Epilogue
“No! You can’t take the saw!” Gaia commanded, trying to grab the milk as well as the bowl of blueberries that her two children were using as weapons. “And stop pinging each other with blueberries! Eat them. No throwing food at each other!”
“Why can’t I use the saw?” Bethany pleaded, her green eyes staring up at Gaia.
“Yeah, why can’t she use the saw?” Logan asked, grabbing a blueberry from mid-air and popping it into his mouth before bending lower and kissing his oldest son, then ruffling his daughter’s hair.
“Because they’re going to build another tree house! That’s why!”
Logan glanced down at both of his children, seeing the truth in their eyes. “Uh…honey…” he started off.
Gaia froze before she reached the fridge, her eyes traveling to both of her kids, then to her husband. “What have you done?” she demanded.
Logan laughed, looking just the tiniest bit sheepish. “We might have…sort of…”
Bethany stood up on her stool, her small arms automatically reaching for her father who lifted her into his arms. “We designed a new tree house last night!” she exclaimed. “All of the cousins are coming over this weekend along with Uncle Freddy to build it!”
Her son excitedly pulled a large piece of paper out of his pocket, smoothing it out over the granite countertop. “Look!” Jonathan said and pointed to the layers of the tree house. “We’ve figured out ways to connect the other two.”
“We don’t need another tree house!” Gaia exclaimed.
Jonathan smiled and Gaia’s heart flipped over as it always did whenever one of her children, or Logan, gave her that eager smile. “We’re not building another tree house,” he finally explained. “We’re just connecting all of the tree houses together!”
She was already shaking her head. “No! I’ve seen the tree house at your parents’ house, Logan. We don’t have the space here.”
Logan laughed and walked around the counter. “Honey, look at who you are talking to. Do you really think I would design something that we didn’t have the space to build?”
The front door opened and closed at that moment and Gaia almost groaned.
“Anyone home?” a deep voice called out.
Gaia headed to the foyer, hugging the elder Steeles, Bryce and Quinn. Since marrying Logan, his parents had become surrogate parents to her as well as Freddy. “Tell them they can’t do it!” she begged.
Quinn walked into the kitchen, immediately bending down to kiss Jonathan and take Bethany into her arms. “Don’t take on that fight, dear,” she advised, tickling Bethany who giggled. “You won’t win. Trust me.”
The front door opened and closed once more and Gaia wondered who else could have stopped by unannounced. Being a member of the Steele family was warm and wonderful, but also filled with invasive family members.
Freddy walked in at that moment, his face alight with an inner secret. “Did you get it?” Bethany asked, her face once again smiling as her uncle walked into the kitchen.
“Of course I got it!” he assured her, grabbing a glass of water so he could take his anti-depressant medicine. He went to meetings almost daily to help with his alcoholism, thanks to the good psychologist who had evaluated Freddy after his arrest. He’d been diagnosed and treated for depression and intermittent explosive disorder. With the medicine that balanced out the serotonin in his brain, he was a different person. He’d been working so well at a construction job that he was now the crew chief, he was going to school, and hadn’t touched alcohol in ten years.
Both of her kids clapped their hands together. “I knew you could find it,” Jonathan announced.
Freddy put the glass into the dishwasher and pulled the bag out of his backpack. “Here,” he said and handed it to Bethany.
Gaia’s eyes almost went cross-eyed when she saw the large pulley in her daughter’s hands.
“Excellent!” Bryce announced, clapping his hands together. “Now all we need is…”
“Wait a minute!” Gaia called out, lifting her hands into the air, forgetting that she was still holding the milk in one hand. “Why in the world do they need a pulley?!”
Logan tsked as he walked over to her, taking her into his arms. “How else are we going to pull up the drawbridge for the moat?” he asked, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.
Gaia felt her husband kiss her cheek, but was left alone as she hugged the milk jug in her arms while watching the rest of her precious family lean over the countertop, all of them intent on the designs that…well, why not have a moat in one’s back yard, she thought.
Looking around, she caught Quinn’s wink as the beautiful, older woman smiled. “You’ll get there,” she said. “It just takes time.”
Gaia knew exactly what the woman meant. It took time to understand all the insanity of this family. But she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
“Yeah. I’m getting there,” she said, feeling a surge of warmth surround her when Logan looked up from the plans to smile in her direction. And then he took those darn glasses off and that warmth seeped up higher along her neck.
She loved that man!