Epilogue - Kenneth - One Year Later

“I’ve got her. I’ve got her,” I said as I sat up in bed.

“I have to get up anyway,” Tiffany said with a groan. “My chest aches.”

“You go pump. I’ll feed Amanda.”

“You sure?”

But my feet were already planted on the floor and out the door.

I followed the sound of my four-month old daughter crying from her nursery. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle from the fridge, then stalked into her room. Growth spurts. It was killing Tiffany and I. My sweet, innocent little girl-- with big eyes like her mother and thick hair like me-- could eat me under the damn table anyday.

“Knock knock.”

I looked up at Maria as I stood over Amanda’s crib. She smiled at me and took the bottle from my hand before ushering me out the door. I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell her to go back to sleep. That she had done enough ever since Amanda had been born and that she needed rest just like we all did.

But she never turned down an opportunity to be around her granddaughter.

“Mom kick you out again?” Tiffany asked.

I heard her pump whirring as I went back into the bedroom.

“I don’t know why I even try when she’s around,” I said with a yawn.

“I’m telling you. Ever since that surgery, she’s been a new woman.”

“I am glad we gave her a key to the place, though. I don’t know what I would’ve done had she not been here to take care of you last month.”

“That rotavirus vaccination is no joke,” she said. “I thought the doctor was kidding when he said I couldn't kiss my own daughter.”

I inched myself back into bed while the beautiful mother of my child pumped her breasts. That was the commitment she made to herself. She wanted to do the absolute very best for herself and our daughter. It had been a year since she’d agreed to move in with me, but it took us a little longer to bring her mother around to the idea.

Giving her a key to the place warmed her up a bit to the whole idea. Especially since she had free rein of the hot tub I had installed on the balcony.

“I guess if I’m up I might as well see how things are doing with my business,” Tiffany said.

“It’s three in the morning. I’m sure everything’s fine,” I said.

“Says the man currently looking at his phone.”

“I run a multibillion-dollar company.”

“And I’ve got a lot of planning to do for this upcoming promotion. If I’m going to be hooked up to the milking machine, I might as well make my time worthwhile.”

“I’ve got some ways to do that,” I said with a grin.

“You’re not having sex with me while I’m hooked up to my breast pump.”

“Actually, that wasn’t quite what I was thinking.”

I put my phone down and reached into my bedside drawer. The two of us had been so busy with the pregnancy and jumpstarting Tiffany’s business that I hadn’t had time to plan a proper romantic moment between the two of us. Maria’s recovery was draining on us all. She wasn’t up and on her feet until Tiffany was seven months pregnant. And between my work, all of the doctor’s appointments, and opening up Tiffany’s business, the only time I’d had to think about our future was when I passed by the jewelry store and saw it sitting there in the display case.

I wrapped my hand around the ring box and stood to my feet.

“Then what were you thinking?” she asked as she typed away on her laptop.

“Put that up,” I said.

“I just have to finalize the design for the fliers and upload it to the website.”

“You can do that in a second.”

“Ken, just hold on. Okay?”

I got down onto one knee in front of Tiffany’s face and slowly closed her laptop. The look of anger that shot through her features was entertaining. But the second she eyed me on the floor with that small velvet box in my hand, she froze. The sound of her breast pump was the only thing filling the room, and she scrambled to turn it off.

However, I stopped her. Because we were nothing, if now raw. Real. Honest. Unforgiving. Our entire relationship had been. From the night I first partook of her essence up until this very moment, our lives had been shrouded in an honest passion we’d never attempt to conceal.

“Kenneth,” she said breathlessly. “What are you doing?”

“Tiff, you are-- without a doubt-- the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met. Over the course of the last year, life has thrown you some serious punches. A pregnancy. A mother who needed surgery. A man who wanted you to move in at a moment’s notice. A business that flourished out of the blue. And you took every moment in stride and did it with a grace that still leaves me breathless.”

“Kenneth,” she said. “Get up.”

“No,” I said. “Not until I’m finished. You are the most incredible mother. You’re self-sacrificing. Attentive. Loving, to a fault. You take care of everyone around you, and sometimes to a point where you neglect yourself. You’re the muscle of this family, Tiffany. The strength that keeps us all going.”

“Kenneth, this isn’t funny.”

“No, it’s not. It’s serious. You’re turning into a wonderful businesswoman. You’re a phenomenal daughter. A committed mother. A beautiful, intelligent partner. And over the past four months, I’ve laid in this bed with you and watched you work on a laptop, talk with your mother on the phone to abate her fears, pump your breasts for our daughter, and still find a way to reach out and touch me to let me know you’re there for me.”

“Please sit beside me,” she said with a whisper.

I stood from the floor and lowered myself beside her on the bed. Her pump whirred and her eyes filled with tears as I cracked the box open. Revealing the most intricately-cut ruby, it was surrounded in a halo of miniature pearls. All set in a rose gold band that was studded with rosy pink diamonds. It screamed at me from a shop window for weeks as I passed by. I would walk by that window every time I went from the office to her business. Helping her as much as I could to get her business off the ground. And every time I looked at it, I wondered how long it would sit there. How long it would be before someone snatched it up. Then, a thought occurred to me one day.

What if it was waiting for me?

What if it was made for Tiffany?

“I love you,” I said with a whisper. “With every fiber of my being.”

Her watery gaze panned up to mine as a tear dripped down her cheek.

“I want you to be my wife, Tiff,” I said. “I don’t know how to ask any other way. You amaze me every day from the moment you open your eyes. Your strength. Your dedication. Your fortitude. You dwarf me, Tiff. In every way that matters. You think you learn from me, but there is so much I learn from you. So much I still have yet to learn.”

She smiled as I plucked the ring from the box. I picked up her left hand and poised it just beyond her ring finger. Her hand shook. Trembled in my grasp as I scooted a little closer to her.

“Tiffany Graves, will you marry me?”

“Yes. A thousand times over, yes!”

I slid the ring onto her finger and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I bowed against her chest, feeling her breast pump invading our space. She giggled and shut it off, then I slowly pulled it from her body. I set it on her bedside drawer as my lips fell to hers, our bodies tumbling to the bed. I rolled her over. Pinned her beneath me as my lips traveled the lines of her body. I nuzzled her ear. Nibbled on her neck. Trailed my fingertips down her waist and fingered the stretch marks and excess skin around her belly button.

The epitome of her strength.

A reminder of the one thing I would never be able to do.

It was the most beautiful part of her, and I slid my body down just so I could cover it with kisses.

I laid my head on her stomach and felt her fingers run through my hair. Her engagement ring slid against my scalp, and with every stroke my smile grew wider. I could hear Maria’s voice echoing across the penthouse, singing to our daughter a song her mother sang to her when she was a child. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. Reflecting on all that had changed in our lives.

“I love you,” Tiffany said.

I settled my chin onto her stomach and looked up into those beautiful green eyes.

“And I love you,” I said.

“I need to go get this milk in the freezer.”

“I can do that. You lay here.”

“I was going to get myself some water, too.”

“Then I’ll bring you back a glass,” I said as I slid from the bed.

“I kind of want to go check up on Amanda, too.”

“You want to show your mother the ring, don’t you?” I asked.

“Oh I so do, Ken. I’ll be back!”

I chuckled and watched as she bounded from the room. I watched every curve of her body jump as she walked across the living room. Three in the morning had never been so eventful, and as I leaned against the doorway I watched as she disappeared into the hallway.

I only hoped their squeals of excitement wouldn't wake up Amanda.

Though I had a feeling I wouldn’t mind if they did.