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Turning in his arms, she looked up at him. “Babies? Plural?”
“Of course. I want a whole pack of little Lins running all over the penthouse.”
She coughed so loud she practically sputtered. “A pack of Lins?”
“Yes, Anna. I had to swallow my pride with your brother. I have to beat him at something. Surely you’ll grant me that much.”
“Sorry. I don’t get your point. Beat him at what, exactly?”
“How ever many kids he and Melanie have, we’ll just have one more.”
“So this is about being competitive with my brother. That’s going to get expensive, you know. What with college and keeping them all outfitted in tiny baby motorcycle jackets.”
He laughed. Never had he imagined he could ever be so happy. “Anna, darling. You just leave that to me.”
Epilogue
After everything over the last year, Anna had very much looked forward to dancing with her brother Adam at his wedding. She’d imagined the grand hotel ballroom, the legion of happy guests, stunning centerpieces of purple tulips and white irises picked out by Melanie, and the enormous wedding cake that likely took more than a week to create. She’d just never imagined that she’d be watching her other brother, Aiden, dancing with their mother at the same time.
“Aiden seems so happy to be back in the family fold,” she said to Adam as he twirled her around the dance floor. He’d just finished his own dance with their mother, during which Evelyn Langford had cried her eyes out. Between having all three of her children in the same place for the first time in years and having her first grandchild on the way, Evelyn had made a point of telling them all how happy she was. There was much to be thankful for on this chilly January day, even the tears that flowed because of it.
“Aiden does seem happy, doesn’t he?” Adam countered. “I still can’t believe what a number Dad did on him, but I’m glad he was able to see past it. I know for a fact that it hasn’t been easy for him.”
Anna didn’t even want to think about the things that had come to light about their father and his volatile relationship with Aiden—years of misunderstandings, Aiden being passed over in favor of Adam. She only wanted to focus on the good, especially today. “I think it helped a lot that you two talked everything out. He needed to feel like you weren’t just toeing the family line because of your loyalty to Dad.”
“I loved Dad as much as anyone, but we both know that he could be stubborn and narrow-minded. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t a good man. It just means that he made mistakes. We’ve all made mistakes. I’ve made a lifetime of them and I’m not even thirty-five.”
Anna smiled. She wasn’t about to rub it in, even though she very easily could have as pertained to Jacob. Adam and Jacob’s friendship had rebounded nicely in the weeks since Jacob had dared to demand a truce. They weren’t best friends, but they’d come to enjoy time together, and that was as much as she could’ve ever hoped for. “We all goof up, Adam. It takes happy days like today to remind us that sometimes we have to let those things go.” That lesson had been no more important for her than when it had come to Jacob. The minute she put the past behind them, the future had opened up beautifully.
“Speaking of letting things go, why didn’t one of us come up with the idea of running LangTel together as co-CEOs? It’s a brilliant move.”
She smiled. This had been Jacob’s idea, since they were already doing some restructuring in the company in order to bring Aiden on board as a Senior VP of Marketing. “Jacob made an excellent point. No two people are capable of accomplishing as much as we are when we aren’t fighting.” It wasn’t exactly the arrangement Anna had expected. A few months ago, she would have said absolutely not, that she wanted the sole position for herself. But with her pregnancy progressing well, and with an early June due date, taking over as CEO would not leave her the time to be the kind of mom she wanted to be. Her career was important, but not so much that she wanted their child raised by a nanny. That existence had been so difficult for Jacob. She didn’t care to repeat the pattern and understandably, neither did he.
“You don’t need to worry about any fighting from me. I promise. The co-CEO thing means I can go back to working on my own projects, as well. It’s really perfect for me.”
“It’s perfect for both of us,” Anna added.
