Epilogue
Sidney leaned back on the sofa of the Stud Ranch parlor and smiled at the cacophony filling the room. It was the fifth anniversary of Hanna’s bachelorette party, and as they had done every year since that fateful event, they all gathered to celebrate.
It had become something of a tradition amongst them, one no one wanted to miss.
Her father sat by the window playing pat-a-cake with Liam, while Logan looked on with the twins, Sam and Seth, on his lap. Charlie and Claire’s boys tore through the hall, apparently having a shootout, and Crystal quietly nursed Bonnie in the corner.
Porsche, who sat at Sidney’s side, leaned over and said, with a chuckle, “Look at Cade.” The big bad former soldier was shuffling into the room behind an adorable toddler with a fluffy blonde ponytail sprouting from the top of her head. Her steps were unsteady and she wobbled quite a bit, but none of that mattered, because her daddy was there to catch her if she fell. Lisa followed them into the room with Gunnar in her arms.
“He’s such a good dad,” Sidney said.
“Well, we knew he would be,” Porsche responded. “Cody’s the one who surprised me.”
Sidney chuckled. “Cody surprised everyone,” she murmured, glancing at her husband, who was on his hands and knees giving Ryan a pony ride. He had, indeed, proved to be a wonderful father. And uncle. And everything. Especially a wonderful husband.
She was mortified to remember the way she’d resisted this bliss. She’d been such an idiot. But all that was over how. She had her loving husband and her perfect son, two tremendously successful businesses . . . and life was so wonderful she could barely—
“Hey!” she bellowed, shaking a finger at Cody. “Watch out for that table.” But it was too late. The too-exuberant “pony” had slammed into the sideboard and tipped it just enough to send a shower of cheese balls onto the floor.
Dougal, Porsche’s enormous hound, galumphed over and gobbled them up before anyone could react.
“Oh great,” Porsche muttered. “He’s gonna crap like a goose tonight.”
Cody sent Sidney an apologetic grin and she rolled her eyes. “Men,” she muttered.
“Word.” Porsche grimaced and repositioned herself on the sofa. “I blame them for everything.” She draped her arm over her enormous belly. Her seriously enormous belly.
Sidney studied it for a moment. “What do you have in there, anyway?” she asked.
Porsche beamed. “Twins.”
“Wow. I would have guessed a Heffalump. A baby rhino at the very least.”
She should have expected the smack. “Be nice. It’s scary enough as it is.”
“Scary?” Sidney stared at her. “Why scary?”
Hanna waddled over and sat next to them just then. “What’s scary?”
“Having a baby,” Porsche said.
Hanna threw back her head and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Porsche asked with a frown.
“Having a baby isn’t nearly as frightening as changing that first diaper,” Hanna said.
Sidney made a face. “Yeah. What was that alien shit anyway? You should have seen Cody panic. And that was nothing to the first time Ryan ran a fever.”
Hanna nodded. “When little Sam got colic I thought he was dying. Scared me half to death.”
“You guys are not helping.”
Sidney laughed and patted Porsche’s arm. “It’s not all glow in the dark poop and sleepless nights.”
“There’s the first time he smiles at you,” Hanna said with a dreamy expression on her face. “His first steps. First time he says Mama.” A tear glistened in her eye as she stared at Logan and her boys, who were now trying to help Cody and Dougal untangle themselves from Ryan’s My First Lariat and just making the knot worse.
“Yeah,” Sidney said, sighing. “And the time he kisses his first girl.”
Both Hanna and Porsche’s heads whipped around. “What kind of child are you raising here?” Hanna asked with a laugh.
Sidney grinned. “Cody’s son, apparently. He’s just started preschool and according to his teacher, he already has a harem.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Porsche said, tongue in cheek. Or not.
“He is gorgeous,” Hanna said.
Sidney grinned. “Cody?”
“Hah. Him too, but I was talking about Ryan. He’s going to be a lady-killer for sure.”
“Mmm. Cody is so proud.”
Porsche barked a laugh and they both glanced at her. “What?”
“I was just thinking how funny it would be.”
“What?” Sidney prodded.
She pointed to Sidney’s protruding belly and grinned wickedly. “If this one is a girl.”
“Oh lord,” Hanna said.
“Can you imagine? Cody with a daughter?”
Sidney frowned at them. “Why is that so funny?”
“Because,” Porsche said. “It would be delicious irony to watch him chase around after all the boys who want to date his precious girl.”
“Oh, that would be fun to watch,” Hanna said.
“That is hardly fair. Cody has atoned for his sins. And he’s settled down beautifully.”
Porsche shrugged. “It’d still be fun to watch.”
“Well, we don’t know the gender yet,” Sidney said, patting her tummy.
“I thought you went for an ultrasound,” Hanna said.
“We did. They just couldn’t tell.”
“Oh.”
“It was too . . . crowded in there.” She tried to hide her smile, but couldn’t.
“Crowded?” Porsche pinned her with a sharp stare. “What do you mean, crowded?”
“I can’t say. I haven’t told Cody yet.” She hadn’t yet worked up the nerve.
“You haven’t told Cody what?” A deep voice warbled in her ear.
She looked over her shoulder and stared up into her husband’s face, taking in his beautiful features and the heart-wrenching love in his eyes. She’d never get tired of that. Not if she lived to be a hundred. “Shall we take a walk?” she asked, offering him her hand. He came around and hefted her to her feet, then helped her steady herself.
“Where shall we go?”
“How about the porch?” she suggested. Partly because it would be private and partly because it wasn’t too far away and walking was a bit of a challenge these days.
She shot a grin over her shoulder at her sister and her best friend, who were both as pregnant as she. There would be a whole new crew to terrorize the town of Snake Gully soon, and she couldn’t wait.
But for now, she had to figure out a way to tell her husband that their family would not be expanding by one . . . but by three.
What a pity that, before she had the chance to drop the bombshell, her water broke. All over the front porch.
And all of a sudden, a new cacophony erupted.
It was a glorious cacophony indeed.