Briar Valley: The Complete Duet

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

YOU’VE GOT THE LOVE – FLORENCE & THE MACHINE

WILLOW - TWO YEARS LATER

Staring at myself in the mirror, I bite my gloss-covered lip. “Is it too boring?”

Fussing over me, Katie adjusts my long, white veil. “No, darling. The dress is perfect for a Briar Valley wedding.”

My wedding dress is a simple, silk slip with thin spaghetti straps and a low back, exposing just the right amount of skin while maintaining a little mystery.

I wanted something light and cool for our summer wedding. It’s the summer solstice today, the longest day of the year, and the whole town is geared up for a hell of a show.

“You look so beautiful.” She wells up as she stares at me in the mirror.

“Thanks, Mum.”

Her tears only intensify at that name. I started calling her Mum not long after Hayden was born, almost two years ago, but it still makes her teary to hear it after all that we’ve been through together.

Lifting my hand to rest it on top of hers, we lock eyes. Despite everything that I’ve suffered, a small part of me can be glad. It brought me my family, my mother, my home.

Without all that pain and suffering, I’d have nothing. No life. No future. No happily ever after. That’s the thing about pain—it demands an equal and offers hope in the purest of forms.

Pain gave me life.

Pain made me who I am.

But living? That’s a job for the person I am now. The person I became when I saw a world without all that pain and realised that hope is the greatest possible gift this world ever gave me.

“Are you ready?” Katie asks.

“As I’ll ever be.”

She kisses my cheek. “I’m so proud of you, Willow. You’re an incredible woman, and it’s an honour to be your mother and friend.”

I blink away tears before they ruin my light makeup. “I love you.”

“I love you too, my sweet girl. Come on, then. Let’s get you married.”

Holding her hand, I glance around our huge, master bedroom. It’s three times the size of a regular bedroom with two king mattresses pushed together to make a single, mega-sized bed.

Hayden has his own room now, but more often than not, he ends up back in bed with us by midnight. Arianna is far too old for that, or so she claims. She’s a mouthy little spitfire at ten years old.

Lifting the hem of my dress, I walk down the stairs to find my bridesmaids—Aalia, Rachel and Miranda—all waiting at the bottom for me in pale shades of buttery yellow.

Standing in front of them, Arianna is dressed in her own yellow dress, perfectly complementing her pearly blonde hair that’s neatly plaited with bows. Her mouth falls open when she sees me.

“Mum! You look so pretty!”

I duck down to kiss her cheek. “Thanks, baby.”

“Oh, Willow.” Aalia covers her mouth. “You look stunning.”

“Thank you, Aalia.”

Rachel wipes her tears aside. “Just breathtaking.”

Miranda pulls her into a side-hug, fighting her own tears. “You’re perfect, Willow. So perfect.”

“Come on, guys. You’re all determined to make me cry.”

Laughing it off, they take their places ahead of me, preparing to walk out of the arched front door that Killian carved himself.

With the tinkle of music playing, I clutch my mum’s hand tight and take the bouquet of Briar Valley wildflowers, wrapped in a pink ribbon. Nothing else would’ve done the job.

Arianna takes her place at the head of the convoy as my flower girl. She leads us all, her head held high with pride. The bridesmaids follow until it’s time for me to go.

“I’m nervous,” I admit quietly.

Katie squeezes my arm. “I won’t let you fall over.”

“Promise, Mum?”

“Always, Willow.”

With her grip holding me tight, we exit the cabin together, and brilliant sunshine blinds me. The sweet, intoxicating scent of summer washes over us, full of blooms and earthy richness.

The entire town has turned out for the wedding. Everyone sits in their Sunday best on white-painted chairs, all facing a wicker archway laden with sunflowers picked from the fields.

When I see the guys for the first time, everything stops. The rest of the wedding melts away until it’s just us for the very first time all over again. The years we’ve been together suddenly vanish.

All three of them wear matching suits in the darkest shade of green, reminiscent of the thick, impenetrable forest around us—the same forest I almost died dragging myself through to get to them.

Micah’s smile captures me first. It’s as sweet and innocent as the first time I saw it over the dinner table, stunning those around us.

When Killian looks up at me, he doesn’t smile. His mouth is too busy hanging open in awe, his eyes stretched wide with such intense adoration, it would scare most people.

Luckily, I’m not most people.

I love his adoration.

Zach’s the last to look up—his emerald-green eyes meeting mine. Grinning like the child at heart he is, he winks at me.

Immediately, I’m set at ease. Nothing else matters but the short walk back into their arms. Eating up the distance between us, I stop next to Ryder’s chair to kiss my little boy, snuggled up in his arms.

“Go get ’em,” Ryder whispers.

I kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Ry.”

Ethan gives me a thumb’s up from the seat next to him, sitting with Harlow and all four of her plus ones, recently arriving from their new home in Australia just for the day.

Meeting the guys at the front of the town square, I pass my bouquet off to Katie then face them. We have no vicar or officiant, as this isn’t a legal wedding, but everyone who matters is here.

Us.

It’s always been us.

And it always will be.

“Willow.” Killian takes my hands first, ever the commander. “You look so incredible, baby.”

“Thank you, Kill.”

He holds my hands tight. “I know I’m not a perfect man. Far from it. But you make me a better person, and I want to spend the rest of my life making you smile… just like that.”

A grin on my lips, I drop my voice low so no one else can hear. “I love you because you’re a grumpy, over-protective bastard.”

“Good,” he growls in a deeper voice. “Because I am absolutely not about to change. So we’re on the same page.”

Cupping the back of my head, he captures my lips in a hard, fast kiss that makes the crowd wolf-whistle. When we separate, the tips of his ears are burning pink.

“Will you marry me?”

“Yes. I will.”

We kiss again, barely managing to separate when Zach clears his throat and steps up next. I’m passed along, all of us laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

“Willow—” he begins.

“Before you say anything,” I interrupt him. “Zachariah, you are the most childish, infuriating person I have ever met, and I love you with my whole heart regardless. Will you marry me?”

His mouth splits into a wide smile. “I do.”

We share a kiss, right where Killian’s lips left off, and everyone claps again. Katie watches on with tears sparkling in her eyes.

“For the record, I love you too,” Zach adds. “Even when you don’t get my dad jokes or let Killian call me kid. ”

“Good. You’re stuck with me now.”

“Forever?” he laughs.

“You’re damn right, we’re forever.”

Kissing again, he reluctantly hands me to Micah. My sad-eyed, quiet boy. The man who took the longest to love me and the most to forgive me. Of course, he’s the last to hold me close.

“Willow,” he bites his lip nervously. “I had a lot planned out that I wanted to say, but standing here… hell, I’ve forgotten all of it.”

“Maybe we don’t need words, Mi. We have each other.”

“We do.” He nods. “Through the darkest of times, we’ve always had each other. You’ve loved me at my absolute worst.”

“As have you.”

“Then I guess we can love each other at our best for the rest of our lives, right?”

I lean in to peck his lips. “Right.”

“Swear on it, angel?”

Even on our wedding day, he’s still insecure. Still uncertain. Shaking my head at him, I take the first of the solid gold bands from Arianna’s outstretched hand and slide it on his finger.

“I swear to love you on all of your worst days, Micah. And all of your best ones too. Hell, maybe even the days in between as well.”

He steals my breath with a final kiss that scatters my thoughts. Only Micah can give me the most extraordinary butterflies, reserved solely for his quiet shyness.

I move back to Zach to slide the next ring on his finger, then Killian last. As the head of the family, he takes the honour of placing the final gold band above his mother’s ring.

“Are we married now?” Zach laughs.

“I think so.”

Whooping loudly, he grabs my hand and lifts it into the air, entwined for the whole town to see. We’re overcome by a raucous wave of applause that must echo throughout the mountains.

As we walk back down the aisle, Killian grabs Arianna and boosts her onto his shoulders. She squeals at the top of her lungs.

The one thing that hasn’t changed as she’s grown up? He’s still her giant, and she’s still his precious peanut.

Zach takes Hayden from his Uncle Ryder and holds the little tyke in his arms, now writhing and laughing as he’s tickled. That leaves Micah to take my hand and brush a thumb over my knuckles.

“Okay?” he whispers.

I squeeze his hand. “I’ll be better than okay forever, Mi.”

He smiles again. “Me too. We did it, angel.”

“We sure as hell did.”

Swooped down low to the ground, my hair brushes against the grass as he dramatically kisses me, stealing some of his twin’s moves. As soon as I’m placed back on my feet, the town engulfs us.

Surrounded by my crazy, adoptive Briar Valley family, new and old, my heart is fit to burst. It’s perfect. Everything. We fled the darkness to find our home, and boy, did we find it.

I spent a decade living in empty spaces—the place between existing and living. The desolation. The darkness. The unknown.

But that space I mentioned?

Well, that’s where wild things grow.

The End