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Epilogue
Avery told me a thousand times that everything happens for a reason. Something kept her and Sean apart until they were ready, something brought Jesse and Ella together, and they all brought Lizzie into my life. I thought I’d seen it all, but I hadn’t…not until her, until I felt what she did to me. She flirted, I fell, and with one kiss, Lizzie took me from hell and brought me back to life. She was my best friend, the one who tamed my restless soul and washed us with serenity.
I look back and wonder how many times we’d seen each other without knowing it, living on the same street, in the same city, inked by the same friend. It wasn’t our time yet, and I knew Avery was right. However, it wasn’t that we weren’t ready then; it was that the world wasn’t ready for us.
We showed it, all of them. Every morning I’m given a gift: life, the beautiful woman knotted in my arms, the family we’ve created with our friends, and the hope for our future. Every morning I thank each breath, each soft beat of our hearts, for the chance to be more than friends, for my wife, for Lizzie.
Oh, the wife thing? It wouldn’t be like us to plan a wedding, but it sure as hell was like my girl and me to elope just a few weeks after the twins were born. Her name tattooed on my ring finger, the diamond on hers, just opened our eyes to a new world together. A world we were prepared to take on united, whether together or not. The not together thing was torture, but thinking about my wife anchored me.
The first time I was deployed was difficult. I could barely talk to her, and she’d been promoted so she was three times as busy as when we moved in together. It was awkward as hell to try and talk through the poor internet connection, especially when our clothes came off. I mastered new levels of patience at night, watching a pixelated blur of my wife’s body. Broken into a million pieces or whole, Lizzie was incredible. I was counting the damn seconds, rewarded each time sixty of them passed and I was a minute closer to coming home.
When I was back with Lizzie, I realized that it didn’t matter how far apart we were because we’d gone through our own battle, and home was the best place for us to recover. And babies? We wanted each other, and the life we chose allowed only that. It wouldn’t have been fair to expect anyone else to adapt to us, our schedules and demands, and we accepted that. Being Lizzie’s forever, two of Blake and Vivienne’s four godparents, and married to the woman I love…that was worth everything.
