Epilogue

Mia

Eight Months Later

The nursery had finally been finished last week, and I was busy putting everything in its place. My mother and I had really upped our shopping game and had full wardrobes. I was convinced the babies would never wear the same thing twice.

After my article about baby fashion, I had designers sending me clothes left and right. I had been inundated with some of the most beautiful baby gear and was thankful to have it. It had gotten to a point where I had to politely ask that nothing else be sent my way until we began our adventure into the toddler genre. The excess items had already been donated to charity.

As I was bending over to put a stack of onesies into a drawer, I felt a sharp pain shoot around my middle, starting in my back. It wasn’t the same kind of pain I had felt with the false labor.

“Brad!” I screamed his name as I made my way down the stairs, holding on to the handrail for support.

Another sharp pain followed by a trickling sensation running down the inside of my leg had me pausing halfway down.

“Brad!” I hollered again when he didn’t answer.

He came out of his office and looked up at me. I was stuck a few steps from the bottom, the pain still cramping my stomach.

“What? What’s wrong?” he asked, seeing the look on my face.

“My water just broke!” I gestured to my legs, which I knew had to show visible evidence of my claim.

He looked at me in confusion. “No. They can’t come yet. We still have a month. It’s probably false labor. Maybe you sneezed or coughed and peed. You know, from all the pressure.”

I glared at him. “You ass. I didn’t pee my pants. My water broke!”

He looked at my legs. “Oh shit.”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“But, we still have a month. You’re only thirty-six weeks. You’re supposed to be pregnant forty weeks,” he said, looking as if his world was spinning. He reached out and grabbed the handrail to steady himself before reaching out and taking my hand.

“Well, you tell them that,” I growled. “They’re coming. They’re clearly as stubborn as you are and have decided to do things their way.”

“Okay. Okay, don’t panic. I’ll get the bag. Don’t panic,” he said, obviously panicking.

I found my phone in my purse and called my mom to let her know it was time. She had been my backup coach in case Brad couldn’t get to the hospital. I was worried she may need to step in while my normally cool husband lost his shit. I laughed while I watched as Brad went up and down the stairs at least three times before he finally came back down with the bag.

“Don’t panic!” he said, rushing out the front door.

I waited, wondering if he would forget me. He burst back through the door.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I nodded my head, holding my stomach as a strong contraction came on.

“Oh shit. Are you having them now?”

“No!”

“Let’s go. The car’s ready,” he said, putting an arm around my shoulders and guiding me out the door to where our new SUV was parked in the driveway.

Neither one of us had owned a car but figured with twins on the way, we would need our own vehicles for doctor’s appointments and trips to the grocery store. It had been a bit of an adjustment to move out of the city, but we had finally gotten the hang of living in the suburbs.

The drive to the hospital was relatively calm. A sense of peace had washed over me once the doctor had assured me it would all be okay. A month early was normal for twins. The labor and delivery had been rather smooth and fast. Now I was staring at my identical twin girls lying in their little incubators.

“They’re beautiful,” Brad said for what had to be the hundredth time.

“You’re going to give them a huge ego if you keep telling them that,” I warned.

“I don’t care. They are, and I want them to be confident.”

“With you as a father, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” I quipped.

My mom came through the door with a huge bouquet of pink balloons. “There are my beautiful girls,” she cooed.

A nurse came in and asked if we were ready to hold our babies.

I sat up in bed, anxious to feel my babies in my arms.

“I’ve got Gracie,” Brad announced. “You get Fiola.”

I held my daughter for a few minutes before giving her to my mom. Brad handed me Gracie. For the next thirty minutes, we passed the girls around among us, oohing and ahhing over their cuteness.

“I should go and let you rest and settle in. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” my mom said, kissing each of the girls on the head. “Do you need anything?”

“No, thank you. We’ve got everything we need right here,” Brad said, beaming with pride.

I smiled and nodded. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I leaned back against the pillows and watched as Brad tucked in his baby girls into their shared incubator.

“Twins,” he said, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe we got two for the price of one.”

I laughed. “Trust me, there were no freebies.”

“I can’t wait to tell the world we have twin girls. My listeners are going to go crazy.”

“Now you can finally reveal the sex. I can’t believe you managed to keep it a secret this long. My mom and I had a bet you would slip up, but you never did.”

He smiled. “Nope. It was tough, though.”

“Now what are you going to talk about on your show?” I teased.

“Parenting! I can’t believe how many music stars have kids. It’s crazy. I guess I didn’t know because most of them don’t talk about their kids in interviews. I like that they all felt comfortable talking to me about parenting and what it was like when they were pregnant, or their wives were pregnant. It’s been great for ratings as well.”

I smiled and nodded. “You’re killing it, babe. I know you were a little nervous at first, but people love you.”

He took a deep breath. “It was a little scary at first, but that first show after we found out it was twins was what changed things. People seemed fascinated by what I was going through, and they all wanted to share their stories. Now we will get to talk baby poop and late-night feedings, and soon enough teething, I suppose.”

I burst into laughter. “Only you could think that was the fun stuff. I, for one, am not looking forward to that.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, kissing my nose. “Every minute with our babies is going to be awesome, even when they’re puking all over us.”

I shook my head. “You have a weird sense of humor.”

He crawled into the bed beside me. I snuggled in close. We sat and stared at our sleeping daughters for a while. We were both madly in love with them, and with each other.

“Can you believe we have babies?” I whispered.

He shook his head. “No. Not yet. I mean, obviously they’re right here, but I can’t believe this is really my life. I feel like I should pinch myself.”

I pinched him. He yelped, startling Gracie. “Shh,” I scolded.

“You pinched me,” he protested.

“You suggested it. I was just trying to help you out,” I said with a grin.

We fell silent again as the girls squirmed in their sleep.

“I hope they sleep that well at home,” he murmured.

I sighed. “I have a feeling we should enjoy the peace while we can.”

“I’m glad we had everything ready. I guess the doctor wasn’t lying when he said to be ready at least six weeks ahead of the due date. I thought he was being cautious,” Brad said, shaking his head.

“I’m glad too. I didn’t get to finish putting away all their clothes, though. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll be going through them pretty fast. Why bother putting them in the drawers?” I chuckled.

Brad leaned down and kissed me again. “I love you. You have made me the happiest man on this earth. I don’t even care if the radio show tanks. The only thing that truly matters in this world is you and those two sleeping beauties. Nothing else matters.”

“Stop! You’re going to make me cry. I am a jumbled-up mess of hormones,” I said, wiping the tears that were already falling.

“I want you to know. We missed out on a lot of time together because I didn’t have the nerve to tell you before. I’m never letting that happen again. I’m going to tell you every day. I love you. I’m never leaving you or my family,” he said, holding my chin to look me straight in the eyes.

“I know. I love you, too. I would give up everything.”

He picked up Gracie, who was starting to fuss, and put her in my arms. I snuggled her close and kissed the top of her head.

“She’s a cute baby, huh?” he said.

I giggled. “Yes, she is. So is her sister.”

He laughed. “We make cute babies.”

I nodded. “Yes, we do.”

“I think our girls need a brother, maybe even brothers. How crazy would it be if you got pregnant with twins again?”

I groaned. “No. You have to have the twins next time. I don’t think my body could do that again.”

“You know I would take away all the icky stuff in a heartbeat if I could. But, getting back to the topic at hand, ready to try for another one?”

My eyes widened. “You are out of your mind. Get away from me. You might impregnate me just by looking at me like that.”

He was smiling. “You know you want my babies. I make beautiful babies,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “I will give you as many as you can handle.”

“Get away from me. I need to recuperate,” I said, slapping him with the spare pillow in my bed.

He laughed and took Gracie into his arms, kissing her gently before laying her back down.

“You can recuperate all you want, but I still think we should get in lots of practice. I want to make sure my aim is true,” he said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think that’s ever going to be a problem. Your aim is just fine.”

“But just to be sure,” he whispered, kissing me on the nose and then the lips.

I smiled and nodded. “You’re right. Practice makes perfect.” I sighed, thinking about the pre-pregnancy sex. “Brad?”

“Yes?”

“I can’t wait to have sex when I don’t feel as big as a house.”

He chuckled. “You were a beautiful pregnant woman, and you were never as big as a house.”

I groaned. “Whatever. I still want hot, dirty, monkey sex.”

“You better stop or I’m going to have a very hard time keeping my hands off you for the next couple weeks.”

I chuckled. “I think that might be the other way around.”

When he crawled back into bed with me, I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the moment. It was by far the happiest moment of my life. I knew with him and my baby girls, there were sure to be more of these moments that I would treasure forever. The man had turned my life upside down in the best way possible. I wouldn’t give up a minute of the heartache and frustration he had caused me. It had all been worth the wait.

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END OF THE FIRST STORY