Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“Even Jack?” she asks me, and I nod. She signed away all rights to him.
“He’s ours,” I tell her, and she leans in, and right before she kisses me and seals the deal, she says, “You’re both mine.”
Epilogue Two
Epilogue Two
Twenty-two years later
Denise
“Would you stop that, Mom,” Jack says to me as I fix his bow tie for the hundredth time.
“I’m just making sure it’s on right,” I tell him. “You’re still my baby.”
“I know, Mom, but I’m nervous enough as it is. It doesn’t help when you are all over me,” he says, leaning in and kissing me. My son, that’s right, my son in every definition of the word, is getting married today.
“I’m so proud of you,” I tell him, this time fixing his jacket and dusting away fluffs.
“Dad!” Jack yells, and my husband comes in the room. I look over at him, and he still takes my breath away. We’ve been married for twenty-two years, and it feels like I met him just yesterday. “She’s doing it again.”
Zack laughs. “Just let her do what she needs to do, and it will make it that much quicker.”
“Why don’t you go and see if Joshua or Elizabeth need your help,” he says of his younger brother and sister.
“We are fine!” I hear my seventeen-year-old daughter yell from somewhere in the house.
“I don’t hear no one complaining about me when I’m making waffles,” I tell him, and Zack just laughs.
“The car is here,” Joshua, my twenty-year-old son, yells from somewhere in the house, most likely his bedroom.
“Come on, we can’t be late,” Jack says, kissing my cheek and walking out, leaving Zack alone with me.
“You going to be okay?” he asks, coming to me and moving the hair away from my neck. “You should be happy he found a girl who loves him to the moon and back.”
“I am happy. I’m just sad he’s moving out,” I tell him. “It won’t be the same without him.”
“Baby, just last week you said you couldn’t wait till he left.”
“That was different. I tripped over his shoes at the door,” I tell him. “He leaves them in the middle of the room. Is it so hard to put them on the side?” The only time Jack moved away from us was to go to college, but when he took a job at the Max Horton Foundation, I didn’t really give him a choice about moving back home.
He laughs. “Case in point.” He kisses my nose. “Now, let’s go before he has a hissy fit and becomes groomzilla.” I now laugh and walk out of the house, holding my husband’s hand.
We get to the church, and we stand here outside the doors. “We are proud of the man you’ve become,” Zack starts to say, and his voice trembles.
“Not you too, Dad,” Jack says, and the door opens, and we place our arms in his and walk him down the aisle. Our closest family and friends fill the church to the rim. I don’t even try to stop the tears from coming as every single moment from him growing up plays over in my head like a flashback movie. The good times, the bad times, the times we grounded him and he hated us, the times when he pushed his limits and we pushed back. It has all led to this point. When we get to the front of the altar, he turns and shakes Zack’s hand and brings him in for a hug, then he turns to me and hugs me, reciting the I love you forever poem.
“Thank you for being the best mother a guy could ask for,” he says, kissing me.
Zack puts his arm around my shoulder and leads us to the first pew as Jack walks up the altar and turns to stare back at the door. I feel a hand squeeze my shoulder and turn around to see Max smile at me.
We watch the bridal party walk down the aisle, and then the door closes once again. “This is it,” Jack says, and I watch him standing there in his tux with Michael next to him, his hands folded in front of him.
The wedding march starts, and we all get up, looking down at the closed doors until they open, and I think to myself who would have known that an innocent friendship that started so long ago would lead to this. My son waits at the altar with tears running down his face as Evie walks toward him.
The End.