‘You’re not replacing her. You couldn’t.’ He said it softly, but he saw the way his words made her flinch, all the same. ‘Zo, do you think I haven’t been thinking about Grace too? I do, every day. And I’m not going to stop—the same way you won’t. But she’s gone. She’s been gone a long time now, and I know that we can’t live our lives in a limbo, waiting in case of a miracle that won’t come.’
‘I know that too,’ Zoey muttered, but she wasn’t looking at him again now.
Ash tucked a finger under her chin and nudged her head up so she had to meet his eyes.
‘Here’s what I’ve realised,’ he said. ‘Grace will always be my first love. But that doesn’t make my love for you any less. I love you, Zoey.’
Were those tears in her eyes? He hated to make her cry, but he needed to say this. And he had a feeling she needed to hear it.
‘I’m not the same man I was when I married Grace. I’m not even the same man I was when she died. Two years of grief change a man. But, more than that, you changed me. Not just in one night here on this island, or even the months since. Before all of that, your love and care and kindness changed me. Every time you picked me up off the floor from a drunken, grief-filled stupor. Every time you sat all night with me and shared memories of Grace. Every time you called to check in, or texted a joke to make me laugh. You changed me, Zoey. Until I knew that if something happened in my life, you were the person I wanted to tell. Until you were the person I wanted to see last thing at night and first thing in the morning. Until you were the person whose opinion mattered, whose feelings counted most, who I’d drop everything and sail into a storm for.
‘I might not have known that I loved you before this week. But, looking back, I can see my love for you—and yours for me—stretching back. The type of love it is changed that night on this island, when we realised how much we wanted each other too. But that wasn’t where it started. That’s only the latest part of it.’
‘And now we have a whole new love story to tell.’ Zoey placed his hand against her belly, where his child grew, and Ash thought his heart might explode from the rightness of it all.
‘Yours might not have been the love I chose first, Zoey, but I promise you it’ll be the last love I ever need. And I’ll keep choosing you, and our family, day after day, for the rest of my life. If you’ll let me.’
He could see her blinking away tears as she replied, ‘Of course I will. You’re my happily-ever-after.’
Ash smiled. ‘I hope so. But, right now, our story is only just beginning.’
EPILOGUE
THE BEACH WAS packed with friends and family. At least she wasn’t naked on it this time. Zoey winced, sparing a thought for the poor guys who’d rescued them off this very same island eighteen months ago, after the storm, when she’d waved her dress over her head as she ran towards them naked. Ash didn’t seem to think they’d minded all that much, though.
When she’d asked Ash why he’d insisted on buying the villa—and the island—back from the company for his own personal use, he’d told her it was their place. Where it had all started, for real. And he couldn’t imagine sharing it with anyone else.
But they were, this weekend at least. Of course, after the ceremony and the reception, Ash had laid on boats to take everyone away again to neighbouring island hotels, so they could spend their wedding night in peace, in their place.
Ash had flown all their guests out on the company plane, and somehow nobody had objected to attending yet another of her weddings, this time. Zoey imagined it was because of what they could see when they looked at Ash and her together, especially with little baby Charlie there with them too.
It was the same thing Zoey felt every time the three of them were together—which was as much of the time as possible.
Happiness.
True, happily-ever-after happiness.
It felt funny to think that after all those years chasing the perfect future, the ideal husband, she’d almost run away from the real thing when she’d found him.
Zoey smiled to herself. Maybe the reason it had all worked out was that Ash was the first one to actually chase her.