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He takes his phone back and shoves it in his pocket before he reaches down and picks me up. “Let me worry about that.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and rest my head against his chest. “You know, we haven’t even discussed moving in together. I think we’re skipping some steps.”
“Marry me, Grace.”
I laugh and pat his chest. “I told you not to ask me that today.”
“Fine. Then move in with me.”
I manage not to sayfuck noand settle for, “I’m not living with my brother again.”
“Then I’ll move in with you.” He says it so matter-of-factly, I smile.
“It’s not my condo. I’ll have to ask Brynn.”
“She likes me. It’ll be fine.”
I want to laugh, but my stomach is too uneasy to risk it. Instead, I settle in against him. “I do like the idea of living near Everly and Cross.” The idea of raising our babies together makes me want to cry, but I’ve felt like that a lot over the past few days.
He carries me into the bedroom and lays me down on the bed.
“Stay with me,” I whisper and take his hand in mine.
“Forever, baby.” He climbs in bed behind me and pulls me against his chest.
“I love you, good twin.”
“Until the end of time, god of war. Until the end of time.”
EPILOGUE
“Remind me why we didn’t hire movers?” Cross and I lift up the couch that Callen and Nixon just took off the truck, and they all fucking stare at me like I’m stupid. Which I might be. Because at some point, I must have thought this was a good idea.
“Dude. Because we’re men. We don’t need to hire people when we can do it ourselves.” Crosskinda grunts, and I just shake my fucking head.
“Listen, I know I wanna be you and all that shit, but next time let me be the smarter Wilder and hire someone to do this.”
“Come on. You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?” he bitches, and I laugh.
“Nope. Never letting you live that down. Why do you think I bought the house next to yours? I want to be you, man. Same street. Same team. Twin wives,” I tease.
“She hasn’t said yes yet,” Callen fucking cackles from next to us, and I accidentally elbow him while we’re walking up the steps.
“She’s going to say yes.” If all goes as planned, she might even say yestonight.
It only takes us a few hours to get everything moved in. Grace’s mom and aunts are basically rockstars, who get it all unpacked and cleaned up as we go, while our twin, pregnant princesses sit on the newly placed couch with their feet up.
I’m standing in the backyard, watching Cross chase the kids around and looking out at my view of the lake, wondering if Dad would have liked it as much as his view of the ocean, when Declan walks up to me and hands me a beer. “She looks happy in there.”
I look through the wall of windows into the family room and see my girl laughing with her mom and sister. Everyone else has left for the night. “That’s my goal.”
“You know, you kids hit us with a lot of things all at once over the summer, and I’m not gonna lie and say we were happy about all of it. When they’re babies, it’s so easy to protect them from everything and keep them in this safe bubble. Then they grow up and force you to let go. And in a lot of ways, Gracie let us hang on just a little bit more than Evie. Always my careful girl. My easy girl. The one her mother and I knew would be happy and healthy and fulfilled. Finding out she wasn’t. That she hadn’t been... It’s a fucking humbling thing when you realize you’re not the one who knows what’s best for your kids. And then to find out it was another man who helped her. Who loves her...”
He grabs my shoulder and squeezes. “Who knocked her up. Well... it’s not an easy thing. But at the end of the day, you hope when they fall in love and start a life, it’s with a good man. A man like you, Ares. I saw it that day on the beach. The way the two of you watched each other. Annabelle did too. We talked about it the whole ride back to Kroydon Hills that night. We hoped we were right. Belles and I did things a little out of order too, and we’ve been happy for over twenty-five years. Hopefully, you’ll be able to say the same.”
“Seriously, Dec. I don’t know what to say. I love her. She’s my life.”
“And that’s all you need to say, kid. But I’ve got to ask one thing... did you really think through moving the girls in next-door to each other? You and Cross are going to get bitched at in stereo. They have a borg mind. Piss one off, you piss them both off. Good luck with that.”
