Epilogue
Almost five years later…
“Daddy!” Isabella said, reaching over and petting the pony beside her. “I want a turn to ride Buttercup. Don’t let Maite hog her!”
Maite narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Well I like riding, and it was my turn. Tonya took forever.”
He looked toward his wife for help, but she was busy keeping a tight rein over their three boys, Felipe, Alexander (named after Sandra’s father), and Raul. The trio were gathered around the newborn ducklings on the farm. Little Raul, who’d had the most difficult time at birth and had been the one to leave the incubator last, adjusted his thick glasses on his nose. It was rare for a child of barely four, but if vision problems for Raul and Tonya were the only things they ever had to deal with from a high-risk pregnancy, then he and Sandra were beyond lucky.
Blessed, really.
Raul petted the little duckling in his hands and helped it into a small bucket to practice swimming. Xavier chuckled at the sight and then groaned when Isabella shouted again. “Papa, it’s my turn!”
“I think we’re all going to take a break in a minute and go and get some ice cream back at the house. Wouldn’t you like that?”
Isabella considered that, setting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. She had a withering look already, and was easily as commanding as her director mother. “Not good enough.”
Sandra laughed and led the three boys over to the pony paddock. “We’ll get ice cream, and then Daddy will tell your favorite story. After that, Uncle Javi and your cousins are coming over.”
Six little voices squealed and little hands clapped.
Xavier shook his head. His brood of six loved their older cousins. It was their need to be together almost all the time, to spend long hours with Teresa and Juan Carlos, that had helped him mend fences with Javier. For years, he’d barely spoken to his brother. It had been painful, but it had also been a blessing in disguise. The desire not to be near Javier had made the decision to quit, to leave the CEO work behind to his brother and start his own horse farm that much easier. Then the playdates had started, and finally they’d had a long talk.
“Really?” Raul asked, his eyes wide and owlish behind his glasses. “Everyone’s coming over?”
“Yes,” Sandra said, ruffling their little boy’s red hair. “So ice cream and cousins, and we’ll go back to riding tomorrow.”
They all cheered again, and Xavier rubbed at his ear in reaction to the loud noise. He was convinced most parents of small children, kindergarten teachers, and daycare workers were functionally deaf.
“You have the better way with them.”
“I bribe them better,” she said, her smile as dazzling as it had been the first time he’d ever met her in that club long ago.
He took her hand in his and both of them watched carefully as the children giggled and chased each other around the field a few yards off from them.
“Thank you,” he said, the sincerity clear in his voice.
“For what?”
“For everything,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “I wouldn’t have anything that mattered if not for you.”
She squeezed his hand back. “That’s not something you hear the average billionaire say.” Sandra wrinkled her nose in the most delicious way. “Wait, is there such a thing as an average billionaire?”
“Compared to Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, I’m an Adonis.”
She giggled. “Don’t sell yourself short. Compared to freaking Channing Tatum and Chris Evans, you know you’re a god.”
“So no ‘dad bod’ here?” he asked, tone wry.
“Hardly,” Sandra said, kissing his lips. “You don’t have to thank me. I have to thank you. Now I have seven people I love so much it’s almost scary. I have the career I wanted, and I don’t have to be hit on by skeevy patrons at last call.”
“And I don’t have a parade of angry debutantes circling in and out of my life.”
“Maybe we saved each other,” she said. “Maybe that’s the secret to all of this. We didn’t even know what we needed till the other came along.”
“I think that’s true,” he said, groaning when he realized that Alexander and Maite had jumped into mud puddles, getting dirt and grime all over their clothes. Off on the edge of the group, Felipe held a fat, green bullfrog that he was clearly trying to get down Tonya’s shirt collar. “Kids!” he shouted, glaring hard at Felipe. “You have to be nice to each other or you’ll all get broccoli instead.”
Felipe dropped the frog instantly and looked with practiced wide-eyed innocence at him. “Papa, I wasn’t doing anything.”
“No,” Sandra said, her tone going stern. “You were going to harass Tonya. You need to listen to your father, or I’ll add Brussels sprouts and pulpo.”
All the kids shuddered when his wife mentioned grilled octopus.
As much as the bulk of the brood favored him with their dark hair and swarthy skin, they were pure Sandra when it came to their food preferences.
The best of both worlds, he reminded himself. Utterly perfect.
The kids lined up obediently for Sandra, listening to her rules now that the terrifying threat of green veggies instead of sweets had been laid out. Each boy took the hand of his girl (they’d created the buddy system long ago to make sure that the children didn’t get lost in a crowd). Thinking back to the farm earlier, Xavier spun with vertigo.
“What’s wrong?” Sandra asked. “You look so worried.”
He laughed and kissed her, relishing the honey taste of her kiss and the sweet jasmine of her perfume. “I’m not, but I have to admit. I think we have our own set of ducklings, don’t you?”
She grinned and looked back at their children. “We do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Me neither.”
THE END
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