AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you doing here, Mom and Dad?”
“We’re looking for you. We think you’re making a mistake. We hope to rectify what we did to you in the past. But you shouldn’t rush into this…marriage just to make Hetty happy. You deserve the happiness you want on your own terms.”
“These are our terms. We both want this, Mom and Dad.” I can’t stop the glare that I throw their way. I now know that they were the ones that chased Cal off and I hate what they did to him. What they did to me. And all to further their own agenda. But they’ve always been selfish and I can’t expect them to change now.
But what I can do is live my life and love my new husband the way I want to. We can live a long, happy life despite what they did. But I don’t know that I will ever trust them again.
And by the look on their faces, they know that. And maybe somewhere deep down, they know they deserve it, because shame fills my mother’s green eyes. “We’re so sorry, Valerie. We should never have meddled in your happiness.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
Cal nods. “But I shouldn’t have let you chase me away from Val for as long as you did. I knew she was mine.” His eyes touch my own and it’s like the whole world disappears for a second. Like we’re the only two people left.
He touches my cheek and then draws me in for a long, slow kiss that makes his guest, Tom hoot.
I pull away, blushing, averting my eyes from my grinning Grandmother.
“I didn’t like how you looked when you came home from school either. Like you’d been completely destroyed. Had your world torn out from under you and you didn’t know how to find your footing again.” She studies Cal like she’s never seen him before. “But he brought you back from whatever was holding you back and it’s so good to see you living again.”
“All I needed was Cal to make me happy, Mother.” I shoot her a chastising stare and she shrinks back.
“Yes, I can see that.”
Hetty grins. “You two go on back home and I’ll take care of this. And Valerie….” She grins but it’s got steel behind it. “I expect to see you at work bright and early on Monday.” I open my mouth to protest and she waves a hand. “Next week. For this week, enjoy your time with Caleb. I love you both.”
We rush her and hug her hard. Until she grunts and shoves us off. “Go on with you now. Get out of here and go do what you need to do.”
Holding hands, we run out and down the steps, heading into our new, brighter future together. Knowing that for the rest of our lives, it will be us against the world.
As it was meant to be. Two bound by hope and dreams and a love that never dies. Always brings us home to each other and grows stronger and better.
For all eternity. In this life and the next.
Epilogue One: Caleb
“Baby, what did I tell you about working too late?” Val’s guilty grey eyes jump up to mine.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes you do. I told you that the next time you did this, I was going to tie you to the bed and do unspeakable things to you for the rest of the night until you were too tired to get up in the morning and slept in.”
She grins. “I don’t find that as much of a deterrent as you’d think!”
“Fine. But you are coming home now, taking a hot soak, eating the dinner I made for you and then you’re going to let me fuck you until you do pass out.”
“Again. That sounds perfect.”
I close the door and lock it behind me and her brow lifts as she smirks cheekily at me.
“That isn’t what you said, Cal!”
“I think you need a little bit more punishment. After all you’ve been a very naughty girl, coming in here and working so hard when you’ve been told by the doctor to cut back.”
My girl’s only about four weeks shy of giving birth to our first-born, our daughter. Who will be named after the woman who brought us together. Hetty.
It’s been awhile since she’s been home. She’s on a cruise around the world but she’s promised to be back for the birth of her only grandchild so far and Val has been told repeatedly to stop working so hard so that she makes it to full term. The first three months she was on bed rest because she was spotting but once she passed the fourth month, it stopped and she immediately started working again.
She’s a force of nature…my wife.
