Be Mine, Always

epilogue

Melody’s POV~ One Year Later

        For the last year we’ve been living in bliss. We bought a house with his money from the FBI, I insisted that I put in a bit of money as well but he denied saying that the money was mine too and the money I earned while he was away would be combined with whatever was left over. 

        It’s a decent sized house with a small back and front yard. It’s quaint and cute and it’s close to both of our jobs. Xander finally has his long sought after carpenter job and he works hard and loves it. I love it too. He comes home sexy and sweaty and I am all too happy to help him cool off. 

        I still work in my office job but I have officially started the process of publishing my very first novel, the novel of us. A friend of the Michaelson agents, turned out to be in publishing and when she heard of the story I was working on she was eager to get her hands on it. I’m still in shock that anyone would find my writing good enough to publish to the masses. I was a bit hesitant to share the story of me and Xander with her, so I offered her the other stories in my repertoire, but she said that none had the same effect as ours. 

        Often anxiety gnaws on me, wondering if I made a mistake putting our lives out there, but she promises it’ll be sold as fiction and no one will ever know that this truly happened to us. Xander is happy for me and brags to all his coworkers that his fiance is a soon to be published author. It’s embarrassing but I can’t tell him to stop when he just looks so happy to share the news with the world. 

        In the past year we got a small jack russell puppy we decided to name Max. He was different from the rest of the litter, mostly brown with a white patch coating his chest and front legs and a small belt of white by his back legs and a cute white stripe down his forehead. We immediately fell in love and knew he was ours. He is a little menace, but Xander loves to throw the ball around outside with him, it’s the cutest thing to see. 

        After many long and thought out discussions we decided that children were not in the cards for us and to prevent an accident, Xander made an appointment and had a vasectomy. We had to sign waiver after waiver to indicate that we understood what this procedure would mean for us, but we couldn’t be happier. My parents were disappointed at first but they accepted that neither of us wanted the responsibility and wanted it to be just us. Selfish as it may be, it felt good to have the weight of accidents and mishaps off my shoulders. 

        My night terrors have almost ceased and only occasionally am I woken up by the memory of him being shot before my very eyes. Xander is always there to take me in his arms and assure me his dad and the rest of the gang is put away. He wakes up too with the horrors of what ifs. 

        I don’t think the horrors of what we endured those days will ever fully leave us, but they no longer haunt us night after night. 

        Two months after Xander helped gather up the last of his father’s gang, the Michaelson agents offered him a full time position as an undercover FBI agent. They were desperate to have him in their ranks after his sweeping success, but he turned them down. That night I had asked him why and he said he wanted the life we had always talked about and although the FBI money was good, he didn’t want to be in that line of work. He wanted a real honest life. 

        And now, the moment we have been planning for a year has come. 

        We are getting married! 

        For as long as I can remember I wanted love. I blame Disney princess movies and the books my parents let me read, but that’s what I wanted. Now here I stand in a long white gown, the sheer sleeves billowing and willowy like something straight out of a faerie book. The skirt was just as buoyant and flowy, in layers of sheer tulle, matching the off the shoulder sleeves. My hair is curled into riotous waves with small white wild flowers woven into the strands. A light gloss is the only makeup I allowed myself and my feet are bare, only decorated with a delicate anklet with tiny diamonds sparkling on the top of my feet.