Epilogue
Leah
“We’re going to be late!”
Emma calls from the front of the large, four-by-four truck, turning around to look at us.
“Being late is fashionable.” Mathilda chips in, trying to keep Maddie from ruining my dress with her fascination for the elegant white lace design.
“Not this late.” Emma shakes her head.
“How can there be traffic? There are only a handful of people on the island!” I ask, incredulous.
My heart rate is already through the roof. I’ve been dreaming of this day for over a year now - it’s what I’ve wanted from the moment I kissed Alistair again, even if it took a long time to admit that to myself.
I wanted to be a family. A wife. I wanted to have the husband that should go with the kid that came along years before.
But, fantasies and dreams come true or not - I still feel a little bit sick. Nerves bundle in my stomach, and I can’t hide the way my hands seem to be shaking.
From exhilaration - but also that slight fear. That anticipation and anxious need.
Having all your dreams come true can be damn scary sometimes.
But after this long with Alistair, I’ve pretty much banished the ‘what ifs’. I trust him - more than I trust myself sometimes - and I don’t doubt his love in the slightest.
And if we have that…what more can I really ask for?
“It’s a bunch of sheep - and, I think, some goats.” Emma informs us. “I think they’re crossing. But, y’know, not too fast.”
I groan.
“I would call ahead and let them know we’re going to be late…but this place doesn’t have phone reception either.” Mathilda chips in helpfully.
I give them both a exasperated look. “Do you both have to make it so obvious that you think this is a stupid idea?”
I insisted on a wedding where no one would know us - and Alistair couldn’t throw his wealth around to make things happen. I wanted it to be more authentic. Something special - and real. With only the people we cared about the most.
He came up with the most gorgeous, breathtaking island - the sort of place that no one even knows exist - and I fell in love immediately.
“We don’t think it’s stupid…” Emma starts.
“Or, at least, Alistair did pretty well with a ridiculous request.” Mathilda adds.
“I’m regretting ever introducing you two to each other.” I mutter. “Aren’t you supposed to be nice to the bride? Keep her calm? That sort of thing?”
They exchange a glance.
“We are being nice - and we’re distracting you with our clever remarks and witty banter, so that you don’t notice you’re going to miss your wedding, hun.” Emma says comfortingly.
I want to glare in her direction, but I start laughing instead.
It didn’t take long after they met for Mathilda to take the spare room in Emma’s flat - not after she decided to take Alistair up on his offer and stick around, anyway. And she’s done everything she said she would with that opportunity, showing the kind of determination that leaves me with no doubt that she’ll finally get everything she wants.
And since they’ve been living together…the way the two of them have hit it off has almost been eerie at times. Almost to the point that they can finish each others’ sentences now. Something they use to gang up on me half the time.
“Okay. Well.” I say, turning back to the issue at hand. “We’re perfectly capable - it’s not a problem. Anyone think they could encourage the animals to move a little faster?”
“In these dresses?” Mathilda asks, smoothing the flattering pastel blue I chose for them both.
“Yeah, I’ll be honest, those goats look kind of scary.” Emma, always a city girl, gives me a distressed glance.
“Well…maybe the driver knows a better route.” I suggest, feeling like I’m doing more than my fair share of the work here.
“He doesn’t speak English.” Emma points out helpfully. “And I think there’s only one road.”
I reach forward and nudge her. “Well, try. Point to your watch and make exaggerated gestures.”
She laughs at me, but then she does exactly that - and Mathilda and I have to control ourselves not to burst into giggles of our own.
It seems to work, though, and the four-wheel-drive turns to rattle off the road - and plunges forward, into what I would’ve called a ditch.
We all scream, and I swear this is going to be the end of me - but it comes out the other side as if nothing happened. I look around, see that we’re all still alive, and think that there’s a chance my heart might return to my chest.
Then the damned vehicle does it again.
This time, Mathilda laughs. “Yet another amazing idea from Leah.”
She and Maddie seem to be the only ones enjoying this, as a combination of fear and nausea seems to assault Emma and I and the conversation subsides in favor of clinging onto each other and hoping we make it through this alive.
Maybe being late wouldn’t have been so bad…
I keep waiting for us to rejoin the road, before I realize the driver has no intention of doing so - but after a while, the bumping and diving feels like it might have settled into a rhythm, and I try to tell myself we will make it.
Then the car tilts almost vertically - and I remember that we picked a cliff-top location for the wedding. For the amazing views, of course.
Fuck.
We make it up. But I don’t think any of us were sure about that for quite a while there.
At least by the time we get to the top of the cliff, I think all my nerves about the wedding have disappeared. Fearing for your life seems to put things in perspective that way.
When we all desperately spill out of the car, we’re a little disheveled - but we’re not late. I was right about that, at least.
We gather ourselves together, and Emma and Mathilda both take Maddie’s hands as they prepare to walk behind me to the entrance to our open-air ceremony.
I can’t see anything yet, but I know it’s just up this path, and then curves to the left. Just out of sight - enough to make an entrance, but not enough to be inconvenient.
“Mommy.” Maddie says, and I twist around to smile at her, cupping her cheek.
She’s grown a surprising amount in the last year - and Alistair has obviously been a good influence on her. She’s a happier, healthier and more normal little girl than she was before.
“I like flowers in my hair.” She smiles up at me, and I grin back.
“They’re beautiful, baby girl.”
“You’re beautiful too, Mommy.” Then she rushes forward to hug me tight.
My arms wrap around her instinctively, and my heart surges in my chest, tears coming to my eyes already.
Oh god. So much for making it through this without crying.
“I’m glad you’re marrying Daddy.” She says to me, quietly enough I have to strain to hear it, and I hug her tighter, nodding.
“Me too. We’re going to be a family together, Maddie.”
She nods, and after a moment I reluctantly let her go.
She’s totally messed up both our dresses, and it takes some last-minute readjustment before I’m ready to walk forward again, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Even if I am impatient as all hell to see Alistair. Getting married on this island somehow meant that instead of avoiding each other for the traditional night before, we haven’t seen each other all week. And I already feel like I have so much to catch up on.
Eventually, we’re finally ready to go - and Emma flicks on the speaker we’ve got to accompany our walk, playing my entrance music.
I smile, my heart feeling like it’s about to explode in my chest, and then slowly start walking forwards.
The image of Alistair as he comes into view is even better than I ever imagined - in full formal dress, hair mussed and fluttering in the breeze, his jacket flapping - and the sun, sky and sea behind him. He looks like something from out of a period romance novel, and I can feel the familiar stirring of lust as I start walking down in between the arches made of wood and leaves and flowers.
The pure physical response is, for once, almost entirely overwhelmed by the emotional - and the moment he sees me, the beaming smile that lights up his face lights up my heart as well, clearing away any possible shadows and making me feel open and empty and waiting for him to fill me up.
We walk almost agonizingly slowly down the aisle, when part of me just wants to rush to him and jump into his arms. But I hold his gaze the whole time, unable to see anything else.
There are others here - I know that. Tommy standing just behind Alistair, ready with the rings, and Meredith watching from the side. But I can’t make myself look at any of them.
My whole focus is fixated on my husband-to-be.
It feels like I’ve waited my life to walk down this aisle - like everything I’ve done has led me here.
And when I finally step up next to Alistair, I think I finally feel complete.
Our hands link together, and we just about manage to turn away from each other long enough to listen to the minister marrying us.
I barely take it in though, too absorbed in Alistair beside me, the way he keeps smiling at me, and the idea of what we’re doing.
We make our vows - formal versions of things we’ve been saying to each other for the last year - and Tommy passes Alistair the ring that he slips onto my finger. My skin tingles with every slightest touch, and as the weight of the band settles there, it thrills something deep inside me to know that it’s not coming off. That we’re together, now, bonded permanently. I touch it with my thumb - keep rubbing it with almost a sense of disbelief, before I take the other ring from Tommy and do the same for him. Then I finally hear the words I’ve been waiting for.
You may kiss the bride.
Alistair barely waits for him to finish - he pulls me forward in a gesture I’m pretty sure is not usually part of the ceremony, and kisses me with the kind of passion we usually reserve for private. Unrepentant, unstoppable, undeniable.
All mine.
“Mine.” He breathes it into my mouth, and my heart skips a beat as we have the same thought, all at once.
The small group gathered around us starts a calm kind of clapping - until Emma and Mathilda burst into cheers, and the children follow suit. Then everyone is just laughing and smiling and cheering for us, and my heart feels so full it could burst.
It’s not a traditional wedding ceremony. None of our blood families are here.
But all of my real family is.
And it’s ours.
This one is all ours.
* * *
“It was beautiful, Leah.” Alistair murmurs to me, his lips on my neck. “But I’ll be honest…I feel like I’ve been waiting an age to get you right here…as my wife.”
I shudder, looking around at the beautiful spot we’ve gravitated towards, just below the beach hut we’re staying in. It’s part of a cove on the island, private and secluded…and perfect for what we want to do.
The beach hut fits my desire for a simplistic theme - but Alistair had it secretly had kitted out with all the modern luxuries I didn’t even realize I probably needed. Which in turn, I’m secretly very grateful for…I’ve already had several fantasies about the shower alone.
I move in towards him, our lips meeting and the kisses deepening as our hands gradually run over each other.
“I love the sound of that.” I say. “Your wife. My husband.”
He smiles at me, full of the same joy I feel.
“Me too…my perfect woman. First my baby momma…and now my wife. Everything a guy could ever want.”
I sigh against him, happy and content in a way that I once doubted would ever happen.
“I’ve been looking forward to this night for so long.” I murmur, my hand running down the handsome formal attire, but eager to be under it already.
We’re just having this one night together, instead of a traditional honeymoon - neither of us wanted to be away from Maddie for that long. But we decided to use the opportunity to take everyone away on vacation for a couple of weeks. Maddie, Emma, Mathilda and Tommy.
The vacation we’ve been talking about going on for at least a year.
Emma and Mathilda also made it clear that if we wanted to disappear to this little alcove at other points after that first night…they’d be more than happy to cover for us.
Looking around at the pristine beauty of the spot…and the man currently stripping his shirt off within it…I can definitely see that happening.
It takes both of us far longer than we’d like to get out of our complicated wedding clothes - but when we do, we sink towards the warm sand almost immediately, our ring fingers locked and intertwined as we start touching the way we’ve been wanting to all day.
“Leah…” Alistair murmurs, his head lifting from where he’s been kissing and nibbling along my chest.
“Mmm…” I say, my hands running through his hair and drawing him up for another kiss.
“You know…” I open my eyes at that tone in his voice - enough to see the sparkle in his. My stomach flips. That only ever means some outrageous suggestion. “Maddie keeps talking about wanting a baby.”
My eyes go from half-lidded to wide awake, and I blink at him.
“Alistair…”
“Yes?” He asks, trying to act innocent - which is so ridiculous after a comment like that, that I can’t help but laugh.
“We can’t…” I say.
Though I can’t deny I’ve thought about it - every time she mentions it. And when I see the look in his eyes.
“Why not?” He smiles at me, leaning down to kiss and suckle my breast.
I moan, arching up into him, and think how entirely unfair it is to be having this conversation while he’s doing that.
“I…just started studying again. And…and working part time, to help with Emma’s physiotherapy clinic. And you - you’re about to launch Sinclair & Family, finally back…back under your own name. And Maddie’s just started school. We don’t have…time…” I try to object, as distracting as he’s being.
But then he looks down at me, totally serious, kissing me gently while he caresses my cheek.
“Those aren’t good reasons, Leah.” He rumbles, his voice deep. “We can make it work with any of those - you know we can. If you didn’t want one, that would be a good reason, but…do you, Leah? Do you want another baby?”
I really stop and think about it for a minute. I’ve never seriously considered it - I spent so long knowing another kid would completely devastate me, and upset the careful just-about-doing-okay balance I’d cultivated with Maddie. Another one was just never a possibility.
And life feels busy now. It feels like it hasn’t really slowed down since I found Alistair again - but in a good way, filled with all the things I really want. Another kid sounds…difficult.
I open my mouth to say that. But that’s not what comes out.
“Yes.” I whisper, and my hand clutches him - whether for support, or something else, I’m not sure. “Yes, I want another baby, Alistair.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but his beaming smile gets even bigger, and he leans down to kiss me - taking every last breath from me as he does.
“Let’s do it, then.” He murmurs, as if it was that simple.
And maybe it is.
When he finally lets my star-studded vision fall back for a moment, I grip him harder - looking at him properly.
“You promise me we’ll work it out? That it will be okay?” I ask. I need to hear it from him.
“I promise, Leah.” He leans forward, and when his breath brushes my ear, I shudder. “I’m going to put a baby in you tonight. Another one. And we’ll make it all work.”
He leans forward, takes my mouth in his again - like he can’t ever get enough. Exactly how I feel.
Then he sets about keeping all those promises.
THE END
This copy of Billionaire Baby Daddy also includes a bonus copy of The Boyfriend Arrangement – keep reading to enjoy it!