AllFreeNovel
Share Us
E P I L O G U E
- Maeve -
I turned the page in the latest baby book I was reading while Finn fingerpicked a gentle melody on the opposite side of the couch. Behind him, a summer shower blurred my view of the stone building across the street. “Did you hear back from the admissions department yet?”
“Nope,” he said, not missing a note in the sweet song he was playing. “Unless they tried to call when I was on the phone with Max this morning.”
“He did keep you on for longer than usual,” I said. “Everything okay?”
“Looks like it might be,” he said. “For the first time in a long time.”
My brows rose with interest. “What does that mean?”
“Janie came to his show in Orlando, and he spent last weekend at Harry Potter World with the girls.”
“Wow.” Brie would be jealous. “So you think they’re going to work things out?”
“I hope so,” he said, still plucking away. “She’s good for him.”
“It would be nice for little Belle to have some cousins.”
Finn froze and looked up at me. “What?”
“Our little nugget’s the size of a bell pepper this week,” I said, cupping my growing belly with one hand.
“Jesus. I thought you found out the sex of the baby without me.”
I cocked my head. “I wouldn’t do that. Plus, I told you I wanted to be surprised.”
His lips flapped with his exhale like I’d given him a real shock.
I rolled my eyes. “So dramatic.”
“My family thinks you’re doing that just to torture them, by the way.”
“Is it terrible that I don’t care what they think?” I asked, scrunching my face. “My mom always said it’s the most fun surprise you can have in life, so I feel like knowing ahead of time would be…anticlimactic.”
He shrugged. “Fine by me. I’m enjoying the suspense.”
“Me too.”
Finn picked up his melody where he left off before nodding to my right. “Looks like somebody’s not getting enough attention.”
I stared down into Otis’s big round eyes and set my book against the back of the couch so he could hop into my lap, which he did immediately. Then he snuggled between my thighs and rolled over.
“Boy, is he in for a shock,” Finn said as Otis arched his back and lifted his paws up by his chin.
“Look at that gorgeous belly,” I cooed, giving him a little rub, his cheeks flapping back so his wide smile looked even more exaggerated.
Finn shot me a mischievous look. “Not as gorgeous as mom’s belly.”
Heat bloomed across my cheeks.
He leaned back against the far side of the couch. “I like that name, by the way.”
I furrowed my brow. “What name?”
“Belle,” he said. “And Pepper.”
