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I’m exhausted.Aching.I feel like I’ve been hit by seven consecutive buses, and each of them backed up over me a few times to make sure I really felt it.
But I’ve never been happier.
“Thank God,” Sebastian says as he sits on the hospital bed beside me, gently petting the mess that is my hair, “they look like you.”
“Hey, they have your eyes.And your hair.That’s a good thing in my opinion.”
“They’re such darlings.That much we can agree on.”
I offer him the younger of the two.Younger by a whole five minutes, but still younger.
He picks him up and holds him.The look on his face is sheer amazement.
They’re going to grow up to be big and strong, just like him.He’s going to teach them to be courteous and courageous like him too.We’re not going to become our parents.Our children are precious and will forever be treated as such.
“You’re amazing, Clara.Giving me not one but two wonderful sons.And not loathing me despite all the screaming and pain you went through.”
“They don’t call it labor because it’s easy, Sebastian.”
“Yet you went through it without complaint.I’ve never been more proud of you.And I’ve never loved you more.”
He leans down, kissing me on the forehead, then places a little kiss on the elder of our two sons.He doesn’t forget the younger one either.
“We’ve done it,” I murmur.“We have a family now.It’s everything we wanted.”
“This is only the beginning, lovely.We have such a fruitful future ahead of us.”He pauses.“If you want more after going through all that, anyway.”
I think about the past nine months.All the pain I went through, not just in delivery, but including all the weird feelings, the morning sickness, and the swollen feet.It’s been one hell of a journey, but I look at my babies.And I look at Sebastian.
“Whether it’s just these two or a whole houseful of children, I think this is the start of a beautiful family, my love.”
He holds me close, our children secure in our embrace.
What a wonderful life.
EPILOGUE TWO
SEBASTIAN
TEN YEARS LATER
“The Huntsman chased the big bad wolf through the forest, making sure he was good and far away from Red Robin Hood before returning to her.”
“Then what happened?”
It’s bedtime for my youngest daughter, and that also means it’s story time.She looks up at me from under the covers, so excited and inquisitive about what’s going to happen next in the story, even though I’ve read this one to her a dozen times before.
“Then the Huntsman and Red decided that living in a forest all alone was kind of boring.They moved out, and headed to Texas to join the rodeo.Red became a bull rider and the Huntsman juggled axes as a rodeo clown.They lived happily ever after.”
I think I invite her to want repeat readings because I keep changing the ending on a lark.Little Becca giggles up a storm as I close the book and place it on the nightstand.
“Nighty night, sweetie pie.Sleep well and dream of cotton candy and lollipops.”I kiss her on the forehead.
“But isn’t cotton what our clothes are made out of?How can it be candy?”
I shake my head with a smile.“I’ll show you what I mean next time the carnival's in town.”
“Okay, Daddy.Goodnight.”
