Page 50 of The Compass Series

EPILOGUE

JAX - THREE YEARS LATER

“ O h my gosh, Kennedy, I always knew you were something special! Didn’t I say that the first time we’d met her, Kate? Didn’t I go on and on about how special Kennedy was?” Louise swooned as she stood in front of a table across from my wife.

My wife.

I loved the sound of that.

It was amusing watching Louise, along with everyone else in town, swoon over Kennedy at the book signing in Havenbarrow for her most recent successful novel.

Over fifteen months ago, Kennedy signed a deal with a major publishing company.

When her book, Trespassing , hit the shelves, it became an instant success.

Kennedy cried the day Oprah’s Magazine included it on their ‘must read’ list. She just about vomited when she hit the New York Times—where she stayed for ten months so far.

After some convincing from the townspeople, Kennedy agreed to do a local signing, and the twins were the first in line.

While Kennedy could’ve been nasty toward the women who had been nothing but cruel to her since the day she arrived, she wasn’t.

She was kind, thankful, and showed so much gratitude.

Sometimes, I wished she could’ve been an asshole like me, but alas, she was the sun.

She was my sun. I fell in love with the sun, and she kept my cold heart warm.

“Thank you for coming, ladies, but I think I’m going to have to cut this signing short,” Kennedy said, standing up. There was a huge line going out the door of Gary’s café. People began groaning at the idea of Kennedy leaving, seeing how they hadn’t gotten their books signed yet.

I raised an eyebrow at her, confused at what she was doing.

“I know, I’m sorry everyone, and I’ll be sure to reschedule the first chance I get. It’s just that, my water just broke, so I think we have to get to the hospital,” she explained.

Oh. Right. That made sense.

I stared at her blankly for a few seconds before her words clicked in my head.

Oh!

Right!

That made sense!

We were having a baby! Well, she was having the baby, I was along for the ride at this point. Ride. Truck. Keys. Baby! Oh hell, I was panicking.

“Don’t panic,” Kennedy said, walking my way with her hands on her stomach.

“Panic? Why would I be panicked? I’m not panicked! I just need my keys,” I said, patting my pockets. “Keys, keys, I need my key?—”

“Here,” she said, dangling them in my face. “I drove here, remember?”

“Right, of course. Okay. Let’s go.” I shot out of the front door, leaving her behind, until I realized that I left my very pregnant, very in labor wife behind. I dashed back inside. “I forgot; I need you to come with me.”

She giggled as she controlled her breathing. “Yes, I think you do.”

We got to the hospital, and everything went smoothly. Except for the part where I blacked out, but we didn’t need to talk about that.

After twelve hours of hard work from my beautiful wife, we were able to hold our beautiful daughter.

Elizabeth Daisy Kilter.

Named after my mother and her daughter, of course.

Elizabeth was a dream come true, and when I held her for the first time, I knew I was never going to be able to let her go.

“She’s perfect,” I said, rocking her back and forth in my arms. I looked at my exhausted wife and kissed her forehead. “You’re perfect.”

Every dream I’d ever had, came true that day.

I was with the love of my life staring into our child’s eyes, and I couldn’t ask for more.

I knew each day that was to come was a blessing, and I promised myself I’d never take that for granted.

I was going to live every single day as if it were my last—which meant I would show my family how much I loved them time and time again.

Especially my wife. My sun. My very best friend.

Friends forever.

Lovers for life.

Five Years Later

“Daddy, can I have a granola bar?” Elizabeth asked as we tracked through the woods finishing up one of our longer hikes. The sun was beginning to set, and we always loved to watch it happen from the convertible we’d placed between the trees.

The old, yellow vehicle had many additions of artwork added to it since Kennedy and I reconnected many years ago.

Joy drew a picture celebrating her ninety-fifth birthday last month.

Nathan and Yoana added a drawing of their sweet newborn, Elijah last year.

And just recently we had Elizabeth create a picture of her first day of school.

Watching the car grow with memories was one of my favorite things to witness.

As we reached the car, we all climbed inside the back seat to watch the sky fade to night.

“Didn’t you already have a granola bar?” Kennedy asked Elizabeth with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, Mama, but that’s why I asked Daddy because he always says yes to me even when you say no,” she said matter-of-factly.

The girl wasn’t wrong. I had a very hard time saying no to my little sweetheart. It was the eyes, I swore. She had her mother’s eyes.

“Well, how about we hold off on the granola until we get some dinner inside you,” Kennedy said.

Elizabeth threw a fit of course, but when she realized we weren’t going to give in, she released the biggest sigh in the world. “Being a kid is hard,” she groaned.

“I bet.” I laughed and pulled her into my lap. “Don’t worry, someday you’ll be a grownup and you can eat all the granola bars you want.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“For sure.”

“Even the ones with chocolate chips?” she asked.

“Even those,” Kennedy nodded, kissing Elizabeth’s forehead.

As we watched the sky, Elizabeth always loved to point out the moon when we could see it. “There it is! There! That’s you right, Daddy? You’re the moon?”

I smiled. “Yup. I’m the moon.”

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. “And Mama’s the sun?”

“Exactly,” I said.

“Does that mean Daisy and me can be the stars?” she asked, looking up to the sky once more.

That made my heart almost burst out of my chest.

Kennedy’s eyes watered over as a smile fell against her lips. “Yes, sweetheart. You and your sister can be the stars.”

Every single day we told Elizabeth the stories of her loved ones.

We told their stories to keep them alive forever, and it warmed my heart knowing that Elizabeth understood that even though people passed away, they were never truly gone—not as long as we held them close to our hearts.

That night, our loved ones were close to us.

I could feel them in the wind. I could feel their love and protection every time I looked up toward the sky.

That night we sat beneath the sky, and the stars all shined so bright.