Epilogue - Elsie

Billy and I stand on the porch, waving goodbye to our daughter and her husband, our three beautiful grandchildren fast asleep already in the back of their car.

He takes my hand once they're out of sight and guides me to the back garden, sitting together on the swinging chair he forced me to love when he bought it five years ago.

It wasn't a hard sell, anything that let me snuggle close to him was welcome in our home, because despite my mother's warning, after nearly fifty years of marriage and four beautiful but feral children, there hasn't been a single day where I doubted that he was the only man I could ever want.

As if sensing my thoughts, he turns to me and kisses me and just like every time our lips meet, I'm eighteen again, butterflies erupting in my stomach as I kiss the love of my life, but now it's even