“You said you needed to learn something from me, but I’m the one who’s learned everything from you. Everything, Tatiana. Especially,” he said with a heart-stopping grin that made her fall in love with him all over again, “the power of a well-timed question.”
He brought both her hands up to his lips and pressed a kiss to them before dropping to one knee. Thunder rumbled outside and rain poured down onto the roof above them as he spun every question she’d ever asked him into the most beautiful one possible.
“Tatiana, will you be my happily ever after?”
And as her yes was drowned out by the cheers from both of their families, Tatiana knew there had only been one answer all along.
Love.
* * *
Everyone surely thought they were crazy for heading hand in hand out into the rain, but she knew storms would always be special for them, taking them back to the days and nights on an island where everything but love had been stripped away.
Together, they’d danced on the grass to the beat of the rain, and soon everyone was out there with them, getting thoroughly soaked and laughing their heads off. Or—as she noticed when she looked over at Ian’s parents—kissing.
While they danced, he admitted he’d had plans to sweep her away in a helicopter to a romantic restaurant filled with roses and a band playing all her favorite songs, but that he hadn’t been able to wait another second to be with her again. And Tatiana knew that even if they never made it on a fantasy date like that, or if he had to miss some of her movie premieres because of his job, or if her filming schedule meant she couldn’t be there to celebrate every one of his new deals, that none of that was what really mattered.
“All I ever need is you, Ian. Just to be with you.”
And this time, when she looked up into his beautiful eyes and saw that pure love had replaced the shadows and ghosts, she knew for certain that he felt exactly the same way…and that love at first glance really had turned into forever.
EPILOGUE
A month later...
Dylan Sullivan made it off his sailboat and into his parents’ house just in time to hear Tatiana’s name announced as the winner for Best Actress. Everyone in the Sullivans’ living room cheered, clinked glasses and hugged, but Dylan knew there wasn’t a person on the planet who was happier for her than his oldest brother.
Ian had accompanied Tatiana to the awards ceremony and now the two of them embraced and kissed in the audience as if they were all alone, instead of surrounded by thousands of audience members, with millions more looking on from all over the world. Finally, after he whispered something to her that made her smile, with one more kiss, she headed up the stairs to the stage to accept the gold statuette.
For a moment, she simply stood at the microphone and looked down, stunned, at the award in her hands. But while she was obviously overwhelmed with emotion, when she spoke her voice was steady. “Thank you so much for this incredible honor. My parents always told me I could be and do anything I wanted to. I can never thank you enough for that, Mom. And Dad—” She looked up toward the ceiling. “—thank you for continuing to watch over me every day.” She stopped to compose herself again before continuing. “But the person who truly deserves to be standing up here tonight is my sister, Valentina.” Tatiana looked out into the audience where Valentina was sitting beside Smith wiping away happy tears. “Thank you for everything you’ve done, and keep doing, to help make my dreams come true. You’re the best sister anyone could ever have.” A moment later, her gaze moved back to Ian. “Ian, you’re the happily-ever-after I always dreamed of, and I love you more and more every single day.”
When the camera panned to Ian in time to show him saying I love you back to Tatiana in front of the entire world, Dylan had to admit that he hadn’t quite gotten over watching his brother be so open about his feelings.
Finally, Tatiana smiled into the camera, clearly speaking to the millions of people watching at home as she said, “Thank you to each and every one of you for letting me have the best job in the world!”
The crowd applauded and when the ceremony went to commercial, Mia asked Dylan, “Have you ever seen anything so wonderful or romantic? Tatiana and Ian are so amazing together.”
He handed his sister a tissue to wipe away her happy tears. “They were definitely meant to be together. And we’ll always owe her for giving us back our brother.”
“We will,” she said with another sniffly hug.
When Smith won for Best Actor a few minutes later, and they all saw and heard just how much his fiancée’s love meant to him, Dylan couldn’t have been happier for his cousin. For all of the Sullivans who had gotten engaged or married in the past few years.
Unlike Ian, love had never left Dylan fighting ghosts or guilt. He’d never loved and lost the way Mia and Ford had, either. And there wasn’t a close friend who was waiting in the wings with her heart in her hands like Brooke had with Rafe. Dylan wasn’t looking for love, but just as he’d told Ian, if he ever managed to find a woman who made his palms sweat and his heart race, he’d do whatever he needed to do to make her his.
And while he was happy with his boats, with the ocean, with the time he got to spend with his family, the sixth sense that he trusted to guide him safely across the ocean during a nasty storm was telling him that everything was about to change.
Really, really soon…
~ THE END ~