AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, baby?”
“Where are we going?”
I smile, letting my eyes fall closed again as I tuck the comforter around us, sheltering her with my warmth. “Paradise.”
“I THOUGHT WE AGREED we weren’t gonna go overboard for Poppy’s first birthday.” Caroline puts her hands on her hips, appearing in the doorway to my office. She has on a rose-pink sundress with a yellow cardigan pulled over the front, looking a lot like she did the first time I saw her. Except more motherly, now, and a thousand times hotter. “You know, on account of her not really knowing what’s going on?”
Smirking, I wrestle my daughter’s left arm into the sleeve of the princess dress I’m making her wear. She squeals and squirms, babblingdadaand making my heart swell. Like the Grinch in that stupid fucking movie.
“AndIthought you were going to try anal before we got pregnant again. So, I guess we’re both liars.”
Rolling her eyes, her left hand drops to cradle her stomach; my son’s the size of a deflated basketball, andGesù Cristo, my wife looks fucking delicious. I don’t know what primal urges her being pregnant awakens in me, but I can’t seem to keep my hands off her.
Which is how we wound up pregnant, again, before Poppy’s first birthday.
Caroline walks over to us, pressing a quick kiss to our daughter’s soft blonde hair. It’s just long enough to put in a single ponytail, but the ends curl and make it difficult to capture each tendril. So, we went for a bright pink bow instead.
“You’re lucky she doesn’t repeat words yet,” my wife warns, shaking her head at me. But she can’t cover the smile that lights her face, and I grab her wrist, tugging her into my lap.
Poppy giggles, clapping her hands and reaching for her mother; I lift her off the desk and into my free arm, my heart so full it might fucking burst.
News broke of Dominic Harrison’s apparent suicide while we honeymooned with Juliet in Copenhagen. Exploring the countryside, we managed to experience a smallsort solall on our own.
I like to think it was my mother, expressing her happiness for me from wherever she exists now.
There was never an investigation because Kieran barely left enough evidence to even put in a casket. Kal wasn’t kidding when he said that Irish hacker was a good backup. And after that gala, no one really gave a shit what happened to Dominic, too horrified by how he’d deceived them all.
Caroline and Juliet decided to have his remains cremated anyway and buried him in the family plot.
A plot neither would use in the future.
Their mom went into hiding somewhere in the Deep South, as allegations about her husband coupled the headlines of his death. The federal government is still looking for her, wanting to question her involvement.
My girl is still healing, working toward a future she’d never bothered planning out. She doesn’t like to talk about her father, instead focusing on her career and being a mom.
She and Phoebe became good friends at some point during Caroline’s pregnancy, and Phoebe ended up helping me pick out the storefront I gifted my wife for Christmas. Now that she’s in the beta stages of starting her bakery, she’s trying to poach my best bartender from Crimson and hire her for the store.
I’m putting up a fight because I don’t want to lose Phoebe, but in all honesty, I’d give Caroline the fucking moon if she asked for it.
I kiss her neck, inhaling that fruity, floral scent that lives in her skin. “You’relucky, Mrs.Oh, Elia, harder! Choke me! Shove your cock deeper in me—” She clamps her hand down over my mouth, giggling, as Poppy peers up at us with wide, blue-gray eyes. The perfect combination of us.
“God, shut up! Just because she doesn’t repeat doesn’t mean she’s not picking it up.”
“Then you should stop being so loud when we fu—”
“Okay!” Caroline claps her hands together, hopping up from my lap, and turns to scoop our baby into her arms. She pinches Poppy’s chubby cheek, her voice lilting as her audience changes. “Let’s go check on that two-tiered cake your daddy insisted on for your big day.”
She shoots me a look that hits me right in the dick. I grin and lean back in my chair as my girls sweep from the room. Fucking Christ, my life couldn’t be any better.
There’s a garden Caroline planted in my soul, replacing the tar and darkness from before, flourishing with each passing day I spend with her and my daughter. My family.
Heading downstairs, I enter the kitchen and find my father holding Poppy and talking to Juliet, who’s living with us for the last semester of school as she tries to get an internship in Stonemore. “Oh, good, my daughter’s entourage finally arrived.”
Juliet rolls her eyes, poking Poppy’s belly, eliciting bubbly giggles. “You’re the only entourage around here, old man.” She points at my t-shirt, and I glance down, shrugging.
So, I had screen-prints of Poppy’s newborn photoshoot done. It’s not like anyone else is wearing it. “If she remembers anything from today, it’s not gonna be your boring-ass attire. It’ll be this bomb-ass shirt, declaring my unconditional love.”
“Sure, son.That’swhat she’ll remember.” My father winks at Juliet, jiggling my daughter in his arms, and I exhale, clearly outnumbered.
