Northern Lights

Epilogue

Cielo

One year later

I stumbled through the front door, arms too full to move with any real grace. I maneuvered down the narrow hallway, thinking to myself again that I should try to talk Dominic into expanding it. We would inevitably have to add on to the house if we ever followed through on our conversations about having children. It wouldn’t hurt to start with the hallway, right?

With a grunt, I offloaded the groceries, as well as the care package Debby had shoved into my arms on my way back to the truck. I didn’t mind, particularly because my sweet tooth loved Debby’s cooking. I wouldn’t have been able to tell her no even if I’d wanted to. I had learned from the first dinner that Steven’s wife was certainly the homemaker, but she was also queen of the castle. There was just no telling her no.

The last of my supplies went on the floor, as part of the table was already taken up by a stack of newspapers. Sighing, I picked the top copy up, frowning in confusion.

My attention was abruptly brought about by another bang as Dominic stomped through the door. He was covered in a layer of dirt, his face scruffy from having gone a few days without shaving, and it looked like there were pieces of dried leaves in his hair. My confusion melted into a smile as I gazed at the large shape of my fiancé moving down the hallway toward me. He was as breathtakingly handsome as ever, and I made a mental note to drag him into the shower with me later.

First things first.

I held the paper up. “Why do we need fifty copies of The New Yorker?”

Dominic’s tired eyes widened with excitement. “They came!”

“They did indeed, in great bulk apparently.”

He took the copy from me and began flipping through it excitedly. He stopped on a particularly colorful page and spread it out. With beaming pride, he pointed down to one of the illustrations, which I knew all too well.

“This is the first illustration you’ve ever gotten published!” he informed me, eyes twinkling.

I smiled, touched. “I know honey, but there’s an online version for us to see. We don’t need fifty newspapers for that.”

He rolled his eyes. “Well yeah, of course. But we need one to save for our own records. And I’m going to send one to Debby, then Barbara. Edward and his big-time boyfriend have to get one, too. Aldo and that whole clan need to get one, maybe more.”

My eyes widened as I realized the list was just going to keep going. Dominic had an entire retinue of people he was going to send the newspaper off to. His pride was practically flowing out of him in a physical wave, and it was threatening to drown me in its heady warmth.

He only stopped when I grabbed hold of his face and pulled him down into a kiss. This was the man I was going to marry, the one I was going to build a family with, and spend the rest of our lives together. A man who loved me unconditionally and utterly. Dominic was the solid lines on the paper, allowing me to color between them however I wanted.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“And I love you.”

★*ﾟ*☆*ﾟ*★*ﾟ*☆*ﾟ*★

A/N: and there you have it folks! Northern Lights has finally come to an end! thank you so much to everyone who supported me in this journey. i found a lot of joy in creating this story and I hope you liked reading it.

Much love,
Krystel <3