Epilogue
Miles
Ten Years Later
The last ten years have been amazing. I never knew how much more I’d come to love Jacquie and the two beautiful children she has given me. I didn’t know that I was capable of it. Our nine-year old’s, Caroline and John are our joy. My lovely wife has kept the craziness of her mother’s love for the Kennedy’s alive and well.
They are starting the third grade this year and are very different from one another. Caroline is very serious and sometimes a little dark. She is more like Chip. Given what I’ve learned about him and his wife, I don’t know if that scares me or not. They don’t know Jax and I know, but we do. Caroline’s current career goal is to be a mortician. When asked why, she shrugs and says someone has to do it. She’s right, but still it’s a bit creepy when you don’t know her. Johnny on the other hand is a clown. He plays every single sport you can think of and he plays them all well. He wants to be lawyer after his football/golf career. They have goals and we are supportive of them.
The shop has taken off in a way I never dreamed of. Queen of Hearts Ink joins living rooms across the world on Tuesday nights at ten. The Alt Dot Life channel approached me after Jax had sent a video to them. It started out as a segment on another show, but they loved the family aspect of the shop. Let’s face it, with the love from both Bleak and Moosehead, an hour-long show was put into production almost immediately. Nine years later, we are the highest rated show on the network, as well as the highest ranked show on a Tuesday.
Over the years, I have inked the majority of Jax’s body. She is my canvas. My muse. My greatest masterpiece. Her name rests over my heart and the kids are under that. She has the same tat on her chest.
We were two broken souls that found each other in a world of hurt. Loving her has mended every bad thing that happened to me. Some nights, I still wake up in cold sweats thinking I am exactly like my father. Those nights, Jax cuddles closer to me. She assures me that I am not.
I don’t like that people see her on TV every week, but in the end, she loves me. She comes home with me and is mine as I am hers. There isn’t really anything left to say about that.
Our ten-year anniversary is tomorrow, and I have big plans for my woman. We didn’t go on a honeymoon when we first got married. She had extreme morning sickness and wasn’t up for it. Then we got busy with the babies and with the shop taking off like it did, we just never had the time.
It all changes tomorrow. Kennedy and Sterling are taking all the kids, our two and their four for a week at the beach. I will be surprising Jacquie with a week in Barbados. I have images of my beautiful wife in a bikinis and frozen alcoholic beverages with umbrellas.
“Babe.” I yell out as soon as I walk in the front door. I am bombarded by Johnny before I get my shoes off. No shoes allowed past the doorway. Jax is weird about it. Now that I think about it, most of the women I know are like that. Maybe it isn’t that weird. Caroline is sitting on the couch in all black and reading what looks like the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. I am not sure if she is actually reading it or trying out the goth thing.
“Yeah.” She says from Johnny’s room.
“You ready to go? The cab will be here in ten minutes. Kennedy will be here in five.”
“I am looking for Johnny’s swim trunks, but otherwise I am ready.” She says.
I talk to the kids for few minutes.
“I wish you’d tell me where we are going.” She says coming out of the bedroom with his swim trunks in hand.
“It’s a surprise.” I packed her seven bikinis and one, one-piece bathing suit. She can wear what she has on home.
“Fine. But I hate surprises.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Okay. You’re right. I don’t” She says, laughing.
Kennedy arrives and takes the kids. I managed to keep the destination a secret until we are on the plane.
Her happy squeals are something that I will remember forever.
The next fifty years can go this way, with this woman beside me and I’ll die a happy man.