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Laying in his arms, with our newborn daughter on my chest, I know what blessed feels like.
Epilogue
Leif
Ten Years Later
Life with my wife has been everything I imagined it would be. After that day at the Crawford’s boutique, Maddy never gave another thought to her awful stepmother. The family we created brings me so much pride and joy, that I didn’t know was possible. My whole world revolves around her and these little hellions we’ve created. Our oldest, Bo, is almost twelve. He plays baseball and football and that keeps us occupied. The next oldest is almost ten. Our daughter, Alva, plays the piccolo. That keeps her pretty occupied. Our youngest is seven, Ola, enjoys cartoons and hasn’t really found an extracurricular activity she enjoys and believe me, she’s tried ‘em all.
When I pull in the driveway from work around six, I have to park mostly in the grass because there are no less than eight bikes parked like it’s a preteen motorcycle rally. I chuckle as I get out of the car. Inside the living room is empty except for the sea of sleeping bags. Walking through the house, I hear some noise coming from the backyard. Maddy sits at the patio table coloring with Ola, while Bo and most of the Jorgensen kids play volleyball in the pool. Standing at the open sliding glass door, I just take in the scene.
I roll my eyes as Alva and Calder, Erik and Lanie’s son, who is just about a year older than her, play in the shallow end by themselves. They are inseparable. I know that I’m going to have to watch these two like a hawk when they get a bit older. They tell everyone who will listen that they are getting married one day. They are so sure of themselves that I believe them. I am a firm believer that being in love is an instant thing. Whether you’ve known each other since you were in diapers or you have to wait until you were thirty-two to find the one for you. Either way, it’s the best damn feeling in the world when you find the person you are meant to be with.
“Daddy,” Ola screeches when she spots me and takes off at a run for me. She attaches herself to my legs. “I have so many pictures to show you,” she says excitedly. She doesn’t excite easily so I am interested to see what has got her feeling this way. She takes my hand and I follow her over to the table. There is nothing but intricate drawings all over the table and two stick figure families. I am floored when she hands me one of the intricate, geometric shapes. “I made this,” she says, her voice full of pride.
“Did you now?”
“Yep. Mama made these weird things, but she tried, bless her heart.” She uses her free hand to pat the back of Maddy’s hand. I look at Maddy and we both lose it, bursting out with laughter.
“This is an amazing drawing, Ola. You did amazing. Can I have this one?” I ask.
“What for?”
“I want to frame it and put it on my desk,” I tell her, leaning down to her level. I kiss her little cheek and she snatches the paper from me, wadding it up.
“If it’s going to be at your office, I’ll do a better one,” she says sitting back down and getting to work.
“Okay baby,” I say still grinning.
“How was your day,” my very pregnant wife says, standing up for her kiss, which I give her.
“Pretty good. You? You seem to have your hands full with an impromptu Friday night sleepover,” I say kissing her again.
“Yeah. Bo wanted to quote, have a party with his buds. Then he said that Calder told him he was going to sleep outside Alva’s door for the next million years.”
“Ah. That should go over well,” I say. Calder and Bo are best friends. Bo is at the stage where girls are still the devil to him. All except Kileen, Calder’s older sister. Kileen can do no wrong.
I like to think that my life began the day I saw my beauty, my diamond, sitting all alone on that bench. She has made me a whole and filled my life with so much happiness.
The last twelve years together have been nothing less than amazing. All of it is because of her. She is my moon and my sun. Simply put, she is my everything and I’d have nothing without her.
