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“I want you to play Landon.” Leo grinned. “I haven’t talked to her yet, but I’m hoping Emma will play Cora.”
“Fuck yes!” Sam clapped his hands together. “Did you talk to Walker yet?” Piper didn’t know why the thought hadn’t occurred to her before, but surely the man who wrote the book would not only need to be apprised of the idea, he would also need to sign off on it. “And what about the funding? How are we doing this?”
“To answer your first question, I was hoping the two of you would want to take a little trip with me to Archwood. And to answer the second, I have a pretty good idea on that front as soon as I get Walker to agree to this.”
“Moreno?” Piper guessed.
“Moreno and company.” Leo nodded, the corner of his mouth tipping up.
The energy in the room bounced off the walls, and between the three of them. Piper’s cheeks were starting to ache from how much she was smiling. Leo’s smile was understated in comparison to hers and Sam’s, but it was no less wonderful. His joy felt like a secret that only a select few got to know, and Piper could practically see all the possibilities written behind his eyes. Even more so when he took the leatherbound journal from Sam’s hand and held it up in the air.
“Let’s make a movie.”
Epilogue
One and a half years later
PIPER
With her hand firmly clasped in Leo’s, Piper stepped toward her childhood home and immediately heard screaming from behind the door. She glanced at Leo, who chuckled under his breath as she opened the door and let the flood of noise cloud her senses. The wailing was coming from the living room, as was the loud chatter. Leo guided her toward the noise, and she smiled when she saw the decorations Talia and Amala had put up, all golden with bouquets of bright sunflowers adorning end tables.
“Hey,” Scarlett chirped out a greeting as they passed by her and Colin, who was looking a little green in the face until Scarlett pulled his noise-canceling headphones out of her purse and handed them to him.
“Hey.” Piper smiled and reached to hug her before beelining to the biggest source of the noise, a three-month-old little girl who was apparently none too thrilled with the festivities.
“Pay, I promise,” Walker begged. “Mommy is getting you a binkie. You ate a half hour ago. You’re not starving. I just changed you. Is it gas? Please stop screaming.” Walker looked the epitome of exhausted as he pointed across the room to where Paisley’s twin sister, Lydia, was happily chewing on Piper’s grandfather’s finger. “Look, your sister is having a good time. Do you need a finger?”
“I think she just needs her cousin.” Piper smiled and made grabby hands at Paisley’s chunky legs.
“Take her.” Walker held out his daughter, and Piper brought her squirming, writhing cousin into the fold of her arm. “I have no idea where Talia ran off to with the pacifier, but I think Pay is going to make Colin have a panic attack if I don’t get her to calm down.”
“Here.” Leo pulled their car keys out of his pocket and dangled them in front of Paisley’s screaming head. Like a charm, her red, tear-streaked little face caught the motion, and her eyes went wide with interest.
“Keys,” Walker sighed. “I should have thought of that. I’m just… so fucking tired.”
“Babies will do that to you.” Lucia stepped in beside her son, putting a hand on his shoulder as she spoke to Walker. “Two at the same time is a lot. I could barely handle Alvaro and Leonardo when they were a year apart.”
“I’ll bet.” Piper laughed. “Leo’s enough to handle on his own.”
“You handle me just fine,” Leo said and then made a goofy face down at Piper’s arms as he shook the keys for Paisley’s benefit. Piper wanted to handle him right there and then because there was just something about a man enthusiastically playing with a baby that was intrinsically hot. Walker groaned, scrunching up his nose like he could tell what she was thinking. It might as well have been what Leo was thinking, too, because he had once told her that he pretty much always thought about sleeping with her, and all he would have to do was think about the celebration sex they’d had two nights ago to conjure up an image.
“When are you two going to give me nietos, hm?” Lucia demanded.
“Mamá,” Leo warned with a cursory glance. “We aren’t even married yet.”
“So, soon, then?” Lucia asked. Piper looked to Leo to answer that one because, as it stood, her ring finger was looking a little bare. Leo shot his mom an extremely irritated look, and she raised both her hands before wandering off to find her husband.
Leo sighed. “I swear she means well, but I wish she would go back to jumping down Marcos and Harper’s throats about when they’re going to have kids.”
“Isn’t Harper pregnant?” Walker asked.
“Yep.” Leo nodded. “Hence why my mom’s moved on to Piper and me. Both my brothers have given her exactly what she wanted. They’ve created a monster.”
Just then, Talia whirred in from the side and plopped a green pacifier into Paisley’s mouth. “Sorry, I was having a hard time finding one. I swear we bought a million of them, but the second I need one, they’re nowhere to be found. There’s probably a stash under the couch. Lydia likes to throw hers.”
“She’s going to be a quarterback.” Walker beamed.
“Pay could probably be a vocalist,” Leo said.
