Unable to lie, I shrugged. “I think maybe some of the sentiment behind it. It’s too little too late for them, but now at least things are better. You, Sandy, and Berry have a life she could only dream of. That, I think, she would be happy about.”
Rowan leaned his head against my shoulder and wrapped an arm around me. As I suspected, he now stood a head taller than me after hitting a final growth spurt when he was almost nineteen.
“Mom would like you and Poppa. You’ve been everything she wanted for us. You’ve given us so much.”
“We love you. It’s easy.”
“Hello? Rowan? Imri?” Sully called from the porch. He was aware that sometimes Rowan worked on sensitive material, and always announced his presence before entering. Plus, there had been the occasional lover over, though Rowan didn’t have anyone at the moment, newly single after a bad break up.
“In here, Poppa.” I knew Sully loved Rowan still calling him Poppa like the younger ones did.
Berry and Sandy, now fourteen, came in first. They stopped to stare at theplaque.
“Thoughts?” I asked.
They shared a look and a smile. “Mom would have said it was a start,” Berry answered.
“Oh, that’s lovely!” Sully rounded the corner, Aspen and Hazel tussling in their dingo forms around his feet. They shifted, taking their dresses from Sully to wear.
“What is it?” they asked together.
Sully leaned down to explain it to them in terms they’d understand. Both the girls had my coloring. Same golden tan skin, dark hair and eyes, though they had Sully’s nose and mouth. His sassy attitude, too.
Looking at my family, I was grateful I’d come to Haenvale and thankful for Uncle Malik’s gift.
Sully
As a family, we’d returned to their village deeper in the woods to install the plaque together. There was a road there now, making the journey easier. The town had protected the place with spells, preserving it as a landmark of historical relevance. A sign of their shame and how theyhad to do better by the generations to come. We’d taken all of Agnes’ things to our house before anyone could see them, keeping her privacy.
Rowan, Sandy and Berry would always grieve their mother, but Agnes had raised them well, giving them all the tools they needed to survive with only Uncle Malik to help them. I felt like she would be proud of the people they’d become and hopefully approved of us as parents. Imri and I loved them so damn much!
Installing the plaque took no time at all. Rowan placed some spells on it to keep the elements off it. He struggled with his mom’s loss more than the others. Therapy was helping.
We had a nice dinner together, talking over memories they had of the village before the little ones got too tired. It ended off an emotional day well.
The girls were in bed, Sandy and Berry were doing their own thing. They’d finally moved into their own rooms once Rowan had moved out, but they were always pretty considerate of the girls’ bedtime. It was just me and Imri doing the endless chores around thehouse.
No one had ever prepared me for how much laundry kids could create, I thought to myself ruefully as I folded the second load of the day.
“I know that look,” I teased when I looked up to find him watching me, heat in his expression.
“What look?” Imri attempted to act innocent while he helped me fold. It was all a ploy.
“Imri, honey, I know you. Spit it out.”
“Your heat is coming up…” The man kept a better record of my heats than I did. I had them roughly every sixty days, but they could be a little unpredictable. They’d taken a few months to return after Aspen and Hazel were born, mainly because I was breastfeeding them, which helped as a contraceptive.
“And?” I teased.
“I was wondering if you felt ready for another baby.” He looked so hopeful.
Though I’d suspected he was getting broody for another baby, I wasn’t sure he was going to ask this time around.
Was I ready?
Our lives were busy and full of love. I adored each of our children, adopted and biological, exactly the same. Every one of them was a wonder with something special about them.
Then there was Imri. My mate cherished me with a love I’d never thought possible. We went on dates regularly. We tried things in the bedroom, our chemistry still as combustible as the day we met.
