Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Suddenly there are footsteps behind me, pounding loudly, and the door to my office snaps open.
I swivel in my computer chair.
“Jade? Where’s Gloria?” Jamie says, standing there completely naked from the shower, water dripping down his face and over his body.
Guilt pricks at me when I realize that I’ve just screamed at the top of my lungs as if I’m in danger, a bad idea especially when my husband is so protective, if not the most protective security conscious people in America.
“I’m sorry,” I say, springing to my feet.
I gesture to the baby monitor that sits on my desk, a few cooing noises sounding as our daughter has her late afternoon nap.
“It’s good news. I think I just got a bit carried away.”
“What is it?” he asks, grinning as he swaggers naked across the room, his massive manhood bobbing. “Or is this just a ploy to get me in here naked, eh?”
I giggle and meet him halfway, wrapping my arms around his hot, hard shoulders and blinking back tears of pure starry joy.
“My agent has found a publisher for my book,” I tell him. “And they want to offer me a crazy good contract, like the sort of contract that’s so good I’m hardly even sure I deserve it.”
“Of course you deserve it,” he snarls with passion thrumming beneath his words. “You’ve worked so hard for so long. Jesus, Jade, I’m so proud of you. I always knew you’d shock the world if given the chance, and now you’ve got the chance.”
“I love you so much,” I whisper.
“I love you more,” he growls.
Just then, Gloria makes a sleepy babbling noise from the baby monitor, her gorgeous singsong coo almost sounding like it says, I love you too.
I laugh in delight.
“Am I going crazy?”
“It did sound pretty close,” Jamie smiles. “But it’s too soon, right?”
I giggle and tilt my head at him.
“Yes, Jamie, three months is too soon to be speaking in sentences.”
He chuckles and leans in closer to me, his warm breath making me feel protected and safe and more loved than I can hardly believe.
“She is your daughter,” he grins with pride beaming from every part of him. “She’s bound to be precocious.”
Extended Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Jamie
I have to bite down to stop from laughing as I step backward, deeper into the closet.
A man of my size is way to be big to be hiding in closets.
But then there was a time when I thought a man like me was to ice cold to be playing hide and seek with his two rambunctious twin sons and his little obsessed-with-horses daughter, so there we go.
The only one not playing is Gloria, who’s helping her mother cook supper in the kitchen.
Jamie Junior walks around the bedroom, partially visible to me through the slats in the closet door.
Everybody says that the twins look exactly like I did at their age, with their jet black hair and pale blue eyes.
But when I look at them – when I look at all the children – all I can see is the love pouring out of them that’s one hundred percent, Jade.
My soul soars every time I think about Jade, my perfect wife, the perfect mother.
Even as she writes bestseller upon bestseller – many of them being made into Hollywood movies – she always has time to help our children with their homework and their hobbies.
We always find the time, between our busy careers, to come together in sweet family scenes that make life worth living.
“I know you’re in here, Daddy,” little Jamie says, turning in a small circle in our bedroom, his eyes narrowed as he scans every corner of the room. “I’m the bestest spy in the world. Remember? So I’m gonna spy you out. And I know you’re …”
He throws himself to his knees.
“Under the bed!”
He looks under the bed and then stands up with such a mega pout I have to clamp my hand over my mouth to stop the laughter from exploding.
“Okay, fine,” he grins, pacing over to the ensuite. “I know you’re …”
He leaps into the bathroom, the electric lights switching on automatically.
“In the shower!”
He huffs and puffs his way back into the bedroom, and then I can’t take it anymore.
First, one laugh escapes me and then another, and then it’s like somebody has cast a spell on me.
All the love and pure joy of this moment come barreling into me, and all I can do to release it is laugh and grin like the luckiest man alive.
“Jack, Lily,” Jamie Junior calls. “He’s in here. I found him.”
Soon Lily and Jack are in the room, joining their brother as the three of them move toward the closet.
At the last second, I explode from the closet and sweep them all into my arms, lifting them high and tackling them playfully onto the bed.