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I sat down on the bed beside Juniper and put my other arm around her, snuggling both my girls.
How did I ever get so lucky?
This was my family. Not only were they amazing but I could show them love through touch as well as words.
“Do you think all of our kids will be this way?” I wondered aloud.
“Yes.”
I glanced at her, surprised by the force behind her swift answer. “What makes you so sure?”
“Because you’re perfect, too. Even though you think you’re a monster, to me and Clover, you're amazing. And you deserve a happy ending just as much as the rest of us. You gave me my fairy tale, Silas. But you forget that my happily ever after includes you.”
I was stunned by her attitude. And humbled. “I love you more than anything, you know that, right?”
Juniper snuggled into my side and sighed. “Yup.”
I laughed and bent my head to place a kiss on my daughter’s cheek, then one on my wife’s lips.
“I love you, too,” she murmured sweetly before she drifted off to sleep with a tender smile on her beautiful face.
Epilogue
Juniper
Silas was the best man I’d ever known, and he only got better the longer we were together. I loved how much he had blossomed under my love, no longer seeing himself as the monster who would have killed someone if it hadn’t been for his sister’s magic. He still had to be careful around others so there weren’t any accidents with the electrical charge that would forever be a part of him, but being able to touch me had lessened the burden for him. Then our beautiful daughter was born, and it was as though he didn’t have a single trouble in the world.
He doted on Clover, showing her each day that she had his unconditional love. My baby girl would never have the same doubts that I’d suffered from with my parents—who’d gone through with their threat of cutting me out of their life. It turned out to be their loss because they missed out on the amazingness that was their granddaughter.
“Daddy! You gotsta see what Mommy and me founded at da store,” she cried after I unbuckled her from her car seat and helped her out of the SUV.
Silas was doing one of my favorite things, chopping wood without a shirt. His bare muscles gleamed with sweat as he buried the blade in the stump he used to prop up the logs he was cutting. Then he crouched low to catch Clover as she threw herself at him.
“What did you find, sunshine?” He settled her on his waist and strode toward the back of the vehicle, where I had stored our shopping bags. I didn’t even bother trying to take them out because I knew better. If he was around—which was basically anytime except when he was working—then he did all the grunt work, as he liked to call it.
“Our Hawoween costumes!” she shrieked, bouncing in his arms.
After what had happened to him so many years ago, Silas hadn’t been a fan of Halloween. He became a little fonder of the holiday since we’d met so close to it, but his outlook completely changed last week when Clover declared it was her absolute favorite day of the year. My gorgeous husband was determined to go all-out to celebrate the holiday with our daughter, including all three of us dressing up in themed costumes.
“You did?” I pressed my lips together at the worried glance he shot me before focusing on Clover again.
She jerked her head up and down in an excited nod. “Uh-huh.”
He peered in the back of the SUV and murmured, “I can’t wait to see what you and Mommy picked out.”
I beamed a grin at him and bumped my hip against his. “Good, because I promised her that we could try them on when we got home.”
“Then I guess we’d better get these bags inside, huh?” He chuckled and shook his head as he reached into the SUV with his free hand to grab our shopping bags.
“Yippee,” Clover cried, clapping her hands. As soon as we were through the door, she squirmed in his hold. “Gotta go potty.”
He set her down, and she scampered toward the bathroom in the addition we’d built about a year after she was born. We’d definitely needed the extra space once she started toddling around, but neither of us had wanted to leave the home we loved so much. Making the cabin bigger had been the perfect solution. Clover loved her bedroom and playroom…and since she was on the opposite side of us, we didn’t need to worry as much about waking her up when we had sex.
Speaking of…Silas dropped the shopping bags on the kitchen table and yanked me against his chest for a passionate kiss that left me wishing our four-year-old still took naps. By the time he lifted his head again, Clover was racing toward us and chanting, “Kiss, kiss, kiss.”
Our daughter was used to seeing her parents show our love for each other and usually wanted a hug or kiss whenever we gave each other one. Silas lifted her small body between us, and we smacked our lips against her cheeks.
“There you go, sunshine.”
