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The firefighter pulled his helmet off and wiped his brow with his forearm before announcing, “It was a false alarm. You’re cleared to reenter the building.”
“Of course, there was a freaking false alarm right in the middle of the ceremony,” Faith sighed, drawing the fireman’s attention. A muscle jumped in his cheek as his gaze dropped to where she was holding Kate, who wasn’t paying any attention to him because she finally caught sight of me and started to shriek for her mommy.
“I’ve got her.” Hudson dropped a quick kiss on the top of my head before striding over to grab Kate. He lifted her in the air until she squealed. I searched the crowd for Audrey, hoping she still had the little bride care kit that she’d put together on her because I really could use an ibuprofen right about now. I didn’t see her anywhere, though. I couldn’t imagine that she’d gone very far since the fireman had just announced it was safe to go back inside. Hopefully, I’d be able to find her soon.
“C’mon, Rush,” one of the other firefighters called, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the truck. “We can’t leave without you since you’re the one driving the rig today. Quit gawking at the pretty girl and get your butt over here.”
Faith didn’t tear her eyes away from the guy who’d been shamelessly checking her out until he climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut. Mindful of the fact that our dad was standing only a few feet away, I lowered my voice as I teased, “Maybe you’d better start researching the best places to elope sooner rather than later.”
My sister rolled her eyes and huffed, “I’m not even eighteen yet.”
“True.” I pointed at our mom, who was holding Joshua, and quirked a brow. “But I got pregnant with twins the day I turned eighteen, so you never know what’ll happen when you fall in love.”
“Whatever.” Faith gave one last look at the fire truck as it pulled away from the curb. Her shoulders slumped a little as she wandered over to take her niece back from my husband.
Hudson sidled up next to me and flung his arm over my shoulder. “Ready to head inside and get back to our ceremony?”
“I have a better idea.” Tilting my head back, I grinned up at him. “How about we bypass saying our I do’s again since we’re already married? Celebrating with everyone we love is what really matters, so I think we should just skip straight to the festivities.”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
I wasn’t surprised that Hudson agreed so quickly. My gorgeous husband had always been all about giving me what I needed.
Epilogue
Hudson
Four Years Later
As I walked downstairs after getting our two youngest to sleep, I heard the twins squabbling in the living room. This wasn’t anything new for Joshua and Kate. Ever since they hit the terrible threes, they started to show their love for each other by bickering. Sibling rivalry was alive and well in the Kendall household.
“You’re such a boy,” Kate grumbled with a stomp of her foot.
“You’re such a girl,” Joshua retorted, rolling his eyes.
Our children echoed the back and forth that Grace and I had been saying to each other for years, but their version was meant as an insult. “Okay, kiddos. That’s enough.”
“But Dad—”
Joshua’s complaint broke off mid-sentence when he caught the glare I leveled his way. “I don’t want to hear it. Especially not when your mom is trying to hit an editing deadline and needs quiet.”
“It’s not like she can hear us,” Joshua argued, crossing his arms against his chest.
“Yeah, she has her headphones on,” Kate chimed in, mimicking her brother’s pose.
I’d bought Grace a top-of-the-line pair of noise-canceling headphones so she could block out all the racket the kids made whenever creativity struck. All of her years of reading had paid off big time when she hit the bestseller list with the first children’s book she wrote, back when she was on bed rest for the last month of her pregnancy with the twins.
I tapped my index finger against the face of the Patek Philippe watch Grace had given me for my birthday a few months ago. “It doesn’t matter if she can hear you guys arguing out here or not since it’s time to get ready for bed.”
“Aww, man,” Joshua grumbled.
Kate jumped off the floor and raced over to the toy box to toss her stuff inside. “I get the bathroom first!”
Even though they bickered, the twins liked being close to each other at night so we’d given them the Jack and Jill rooms after they moved out of the nursery they’d shared when they were younger. When they argued over their shared bathroom, I questioned that decision. There were two perfectly good guest rooms with en suite bathrooms Joshua and Kate could move into, but they refused to even consider it. Luckily, my son was willing to let the issue slide tonight and didn’t try to beat his sister upstairs. Instead, he helped me clean up the rest of the mess before following Kate—probably because the delay gave him an extra five minutes, but I wasn’t going to complain.
