Federal Affair

Epilogue

The sun was just starting to come up. There was a gentle, cool breeze that gave me a shiver, and the sound of waves lapping at the shore. Nearby, I could hear seagulls on the beach. There was no one else in sight, which I liked. I enjoyed being alone by the ocean. There were a few clouds overhead and the rising sun was a big ball of red and purple over the water. I breathed in the salty air, taking in my surroundings.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Nick said behind me.

I nodded, leaning into him as he wrapped an arm around me. The warm sand felt good on my feet and I dug my freshly painted pink toes deeper into it. About a football field to our right was the dock where Nick's boat, Liberty, was tied up. Liberty was a medium-sized sailboat painted blue with white sails. Nick had spent about a week working to paint the name on the side just perfectly in cursive.

Every Saturday morning Nick and I would come out here and go sailing. He'd taught me how to steer the boat and, though I was still terrified of deep water, I really enjoyed it.

Nick had promised Monica a sailing lesson before she and Monty went back to Chicago. They'd come down here to get married on the beach at sunset. I'd taken over as the second photographer after my maid of honor duties were finished and I was very pleased with the picture I'd taken of them standing under a trellis covered in purple flowers with the sun setting on the water behind them. Monica told me Monty was taking her to Florida for their beach-themed honeymoon, and that they would be driving back up through South Carolina to visit Nick and I again before heading back to Chicago.

Nick and I had moved into his house in Washington, D.C. and tried our best to make everything work as easily as possible. The first problem that arose was trying to find a place for all my furniture in his small home. We didn't want to look for a new house so a lot of things that weren't necessities were put into a storage unit. I'd gotten hired on at Smith, Reynolds and Jordan shortly after moving in. Karen Reynolds had asked a favor from her older sister who was a partner at the firm. She'd recommended me, and Melissa had agreed to give me a chance even though the firm wasn't looking for anyone new at the moment.

Nick continued working with the FBI for a few months and after being sent to Houston, Phoenix, Portland and Detroit while I stayed in D.C., it started to become a hassle. While everyone at my new job was really nice and fun to work with, I was starting to lose interest in the legal field and Nick was quickly getting tired of traveling so much for the FBI. They'd declined his request for a permanent, non-traveling position in Washington and he'd decided to stay until the end of the year.

Our first Christmas together was great. It was the first time I'd gotten to meet his family. His grandma was even sweeter than I'd expected and gave me several of her "famous" recipes to take home and try myself. A week later, Nick's time with the FBI came to an end and we sat down to discuss our future plans.

We'd spent two weeks of October in North Carolina at Nick's family's vacation home and I fell in love with the area. After tossing around the idea for a few days, we decided we'd had enough of Washington and the big city traffic. I was burnt out on law and Nick wanted to start fresh in a new place. We chose North Carolina.

After talking to his family about it, Nick's dad decided to sell the vacation home to us. It was the perfect size, larger than you'd expect a beach house to be. We bought the house and within three weeks, we were almost finished moving in. I loved it. I loved being near the ocean. My only concern was hurricanes, but Nick swore they never had a problem with the house when bad weather swept through.

So far, we'd lived in North Carolina for three months and everything was going great. Nick's dad had tried to talk him into joining the local police department but he wasn't interested. Instead, he'd decided to start his own business and was in the process of opening up a boating supply store on the beach. Nick's family owned some land a few miles away that we'd been talking about converting to a pasture and stable. Nick had finally decided he wanted to get another horse and I was all for it.

I still kept in touch with Regina who had eloped with Tristan right after New Year's. They honeymooned on a cruise through Europe and she'd sent me a ton of gorgeous pictures from Spain and France. Brianna had come down to visit us in Washington and was planning to visit North Carolina soon. She'd been unable to make it to Monica's wedding due to Jamie having a baby.

"Shall we?" Nick asked, gesturing toward Liberty.

We made our way over to the dock and I hopped in the boat while Nick went to untie it from the wooden post. We slowly started to move out to sea. The ocean spray on my bare arms felt nice, though the water was freezing. About a mile away were dolphins jumping out of the water. Only one other sailboat was out at the time but it wasn't close to us. We pretty much had the ocean to ourselves.

Nick adjusted the sails to change our direction and I relaxed against a couple blue pillows we'd placed in the boat. He chose blue because it matched the color of the paint.

I was finally completely happy. I was going to be working with Nick at his shop and I couldn't be more excited. We had the most beautiful house and such great plans. I couldn't believe I got to do all this and be so happy with the most gorgeous man I'd ever laid eyes on. Every time I thought he couldn't get any more perfect, he surprised me again.

"So if we get a horse," I said, eyeing his muscles and anchor tattoo while he steered. "What do you think you're going to name it?"

Nick smiled, attempting to brush his hair out of his face but the wind continued to whip it around. "Serendipity."