Epilogue
Epilogue
Jason
“Jason!” I lifted my head up and saw my
wife running toward me.
My heart rate spiking up, I met her
halfway. “What’s wrong, Olive? What happened?”
She held her chest and tried to catch her
breath. “How could…how could you not tell me about…just a second, I think I’m
having a heart attack.” She bent down and rested her hands on her knees.
I grabbed her shoulders and straightened
her back up. “Olive, talk to me, what’s wrong?” She waved her hand
dismissively. “Give me a minute, I’m angry at you.”
“What the hell for?”
“How could you not tell me that Adam
Connor,
the
Adam Connor had moved in next door? Why did I hear it from
Lucy instead of you? I trusted you, damn it!”
I blinked. “Sweetheart, I don’t keep tabs
on the neighbors. I didn’t know Adam was moving in next door any more than you
did.”
Her eyes widened slowly, making her look
comical as she stared up at me. “You know him? You said Adam, like you actually
know him,” she whined. “You know Adam Connor?”
She was trying the pathetic act with me.
Again.
I tilted my head and gave her a pointed
look. “Try not to faint over another guy in front your husband, little one.
It’s not a good look on you.”
Her little fingers curled around my
shoulders and she dropped her forehead against my chest. Taking advantage, I
immediately wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer.
Wearing a goofy smile, she looked up at me.
“You’ll introduce us? I mean me? And yeah, maybe, Lucy, too? Both of us? To
Adam Connor? To
the
Adam Connor who is going to live right next door to
us with his lovely kid? You will won’t you? Ah, I knew I loved you for good
reason!”
“Olive,” I sighed. “Your husband is a movie
star, too, woman. How fast are you kicking me to the curb for another one? You
don’t see me running around to find other authors.”
She patted my cheek and sighed. “Can you
introduce us soon? I don’t want to find Lucy hiding in the bushes trying to get
a look at him over the short wall.”
I shook my head and forced her to turn
around. “Come on, it’s time.”
She huffed, but started walking in front of
me.
“Tell me again why I have to be part of this
prank you all are playing on Lindsay?”
“Because you are helpful like that?” I was
steering her toward our trailer where the makeup girls would put a wig on her
so she could bear a passing resemblance to Lindsay. What she didn’t know,
however, was that the prank was actually for her.
“When are you guys shooting the last
scene?” she asked as she slipped her hand in mine. “I want to be there to watch
that one. I want to hear Tanner yell,
That’s a wrap, folks!
”
“We’ll start that one right after the
prank.”
“And when are you going to share what the
prank really is? I’m gonna wear a wig and do what exactly? Jump on her or
something?”
My impatient little firecracker. “You don’t
have to do anything sweetheart, just standing there will be enough for the
prank to work.” Lifting her hand, I kissed the back of it.
It wasn’t like I was lying to her anyway;
all she had to do was stand on top of an X and do one simple thing. She gave me
a sideways glance, but entered the trailer cooperatively when I gave her
backside a little push. I couldn’t wait to get her home that night.
Half an hour later, the sun had gone down,
and it was completely dark outside when we emerged from the trailer. I walked
her back to the set where the last scene of her movie would be shot.
“People are giving me funny looks, Jason,”
she hissed, leaning closer to me. “I thought you said there would be other
people looking like Lindsay.”
“It’ll be okay sweetheart,” I assured her.
When Tanner saw us, he motioned for me to
keep walking with his hand. From what I could see, everyone was exactly where
they were supposed to be and they were waiting for us.
“I have a surprise for you, baby,” I said,
once we were standing on top of the X taped on the ground.
“Jason what’s going on?” she asked urgently
when the crew turned the low lights on and we were in the spotlight.
“We are shooting the last scene.”
Her eyebrows rising, she pulled at my hand,
but I wasn’t letting her go anywhere, not again. “What do you mean we are
shooting the last scene?” she squeaked.
“I love you, Olive,” I said, taking
pleasure in watching her heart shine in her eyes. She did that every time I
told her I loved her, and I told her how much I loved her as often as possible.
I was just as pathetic as her.
“And I love you,” she said back.
“This was our story from the very
beginning, little one. If you hadn’t written this book, I would’ve never found
you. Hell, maybe we were written for each other from the very first day we met,
but it would’ve taken me a long time to find you on my own.” I kissed her nose.
“So thank you for finding me. Thank you for writing yourself into our happy and
inevitable ending.” I kissed her again. “I talked Tanner into letting me shoot
this scene with you. Everyone will think it’s Lindsay, but when we watch it
together for the first time, we’ll know that I’m kissing the woman I love and
no one else.”
“Jason! Get ready. We’ll start with camera
two for the first take!” Tanner yelled at us.
Olive’s face softened and her eyes filled
with tears. “You’re going to kiss me? In front of the cameras?”
I pushed the hair behind her ear. It wasn’t
anywhere near as soft as her own beautiful hair, but it would have to do. “You
say that as if I never kiss you, wife.”
“You don’t kiss me nearly enough,” she
murmured against my lips. She wasn’t fighting my pull or trying to escape any
more, so I pulled her more firmly against my chest.
I was smiling when I murmured, “I’m trying
to do my best, but I keep falling short apparently. Maybe you should take
matters into your own hands.”
“Everyone lock it down!” Tanner gave his
last warning and the set fell silent.
“What now?” Olive whispered. She was having
a hard time standing still.
“Now,” I said, framing her face with my
hands so the camera couldn’t pick up the small differences between my Olive and
Lindsay.
“The curtain!” Tanner yelled; seconds later
cold fake rain started to soak into our skin, making Olive squeal loudly.
“Jason! I’m going to kill you!”
Not letting go of her face, I smiled into
her eyes.
“You’re turning out to be quite the murderer,
baby. I thought a pluviophile like you would appreciate this. It’s a small
change to your book, but I thought…”
“It’s perfect,” she said, tilting her head
back and laughing. “They are pretty much hosing us down with water, but I’ll
take it. Are you really mine?” she asked when she had hair plastered all over
her face.
“Action!”
“I am, sweetheart,” I whispered against her
lips as my chest tightened. “I love you so much, Evie,” I said, knowing Tanner
would pick up our words and use them when he was piecing everything together.
Fake rain pouring down on us, I kissed her
softly and slowly, countless times. At one point, Tanner switched cameras, but
there was no one that could pull Olive away from me. She was mine. I wouldn’t
let anyone take her away, not evil little bees and certainly not Adam Connor.
Every time we came up for a breath, I
whispered her how much I loved her and how much I wanted to get into her pants
when we got home. As soon as she was smiling, I would kiss her tenderly,
drinking in her happiness.
When her body started shaking against mine,
I hugged her tighter to myself.
“I kept my promise to you,” I said, kissing
the edges of her mouth as she took deep breaths. The world faded away and it
was just the two of standing in the middle of a fake road. “I told you that I
would never forget you Olive
Thorn
, and it looks like my heart never
did, sweetheart,” I tugged a piece of her hair, the familiar gesture making her
lips wobble. “My world is a less scary place with you in it, baby. I will kiss
you a thousand times every day if that’s what it takes to keep you in love with
me for the rest of our days.”
Her tears mixed in with the rain, but she
was still smiling up at me when she said, “You stole my little heart with just
one dimple, you sneaky little thief. I never managed to fall out of love with
you after that. I don’t think I know how to.”
“I never want you to learn. I’ll give you
as many orgasms as you want along with the kisses.”
I kissed her.
“Why do I feel like you are trying to sell
yourself to me? I might consider taking you if you promise you’ll do me in the
screening room at your house. Maybe we can do it while we are watching
something? Or listening? And I want to do it in the pool at least twice. Then I
want do it in Devlin’s club, in one of those private rooms. And maybe we
can—”
I kissed her again. “I see you’re gonna
work me like a slave. You know that they are recording us, don’t you?”
Her eyes widened in shock and I heard a few
chuckles coming from the crew members.
“Kill me. Someone strike me with fake
lightning, anything, please. It will look perfect for the movie. The author
died while filming the last scene. Think about the box office numbers or
whatever the hell…”
I chuckled and went for her lips again as
Tanner changed angles and told us to keep going.
Leaning into her ear, I whispered, “I will
fuck you anywhere and any time you want, Olive. Crook your little finger at me,
and I’ll take you in a heartbeat, baby.”
“Jason, give me another kiss and we’ll wrap
this up. Hold her face in your hands and go for it,” Tanner’s voice echoed to
us.
“These lips?” I touched her lower lip with
my thumb. “I never want you to feel someone else’s lips against what’s mine. I
am it for you, Olive, the one, the right one—whatever you want to call it, I’m
that.”
“Action!”
I kissed her some more, taking my time and
tilting her head in my hands, sinking deeper into her until I didn’t know if it
was her breathing life into me or if it was me being greedy and taking
everything she was giving me so freely.
When I was done kissing her, I knew my
hands weren’t shaking because of the cold.
“I love you, little one,” I whispered, out
of breath at last.
“Surprisingly, you’ve been the best kind of
heartache, Jason Thorn.” She smiled against my greedy lips and everything was
perfect in a way it had never been before.
“That’s a wrap, folks!”
The
End
.