Every Chapter

Epilogue

1 Year later

Daisy's head pulled back. Ian had found it a habit of grabbing hold of her brown hair ever since she dyed it and giving it a tug just to hear her gasp.

He loved her brown hair, this was her. This was who she was, his Daisy Mae.

"Ian stop it." She laughed, smacking him on the arm.

"I can't keep my hands off you." He grasped her hips and pulled her into a kiss. She pushed against his chest and broke free.

"Ian, were working." She blushed.

"Oh, come on." He groaned "Just a kiss." She smiled, pulling her back to him.

"Uh, no! I am not lifting boxes of books for you two to take a break." Rina dropped a box onto the floor of the library Ian had built. Ian groaned and Daisy freed herself from him again.

"Told you."

He rolled her eyes at her.

"I'm with Rina on this." Molly said setting a box next to hers and grabbing her back.

"Thank you, baby." Rina rubbed a hand on her back, one that broadly displayed her engagement ring.

"Come on." Daisy nudged Ian. "Were so close."

"I built it, you can stock it." He winked.

"And I paid for it." She wagged a brow at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Spoiled brat."

Daisy had moved in with Ian after they reunited and right away Ian began her outdoor library, surrounded by a flower garden so that through the large windows she could look out and "always see something as beautiful as her." Of course, he countered it with "I considered a portrait of myself, but I figured the flowers were nice too" in which daisy rolled her eyes.

He had brought her dream to life; one she wasn't sure she ever knew how it should look. But he did it, for both of them, not just her. Together they would waste their nights in here, flipping through pages and reading.

Ian had done so much for her, not just the library, not just saving her, but the constant love he gave her. She never knew how to repay him for the way she felt other than to love him just as fiercely.

"That's the last of them miss Mae." John sat the last box down at their feet.

"John, you know you're not supposed to be lifting like that."

"Miss Mae please, I am more than healed."

"And stop calling me miss Mae, just Daisy."

"Yes, Miss Mae." He gave her a wink and she rolled her eyes.

Everything had come up for them, everything was right in their world. Ian had taken up a job training self-defense, Quinn had joined at café Claws, John had healed and although he still worked for her father, he had somehow taken place as her father figure, in some ways he always was. Forks had been reelected, but after the truth came out about the entire situation he was not doing well for any future polls. She almost felt bad, he was her father and there were remnants of love there. Not enough however, for her to be the one to see him to gather her mother's library. Forks men loaded it up and John carried it here for her.

He had saved Ian, but doing that wasn't enough to forget. Maybe one day she would be ready to see her father again, but not now. Not yet.

Rina and Molly got engaged three weeks ago, Molly tapped a ring to Toast collar and sent her over to her. On a day in which there was a fund raiser going on inside of the Café. Rina demanded attention and doing a private proposal was simply not her style. Something Molly understood.

Tanner was arrested for conspiring with his mother, of course he was bailed out by his father. But as soon as he was out, he moved away to aspen, far enough away for Daisy, not for Ian though. He would never forgive Tanner for any of it, and he made it clear to her if he ever saw him again that would be the last time, she saw Ian. She made it a point of letting Tanner know never to come back, not to save him. But to save Ian.

Griff, Don, and Sam are still in the area, in fact they had become some of Ian's good friends just as Daisy's. The group got together for drinks some nights or met on the beach to make glorious music and pass a joint.

Ray made the wrong move on the wrong woman in the Joans and was banned from the bar and arrested. Of course, thanks to the idiocy of the system he was released and still around. But Joans was safe from him, and the arrest was so public in town that Daisy was sure he wouldn't be around long.

Daisy didn't know about Tanners friends except for Jenna who was tied up with Chris now. She often thought of Lily and hoped one day she would find the courage to leave her husband, to leave the abuse and the cage he trapped her in. But there was always more to see so she never judged her. She only wished her the best in making the decisions for herself.

As far as Ian and Daisy went, they were happy. They bickered, made up with sex, read through books and fell asleep in one another's arms with mouse at their feet. Life was simple, when it needed a dramatic flair, they'd fight over dishes to boost mural. They didn't need more than that. Life together was simple, but it was right and every day they fell further in love.

Rina, Molly, and John left after a few hours. Just when the lights in the garden turned on and the library was illuminated by the vintage lamps they decorated with. Daisy and Ian were unloading boxes and putting them on the enormous shelves lining the walls. They moved around one another in a silent manner that worked perfectly for them. They never once bumped on another as if they knew the next move they'd make. Partners, they worked like partners.

"Let's call it a night." Ian said and sat on the couch surrounded by empty and full boxes in the center of the room. He held a book in his hands insinuating he wanted to read the book they'd been working on.

She gave him a smile and walked to him, curling on the other end of the couch. He moved the book to her.

"Your turn."

She groaned. "You know I prefer when you read."

"Nope, you can't get out of this. I want the first reading in the library to be just like the first time we read together."

She rolled her eyes with a smile taking the book from his hand. "You always know what to say."

Ian's cheeks flushed but Daisy thought nothing of it as he leaned forward and pressed his arms to his knees, moving his leg up in down like he was nervous.

Daisy opened the book to the marked page, but what fell out was not a bookmark. It was a ring. He whole body stiffened as she pulled her eyes from the ring to Ian. Who was no longer sitting on the couch nervously. But on his knee on the ground.

He reached into her lap and grabbed the ring that fell. Her eyes already budding to tears as the realness passed over her.

"Daisy Mae, I know it has only been a year since we got together. But all I needed were weeks with you to know I wanted my life with you forever." His voice was shaky, and his eyes looked close to tears himself. Daisy watched him with shock.

"Before you I wasn't living, I was only surviving. But ever since you stepped into my life, I have been alive, thriving. I guess." He scratched the back of his head; Daisy's face had not moved since the tears began. She was unreadable.

"I guess what I'm asking is, will you love me forever?"

Daisy didn't move, she didn't budge. She was unmovable in that moment. She had not expected this. Ian's breathes were uneven. "Ian-"

"Bark." He blurted; in memory of the day, he gave up control.

A smile stretched on her face, and she joined him on the ground, kissing him. She pulled away and looked deep into his blue eyes.

"You Asshole." She said with a smile and pushed on his arm.

"Forever wouldn't be long enough."