AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I love you, Faith,” I remind her, hearing her purr.
“And it’s exactly why I need you here with me, soldier,” she reminds me and I feel suddenly at full attention again, ready to prove her point all over again.Extended EpilogueTen Years LaterFaith“Alex! Peter! Just what the heck do you think you’re doing? Zak and Zoe, y’all should know better!”
I’m trying to stay mad, but hearing their Dad thumping up the hall behind me, out onto the patio, I just can’t help but smile and eventually laugh as I feel his arms around my waist.
“They’ve got too much of their mother in ‘em, that’s the problem!” he reminds me, gnawing at my neck before picking me up, making me squeal, and hurling me ass first into the pool, followed closely by his own huge frame doing a cannonball which seems to drain half the pool in a moment.
The kids, all four of them have been dare-devilling, building a fort in the trees above the pool and diving straight out from it into the deepest end.
“It’s harmless enough,” Noah says, trying to defend them. “The creek’s frozen half the year and you know how they love their summer fun… I thought the heated pool was gonna curb their behavior. But maybe not?” he admits.
I puff my cheeks, watching our eldest, Zoe. She’s shivering with cold but manages to climb the damned tree all over and launch herself straight out into the pool in front of us both.
By the time she comes up for air, she’s laughing so hard, and so are her brothers that I just have to join in.
“Alright!” I announce. “But that’s enough!” It’s too dangerous, I murmur to Noah, whose eyes only shine brighter as he watches all his kids, doing all those things I know kids just love to do.
Scare the pants off their parents.
“You’ll have them all flying next!” I exclaim, watching Noah’s eyes again as they soften on mine.
“Not unless you say so,” he reminds me, pulling me towards him under the water and kissing my neck.
“Oooohhh! Gross!” cries our Zoe, using the distraction to make a bee-line with her brother’s right back up to the same branch they’ve just been launching off.
“Only into the deepest end!” Their father suddenly booms loudly, making them freeze and shiver on the spot before they all agree and start to play a little less like lunatics before all landing in the warm water not too far from us, swimming like little fish upstream until we hold them in our arms.
“I love them too, darling. I know you don’t want them to hurt themselves but they need to find their limits. Like we did. Remember?” he asks me.
“All right guys Momma says no more daredevils, okay?” Noah says loudly, repeating it until all of them agree.
“But if we can’t climb and jump, Daddy… You have to take us flying?” Zak pipes up, making me groan and slap my forehead while they all launch off.
Off to find fresh mischief.
Moving closer to me again, he hugs me from behind.
“I wouldn’t ever put them in real danger, honey. And I won’t take them flying if you don’t want to,” he tells me truthfully.
Straight away we hear Zak whining, then his sister, until all four of them are complaining they never get to do anything around here.
Even when I list off all the holidays we’ve had.
The mountain treks, the white water rafting. The horse trails…
“Maybe we could all fly out to visit Dad in Hawaii next time he’s there,” I finally suggest, rolling my eyes until all the little ones swarm around me, squeaking with delight.
“It’ll be first-class, commercial airline all the way,” Noah promises, crossing my heart and mouthing the words I love you once I agree.
“We’ve been at home long enough to raise our family,” I tell him with confidence. “Now, let’s go show them the world!”
“Do you think the world’s ready for all these little monsters?” he asks me, laughing and clutching at handfuls of them as they use his huge body as a diving board.
“What do you think, Noah?” I ask him, my eyes full of pride and wonder as I watch all of them, watching him with them.
“I think they might even be ready to unleash on old retired grandpa for babysitting while we have a night off here and there, what do you say?” he asks.
“Are you saying you wanna go home?” I ask him, not minding at all if he doesn’t.
“Do you?” he asks.
I breathe in deeply, looking past him and my eyes get that dreamy, faraway look like they used to before we came here.
“Maybe,” I tell him softly.
“Could you stand it?” he asks. “Going all the way back, facing everything. Your Dad being that much closer?”
I think for a moment, realizing ten years has passed and the kids have never really seen their homeland, never seen their true roots.
