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Epilogue
“Penelope told me she hated me,” Zach announced. “Over and over.”
His father, sister and brother regarded him in shocked concern. His mother, on the other hand, stood from her seat in the waiting room and let out a loud chuckle.
“Women who give birth always say that. Remember, Rider?”
“Three times,” his father confirmed, standing next to his wife. “Three times I went through the birthing process at her side and she hated me every time.” He pointed at Chase. “Mostly with you, though. Since you were first.”
Chase and Stefanie stood from their chairs, Stef ribbing him about how it was no surprise he was the cause of the most strife of the three of them.
Zach’s smile emerged—so big, it hurt his face. It’d been a relatively fast labor, but a long night. “Ready to meet her?”
Stef and his mom shrieked happy sounds, and his father and brother didn’t hold back their widest grins. Zach shook his head at their attire. “I hate that she is meeting you all dressed like this, though.”
“Ugly sweaters are tradition!” Stef argued, her glowing-nose-reindeer sweater one for the books.
He led his family into the room, and a collective gasp lifted on the air when they spotted the pink-wrapped bundle resting on Penelope’s chest.
Pen’s eyes were drooped, her hair tangled. Her own ugly sweater tossed aside on a chair with the rest of her clothing in favor of the hospital gown she now wore. She was the most beautiful sight Zach had ever seen.
Well. Second to his daughter.
“What’s her name?” Elle cooed as she scooped her granddaughter into her arms. “Can you finally tell us?”
“Olivia Edna,” Penelope announced with a smile. “After my grandmother, and Zach’s.”
His father and siblings bent over Olivia in his mother’s arms. Even when handed off, Zach’s daughter slept soundly.
“Your mom and dad are on their way from the airport,” Zach told Pen, swiping her hair from her forehead.
Her eyes drooped sleepily, but her smile was everlasting.
He bent and placed a kiss to her forehead. “You did it.”
Her pale blue eyes opened and stabbed him in the heart. How had he ever denied loving her when she was his everything?
“We did it,” she corrected, giving him credit he hadn’t earned.
A gurgle came from Olivia and she fussed in Chase’s arms. Those years of holding and kissing babies must have paid off, because the mayor of Dallas bounced and shushed her and a moment later, she cooed.
Chase shot his brother a cocky smile.
“I love you,” Pen whispered to Zach, reaching for his arm with her hand—a hand that boasted both a wedding band and an engagement ring. They hadn’t waited. They hadn’t wanted to.
Zach kissed her lips, lingering a moment. “I love you.”
She played with the longer hair at his nape, in need of a trim, and whispered two words that made Zach more grateful than he’d ever been in his life.
“Merry Christmas.”
Olivia was the perfect gift. Better than every wrapped present they’d left piled in his parents’ living room to rush Penelope to the hospital. Better than the moment Zach spotted Penelope in the jazz club and wondered if she’d let him sample her mouth.
Better, he mused, than the moment she vowed to be with him and he with her, until death do they part.
“Uh-oh, she’s had it with us,” Stef announced, placing Zach’s daughter in his arms.
He adjusted her so that she sank comfortably in the crook of his elbow. Looking down at the faint sweep of blond hair, puckered rosebud lips and tiny fisted hands, Zach’s heart filled to capacity—who knew there was more room in there?
“Hey, Livvie,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. “Merry Christmas to you, too.”
* * * * *
