Page 63 of Open Your Heart

I grinned, feeling my blood warm as my heart seemed to swell with happiness. I took a deep breath, let it out, and realized my yoga teacher would be proud of me. Here, with my life finally settling and Cameron at my side, I could breathe. I could relax. And I was happy.

Epilogue

CAMERON

THREE MONTHS LATER

I wasn’t the guy who things worked out for.

I was cursed. I was the guy who lost everything he loved.

And sometimes, though life had gone much differently than I’d expected, I still felt like that guy and looked around surprised to see the things—the people—that surrounded me and proved day after day that things could change. That we could change.

“Earth to Cam,” my sister said, leaning over to poke me in the shoulder as we sat side by side around the fire pit between my house and Tuck’s. “Did you hear me?”

I laughed, squeezing Harper tighter on my lap. “Yeah, I’m just taking a minute to process,” I said.

“How do you think I felt?” Connor asked. “I needed a few hours. I’m not sure I’ve processed it yet, actually.”

Miranda stood, raising her beer in front of her on the other side of the circle of chairs, the warm fire crackling between us and casting her in a red glow. “To Maddie and Connor, and to baby Charles! I’m so happy for you—I know we all are. Congratulations!”

I raised my beer with the others, my head still spinning that my little sister could be having a baby.

I was going to be an uncle. Maddie and Connor had wasted no time starting their family.

“I’m happy for you guys,” I said, leaning toward my sister who was glowing with contentment.

Maddie turned to smile at me, her eyes shining. “I’m happy for you too,” she said. And as the words left her lips, my eyes were drawn upwards to the sky. It had been cold and gray all day, and there’d been talk of a storm in the village, but we hadn’t seen any reason to cancel plans for the get together tonight. But as Maddie spoke, the first snowflakes of the first winter’s storm drifted down from above, and soon our faces were all tilted to the sky.

“Snow!” Finn cried with excitement, jumping to his feet and reaching his hands up to the sky. Matilda jumped up from my side and joined him, Sequoia yipping up at the sky. Mike, who’d also announced a pregnancy right after Maddie and Connor’s wedding, stood beside him, both of them looking up and laughing, turning in circles as the first flakes thickened into a real snow, the dark sky filling with white as the fire hissed with each landing flake.

I looked down at Harper to find her staring up at me, her eyes full of love and fun and promise, and I wondered how my life could ever be so full.

I wasthe guy things worked out for. I was the guy who loved those around him fiercely and held them close. I was the guy who Harper Lyles chose, and soon I was going to make her my wife.

THE END