Two years later

Stella

“Daddy, Lydia put something in her mouth again!” Cannon yells.

“I’m closer, got it,” I call out.

I pluck my little dark-headed carbon copy of her father from the floor and sweep her mouth with my finger. “Got it, what the hell is this?” I pull out a black plastic square and examine it. “Cannon, this is a LEGO, we’ve talked about this before.”

“Sorry, Mommy.”

“Your sister could have choked on that. We have to be more careful when we pick up your toys. How about you look under the couch and make sure there aren’t any more?”

“Okay.” He drops to his knees and starts crawling all over the place feeling the carpet with his little hands. “Got one!” he yells holding up a red block.

“Oh boy, keep looking.” Now that he has a job to do, he’s on it. I walk back to my desk and put Lydia down next to her age appropriate toys.

Ash strolls into my office barefoot in my favorite soft jeans holding two cups of coffee. “Oh my savior, thank you.” He hands me the cup of steaming black energy.

“You’re welcome, darlin’, what did our little lady have in her mouth this time?” He looks across the room where Lydia has speed-crawled away from her toys to find her big brother.

“A LEGO. He, or I guess I should say they, are searching for more."

“Find any?”

“Yep, one.”

He rolls his eyes and props his ass on the corner of my desk. The same desk that I can’t look at without thinking of the day he gave it to me two years ago.

“Maybe we should ban tiny toys from the house until she’s oh, I don’t know, thirty?”

“No, that’s not fair to Cannon, we just need to be more diligent and observant. It’s all about the details, you know?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” He sets his coffee down and takes mine from my hands placing it next to his. “Come here,” he says, pulling me from my chair where I’ve been studying for my finals.

“I have a surprise for you.”

Looking at him sideways, I warily take a step away, “Oh no you don’t, the last time you said that you gave me a pregnancy test. I am 100% sure I’m not pregnant. One. Hundred. Percent.”

He smiles and kisses me softly. “I know, this one is a little less life-altering.”

I slide my hands around his neck and curl my fingers in his hair.

“Well, come on then, you better tell me before our daughter finds another potential choking hazard on the floor.

“When you’re done acing all your finals we are taking a vacation to Malibu.”

“What? Really? Can we go to the beach?”

“Even better, we’re staying on the beach.”

I throw my arms around his neck and squeal. When we got married in Hawaii, my morning sickness kicked in full-force two days after the wedding, and we had to cut the honeymoon short. Ash knew how disappointed I was that we never got to go back with everything that’s happened in our lives.

“We’re going on vacation?” Cannon asks lugging his baby sister across the room on his hip. That girl can move fast. I just set her down next to me ten seconds ago.

I look at Ash to make sure it’s a family vacation. I have never left Lydia with someone longer than it takes to run into town and I don’t plan on starting now.

“Yep, two weeks in our new house on Malibu Beach. I bought a vacation home.”

I step back and shove him in the chest, “No way! We have a house on the beach? By the ocean, like it’s ours, and we can go whenever we want?”

He laughs and relieves Cannon of Lydia, lifting her into his arms. She squeals and laughs when she sees her daddy, just as she always has. She is a big time daddy’s girl, and he loves it.

“Yeah, it’s a big place with a private beach. You should tell Charlotte and Beau. They can use it, too.”

I clasp my hands in front of my chest and bounce up and down on the balls of my feet. “Maybe they can come and join us for a few days when we’re there?”

“Sure, call ‘em up and invite them along.”

“I’m gonna teach Lydia how to make a castle in the sand,” Cannon announces.

“That’s awesome, buddy. You’re such a good big brother. She learns so much from you. Don’t let her eat sand, though, okay?”

His smile lights up the room, “I won’t!”

I step back into Ash’s space, he pulls me under his arm, and Cannon wraps his arms around our legs in a big family hug.

“I’m so glad my dad insisted I go to the cattle convention instead of the beach two years ago. My life would be so different now.”

“Our lives would be so different, too. Is that your way of saying you’re happy, darlin’?”

“Yeah, more than happy, so much more.”