Epilogue

STEEL

Taking a pull of my beer, I leaned back in my seat and laughed as I watched Mia, Teach, and Stella flattened out their clothes and compared baby bumps. Charlotte was due a few months ahead of Stella, and Mia was not far behind Stella. Mia looked beautiful in her simple white, satin-sheath dress. Her beautiful chocolate hair was loose around her shoulders and full of thick, bouncing curls. She looked beautiful, but the smile that graced her face all day was what took my breath away, and I planned to keep it there for a long time to come.

  After the shooting at the Bar and Grill, I didn’t want to wait any longer to get my life with Mia started. Ford used one of his contacts and got a marriage licence expedited, and we decided on a quiet ceremony here at the compound. The stuff from Deck and Charlotte’s wedding was still here, so we thought, why not? Mia just wanted something quiet, and I just wanted her to be my wife as quickly as possible. So two weeks later, here I sat, a married man and not far off from being a father, an unexpected but fucking welcome turn in my life.

Mia gave me life again, a reason to be thankful, and her growing belly was another blessing she had bestowed upon me. But her greatest gift to me was her love and her trust, her undying faith in me. Her fucking beauty. Mine, all mine.

“Unca Coops, will I act like that one day?”

I looked to my left and saw Shiloh staring at the flock with utter horror. Laughing, I scooped her up and onto my knee. Her dark hair was a riot of curls, and the dress she wore for the ceremony long ago shucked off and replaced by a miniature version of a special ops uniform, the black balaclava was rolled up on her head like a beanie. Fucking Darth.

Shaking my head at her crazy, I gave her chubby cheek a kiss.

“Sweet girl, I hope you do, and the special guy that you will one day meet when you are thirty will watch you with a sappy grin on his face and love every minute of it,” I assured her. Actually, I couldn’t wait until the male population came calling on Miss Shiloh Johnston. Watching Deck handle that was going to be fun.

“Like the sappy look on your face now?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Yep, just like I am now,” I agreed, looking out at my beautiful wife once again. Mia made her way over to me, and I just watched her. I would never get enough of watching her.

“Hell no, stud. I is going to be a soldier, then I is going to be a ninja, and after that, I is going to build Harleys. If a man wants me, he can be my bitch. I ain’t sitting on the back of a bike.” Disgusted, Shiloh jumped off my lap and shook her head at me. “You’ve lost your mind, pretty boy. I need a Fanta. Darf,” she bellowed out to Darth as she stomped off in his direction, her little head still shaking in horror at the thought of being on the back of someone’s bike one day in the very far future.

“What was that all about?” Mia asked as she took a seat on the knee Shiloh just vacated.

My hands instantly went to her belly, cupping the soft swell of my child in them. Heaven, that was what this was. Sheer perfect heaven.

“Miss Shiloh isn’t too impressed with the notion of a man one day falling at her feet. Or riding on the back of his bike,” I said between my laughter.

Shiloh was shouting at Darth, and I could hear bits and pieces of what she was saying, ‘No way in hell’ was one of them. Darth lifted her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead, then turned and headed for the makeshift bar we set up near the dance floor. I wanted to dance with Mia again. Stella made one of Mia’s wedding dreams come true earlier when she sang for us while we took our first dance as husband and wife. Stella’s amazing voice nearly brought me to tears as she and Seb sang ‘I Finally Found Someone’ for us. It was the perfect song in my opinion because I finally found the love of my life. It took a while and a few wrong turns, but I found my way.

Smiling at me, Mia let out a sigh.

“And what about you, stud? Are you happy now that you have fallen?” she asked, her sass shining through.

“Beauty, I am not only fucking deliriously happy I fell, but I will also spend the rest of my life worshipping your feet and any other body part you want. I will even ride bitch for you,” I said truthfully. And I meant every single word. The riding bitch part I would do as long as none of my brothers saw it happen.

Mia furrowed her brow at the last comment, the inside joke between me and Squirt going over her head. Maybe I would keep it that way. I didn’t want Mia getting any ideas, after all.

“How about we start with some more dancing? Being wrapped up in your arms is where I want to be forever,” she said as she got up and held out her hands for me to take, which I did.

But instead of taking off towards the dance floor, I pulled her gently into my arms and stared into her beautiful brown eyes where I saw nothing but love.

“Beauty, you ain’t ever going to be anywhere else. You are never getting rid of me. Ain’t happening,” I assured her, then I took her mouth in one of the thousands of passionate kisses I planned to give my woman for a fucking long time to come.

 

 

THE END…….. NOT REALLY.