The Rampage MC #3: Atlas and Joy

Epilogue 1 (Joy): My Future Was Waiting

"Love is yours and love is mine, but it isn't something that we find, it's something that we do." ~ Something That We Do, Clint Black

I had the strongest sense of déjà vu because, once again, there was a bearded man glaring at me. Once again, I was on the verge of tears. And once again, something wonderful and life-changing was about to happen to me.

"You got a problem?" Beard asked me, and he wasn't being unkind.

"No," I sniffled. Blinking hard, trying to beat the tears back.

"You look like you got a problem."

The first tear slid down my cheek.

Beard's eyes widened, and he pointed at me.

"That right there is a problem."

"You don't understand," I said as one more tear escaped.

"Make me understand," he demanded.

"I'm five minutes away from marrying Kit."

He pulled on his beard thoughtfully, considering my words. "Yeah, I can see where that might make you cry. I'd cry, too, if I was marrying that fucker."

I burst out laughing and swatted at him with my bouquet. "Beard!"

He grinned at me. "Least you aren't about to cry on me anymore."

Well, there was that. 

Three weeks ago, on the night Kit first took me for a ride on the back of his bike, we rode up into the mountains and stopped at a beautiful overlook.

"This is one of my favorite places to stop on this ride," Kit had said when he'd held out his hand to help me off his bike. "I come up here when I need to think, figure things out. When I fucked up with you, I was here all the time."

Not letting go of my hand, he walked with me toward the railing  at the edge of the drop off and gestured to the view with his free hand.

"I always feel like I can see forever from here. The view is endless."

"It really does seem like you can see forever," I agreed, looking out at the hazy green hills that turned to blue the more distant they became. "It's gorgeous. Stunning."

"Just like you, Joy," Kit said. "The day your six months were up, I was going to put you on the back of my bike, bring you to this exact spot and ask you to marry me here because when I look at you, I can see my forever."

Well, you could still ask. I startled at the thought. With my background, the way I'd been raised, the type of men I'd previously been involved with, I'd never really considered marriage, never thought it would be in the cards for me. Just a lot of, baby, we don't need anything official. Now come fuck me.

"From the minute you smiled at me, I was making plans for us. That first day, you just beamed your smile at me with those dimples and I was done, Joy. That smile was when I started falling for you."

Not knowing what to say to that declaration, I put my hands on the railing and looked out. Kit came up behind me and put his arms on either side of my own, caging me with his body. Wrapping me in his strength as he put his lips to my ear. 

"Can you see forever with me, Joy?"

Closing my eyes, I imagined a future with this man. My future with this man. A lifetime of waking up with Kit next to me. Seeing his eyes open and search for me. Getting ready for our days together, the daily grind made better simply because he was in my life. Going off to work and looking forward to coming back home simply because he was there at the end of my day.