Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Epilogue
She’s actually a very nice person once you feed her.
-Rafe when introducing Janie
Rafe
2 months later
This dress was everything.
My breath caught, and I stared as everything I ever imagined walked toward me down the aisle.
She was wearing a beautiful floor-length white dress. It was big, poofy, and reminded me of one of those Barbie dresses that were meant to be over the top.
The elegant train followed behind her and extended at least five feet in length.
She wasn’t wearing a veil at my request.
I wanted to see her eyes the moment she saw me.
I still had the flask of whiskey in my pocket, but that was for later when the party started.
I didn’t usually drink all that much, but a man should drink a little bit on his wedding night, right?
Janie’s eyes finally moved up and caught mine, and the smile she aimed in my direction was one that stole the oxygen from my lungs.
Her father, who was at her side, chuckled at my expression.
I felt like I’d been poleaxed.
She was so fucking beautiful that it hurt.
And I was one lucky SOB.
“Who gives this woman away?”
Janie’s father swallowed once. “Her mother and I do.”
Janie hiccupped.
And I knew then and there that her wedding photos would show that there hadn’t been but one dry eye in the house—mine.
Because I wouldn’t cry.
And not because a man didn’t cry.
Because I had her. I had our baby. I had everything.
My hand closed around hers, and I pulled her closer to me.
She smiled and came, not resisting at all.
And moments later, when the preacher asked if I took this woman, I said two of the most important words in the English language. “I do.”
Janie
6 months later
I opened my eyes and found a pair of scuffed motorcycle boots kicked up on the end of my bed.
I smiled at seeing Rafe’s feet there, mostly because it meant he’d gone to sleep finally.
He’d been up all night with me and then had stayed up even longer when I’d finally passed out due to exhaustion after giving birth, to care for our new baby girl.
I grinned at his exhausted slump.
“Remember holding you like this like it was yesterday,” Dad said, drawing my attention away from Rafe’s boots to him.
I smiled.
“I was never that small, surely,” I teased.
“Smaller,” Dad said. “You used to fit into two of my hands. Your chunk doesn’t quite fit.”
He showed me how she was overflowing his two hands.
I smiled.
My child was indeed a chunk.
A fat, roly-poly little perfect girl that I loved with all my heart already, and she was only a few hours old.
She looked exactly like her daddy.
She had an uncontrollable head full of black hair, tan skin, and the perfect bow-shaped lips that would grow into every girl’s dream lips one day.
Her eyes were a dark bluish gray, and I had no doubt in my mind that they’d turn even darker like her father’s since it seemed his genes were dominant.
“She’s a chunk for sure,” I agreed. “But she’s a short chunk. She was about eighteen and a half inches. They said she was short and fat.”
“She is,” he agreed. “And adorable.”
I felt my heart fill with love at the sight of grandfather and granddaughter.
“So how does it feel to be a granddad, Dad?” I smiled.
My dad sighed. “It feels like the whole fuckin’ world was handed to me all over again.”
My eyes filled with tears. “I completely agree with you.”
Twenty-four and a half years ago, he’d said the same thing about me the moment I was placed in his arms. And, when I’d held our little miracle in my own arms for the first time, I’d realized what my father meant when he’d said that to me when I told him I was pregnant.
“Your whole life will change. One second you’ll be just you, and the next your every thought will be of her. You won’t know how to function without first thinking about her.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
My father dropped his lips to the top of Abrielle’s head. “I love you, too, baby girl.”