Epilogue Two

Allison

Five Years later

“I don’t wanna go to Gramma and Granpa, I wanna stay and fish,” my three-year-old blue-eyed monster Michael tells me.

I smile at him and lean in, kissing him. “But they are excited to see you,” I tell him, as he crosses his little arms across his chest and pouts. Yup, just like his father.

Michael sits in his car seat as I wait for his father to come to the car.

“Max,” I yell, “let’s go, please.”

I look up at the house and see my husband coming down the steps with my baby girl Alexandria in his arms, her tiny pigtails slanted on one side, her gummy smile looking up at her father. She has him wrapped around her tiny little finger and she’s only ten months.

“Dada, Dada, Dada,” it’s also the only thing she says. Even though I carried and breast fed, he’s the star of her show.

“Let’s go, my little princess,” he says as he opens the door and puts her in her seat, bending down to blow bubbles into her neck as she giggles. He closes the car door, wrapping his arms around my waist, bringing his lips down to mine, and then slowly trails kisses to my cheek and then down to my neck. He groans as I push him away from me.

“No,” I say, smiling. “That’s what you get when you bring your daughter in the bed with us, blue balls.” I open my door, getting in, and watch him walk around, opening his door and getting in.

“She was crying,” he says as he turns the car on and starts driving while he looks into his rearview mirror, smiling at his son, who looks exactly like him. He sees Alex from the mirror he has placed in front of her as she tries to eat her toes.

“She was playing you. That wasn’t a cry, it was a whimper,” I tell him as he looks over.

“She’s teething, you said so yourself,” he says as I look out at the window, leaving our summer home behind as we gear up for the next year. After we got married, Doug presented him with another five-year contract.  It’s Max’s last year, or so he says. Somehow I don’t believe him, but I will support him for however long he wants to do it.

The same time he gave Max his contracted he offered me the same one. It was a no-brainer for me until I got pregnant and had Michael. Max and I both decided that it would be too hectic for the baby with all the traveling and I didn’t want to leave him anyways. So I was now a stay at home mom, and I love every single second of it.

Training my replacement however was more fun than I care to admit, Olivier came highly recommended and let me tell you he was over the top.

We make it home a little after seven, having to stop more times than we would like with the kids. I get out, stretching my legs. I look at our home that we bought in Long Island. Gone is the loft. Well, not gone. Denise lives there now, but with the kids, we wanted—or Max wanted—a huge yard, so they can run and play, so we settled on a six-bedroom house. I shake my head as I open the door to get my baby girl out, who smiles at me as she reaches out her arms to me.

“Hi, princess,” I say as I put her on my hip.

She is content till she sees her father walk around the car and lunges for him. He catches her and throws her hands in the air.

“There’s my girls.” He tosses her in the air, catching her as she laughs.

We don’t make it far before Mom and Dad get here and honk the horn. “Gammy, Gampy,” Michael says as he runs to them, Cooper squatting down as he grabs him and tosses him up.

“You got so big,” my mother says as she gets to Cooper’s side and he puts Michael sideways so my mother can plant him with kisses.

“No more,” Michael begs as they walk to us and my mother sees Alex.

“There is my favorite baby girl.” She tries to get Alex, who hides her hands in her chest as she lies on her father, hiding in his neck. “Well, I see she hasn’t lost her love for dad.” She laughs as she kisses Max on the cheek. “Hey, son.” It didn’t take my mother long to fall in love with Max, and as soon as Matthew and Cooper saw that she accepted him, it was a little easier convincing them.

“Come see Mommy,” I tell Alex while I try and grab her. “So Daddy can bring in the things.”

She grunts out her displeasure in leaving her father. “Dada, Dada, Dada.”

I roll my eyes as I carry my whiny daughter inside the house as the boys unload the car. I place her down in the family room as she crawls over to her toys that she hasn’t seen in a while. She puts everything in her mouth.

“You look like you lost weight. Are you okay?” my mother asks and I just nod.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was a hectic summer. Alex was all over the place. I spent half the time running after her,” I explain to her as the front door swings open and Michael runs in.

“Uncle Matthew is here with Auntie Karrie,” he says as Matthew walks in with Karrie following behind him as the kids around them, all going to see Alex in the room, who shakes her hands up and down in excitement seeing all the kids.

“We brought pizza,” he says as he puts down the five pizza boxes he is holding on the island as Karrie smiles and places paper plates she is carrying beside them.

“Welcome home. Nothing says welcome home like twenty people showing up, right?” She looks at Matthew, who rolls his eyes.

“I wanted to come and see my niece and nephew. Kiss me,” he says as he walks into the room, picking up Alex, who grabs his face, pinching him as he tosses her in the air, blowing bubbles on her stomach.

“You look just like your mommy.”

She laughs, not understanding what he says, so she counters with, “Dada, Dada, Dada.”

“I look like my dad,” Michael says from beside him as Matthew looks down at him, putting Alex back on the floor and taking Michael, tossing him up.

“You may look like your dad, but you’re all Grant inside.”

“Horton,” Max says as he comes into the room. “Ignore your uncle. His old age is getting to him.”

I see Matthew whisper fuck you to him.

“You’re older than me.”

“Your sister keeps me young.” He winks at him and then Matthew throws his head back, groaning.

“Sick, sick, sick.” Then he turns back to Michael. “Did you practice your stick handling while you were gone?”

Michael shakes his head. “We went fishing.”

“Okay, fine, but tomorrow you come over and we can play hockey.” He puts him down, coming into the kitchen, grabbing a plate, and putting pizza inside.

“Did you get the e-mail Oliver sent everyone?” Matthew asks while chewing his pizza, “he is insane.”

“Why?” I ask as I cut a tiny piece of pizza and give Alex some as she sings da da da da.

“For the Horton Grant Pediatric foundation picture, he wants us all to be in our tux suits, with no pants.” Max tells me, leaning over and kissing Alex.

I laugh at the thought, “I mean it might be really really good.”

“You know some of the guys cover their junk when he comes in the room right.” Matthew says, “when you came in they would stand up and lift a leg to have it hang, meanwhile now they just cover it. It’s hilarious.”

Our quiet night becomes a welcome back party as everyone drops by. Even Zoe and Zara, who come in with candy for the kids. Luckily, I intercept it before they can give it to them. By the time everyone leaves, Michael is dragging his feet to his bed and Alex sleeps on her father’s shoulder, her hands under her. He places her in the crib as she fusses a bit.

“It’s okay, princess, Daddy is here.” He taps her bottom as she falls back to sleep.

I tuck Michael in as Max comes into the room, kissing him goodnight as he turns on his side and falls asleep before we walk out the door.

“You tired, angel?” He throws his arm around my shoulder and my stomach still gets butterflies.

I turn up, looking at him, the best thing to ever happen to me. The best thing that I could ever have wished for. My prince. Or now as he calls himself the king.

“What do you have in mind?” I ask as my hands already slide up his shirt.

He moans out as he picks me up and my legs wrap around him. “I was thinking a nice long shower.” He kisses my neck as his hands squeeze my ass. “A little back rub after that.” He closes the door behind us and goes to the monitors, turning them both on in case the kids get up. He is the best father in the world. “So what do you think?”

“That plan sounds so irresistible, just like you.” I lean down, kissing him, thinking that no matter how much we fought it, it would have always ended up like this. I would have always been his wife.

It was just something so irresistible.