“Oh, Jay,” Kate said. A tear ran down her cheek and I reached down to wipe it away. “This is incredible.”
“You’re incredible,” I whispered in her ear. “And now you’re going to be my wife.”
I couldn’t wait to marry her.
Epilogue
Kate
One year later
“Kate! Have you seen my jumper?” Lizzy’s whine carried from her bedroom all the way down the hall to where I was digging through the laundry, looking for my favorite dark jeans.
“Try your dresser!” I hollered back. “I haven’t seen it today!”
There was chaos all around me. Jay and I had a great little flat in downtown Manchester, with a spare bedroom for Lizzy and Connor, who were dating each other now. I loved it when they stayed with us, but sometimes I felt like I could have used just a pinch more time to myself. Especially today, since I was nervous. I had news to tell Jay, and I secretly wished that we could be alone when I shared it with him, but I loved my sister, and her messiness unfortunately came with the whole package.
“I found it,” Lizzy said, the relief obvious in her voice. “Ready to go?”
I looked in the mirror, and a very frazzled Kate Walsh stared back at me. She definitely didn’t look like the host of Up To Date With Kate, a new talk show on British TV, and she definitely didn’t look like a glamorous WAG.
“You look fine,” Lizzy said, as if she could read my mind. “Come on, let’s go!” She stamped the ground impatiently and charged towards the front door like a bull. Even though she’d graduated from college and had a real job at a marketing firm now, she still acted more the tomboy than ever.
“We’re not going to be late,” I said, checking my makeup once more in the mirror. “The game doesn’t start for another two hours.”
Lizzy rolled her eyes. “The match, Kate. The match. Haven’t you learned anything?”
She skipped ahead of me. Connor was standing in the kitchen, finishing a mug of coffee, and when he saw Lizzy, he grinned and let out a whoop. Both of their faces were painted in Manchester United colors and they were wearing matching jumpers. Lizzy wrapped her arms around him and leaned in for a careful kiss, and he grabbed her and pulled her closer, until their mouths were smashed together in blend of snogging and grinning.
“You guys are ridiculous,” I said with a grin, dangling my keys. “Come on, let’s get going.”
Lizzy and Connor chattered the whole way to the stadium. Connor had been out of Promising Light for about four months now, and he was working as a social media manager for Manchester United. Jay had gotten him the job after a lot of protest—Connor was still proud, but he knew better now than he had before, and he’d realized that sometimes it was okay to accept a little help. He was doing great, and Jay was so proud of him. I’d even given him a special episode on Up To Date With Kate, talking about addiction and his path to recovery.
My new show hadn’t been easy for me to pitch at first—local network executives were worried that British women wouldn’t want a talk show hosted by an American—but with a lot of work and dedication, I’d managed to see it through. They’d looked at the British ratings from my old show and realized that women here in the UK were indeed perfectly happy to have a host from America…and it certainly didn’t hurt that I was now married to a sports player who was a national favorite. The media and general public absolutely loved Jay and me being together, and they also seemed to love me for being the one who’d finally ‘tamed’ Jay Walsh, so my show was already relatively successful after just one season based on that popularity alone.
I knew better—I hadn’t tamed Jay. He’d always been the tender, loving man that he was around me. He’d just needed to meet the right woman for that side of him to come out, and as luck would have it, I was that woman.
Seriously, could I be any luckier?
The streets were lined with Manchester fans as I drove slowly along the way to the stadium. Jay’s team had played a great season. They probably weren’t going to win the Premiership, but he was still pleased with the year overall. He said it was one of the better seasons he’d ever had, and somehow he managed to credit that to being married to me.
I grinned to myself as I recalled our wonderful wedding day.
We’d gotten married shortly after the proposal. The wedding had been relatively small—I’d insisted—but still big enough so that Jay’s whole team could come, and afterwards, we’d taken a short holiday to the Isle of Man. I’d always imagined having a honeymoon someplace tropical, but with Jay, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. I couldn’t even look down at the ring on my finger without smiling. Even today, feeling nervous, I felt an insurmountable glow of pride at being Jay’s wife.