Epilogue
About Two years later…
“She’s not going to disappear if you practice, Angel.” Blake pulls Jacqueline, our four-month-old we named after the world famous cellist, out of my arms. “Which you know you need to do because you have worried yourself into several panic attacks you’re not good enough anymore to be principal chair.”
“Can you blame me?”
“Yes.”
“Blake.”
“Sorry,” he shrugs and bounces her in his arms, “but yes I can blame you, Angel. You played ‘til you practically gave birth. I had to beg you to take this much time away. You’re worryin’ for nothin’.”
Shortly after the fiasco with my parents, Blake proposed. Knowing I wouldn’t want anything big, we had a small ceremony on our one-year anniversary on his parent’s property. While we had discussed having kids, we both agreed there was no rush. We were completely surprised when we found the week before our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, I was pregnant. He was over the moon. It’d been obvious from the beginning the way he’d been with his nephews, kids were an automatic yes in his brain, but I required constant calming. Without parents to support or celebrate the milestone, it was difficult to swallow in the beginning. It’s natural to want your parents to be excited they’re going to be grandparents or at the very least you’re going to be a parent. Mama, who only became even more amazing when my parents cut off ties, did everything she could to be there in that way. Thankfully, my sister reached out the minute she heard what my parents did to me, to inform me she was in the same boat. While not having them around has been dreadful in theory, having her more active in my life eased the transition and proved the point of their true burden rather than blessing. My sister and her husband love Blake. The two of them actually took his daughter and Blake’s oldest nephews on a fishing trip the last time they came to visit, while my sister and I decorated the baby’s room. Who knew three weeks later Jacqueline would be sleeping in it?
Blake plants a kiss on our daughter’s chubby chocolate cheeks. “Tell Mommy, she’s worryin’ for nothin’.”
“Don’t use the child to cheer me up.”
He chuckles and shakes his head at me. “That’s exactly what children are for.”
I glare at his response.
“Come on, Angel,” his voice sweetly encourages. “Jacqueline and I will listen to you play. Won’t we?” She coos at him. “See. She’s excited too.”
With my hand leaned on the edge of her crib, I argue, “Don’t you have work you should be doing? Shouldn’t you be working while I hold her?”
He shakes his head. “Nah…Dani’s got everything under control. We all agree I should continue on with the formal networking while she handles events in the field.”
Giving up his role as the face of Runt’s Beer was easier than I predicted. Apparently, being a good husband and father were more important to him. While the company has grown exponentially in a short amount of time, he’s handled the changes smoothly. I was worried not mingling with the day to day consumer would wear on his spirit, but he proved just how capable of change he was almost instantly. After finding out we were pregnant, J.T. offered him a higher role, in which he would be pitching the product to bigger buyers rather than the average person. He grabbed the task by both arms and threw himself into it. He practiced pitches on me between my practicing of sets. We stayed up late together tweaking one another’s crafts until we were each confident in the results. It turns out Blake’s a natural fit and has had an impressive success rate. He’s irresistible…I hope Jacqueline gets his social skills and not mine.
The three of us exit her white and purple painted room together.
Blake settles himself on the corner of the couch with her cradled tightly in his arms. He continues talking to her, telling her all the things he thinks are amazing about my playing, while joking her love of popular music will come from him.
It’s true. Even years later, it’s his devotion to the radio that keeps any of my knowledge about it relevant.
I sit in my chair with my cello gripped tight and my eyes still on them.
As soon as he looks up, my heart skips a beat.
We’ve been together for almost three years and it still only takes one glance from him to make it do that. We used to share in similar silent worries about being enough for the other, but after I made the choice to have him as my future, costing me my parents, those fears disappeared. Every time I look into his bright brown eyes, the same bright brown ones he gave our daughter, I know this is the life I was always meant to lead. This is heaven and he is my angel as much as I am his.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Please consider leaving a review sharing your love for it!
Want to hear some good news?
Turn to the next page!