BB1 Bonus Epilogue

Burning for More

Something about holding that woman felt so incredibly right. She melded into my body perfectly, and I never wanted to let her go. I wanted to hug her until all of her pain went away.

And then I wanted to hug her some more.

- Dylan

Bonus Epilogue

Hi Reader! I’m Kaye Kennedy, author of Burning for More. I hope you enjoyed reading Dylan and Autumn’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I sat down for an interview with Dylan and Autumn to give you an inside look at their relationship...and their engagement! I know I’m happy for them, and I’m sure you are, too. So without further ado, let's see what they had to say, shall we?

Kaye Kennedy (KK)

First off, congratulations to you both! Let’s see the ring.

Autumn showed off her 1.5 ct cushion cut diamond on a platinum band with a halo of pave diamonds.

Well done sir!

Dylan Hogan (DH)

I tried.

Autumn Bianchi (AB)

He did a great job.

Any wedding plans yet?

We’re thinking next summer.

You’re thinking next summer, sweetheart.

Dylan would rather elope tomorrow.

I’m sorry, I don’t want to wait that long to marry you.

He kissed her forehead.

That’s so sweet.

But she wants to have a wedding, so we’re doing the wedding.

It’ll be perfect. You’ll see.

Let’s step back a minute because I want to hear all about your engagement. Our readers saw it from Jesse’s perspective, but I’m sure they’d love to hear it from the two of you.

Dylan loves telling this story.

What? It’s a good story.

It’s cute.

As you know, I proposed to Autumn at Hunter Mountain in upstate New York. We were supposed to go there for our first vacation together back in March, but I ended up in the hospital the night before we were supposed to leave, so we had to cancel. Well, that and we kinda broke up that night, too.

Yes, let’s talk about that for a minute, if you don’t mind. Dylan, you had just been hospitalized after a fire where you ended up in quite the predicament. Could you tell our readers about that?

I took a risk on the job that I shouldn’t have. I was in a shit mood at the hospital and I was too pig-headed to actually listen to what Autumn had to say. So I got angry and spoke to her in a way that I’m not proud of, but it was what it was. I told her to go. I hadn’t really meant it though. I think that whole night was really just a big misunderstanding.

On both of our parts. That hadn’t been the best time for us to have that conversation, and it spiraled away from us. We’ve both owned up to our role in it though, and we haven’t really fought since then.

Except over the remote.

I don’t understand the point of watching reruns of hockey games that have already happened.

And making a guy watch The Bachelor should officially be considered a form of torture.

Don’t lie. I know you secretly like it.

I admit to nothing.

Fighting over the remote is great practice for marriage. Let’s get back to the engagement. Dylan, you were saying that you and Autumn had originally planned to go to Hunter Mountain in March.

Yeah, but we broke up. We got back together a week later, but then Autumn got sick...

He doesn’t like talking about that. I was fine though. It was a mild case and I worked from home for a few weeks. Dylan stayed with me. And when he had to work, he’d make Britt come stay or he’d send one of his brothers over.

I didn’t like leaving you alone. If you needed something—

I know, babe. As much as I complained about him being overbearing, it was nice.

I knew it!

It gave me an opportunity to truly get to know my brothers-in-law.

Who’s your favorite?

There’s no way I’m answering that.

You know they’re going to read the second book, right?

Anyway…

So I didn’t get to take her on our trip. I knew I wanted to make it up to her. I wasn’t just gonna take her away. I was gonna propose.

When did you decide to ask her to marry you?

I knew I wanted to marry her the night she told me about Jenna.

You did?

As fucking crazy as it sounds, subconsciously I knew you were mine from the beginning, but I held back because of her. When you told me you had her lung, that was all the confirmation I needed. So, yeah, that’s when I knew.

Did you go out and buy a ring then?

Not yet. She’d just gotten home from the hospital, and we needed to get her better first. Plus, I wanted to make it special. Once she’d been back at work for a few weeks, I decided to start looking for rings.

You did it all on your own?

Oh, hell no. I’m not stupid. Britt went shopping with me.

She was supposed to come for the proposal too, but she got called out of town for work at the last minute, and she couldn’t get out of it.

That was the hardest part. Coordinating it so everyone was there.

My birthday was in May, so Dylan surprised me and said he was taking me to Hunter Mountain the first weekend in June.

I originally wanted to take her for her birthday, but not everyone could make it, so I decided to still surprise her for her birthday by telling her that I booked the trip.

I was so excited.

She practically started packing that night.

No, I did not!

You started a list of things you wanted to pack.

Well, that’s just good sense.

So the weekend finally arrived, and we drove up to the resort. I planned on proposing the first night, so we could celebrate the rest of the weekend. And because I didn’t trust myself to keep it a secret any longer.

Autumn, did you suspect anything?

Not at all. I was just happy to be on vacation with him.

And what about you, Dylan? Were you nervous?

Shit, that’s an understatement. I mean I was confident in our relationship, and all, but I was afraid I’d screw it up. Like I’d drop the ring while suspended mid-air in the chair lift, or our family would be late and I’d have to stall, or it’d be hot and I’d be sweating, or she’d start getting suspicious and asking questions. It was nerve-wracking.

I had known that something had been going on with him, but I hadn’t thought it had been a proposal. When we were getting ready in our room before going out on the chair lift for the sunset, he was unusually quiet and he kept pacing. He acted a bit strange on the lift ride, as well. I asked him if everything was all right, and he assured me he was fine.

Autumn, what went through your head when you saw your parents and your future in-laws standing at the top?

Oh, gosh. So much. Let’s see...I started to happy cry. Side note: I cry a lot in your book, which I get because I was going through a whole bunch, but I just want people to know that I don’t cry much anymore. I’m basically happy all of the time now. Cliche, I know.

I’m sure everyone understands. Hell, I cried for you while I was writing it.

While we’re on this subject. I don’t cry either. Just saying…

Continue.

Right. Happy tears. I was shocked because I hadn’t anticipated it, but I wasn’t surprised, per se. I knew Dylan and I would get married eventually. And to have our loved ones there to be a part of the proposal was absolutely perfect.

Speaking of loved ones, I’m sure readers were surprised that your parents were there. I know I was surprised. Can you tell us about what has changed with your relationship?

Autumn sighed deeply.

Honestly, that’s all Dylan’s doing. Back in April, after I’d healed from the bronchitis, Dylan encouraged me to invite my parents over for dinner, so they could get to know him better. It hadn’t been a perfect evening by any means, but no one yelled—so there’s that.

I’d already known at that point that I was going to propose, and I didn’t want to do that without getting her parents’ blessing. Call me traditional, but it was important to me. That dinner was like a peace offering. A few weeks later I met them for lunch by myself and told them how much their daughter meant to me. I explained my plan and said I wanted them to be a part of it.

They started trying harder after that. Of course, at the time I hadn’t known why, because Dylan hadn’t told me he had met with them. When I saw them there as part of our proposal...it meant a lot. We still have a long way to go to heal our relationship, but we’re headed in a better direction.

Dylan took Autumn’s hand and held it.

I’m really glad to hear that you are making progress in that regard.

Definitely

Dylan, what went through your head when you got to the big moment?

I was trying to keep my cool, but I was so freaked when we were on the lift. I wanted it to be perfect. When I saw our family holding up the signs though, I couldn’t stop smiling. I think I noticed before she did.

Yes, you did. You grabbed my hand and started pulling me like a little kid trying to get his mom to the ice cream truck.

I wanted to get my ring on your finger as fast as I could.

How did it feel when you heard her say yes?

Happiest moment of my life. Hands down.

For me, too.

Well, I know I speak for everyone when I say, I wish you both all the best. And thank you for being open enough to share your love story with us. Before I let you go though, I heard that you have an announcement to make.

Yeah. I’ve officially sold my house in Yonkers and moved into the city with Autumn.

He has basically lived with me since I left the hospital anyway, but now it’s really official.

Congrats you two! Is there anything you’d like to say to our readers?

Just, thank you. It’s not easy to be vulnerable like this, but it’s good to know that we’ve helped inspire some people to search for their own soulmates.

It’s definitely a lot for us to put everything out there, but the readers have been wonderful. I keep telling Lana that she doesn’t have to be so nervous about it because everyone has been so sweet to us.

Our readers don’t know Lana yet.

Oh my gosh you’re all going to love her! She’s simply the best. And her with Jesse is just—

Don’t spoil the book, sweetheart.

Oops.

Burning for This will be available on Amazon on August 18th. You can find out more about Dylan and Autumn, while also getting to know Dylan’s younger brother, Jesse, better as he risks his heart for love. Happy reading!

Thank you for reading Burning for More! If you loved Dylan and Autumn's story, please take a minute to write a review on Amazon and/or GoodReads. I rely on your reviews to help me continue to bring you stories that you'll love and other readers rely on them to discover new books, so your opinion truly makes a difference! Reviews increase the visibility of my books, which means the more I have, the less time I have to spend on marketing and the more time I have to write and bring you the next book!

Want to start reading Book 2?

Read Now Get the 1st Chapter Here