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“Happy tears.” I smile widely, and so does he, his lips twitching as the joy overwhelms him. “They’re always happy tears with you, Conrad. It’s just so freaking great, seeing how involved you’re getting already, how excited.”
“Of course,” he growls. “You, our family, our future – you’re the most important thing in my life. I love you, Callie. I can’t wait to be your husband. I can’t wait to be a father to our children.”
“I love you too,” I say passionately, throwing myself at him and burying my face in his chest.
He catches me – he’ll always catch me – and we hold each other for a very long time.
Extended Epilogue
Nine Months Later
Conrad
I sit in little Charlotte’s room, cradling her to my chest, looking out the window at the garden. Winter has left us now and the grass glitters in the sunlight, the dew glistening.
We decided to move out to the suburbs when Callie was six months pregnant, buying a six-bedroom home with a large garden and a pool, and enough rooms for our children to be able to get lost in. I’m so glad we did as I sit here, love radiating from my chest, a wide smile on my face.
I’m obsessed with Charlotte’s every little movement, the shortest cutest little breath, the way her eyelids sometimes flutter when she’s sleeping. She feels so small and vulnerable in my arms, so much in need of protection.
And I always will protect her.
Forever.
“You won’t believe how Mommy and I met,” I whisper, leaning down and softly kissing the top of her head. She has an adorable baby smell. “I’ll tell you one day when you’re old enough to understand. Oh, Charlotte, you’re going to laugh and laugh. But do you want to know a secret?”
I look around her bedroom, over the toy box and the mobile and the stars on the ceiling, over to the open doorway. Birdsong reaching me through the open window, hovering around the room, filling it with even more love and hope and beauty, if that’s even possible.
“I think it was fate,” I go on. “I never believed in it before I met Mommy, but then here she comes, my angel, crashing me straight into love.”
Callie yawns from the doorway, causing me to look up.
She’s been such a soldier since returning from the hospital, even as the exhaustion tries to take hold of her throughout the day.
My gaze moves up and down her body. She’s wearing one of my shirts, the bottom cutting off just above her knees, hanging down from her heavy curvy breasts. Her hair is sexy-messy, and even now – so soon after the pregnancy – I have to concentrate hard not to maul my wife.
She sees me looking and tilts her head, offering me an eye roll. “There’s no freaking way you’re looking at me like that. I stink. I gave birth to this little terror just a couple of weeks ago.”
I smile across at her, remembering how bright and gorgeous and beautiful she looked at the altar, everything about her sparkling and inviting as she walked down the aisle. My chest brims with peace and contentment now as the moment returns to me.
“I can’t help myself,” I tell her. “You’re too beautiful.”
“Even now?” She giggles, walking toward us. “I don’t feel it.”
“You should,” I snarl. “And when you’re ready, I’ll show you. I’ll prove it to you.”
She shivers and I swallow, pushing back the lust.
“But let’s save this discussion for later, eh?”
She smiles as she leans down, softly taking Charlotte from me. She always needs to hold our daughter right away after she wakes up, cradling her to her chest.
My heart melts and fireworks erupt inside my chest when I watch her lean down and place her cheek against Charlotte’s, holding it there as sunlight cascades through the window and shimmers over them both.
“What?” Callie murmurs, watching me stare at her.
“I love it when you do that.”
“She’s so warm, so real. How crazy is that? I keep thinking that. Oh my God, she’s real, she feels so real. It’s like part of me can’t believe how freaking lucky I am, how perfect this is.”
“I know what you mean,” I tell her. “But it is real. It is happening. It’s me and you and Charlotte – and whoever else we bring into this world – together, always together.”
“Forever,” Callie whispers, and then Charlotte makes a cute sleepy noise.
“Did you hear that?” I smile, standing up and swaggering over to her. “She just said forever too.”
Callie giggles quietly, kissing the top of Charlotte’s head as I wrap my arm around them both. I cradle them close to me, feeling the warmth and the love flowing between the three of us, a whole river of it.
“Can you imagine if she really did? She’d be a genius.”
