Silver Screen Romance (Book 3)

Epilogue

5 years later...

It's been 5 years since Mandy packed up and left California; something she never imagined she would do. One of the most difficult decisions she had made was leaving Robin, but as she walked on the beach and the sun beamed down on her, the sand between her toes, she knew she had made the right choice. She looked ahead and Robin was running into the water with Clementine and Nathan, they were now 11 and 12 years old and every single day Robin looked more like her mom.

"Momma! I want to go in the water." She smiled down at Nikki, who was tugging at her hand. Now 5 years old and so full of life.

This was the end of their summer vacation and soon all of the kids would be flying home to their parents and their lives would continue without her.

Mandy hadn't stepped foot in Huntington Beach or Los Angeles since that perfect day she spent with Matt and Nikki, well it mostly perfect day. She promised herself that she would never go back, it was time for her to move on with her life and truthfully...she had been better off for it.

"Mands! Get in the water!"

She smiled, picked up Nikki and ran out to the ocean to Carey...her best friend...a relationship that she discovered once again after walking away from all of the troubles that had consumed her life since she left Maryland that night, many years ago.

Carey was playing with Jamie and the older kids when she made her way to them, it was nice to have all of her nieces and nephews for the summer, but as it was every year for the last 4, it was going to kill her inside to send them all home.

Mandy's POV

"You all need to go clean up and get ready for dinner!" I yelled to the kids who were already trying to run out to the backyard and play.

They all stopped in their tracks.

"But Aunt Mandy we want to go swimming!" Jamie pleaded.

I shook my head. "You just got back from the beach and you want to go swimming?" I questioned.

They all nodded and I gave in. It was their last day here and I was determined to make the best of it. Joel and Julia's plane would be landing in the next couple of hours and tomorrow they would all be leaving me to go back to California, although Robin kept saying when she turned 16 she was moving here with me and there was nothing her dad could say about it.

About 45 minutes later Carey walked in with a bunch of grocery bags and I laughed as he struggled to bring them all inside.

"Need a little help?" I offered.

He shook his head. "No. I. got. It." He spoke in between breaths.

As he set the bags on the counter I started to put everything away.

"So how did your date go last night?" He asked.

No it's not what everyone is thinking, Carey and I were not together. He had his life in Vegas and I had mine here in Orlando. We honestly never tried to get back together because we didn't want it to ruin the relationship we were trying to build since I had decided to work for him.

I had made the choice to start dating about a year ago and so far, it was panning out to be a tremendous mistake. There was no one here that I was really interested in. Matt had really screwed me up to say the least and Colson...well we had decided it was best to stay friends. I hadn't seen him in about 4 months.

"It was okay. I just wasn't into it." I said.

He stopped what he was doing and turned to me. "Are you still holding on to him?"