It’s like my life has had two parts. The life before Tristan and the life we live now.
“Can I go to a party tonight?” Patrick asks.
“No,” Tristan replies as we walk back inside. “You’re grounded, remember?”
I smirk, our sweet little Tricky has turned into quite the ratbag, got caught drinking last weekend. Him and his friends drank a cask of wine in the garage and they would have got away with it too if Patrick didn’t come staggering out blind drunk.
“Can my friends come over?”
“No.”
“What am I supposed to do all weekend, then?” Patrick moans as we walk up the front steps.
Tristan glares at him. “Try not to get murdered.”
THE CASANOVA EPILOGUE
THE MILES HIGH CLUB
* Trigger warning - The sensitive issue of fertility is discussed in this epilogue.
THE CASANOVA EPILOGUE
Kate
The private jet touches down and I hunch my shoulders up in excitement as I look over at my new husband. “Where are we?”
He winks and taps the side of his nose.
“You are still not telling me where we are going for our honeymoon?”
“Not yet.”
“Well at least tell me what country are we in?”
“Nope.”
“Elliot.” I laugh. “Come on, this is ridiculous.”
He leans over, takes my face in his hands, and kisses me softly. “It’s called a surprise, Kate.” His lips linger over mine.
“I love it already.” I smile.
“You do?”
“Uh-huh and I love you.”
He smiles against my lips. “I love you too.”
The plane taxis to its eventual resting place and I sit back and smile, so much has happened. So many magical memories have been made.
I got married to my dream man, on a dreamy farm, and now he has some colossal surprise for me and I have no idea what it is.
Only that he’s really excited about it, which means it must be special because Elliot only gets excited about super-special romantic things.
We climb off, I’m instantly hit with cool air and I frown as I look around. “Where is this place?”
Elliot smiles and gestures to the black car that is waiting on the tarmac. “Into the car, my love. We have a long drive ahead of us.”
“We do?” I frown as I look around. Where the actual fuck are we?
For some reason I just assumed we would go somewhere hot and tropical.
“Are we in Japan?” I ask.
“I don’t know, are we?”
“Elliot,” I laugh. “Come on, tell me.”
“You’ll find out soon enough, into the car, Miss Impatience.”
“It’s Mrs. Miles, actually.”
He gives me the best come-fuck-me look of all time. “That’s right, it is.” He kisses me, a little tongue, and a whole lot of naughty promise. “Mrs. Miles has a ring to it, doesn’t it?”
I hold up my hand and show him my wedding ring. “Sure does.”
He chuckles and opens the car door for me and I scoot on in.
The car comes to a halt and I peer out the window.
What the heck is this place?
Elliot gets out and opens my door and helps me out of the car, I look around in question. “Where are we?”
Elliot’s eyes glow with affection. “I thought that seeing your parents couldn’t come to our wedding, they should choose our honeymoon.”
I frown.
“We’re at the Inca Trail.”
My eyes widen and I look around. “This is…you mean?”
He nods.
Tears instantly well in my eyes, doing this trek was my parents’ biggest goal in life. It was their bucket list trip, the one they never got to take. “Oh Elliot,” I cry.
“Stop with the blubbering,” sounds from behind me, I turn in a rush to see Brad, my brother, and my face falls again.
“I thought Brad should be here to do this with you,” Elliot says softly. “With us.”
My heart free-falls from my chest.
Just when you think you couldn’t love someone any more than you do.
I screw up my face in tears, Elliot is sharing his honeymoon with my brother so that we can take our parents’ dream trip together.
My heart swells in my chest, this is the most beautiful, thoughtful gift of love that anyone could ever give me.
Of course Elliot did this, it’s so him.
“I love you so much.” I jump into Elliot’s arms. “You are the most romantic man of all time.” I kiss him. “I love you.” I kiss him again. “I love you. I love you.”
Elliot and Brad chuckle at my over-the-top reaction.
“Don’t be fooled,” Brad replies. “He brought me so I could carry his ass up the hill.”
I laugh through tears. “Probably.”
Elliot
The morning sun filters through the kitchen, flickering beams of gold splay generously across the timber parquetry floors. It’s chilly this morning and I rub my hands together as I wait for my coffee to pour.
I look through the window down to the sandstone building at the bottom of the hill, Kate wasn’t in bed when I woke this morning and I know exactly where she is. We converted one of the old buildings on the property into the perfect art studio.
Kate’s happy place.
I make my two cups of coffee, put my gum boots on and head off in search of my girl.
I trudge down the hill and pass our goats on the top paddock, we have a family of four now. Gretel and Billy have been busy and blissfully quiet, it seems regular sex will keep even the naughtiest of goats well behaved. He’s a new man…goat.
I keep walking down the hill, it’s so cold that when I breathe, puffs of fog fill the air. I put the cups down on the steps and roll open the huge heavy door and smile, I stand for a moment and watch her; she’s working on a huge painting and my god…is it beautiful.
Kate is my favorite thing on earth and her paintings are my second favorite, the fact that one makes the other is simply incredible.
She catches me from the corner of her eye. “Hey.” She smiles.
“Good morning. Missed you this morning.”
She walks over and kisses me. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
I pass over her cup of coffee and smile up at the painting in awe. “I thought Sunday was a rest day.”
“It is, but this isn’t work, is it?”
“My god, Kate. It’s perfection.” I sigh dreamily.
She flicks her unruly hair out of the way. “You like it?”
“I love it.” My eyes roam over the huge abstract, she’s been working on it for weeks and every time I see it, it gets better.
“I love you.” She smiles. “I’ve been thinking.”
I sip my coffee. “About what?”
“I think I want to go off the pill.”
I frown. “What?”
She shrugs. “I think it’s time.”
My eyebrows rise in surprise.
“What do you think?”
“That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”
Her face falls. “Oh.”
Sensing her disappointment, I put my coffee down and take her into my arms. “I just found you, call me selfish, but I want you to myself for a while.”
“You didn’t just find me.” She smiles. “We’ve been married for eighteen months, El.”