Epilogue
Five years later
Flopping into the lawn chair, Megan sighed. She took a long, much needed drink of her iced tea. Summers in Ballagh were usually lovely, but it was sweltering today. After slipping off her flip-flops, she wiggled her bare toes in the cool, prickly grass and closed her eyes.
The sun was bright, even through her eyelids. If she tried hard enough, she could just about block out the craziness happening around her in her parents’ backyard for their now-annual Fourth of July picnic. Just about.
“Mom, Kyle won’t let me play with the squirt gun!”
Megan opened her eyes to see her four-year-old son pouting beside her. Jace’s little face was pinched, his dark brown hair glimmering in the sunshine with flecks of gold and red. He looked exactly like his father in every way—same perfect mouth, same strong nose, same devastating smile—except he had her pale blue eyes. And his were currently on the brink of tears.
“Moooooooom,” he continued to whine, bending his knees and jerking his body. “Kyle’s not playing nice.”
Megan looked over at Quinn and Ewan’s youngest boy. Kyle was holding a squirt gun that was bigger than he was. He hadn’t grown out of his cute baby chubbiness yet, and his cheeks hung down in pinchable deliciousness.
“Jace, honey, Kyle isn’t even two yet. You have to be patient with him.”
“But Mom, I was playing with that squirt gun, and he took it from me.”
“Is there another squirt gun you can play with?”
Jace looked toward the back deck, where his grandmother had lined up an entire arsenal of squirt guns, water balloons, and other water-related attack accessories. “Yeah, but I like the green one.”
“Let your cousin have the green one. Go grab that blue one.”
Megan took another sip of her tea as Jace sighed and slowly stomped toward the deck.
“Hey, honey,” she called, forcing him to look back at her. “I bet your father could use some cooling off. He’s been standing next to that grill for thirty minutes.”
Megan shot him a devious smile and winked. She saw the light bulb go off in her son’s head a second before he raced toward the unused but loaded squirt guns. Smiling to herself, she closed her eyes and let the sun soak into her face.
“Vindictive, Meg. I like it,” she heard her brother, Sean, say from beside her.
She opened her eyes to see that he’d pulled two lawn chairs next to hers and sat down. His skin looked incredibly tan against his pale pink polo shirt and light tan khaki shorts. His blond hair was cropped closer than she’d ever seen it before, but it suited him. He’d lost his frat boy look years ago.
Megan heard a deep yell followed by her son’s shrieks of delight. Megan and Sean looked toward the grill and laughed at James, who was being blasted with water by his son.
“When did you guys get here?” she asked her brother.
“Five minutes ago. Mom cornered us in the kitchen to show us some frilly baby shit. Why is it when you’re having a girl, everything has to be pink? Darcy loves purple, and now the babies, who haven’t even been born yet, apparently love pink. It looks like a unicorn got sick inside my house and threw up in every room but the kitchen.”
Megan giggled. It was some sort of poetic justice that Sean and Darcy were expecting their first child any day now, and they were having twin girls.
“Stop your bitching,” a feminine grumble sounded from behind Megan. “You’re not the one carrying giant monster babies inside you.”
Darcy came into view, shuffling across the lawn. She looked adorable in a sleeveless navy blue sundress and a pair of big, dark sunglasses. Her black hair was bluntly cut to her chin and she waddled toward them in a pair of lime-green flip-flops. “They’re either doing aerobics or they’re practicing for the Tour de France because they’ve been kicking me all morning. My poor liver.”
Megan’s heart went out to Darcy. She was hugely pregnant—just past thirty-seven weeks—and her doctors told her they’d induce at thirty-eight weeks if everything was looking good. Megan could tell just by looking at her sister-in-law that Darcy must have been wishing it was thirty-eight weeks like three weeks ago.
Before she could sit down in the chair Sean had set up for her, Megan’s dad yelled from the deck. “Darcy, wait, let me get you a better chair!”
Connor disappeared inside the garden shed and emerged with an Adirondack chair and a cushion. Sean met him halfway across the lawn to grab them.
“Thanks, Dad,” Darcy said to Connor as Sean helped her sit in the sturdy chair. “I don’t know what I was thinking trying to sit in that folding chair anyway. It never would have taken my weight.”
Sean chuckled as he sat back down and stretched his legs out.
“What’s so funny?” she snapped at him.
“You made a joke, woman. It was funny so I laughed.”
Megan couldn’t help but smile at her brother and sister-in-law’s constant but lovable bickering. She didn’t think the two of them would know how to communicate if it weren’t for sarcasm. They were both highly successful, Sean as CEO of Rolland Construction and Darcy as owner and president of Dovetail Interior Designs. But when they were together, they squabbled just like they’d used to as kids.
Quinn and Ewan picked that moment to come into the backyard, carrying their own lawn chairs. They walked hand in hand across the grass, looking every bit the happily married couple that they were. Ewan appeared relaxed in a pair of dark gray cargo shorts and a black polo shirt. Quinn wore a long yellow halter dress, her shoulders nicely bronzed from all the time she spent in the sun.
Shortly after finishing graduate school, Quinn had moved back to Ballagh and started her own landscaping business. It was a small operation, and she mainly worked residential jobs. But she was sought after from as far north as Boston to as far south as Providence.
Ewan, on the other hand, was still quite happy managing the family pub. But the big news there was that he’d bought the pub from Megan’s dad a couple years ago. He was now the proud manager and owner of Katie McMullin’s.
Quinn had insisted they buy a house instead of living in his one-bedroom apartment over the pub. Because Ewan couldn’t deny his wife anything, they’d settled just out of town in a quant craftsman house with enough land for Quinn’s massive garden.
As the two lovebirds got closer, Megan noticed Quinn had a lovely blush on her cheeks, and Ewan was looking smug. Those two couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. She would put some money on where they’d just come from.
“Hey, guys,” Quinn said, unfolding her chair. Ewan kept his hand on the backrest as his wife sat down. “Darcy, how are you feeling?”
“Like a whale,” she grumbled, rubbing her hand over her belly in slow circles.
“Darce, you’re not a whale. But if you were, then you’d be the most beautiful whale I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Sean replied with sincerity.
“I’m going to fucking punch you in the throat,” his wife grumbled, making everyone snicker.
Looking over his shoulder, Ewan asked, “Has anyone seen our children?”
A huge water fight had erupted on the far side of the house. James had an unfair advantage and used his position on the deck to pick off children one by one with his water Uzi. All the kids were involved in the battle. Cade must have taken a break from playing games on his tablet and was using a tree for cover from his father’s assault.
Jace was trying to take cover behind a bush with Gavin, Quinn and Ewan’s older son. And little Kyle was standing out in the open trying to catch the squirts of water from James with his mouth.
“Megan, I wish you guys could come to Kyle’s birthday party,” Quinn said, accepting a glass of iced tea from Connor. “We should have planned this picnic and his party better. Maybe next year instead of having two separate parties we can combine it.”
James, Megan, and the boys had flown into Boston in March for Gavin’s fourth birthday. When together, Gavin and Jace were inseparable. Quinn and Ewan had gotten pregnant almost immediately after their wedding, and Gavin had been born five months after James and Megan had welcomed Jace into the world. Kyle was turning two in a couple weeks.
Megan looked over at Darcy with a smile. “Next year we’ll have three birthdays to celebrate in July.”
Just then, Megan heard James yell out, “I surrender!” She glanced at the deck, where James was shielding his head as Cade, Jace, and Gavin soaked him with their squirt guns at point-blank range. Little Kyle was doing his best to help by tickling his uncle.
Cheers erupted from the victors as they gave each other high fives. Immediately, new teams formed, and it looked like it was Cade and Kyle versus Gavin and Jace. The kids took off to the side of the house to make their battle plans.
James’s light gray Cubs shirt was now dark gray and completely drenched. Megan wished he’d whip the shirt over his head and wring it out just so she could see his wide, strong chest with a speckling of dark brown and gray hair and those delicious V-shaped lower abdomen muscles.
After four years of marriage, seeing James without his shirt on still did things to her body. Tingles, goose bumps, dampness between her legs. He still did it all. He was the hottest forty-year-old Megan had ever seen, and he was all hers.
Every day when she woke up beside him, she thanked her lucky stars. It sounded cliché, but she really did fall in love with him a little more every day. He wasn’t only a good person, an excellent lover, and a supportive partner. He was so much more.
The part about James that she found irresistible was that he was an amazing father. He loved their two boys fiercely. Megan learned so much from just watching him with Cade and Jace. How to be more patient, how to be loving yet firm. She wasn’t only a better mother because of James, he made her a better person. And a happier one as well.
Although the day she’d given birth to Jace was probably the proudest moment of her life, the day she’d stood in front of a justice of the peace at the courthouse and vowed to love James Foley till death do they part was the happiest day of her life.
She’d worn a romantic white vintage dress with a lace bodice and three-quarter-length sleeves. James and Cade had looked dashing in matching dark gray suits. Jace, who had been three months old at the time and had slept peacefully in his carrier throughout the brief ceremony, had worn a onesie that looked like a tuxedo and a pair of Chicago Cubs booties. Both their families had been there, and it was perfect.
Megan loved her family and loved her life. She was still teaching second grade at the same school, and James was still working hard at Foley’s Auto Shop. He’d stopped working weekends and was home by six thirty every night. Around the same time that Jace was born, Abel Foley surprised everyone by tying the knot with Mary Lou. They were both enjoying retired life together in a retirement community along the shores of Lake Michigan.
Cade was thriving. He’d just finished up another baseball season as the starting short stop for his junior high school. Their all-star team hadn’t made it very far in the most recent tournament this summer, but Cade had a pretty good performance. He was doing fairly well in his studies, science still being his favorite subject. Just on the verge of teenager-hood, Cade was growing into a handsome young man.
Megan looked back over toward the deck. After taking the burgers from the grill, James handed the plate off to Connor, who wrapped it in foil and put it on the serving table. Her husband grabbed a bottle of water and stuck his head in the back door to say something to Katherine.
At the bottom of the deck steps, he kicked off his wet shoes and walked across the grass to where they were all sitting. Seeing James in his tan cargo shorts and bare feet, Megan wished she had sunglasses on so everyone else wouldn’t notice the hunger in her eyes.
“I’ve done my son-in-law duties for the day.” He sank down into a folding chair. “I think that means I can park it here for the rest of the picnic.”
Ewan smirked. “Until Aunt Katherine needs you to open a jar or something. You’re her favorite. She’s said so.”
Megan laughed. Her mother had loved James from the moment she’d met him. He was so patient and polite, and he was the only one who’d listen to her tell stories of their childhood.
He’d told Megan once that he really didn’t mind her mom. Although he could see how Katherine might annoy some people, she reminded him of his late mother.
“How are you feeling today, Darcy?” James asked.
“Hot,” Darcy replied, fanning herself with a paper plate.
“You are hot, woman,” Sean said, nodding suggestively.
“Shut up.” Although Darcy grumbled at him, Megan didn’t miss the loving look they exchanged.
This was nice. The six of them sitting in the backyard. Fate had worked its magic and brought three unique couples together, and they were all family now. Ewan and Quinn were holding hands across from where Megan and James sat. And Sean was sending some weird seductive winks across their tiny circle to his beautiful wife.
This was how everything was meant to be.
“Do you guys have the nursery ready for the babies?” James asked.
“Yep,” Sean answered, resting his ankle across his knee. “I just got the cribs together last weekend. Little tiny clothes have been washed and put in their dresser. The hall closet is jammed full of diapers. And I just made an appointment for a vasectomy. So we’re all set.”
Ewan snorted at Sean’s joke. “You don’t even know what you’re in for.”
“What?” Sean threw his hands up. “We’re gonna be fine. I’m good with women, remember?”
James laughed, reaching over and resting his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “You know what they say about having girls, don’t you?”
Sean rolled his eyes. “What?”
“When you have a boy,” James explained, “you only have to worry about one penis. When you have a girl, you have to worry about all penises.”
The humor drained from Sean’s face like water from a sieve. His look of horror was too much. Everyone, including Darcy, burst out laughing as Sean stared back at James, his eyes wide like saucers.
“Shit,” Sean whispered.
Just then, Katherine came out of the house onto the deck. “Lunch is ready!”
Excited voices grew louder as Cade, Jace, and Gavin came tearing around the side of the house, followed eventually by little Kyle, who was desperately trying to keep up. Their small group of adults got up and made their way to the back deck, where Megan’s mom and dad had laid out all the food.
Ewan walked over and scooped up his youngest son, nuzzling his nose into his cute little-boy tummy. Kyle squealed and squirmed with delight.
Although it shouldn’t surprise Megan what an excellent father her cousin had turned out to be, she still smiled every time she saw him interact with his kids. Never one to express too much emotion of any kind, Ewan hadn’t changed all that much. Except when he was with his wife and boys. The love that lit up his face when he played with Gavin and Kyle was enough to make anyone gush. Megan was so glad Ewan had found his soulmate in Quinn. He certainly deserved it and so much more.
Halfway across the yard to the deck, Megan heard a loud gasp from behind her. She turned around to see Darcy grabbing her belly and water running down the insides of her legs.
“Did you just wet yourself again?” Sean muttered to Darcy.
“I didn’t pee, you idiot. My water just broke!”
“What?” Sean and Katherine shrieked at the same time.
Darcy looked up at Sean and smiled. “It’s time.”
Sean’s mouth gaped open, and he blinked. “Time?”
Katherine came barreling off the deck and grabbed Darcy’s arm. “It’s all right, dear. Good thing you brought your hospital bags with you. Let’s get you to your car. Sean, don’t just stand there looking lost. Help your wife to the car!”
Sean jumped into action, his full focus on helping Darcy around the side of the house to the driveway. They all followed and watched as he gently got his wife into the passenger seat. When he ran around the front of the SUV, he just stopped and looked over at them.
“I’m gonna be a dad,” he said, clearly astounded.
Katherine gave him a quick hug. “Don’t drive like a crazy person. You have plenty of time to get to the hospital. Just get there safely.”
“Okay. Right. Safely,” her brother repeated.
Ewan stepped forward and clapped him on the back. “Good luck, brother.”
Sean nodded. James shook his hand and gave him another clap on the back and stepped aside so Megan could give her brother a hug. “We’ll see you at the hospital,” she told him.
“Hello! Woman in labor here!” Darcy yelled from inside the car.
Sean jumped into the driver’s seat, and they were off. The whole family waved after them before making their way into the backyard.
“Where did Uncle Sean and Aunt Darcy go?” Jace asked. “We haven’t even had lunch yet.”
“Your Aunt Darcy is going to go have her babies now,” James replied, messing their son’s dark hair.
“Babies,” little Kyle echoed beside Jace.
“Yeah, that’s right. Babies. Girl babies. Yuck!” Jace grunted. “Come on, Kyle, let’s go eat.” He reached down and took his cousin’s chubby little hand and pulled him along to the deck.
Megan took James’s big, strong hand in hers. He kissed her on the top of the head and smiled down at her. They lagged behind the rest of the family, who were making their way to the back of the house.
“Ten bucks Sean faints in the delivery room,” James said.
Megan laughed. “You think so?”
Nodding, James pulled Megan to a stop and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I almost passed out when Cade was born.”
Megan placed her palms on James’s chest and gave him a second. He was looking off in the direction of the backyard, but she could tell his thoughts were far away. Every once in a while, he’d be lost in thought with a sad yet peaceful expression. Megan knew he was thinking about Holly.
A year after they’d been married, James had gotten a call from his ex-father-in-law to let him know that Holly had died from an apparent overdose. The news hadn’t devastated James like Megan had thought it might. Although he’d mourned her, the idea that she was now at peace was a balm to his torment. They’d all attended her memorial service, and every year on Mother’s Day, they’d visit Holly’s grave.
Circling her arms around James’s waist, Megan rested her cheek against his chest. She closed her eyes at the steady beating of his heart and smiled when she felt his arms tighten around her.
“I think I want another baby.” His deep voice was soft and gentle.
Megan tipped her head back and frowned at him. “You do?”
His lips pulled into a sexy smile and his dark brown eyes brightened. “I want to try for a little girl. One who looks just like her mama.”
Megan bit her bottom lip as she considered the idea. She was thirty-five and James had just turned forty. She wasn’t worried about another pregnancy or being too old to have another baby. But the idea of nightly feedings and lots of diapers didn’t exactly get her excited. She’d thought before about adding to their family, but then always felt guilty since she already had everything she’d ever wanted.
“You know, little girls grow up to be teenage girls. And then they go off to college.”
Blinking, James frowned. “Why you gotta be such a killjoy?”
Megan laughed. “I’m just telling it like it is.”
“So I take it you don’t want any more babies?”
“I didn’t say that.” Megan shrugged. “I’m just so happy right now. I don’t know how I could be any happier.”
His answering smile warmed her entire body. “I think three kids is a great number.”
“Then we’d be outnumbered.”
He laughed. “But we’d always be the tie-breaker.”
“That’s true,” she replied, smiling.
“And honestly, the thought of you all big and round with my child growing inside your belly makes me want to carry you to the garden shed so we can start trying right now.”
He lowered his head and placed a warm peck on her neck. Shivers raced up her spine as she leaned into her husband.
“That does sound nice,” she whispered in his ear.
James pulled back and cupped her face. “You know how much I love you, right?”
“Yes.” Megan smiled, her heated eyes looking into his. “And you know how much I love you, right?”
“Yeah, sweetheart. I do.” He placed his lips against hers.
Not a day went by where they didn’t say “I love you.” They’d made a promise to each other to always be honest and keep communication open. They didn’t walk away from an argument until they’d reached some conclusion. That didn’t mean they always agreed, but they always tried to understand each other.
“Hungry?” he asked after breaking their kiss.
She nodded. Stepping away, she slid her hand down his arm and entwined her fingers with his. They walked along the side of the house toward the laughter coming from all the children in the backyard.
Every single day she’d given thanks for the life they'd been blessed with. The blessing of both her sons. The blessing of her wonderful husband.
And the blessing in the storm.
And exactly twenty-three hours and forty minutes later, the McKenna family welcomed their newest blessings, little Lyla and Lexi McKenna, who were born healthy, happy, and greatly loved.
The End