AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Better than good.” She smiles. “I’m home.”
Epilogue
Noelle
Two years later...
“I know you want more,” Sawyer says. “You always want more.”
He slides another pancake onto my plate.
“Fine,” I say. “If you insist. Colton, can you pass the syrup?”
Colton screws the top off the jug of maple syrup. I spread butter onto my pancake—my fourth tonight—and let Colton smother the whole thing in syrup.
It’s Christmas eve. We’re having breakfast for dinner for the third time this week because I had a craving. I’ve been having a lot of those lately, mostly for sweet and salty things. Candied bacon. Salted caramel. Gram’s glazed ham.
Pregnancy has a habit of turning most women into bottomless pits. That goes doubly so for me. When the obstetrician told us we were having twins, I was terrified. The job of not fucking up one kid is daunting enough. Handing us two in the first round is like skipping beginner and jumping to expert mode. But knowing that Sawyer and Colton will be there for me, and for them, every step of the journey calmed my fears and made room for genuine excitement.
Since Colton’d had a vasectomy, we knew right away that the babies must be Sawyer’s. But the plan is and always has been to raise them as a single unit.
The three of us got married in the barn last fall, though technically Colton and I are the only names on the license. We figured it would make things simpler when it came to the legalities of raising kids. For example, if they wound up in the hospital for some reason, all three of us would be allowed to visit them.
The ceremony itself was small, but beautiful. I wore a white silk dress. We invited my friends from college and a few of Sawyer’s chef buddies. Even my mom came, with three dates of her own.
My dad wasn’t there, and neither was Miranda. We haven’t seen her since the awful New Year’s Eve party two years ago. I can tell Sawyer has mixed feelings about how they left things, but he prefers to focus on what’s in front of him. My dad and I are technically on speaking terms, though we don’t talk often. He’s on his fifth wife now. I’m hoping becoming a grandfather will remind him what’s really important.
I finish my pancake, then head up to the master bathroom to pee for the millionth time today. I love these babies. Nothing they do could ever change that, but man, do they love to dance on my bladder.
Before I head back downstairs, I change out of my clothes and into the red silk maternity robe that my husbands surprised me with a week ago. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m married, and that I havehusbands,plural. Every morning I wake up with the urge to pinch myself, which I do, before I get up to pee again.
Colton hands me a mug of hot tea on my way to the living room.
“I’m gonna help Sawyer clean up and then come rub your feet,” he says.
I kiss him. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I set my mug on the table beside the sofa and then maneuver myself onto the couch. At seven months, I feel like an ocean liner trying to moor itself into a tiny village harbor. I put my feet up on the ottoman, gazing fondly at the massive Christmas tree that Sawyer and Colton picked out this year. Strung with white lights and decorated with all of our favorite ornaments, I can lose hours just staring at it.
Not that we have tons of free time, what with zero vacancies and a steady schedule of events. Still, after last year’s Christmas, we’re grateful for the uptick in guests.
When COVID-19 hit, we were afraid we'd have to close down for all of 2020. That summer, when things slowly started to reopen, we realized we were in a better position than other hotels, since our cabins are already separate. We took out ads positioning ourselves as a safer option for hikers and outdoorsmen. Sawyer had to close the dining rooms of his new restaurant, but we were able to offer food delivery to our cabins and residents in the surrounding areas.
It was a tough year, but we made it through, and thankfully things turned around in 2021. We have a winter wedding scheduled here for early January, an artist couple from New York City. Sawyer’s catering and I’m organizing. I’m crossing all my fingers that the twins don’t decide to make a break for it a couple months early.
I don’t realize I’ve drifted off until I’m being nudged awake. Opening my eyes, I’m pleased and surprised to find my husbands standing over me, naked except for their Santa hats and their smiles.
“Got room for a couple more in there?” Sawyer asks.
That’s another thing I didn’t expect from pregnancy: the bigger I get, the hornier I am, pretty much constantly.
“For you two?” I say. “Always.”
They pull the ties on my robe, loosening the bow and unwrapping me like a present. The desire in their eyes makes my skin tingle and my nipples stiffen.
I reach down over my massive belly to touch myself.
