“Years. The years we’ll have. We won’t take them for granted like some people do. Every day I get to have with you will be precious. I’m not going to forget to hold your hand or take you dancing because I’ll always remember the years I didn’t have the chance to do any of that.”
She shook her head. “How can you see the world so beautifully?”
“I’ve got you. How can I not?”
That earned me kisses all over my face and whispers of being the cutest man alive. Then she settled against me, and we talked about what kind of wedding we might have, imagining the road we were going to walk together, the life we’d finally get to build.
That night, with Zara in my arms, I dreamed of us younger, racing to the river and back. Laughing and getting dirty, days that never ended and summers that flew by.
And something settled inside me.
A last piece clicking into place.
By morning, when I opened my eyes again, finding Zara already smiling at me, I felt it for certain.
It’d taken a while, but here we were.
At last, everything had been set right.
Epilogue
Zara
Four Years Later
“Comeon!We’regonnarace.” Cormac went running at a snail’s pace, and Miriam nipped at his heels, giggling like a maniac.
“I win, Daddy!” she squealed.
“You have to catch me,” he called, letting her keep up with him.
I chased after them, laughing and recording their race on my phone. Miriam looked back over her shoulder, making sure I was there.
“Go on. Catch Daddy. We can’t let him win,” I said.
“Me!” she cried, raising her chubby arms over her head. “I’m gonna beat you, Daddy!”
Miriam was just a month away from turning three, and everything was a race to her. She lived by the motto “Why walkwhen I can run?” Luckily, she had almost infinite space to roam and a horde of cousins to exhaust her. Her dad was her favorite partner in crime, though.
It didn’t take us long to make it to the river, but I was out of breath all the same. Cormac and Miriam celebrated her victory with a little dance then he came over to me to check in.
“You’re panting,” he said, resting his hands on my shoulders.
I pointed to my big belly. “Your son is compressing my lungs.”
His smile was so tender my eyes immediately stung. I would have blamed it on the hormones, but that wasn’t really it. Cormac was just…wonderful. He loved me so well it regularly sent me into fits of emotional upheaval. And seeing him with our little girl was just as I’d always imagined. He had bottomless wells of patience and energy, and he was so loving I knew she would never doubt she was safe in his arms.
Just like me.
“You’re beautiful, even when you’re breathless,” he said, cradling my belly.
I cupped his cheeks, bringing him to my level, and kissed around his mouth before he got fed up and stole one from my lips.
Laughing, I squeezed his face. “You’re so cute, I can’t stand it.”
He growled. “Not cute. Devastatingly handsome.”
“That too, of course.”
