Page 145 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“They are all over the place,” she said, laughing.

“And unpredictable like you, but it’s what I love about you the most. What you’ll do next keeps me on my toes. I don’t ever want to lose that feeling.”

“Then I’m the woman for the job!”

EPILOGUE

Five Months Later

“What are you making?” Warren asked while standing in the kitchen at Emma’s house on the island.

“A drink from the bar,” she said. “My bar that I rarely use.”

“For you?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said. “For you. I’m recreating our first meeting. You’re ruining it though. Maybe I should have done this at The Retreat so you’d know what the date was.”

He laughed, reached over the bar for her, and lifted her easily enough so that she was in his arms. “I know the day,” he said. “You’re the one who barely knows what time it is, let alone the day. Asking the date is almost impossible.”

“Hey, I didn’t mean to forget it was Christmas morning months ago. I knew it was coming, I just got my days mixed up.”

“I love that about you,” he said, kissing her. “And you were forgiven. I just had to wake you up to get you ready to go to your parents. They are used to you showing up late.”

She’d stayed the night with him and they went to her parents’ house as it was easier than taking the ferry over that day.

“They are,” she said. “But this is about us.”

“It is,” he said. “Always about us.”

“And because I know what the date is, I’ve got something special for you.” She was wiggling in his arms to get down.

“What’s that?” he asked.

She moved behind the bar again, pulled a long box out, and put it on the counter. Like a bracelet box.

“You should see the look on your face,” she said. “It’s not jewelry.”

“I wouldn’t care if it was,” he said.

“I don’t believe you. Open it.”

He pulled the lid off the box and saw a bookmark with the name ofhisbook that was going up on preorder soon. The cover was being designed.

Somehow a career he never thought he’d have was coming about.

The book he’d plotted months ago when he was trying to kill time sitting around had become an obsession.

With help and suggestions from Emma, he’d drafted a book.

He wouldn’t take the credit for it all. She’d helped, but he’d listened and he worked hard and made all the changes she’d told him to.

It went to her editor, who loved it even though it came back with a ton of grammar edits.

Things he was told he paid her for and not to get upset over it. That it was normal for that to happen.

He’d do better next time because there would be a next time.

“This is great,” he said. “I never thought I’d see this day.”