Page 95 of Living at 40

“Your father would be so proud of you. You finally have everything he would have wanted for you.”

Tears fill my eyes again. “Mom, I have something else to tell you.”

She waits me out until I blurt, “I’m pregnant, but we aren’t telling everyone until we tell Lorna.” Somehow, she doesn’t appear surprised.

“Well, I was wondering when you were going to tell me.” She chuckles.

“Logan told you, didn’t he?”

“Wild guess,” she says. “I know I recommended Mason at first, but I think you made the smartest choice from the list. You need a man who knows your worth, and he is pretty hunky in his own right.”

“Mom,” I drawl.

“I might be old, but I’m not blind.”

“How did Logan get the ring?”

“He came to see Ben before he sought you out at your place. He didn’t have a ring yet, so I immediately gave him mine.”

“He didn’t know I was pregnant then,” I state. He couldn’t have told my mother when he told Ben he planned to marry me. Actually, Logan demanded I marry him twice before I told him I was pregnant.

“No, but he said he planned for it to happen.”

I softly chuckle. Such confidence.

“It appears he’s a virile man as well.” She wiggles her brows. “He’s also attractive, but the best thing about him might be his sweetness and his humor. If a man can make you laugh, there’s more chemistry in that trait than anything else.” She softly smiles, and I remember the laughter of my parents. My dad was a funny guy.

“The best thing about Logan is he loves me,” I whisper.

“I would have settled for nothing less for you, honey. That’s why I gave him the ring.” Unable to stop myself, I wrap my arms around my mother.

“I love you, Mom.”

“Ah, honey. I love you, too.”

We both know it’s important to say these things.

Epilogue

The Following Summer

[Logan]

As we both wanted Ben present in a healthy condition, we held a micro-wedding on our new property in the spring. Standing on the front lawn of our new house, we stated our vows before family and friends with the sunset as a backdrop. The setting was as gorgeous as my blushing bride, who was rather pregnant at the time. Her long flowing dress disguised her baby bump, but she would pop soon enough.

Lorna stood up as a maid of honor along with Anna as matron, and Amelia, Anna’s younger sister, as another bridesmaid. On my side, I have my brothers from another in Mason, Ben, and Zack. It was a small affair, but it was everything I could have asked for—friends who are now family.

Ben had weathered a storm of ups and downs with experimental drugs. Shortly after our wedding, he took a turn for the worse and then recovered. The unknown wore on Anna, but the perfect couple remained the perfect couple. I was no longer jealous of them because I had my own perfect love with my new wife and the family we were creating with Lorna as a big sister and the future baby.

Near the beginning of July, on what felt like the hottest day of the year, baby Anders arrived. Unfortunately, Ben was in the hospital at the same time. I rolled Autumn to the oncology unit in a wheelchair with the baby on her lap. We had to have special clearance for such a thing, but as a small-town community, the local hospital staff knew the story of the Kulis siblings.

One was dying while another was giving birth.

“Hey.” I knocked on the door of Ben’s room, hoping today was a good day for him. Anna slowly rose from her seat beside her husband. She’d been up to visit us shortly after Autumn and the baby were cleaned up. She cried as she held our little one, and Autumn cried just as hard. I wanted them to be happy tears, but I assumed it was a mixture. I shed a few myself because I couldn’t believe I was where I was. A father again. A married man. Truly in love this time.

“Hey,” Ben’s hoarse voice reached us as he was propped up in the bed. He still looked like Ben in his eyes and his smile, but my friend was slowly leaving the body of the man before us.

“We have someone who wants to meet you,” Autumn stated, elevating her cheerful voice as she struggled to pretend she wasn’t shocked by her brother’s appearance.