Page 140 of The Billionaire's Virgin

Epilogue

Taylor

Five Years Later

“Mom?”

It was my favorite word in the entire English language and the one that I identified with the most. I had never dreamt of being a mother the way that some women did. It had never been on my bucket list. And now, five years into my official start as a mother, I couldn’t imagine being anything else. Even my dreams of being a teacher had fallen by the wayside. It wasn’t that I didn’t love teaching; it was just that it was more important to me to be home with the kids.

“Yes, sweetheart?” I said, turning to Jenna.

She had gone through another growth spurt just before her last birthday. She was a tall child, and I knew that in a few years she would overtake me entirely. She had gotten thin too, and freckles had appeared along the bridge of her nose. She was quiet, but she was a confident girl. But I was most proud of the fact that she was kind and polite and thoughtful.

There were times that I forgot entirely that I hadn’t been a part of her life until she was four. There were days when I looked at her, and it genuinely felt like I had given birth to her.

“Mom, can we make some cookies?”

“Please, Mommy?” Mica said, popping into the kitchen with a huge grin on his face.

I smiled. “We baked cookies last week,” I reminded them.

“That was last week,” Jenna reasoned. “This time we want to try a different recipe.”

“Choco chip,” Mica said, jumping up and down.

“I don’t think you need more sugar in your system, young man,” I said.

Mica ran to his sister and slipped his hand into hers. “I wanna make cookies for you, Mommy,” he said, with an angelic smile.

I shook my head at him. “Nice try,” I said. “I’ve fallen for that one before. The last time you made cookies for me, I had two, and you had the rest.”

Mica giggled guiltily.

“But I found a great new recipe, Mom,” Jenna told me. “Cinnamon sugar cookies.”

“With choco chips,” Mica piped up.

I laughed. “All right, all right,” I conceded. “We can make more cookies… but both of you get one each when we’re done and then no more until the weekend… agreed?”

“Agreed.” Jenna nodded.

“Aw,” Mica said, looking a little disappointed. “Two?”

I thought about it. “Only if you finish all your dinner,” I said.

Mica bobbed up and down and nodded. “Yay.”

The three of us got to work on the cookies. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen, which was why when Reed and I were looking to purchase a house we looked for one with a large kitchen, with lots of space and lots of natural light floating in.

We had a center island too so that we could sit in the kitchen and eat all our meals. It was one of my favorite rooms in the house. It was almost six o’clock by the time we got the cookies in the oven. I was tired, but it was the good kind of tired. The kind of tired you felt after completing all your mundane chores and knowing that you could relax a little the next day.

“Where’s Daddy?” Mica asked, looking at the clock even though he couldn’t really read it yet.

“He’ll be here soon.”

“Let’s call him,” Mica said enthusiastically.

“Don’t disturb Daddy at work, Mica,” I told him. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon. Can you go to your room and clean up, please?”