Page 136 of Resorting to Romance

“I am, am I?” That playful side of her comes out—the one I discovered during Bodhi and Kalaine’s bachelor-ette party in the pool. “I like the idea of calling the shots with you.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

“I’m trying. I’m pretty rusty, though.”

“The last word I’d ever use to describe you is rusty.”

Mila sits up just the slightest, my arm still looped behind her, and carefully refolds my letter. “I’m going to read the rest of this tonight—later, in my room, alone.”

“It’s yours to read whenever you want.”

“And. Kai?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t need time to think about what we’re doing here.”

Mila tilts her head so she’s gazing in my eyes. The moonlight reflects off her cheeks and lips when she looks up at me.

“I’m yours, Kai. No more pretending.”

“Mine.” I lean in and kiss Mila. “For real this time.”

And the world melts away until it’s just the two of us, on the porch of Mila’s Place, beginning the rest of our forever together.

Epilogue

MILA

For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person.

And we are finally home.

~ Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

“This place is the cutest!” Ben makes his voice into a falsetto while he looks around at Kalaine and Bodhi’s new house after he walks through the front door.

He acts like it’s the first time he’s been here, even though he actually helped with the move and has been here more than a few times over the past months since Kalaine and Bodhi settled in.

“Ben. Seriously?” his wife, Summer, says. “Sorry, guys. I can only do so much over here. But I’m open to suggestions!”

She acts as if she’s exasperated, but she’s smiling up into Ben’s eyes as he leans down and kisses her on the cheek.

“I’m the worst. I know,” Ben says to Summer, still holding her close and saying the words into the top of her head.

“The very worst.” Summer smiles, and kisses him on the cheek.

I laugh at Ben’s silliness.

“Don’t laugh. You’ll encourage him,” Kai tells me.

Kai’s also smiling, despite himself. You can’t help but smile atBen’s antics. Then again, whenever Kai looks at me, he smiles. We’ve been dating for six months. Officially, real, out-in-the-open dating. Kai’s been doing everything he said he would that night he imagined what we might be like together.

He comes by the inn several nights a week, sometimes for dinner, other times after. Once a week he arranges for someone to cover the inn so he can take me out dancing, or to dinner, or for a walk on the beach under the stars.

Noah’s thrilled. I worried myself sick about rocking his world, shaking the foundation and ruining things if I brought a man into our lives. And our lives probably would have gone through all that and more—if the man I allowed into our lives wasn’t Kai.

Bodhi whistles through his fingers and the chatter dies down. “Sorry! We’ll let you guys get back to it in a minute. I just wanted to say, Mavs and I are so grateful you could be here at our official housewarming.”

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