohen for stealing you from me.”
“You’ll forgive him eventually,” she replied with a wink. “Especially once you learn how amazing Jonas is.”
I rolled my eyes. “I swear if you try to set me up with that accountant one more time, I’ll—”
“Fall in love and live happily ever after?” Birdie said.
I took her glass and sipped from it. “I would ruin him. And you don’t want me doing that to Cohen’s friend. It’ll make things awkward at the wedding.”
She pulled her glass back and said slyly, “It’ll all come together. You’ll see.”
* * *