Epilogue

Alexis

“Hey baby, can you come down to the set and sit with me today? I have a lot of down time and I’m really dying here,” I said when Cody picked up his phone.

This was my second big film role in the last year. Cody was so supportive that he often came down to the set to work out of my dressing trailer. It worked great on slow days like the one I was having but even on busy days, it was nice to have him around.

Cody and I had officially been married four years now. Everything changed for us in those four years. We couldn’t go out in town without security because of me. How crazy was that? Because I was a movie star, my husband and I couldn’t walk down the street without having someone take our photo.

Cody was finished building his first hotel near Las Vegas and we were actually heading out there for the weekend to attend a wedding.

“Honey, I can’t come over today. I’m finalizing things for Noah’s wedding. This best man gig is harder than I expected it to be. Especially because his soon-to-be wife doesn’t have a lot of people to help out. You know I would love to come sit with you though. I really would.”

“Okay, I’ll suffer through it. Have a good day and I’ll see you when I get home.”

Noah was getting married. I still couldn’t believe it. Actually, I thought he was going to get married much sooner, but the crazy ups and downs of his life the last four years had been tough on him. Now he was happy though and ready to move forward with the new life he had created for himself.

Weddings were so much fun to attend and I had thought about having another wedding for Cody and me, but in the end, we decided it wasn’t right for us. We both had such busy lives that planning a wedding wouldn’t be much fun at all. Plus, I had some new and exciting news that I couldn’t wait to tell Cody. I’d been saving it for about a week and was about to burst from the pressure of trying to keep so big a secret from the man I loved. I decided that waiting until the wedding was over was the best thing to do.

My work day was never all that hard. The movie industry had long hours when you were filming and a lot of waiting around to start the filming. As the lead in this film, I had to be on the set nearly all of the time, and yet I spent hours and hours in my trailer waiting for my turn. I couldn’t sleep because I always thought they were going to call me at any moment.

Romantic comedy films were my current niche and I was loving them. It was so much fun to play a happy role or at least a person who eventually turned happy as the movie progressed.

The weirdest thing about being a celebrity was that strangers felt like they knew me. I wasn’t even that big of a celebrity and yet I still couldn’t go grocery shopping without someone coming up and snapping a photo. Half of the time they just turned their back to me and clicked the picture without even talking to me. It wasn’t a fun part of the process.

Having Cody with me helped keep people away a little bit. There was something about having a big strong man next to me that just made people rethink coming and bothering me for a photo. It wasn’t like I was really bothered, I knew what they wanted and I wanted to be able to give it to them whenever possible. Only when people were especially rude did I ever bother to react to what was going on. Otherwise, I just made sure we had lots of extra time when going places just to make sure I could stop and visit with a few fans along the way.

It was super rare that I’d manage to get to any sort of event without having a security guard with me or going in some sort of costume. But I was still so new to the celebrity world that I sort of found it fun when I had to get dressed up to go out.

After finishing my day of shooting I went back to our house to try and relax before heading to Las Vegas later that night. It might end up being really late by the time we left but that didn’t really matter to me. As long as Cody was going to do the driving then I didn’t have anything to worry about.

Driving along the coast I couldn’t help but appreciate that this was where I got to live. We had purchased a large home overlooking the ocean but hadn’t gotten around to decorating it yet and putting those personalized touches on things.

I loved this life that Cody had developed for the two of us. Well, not Cody alone, of course, I’d been part of it all too. We were both living our dreams. We were both going after the lives that we wanted and there wasn’t anything that was going to hold us back. The longer Cody and I knew each other the more we could read each other’s minds. I didn’t even have to tell him to pick up our favorite Chinese food dinner because he grabbed on the way home.

By the time Cody returned from work I was passed out on the couch and barely able to move. For a day that had been filled with so much running around and not doing much, I was rather tired.

“Babe, do you want to wait and go in the morning?” Cody asked as he slipped his arms under my legs and started to carry me to bed.

“Everyone going is going out tonight. Don’t you want to go party?”

Cody just laughed at me and finished carrying me to the bedroom. Clearly, neither of us were full of energy. I’d been utterly exhausted for the last few weeks and Cody was working himself to the bone with all his wedding duties combined with work.

“Alexis, don’t feel bad. They are going to party without us and have a great night. We can get some rest and be there for the party that happens tomorrow. I promise it will be just as exciting as the one tonight.”

I wasn’t about to argue with him. Another night of sleep was just what I needed in order to make it through the next day full of wedding partying.

That night there was no making love. The two of us fell blissfully to sleep in each other’s arms and slept until we couldn’t sleep any longer. It felt amazing when the sun finally came up and I got out of bed ready to take on the world. I was also really excited for the surprise I had planned for Cody after the wedding was over.

“This is much smaller than I expected,” I whispered to Cody as we got out of our vehicle and followed another guest inside. I wasn’t talking about the venue, I was talking about the size of the crowd.

“Katrina doesn’t have anyone here except for some people from work. It’s rather sad actually. I’ll let Noah fill you in when all of this is over. I’m just saying if you see her and it looks like she’s struggling, go be nice to her. She doesn’t have that many people who care about her at this moment.

“Katrina doesn’t have any family?” I asked a little confused.

“She has some, but they are all fuck ups and weren’t able to get here for the wedding,” Cody said.

“So who is her maid of honor? Why didn’t I hear about this before?”

“I wasn’t paying much attention to her side of the planning until I realized that she didn’t have anyone else do it. I don’t think she really knows about a lot of the traditions. She’s just excited to be getting married.”

I couldn’t help but think that I should volunteer to be the maid of honor. It was a little late in the game, but I might be able to relieve a little of the pressure and help make Noah’s wife feel loved on this special day.

“Honey, that is an awesome offer, but the wedding is in two hours. I’m not sure you will be helping at this point and might actually be stressing her out since what she had planned would have to change.”

“I trust you baby. If you think it would bring more anxiety to her than I’ll keep to myself for the time being.”

“Good plan. I’ll check around though and see if anyone else might need some help. I’m sure someone could use your bubbly personality.”

“Remind me again how you ended up with all this responsibility?” I laughed as we walked to the conference room where everyone was visiting and having drinks.

“I’m the only one who can change his schedule on a dime. You, my dear, are way too busy taking over the world.”

He was right about that. I was too busy and as much as I loved Noah and his new bride to be, I couldn’t adjust my schedule to help out at all. My schedule wasn’t actually my schedule at all. I was just a prop in the movie business and the schedule was decided long before I had a say in it. Of course, if there was some sort of emergency, then things would have to be switched around, but I didn’t have the ability to just not show up for filming. Once an actor did that just one time it would get around the whole community and tarnish you for other films.

“Cody, Alexis, you’re here,” Noah said, already half-way drunk.

It was his party. He was allowed to get drunk if that was what he wanted to do. Neither I nor Cody could really say anything about it considering how we had gotten married. The story of our marriage had become a bit of an epic tale among our group of friends.

“Hi Noah, how are you?” I asked as we hugged.

Noah had really been my guardian angel in the process of building my new acting career. He guided me to the right projects long before I’d left my old agent and found the new one that I loved so very much.

“I’m doing well. I can’t wait for this all to be over. Not in a bad way of course. I know this day is important to her, but I’ve felt like I was married already for the last four years. To me, this is just a formality and I fell in love with her the day I met her.”

“I’m going to go say hi. You boys have fun,” I said noticing that his bride to be was standing alone and sipping on some champagne.

A woman should not be left alone on her wedding day. Not even if she was asking to be. I couldn’t just sit back and watch everyone else having conversations while Noah’s bride just stared off into space alone.

Just as I was about to reach her another group of women swarmed in to the rescue. They must have been thinking the same thing that I was. I let the group have the bride-to-be for the moment and I found a place to sit down.

No matter how much I slept I was still exhausted. It was going to be a long few months ahead. The chair I was sitting in was much more comfortable than I had expected and within moments I’d fallen asleep.

You would think that at a normal gathering, I would have been woken up or at least checked on. But not at Noah’s party. Instead, people kindly walked around me and found other places to sit in the house. Then it hit me. An overwhelming urge to vomit. This wasn’t a normal urge, like when you’ve eaten too many roadside tacos. Nope, this urge came so quickly and took over so fast that I ended up vomiting right on the artist who was standing in front of me trying to talk about his paintings.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and then hurried off to the bathroom.

“Alexis. Are you okay?” I heard Cody yelling after me as I rushed past.

“I’m okay.” I just need to get to a bathroom.

He led me to the nearest and followed me in. “What can I do for you? I’ll do anything you need.”

“Have you ever read that book called What to Expect When You’re Expecting?” I said, trying to give Cody a bit of a hint. It was no fun to just come straight out and tell him.

“No,” he said, confused.

“You should read it,” I added.

Cody was oblivious.

“Do you want me to get you something to eat?” Cody asked while I hovered over the toilet ready to puke again at any moment.

At that moment I just wanted to be left alone with my nausea. “No, get me a ginger ale please,” I said. He ran off toward one of the open bars.

I’d planned on waiting until after the wedding but as I stood there waiting for Cody to come back from with my soda I realized had to tell him now. I wasn’t afraid of telling Cody, in fact, I thought he would handle things fairly well. What I was most worried about was that pictures from the event would leak and everyone who know that my stomach was casually growing larger and larger. It was also really bothering me that somehow I was managing to ruin Noah and Katrina’s wedding and I didn’t want to do that.

“Thank you so much,” I said to Cody once he came back with my glass of soda. He found me in the chair I’d returned to. “Now I think we need to get you a haircut,” I added.

“Why? What are you talking about? A haircut?” Cody looked at me totally confused.

“Yep. We will need to throw our own party really soon and that shaggy hair you have going on is going to have to go bye-bye.”

“Party? What sort of party are we throwing?” he asked.

“A gender reveal party. We have about four months to plan it.”

I sat there waiting for a flash of recognition to come across his face, but Cody didn’t seem to understand anything that I was saying. My big plan to surprise him after the wedding hadn’t worked and now my plan to surprise him before the wedding wasn’t working.

“Gender reveal party? Noah didn’t tell me anything about it…”

“Ours,” I said and moved a little closer. “We are having twins.”

At that moment Cody realized the gravity of what I was saying. He looked a little unsteady as he moved in and kissed me softly. I loved this man so much.

“Twins? Like there are two babies in your stomach growing right now? No wonder you are so tired,” Cody said as he tried to arrange pillows to make me as comfortable as possible.

“I love you, Cody,” I said as I watched him struggling to keep his balance. He was about to faint and sat down hard next to me.

“Babies, two babies? I can’t wait to play with them!” Cody said, quickly pushing himself past his fear stage and excited about everything again.

“The paparazzi are going to love my growing belly,” I said. “I’m not going to be able to hide it for long.”

“Alexis, what I want you to know is I’m not going to flip out on you. I’m going to understand where you are coming from when all these hormones start rushing through your body.”

“Are you really doing okay?” I asked.

A huge smile spread across his face. “I’m doing great. We’re doing great. I’m going to make you the happiest woman on earth,” Cody said and pulled me right into his lap on the couch. Oh, how I loved being in his arms. “And I’m going to make those children of ours the happiest kids on earth.”

That day the wedding went off without a hitch. Cody and I managed to keep our secret just long enough to make it past the first part of the wedding, but by the time the reception rolled around we were both secretly telling people in the crowd.

Two babies was so unbelievable. Not only was I making an entirely new human being, but this time I was going to go again and make a second baby as well. My life was perfect. Not as perfect as someone from a movie or something like that, but overall it was a fairy tale big house and as you guys grow up we hope to keep at least one of the used cars for to drive since it’s falling apart and I don’t think I can actually sell it.

“Cody I am so happy we met again and so excited to start the next stage of my life with you. Knowing that the two of us made something so special definitely will be on my mind day in and day out as I navigate this crazy world we call life”

And just like that I started my journey into the next stage of my life.

This time, I knew he wasn’t lying.

THE END

Dear reader,

First of all, thank you so much for reading my book! It’s passionate readers like you that allow me to live my dream and do the thing I love most on earth, which is writing books and entertaining people. As a way of saying thank-you, I’ve included a preview of one my favorite stories – Are you up for another lonely billionaire in Vegas?! ;-)