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When Kelly and I laugh again, Lena joins in. It’s the one she does when grownups laugh around her, and she’s so filled with joy just because other people are happy. It’s the cutest, sweetest, most precious laugh imaginable.
“Who could’ve guessed a crush would end here, huh?” Kelly says.
“It’s not the end.” I smile. “It’s just the beginning.”
“Wait, are you…”
I place a hand over my belly, sensing the warmth, the life. “I’m waiting until our anniversary to tell him.”
EPILOGUE
EIGHT YEARS LATER
Roger
I sit next to Lena at the top of the yard. Lena’s got her head buried in a book, reminding me of Evie at that age, always disappearing into other worlds, whether art or stories. Kenny and Luca are splashing around in the pool, my twin grandsons always with big grins. Everybody says Kenny has my features with the same lean cheekbones and the same jawline.
Looking at him, I mainly notice his long brown hair, reminding me of Evie, and his smile is pure Brian, reminiscent of how Brian looked when he was young and we were two kids who had each other. Brian talks as if I saved him, and maybe I did in the early days, but he saved me too. He stopped me from being the quiet kid obsessed with numbers. He brought me out of my shell and gave me a friend, a brother.
He wanders over, shirtless, with my youngest grandson, Miles, on his shoulders. Miles clings to his wild silver hair.
I’ve been hitting the gym lately—Janine’s orders—so I can admire how fit my friend has kept himself. Consistency is critical, he tells me, and he hasn’t let his build change in all these years.
“Hey, son-in-law,” I say, a teasing note in my voice.
Brian grins as he sits down, holding Miles on his knee.
“Grandpa!” Miles says, clawing the air in my direction.
Lena looks up and grins. “He’s so cute when he does that.”
She’s got her black hair in a braid over her shoulder, another similarity with Evie, the braid, not the color. I take Miles, bobbing him up and down on my knee.
“This is the life, eh?” Brian says, smiling across the yard.
Janine is in the pool with the boys. Looking at her now, bravely chasing the little agents of chaos through the shallows, nobody would ever believe she was the one against the relationship in the beginning. However, that night when we spoke, she opened her heart to the possibility.
“He is a good man,” she said, referencing Brian.
“The best,” I agreed.
“If any other man had done this, I’d hate him, but with Brian, I know he’s not some weird older guy. I know it has to go deeper than that.”
I told her I agreed. Now, the proof is all around us. Miles bobbing on my knee, Lena draping her braid over her shoulders, Janine laughing as the twins rush her.
On the other side of the garden, Evie sits with Kelly’s daughter in her arms. Kelly stands behind the chair, her husband at her shoulder, holding hands, gazing down in love.
“She makes me so proud,” I say.
“Who, Mom?” Lena asks.
I nod.
“Mommy,” Miles sings.
“Me too,” Lena says.
“Me three,” Brian says, looking over with a warm smile.
It’s the sort of smile I never could’ve imagined before he chose my daughter. Sure, maybe it was odd at first, him being my son-in-law. Perhaps a few people questioned the age gap. However, as the years passed and the tattoo studio exploded in popularity, Evie worked there part time while building a successful digital art company. Everybody who sees this family has to admit they’ve got something special, something way more than a silly crush.
This is true love, no question.
“I’m proud of you, too,” I tell Brian. “You’re a good husband, a good father, a good friend.”
THE END
