Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Suddenly, she runs over to the window and then turns to me, biting her fingernails. “That’s him. I have to do it now. I don’t care if it’s dramatic. This is eating me up.”
She runs from the room. I stay in the bedroom, thinking of last week when I told Paul I was pregnant. He pulled me onto the bed, into his lap, despite his pain. He said I love you with an intensity I’d never felt before, even from him, and he’s mega intense.
Through the window, I watch as Sophie jogs out to the car to Kaleb. She hugs him, and they stay like that. She must be talking because his expression changes. A smile spreads widely across his lips, his body language beaming. He looks just like Paul did—the happiest man alive. They kiss, and then Sophie turns and sees me watching. She gives me a double thumbs-up.
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
Sophie
“Say hello to Mommy,” Kaleb says, following me around the baby’s room with the camera. He’s let his beard grow a little, as though he wants to do the whole hot Santa thing for Christmas. “Doesn’t Mommy look pretty in her new pregnancy dress?”
From the chair in the corner—the chair we’ll sit in when our baby is sleeping, and we want to be in here with them—I smile over at Kaleb. He’s only wearing his underwear since we just had some major steamy time in the bedroom.
Now, he’s working on the tape he wants to show our child one day. His wedding ring catches the light as he walks toward me, his muscles tense and defined like they always are.
“Mommy was top of her class for her first year of college, little guy… or girl.” He smiles at me over the camera. “We’re so proud of her.”
I rest my hand on the bump, my heart filled with so much love, my soul glowing. There’s never been a time in my life where everything has gone so perfectly, between Free Everywhere becoming even more successful and the pregnancy going well, mine and Gwen’s due dates being just weeks apart.
It’s all slotting together like a puzzle. It wasn’t easy at first, but we’re making it work. Just like a puzzle, each piece—me, my brother, my best friend, my husband—is focusing on the love. The happiness. The fact our children will always have each other as well as us.
“Can you really forgive me?” Gwen asked a few weeks ago when her pregnancy hormones were especially bad.
I had one hand on my bump, like I do now. I placed my other hand on hers. “I already have.”
Now, Kaleb kneels beside me, leaning down and kissing the bump. When he speaks, his warm breath shivers over my skin. “I can’t wait to meet you.”
EPILOGUE
FIVE YEARS LATER
Paul
It feels so good to be in the yard with the boys, knowing my body is finally at one hundred percent. It’s taken two surgeries and a crazy amount of rehab, but now, I chase my nephews Theo and Jake around the trampoline. My son, Carter, is at my side with a water pistol.
“Get ’em, Dad!” he yells, grinning at me. He always looks so much like his mother and, at certain angles, his aunt when he smiles like that. There are pieces of both Sophie and Gwen in him.
The boys run toward the back of Sophie and Kaleb’s yard, where she has the secret garden—tall hedges that lead into a short maze. Their Golden Retriever, Waggy, watches us as we sprint past.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Theo yells.
“We did it, Daddy!”
“Oh, hell, it’s an ambush! Get ready, Carter!”
We both aim our water pistols when Kaleb and Sophie spring out from behind the bushes, firing water at us, Kaleb laughing like he did when we were kids. I swear, he seems to get younger as the years go by, as he settles even more into family life. He says the same about me.
We all run out of ammo, and the boys predictably start wrestling. I watch them, a smile on my face, then share a look with Kaleb. I don’t have to ask him to know he’s thinking about when we were kids, how we’d always wrestle with each other just like that, not needing any excuse.
“Come on, boys,” Sophie says. “Let’s get some food. Who wants hotdogs, huh?”
“Hotdogs!” they yell, running toward the house.
“You’ve got the magic touch, sis,” I tell her. “But how are you going to stop us?”
I duck my head, moving toward Kaleb. He laughs and gets into a fighting stance, circling me.
“You two!” Sophie says, giggling.
Just like in my wildest dreams, when things first started with Gwen, she sounds happy. That’s all I ever wanted, for my little sister to have a life filled with joy.
EPILOGUE
ELEVEN YEARS LATER
Kaleb
“I’m bringing you boys because I think you’re mature enough to watch the movie,” I tell Theo and Jake, looking in the rearview as we sit at the red light. “But if you don’t think you can handle it—”