Mending Heart |18+|

Epilogue

Epilogue

"Completely and perfectly incandescently happy." – Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice

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[3 Years Later]

"Where's your lingerie?" Zoey called out from the walk-in closet.

I rolled my eyes as I threw another pair of jeans into my suitcase. "Get out of my closet, Zoey!"

This girl really needed to learn boundaries.

After a few moments of silence, Zoey cleared her throat. When I turned around, she was standing in the doorway holding a very revealing plunge neck black lace bodysuit and grinning from ear to ear. "What about this one?"

"Oh my god!" I marched towards her and snatched the material out of her hands. "You're way too invested in my sex life."

Although she did have good taste – I'll give her that. The lingerie she picked out was one of my favorite pieces, and I may or may not have crumbled it up and thrown it in the suitcase hoping she didn't see.

Zoey was almost twenty-two now and about to graduate college, but it didn't make the awkwardness of the situation any less awkward. At least not for me. It seemed she had no issue discussing the intimate details of my relationship with Ethan, meanwhile, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole every time she opened her mouth surrounding that.

"One of us has to be." She replied in a sing-song voice, throwing herself onto the large bed. "You washed these sheets recently, right?"

I'm going to kill her.

"I'm sending you to mom's if you keep this up." I narrowed my eyes in her direction, hands on my hips. She was testing my patience today.

Zoey flew home for spring break a few days ago and had been staying in the spare bedroom downstairs. It wasn't anything new – ever since I moved in with Ethan every time she came home she would stay here. Ethan had no objections since the two of them were practically best friends, but I, on the other hand, wanted to strangle her half the time.

I loved my sister to death, but she had zero filter.

"You love me too much to make me go through that." She snorted. When I turned to look at her, her eyes were closed and she had tucked her arms under her head. "Is Ethan finally going to put a ring on your finger during this little getaway?"

"What?" My head whipped to the sound of her voice, completely taken off guard by her question. Quickly recovering, however, I said, "I don't need a ring, Zoey."

"I know you don't need one," She scoffed, and if her eyes weren't closed I bet she'd be rolling them right now. "But it would be nice."

"It would be nice." I nodded to no one in particular. I never thought I'd hear myself say that, but then again I never thought I'd love someone else so quickly either.

Ethan came into my life like a hurricane determined to destroy every wall of protection I built around myself. He completely changed my outlook on... well, everything.

It's true that only time can heal you, but sometimes, it helps if you have someone along to help speed up the process.

To help put the pieces back together.

To mend your broken heart.

Ethan and I hadn't talked about taking our relationship to the next step, and in part, I think it was because he was afraid I would run for the hills if he brought up the word marriage. For me, nothing much had changed on that front. I was still a firm believer that titles don't define a relationship, but the people do.