Series Epilogue
NOELLE, RACHEL, KATIE
Five Years Later
Noelle
Jack put the car into park after pulling into the driveway at Noelle’s parents’ house, and then they all started getting out of the car. Gabriel, her son who was turning six tomorrow, started running up the curved sidewalk toward the door.
“Gabe, honey,” she called out, “will you come back and help your sister so she doesn’t slip on the snow?”
Her four-year-old daughter, Evalena, had just gotten out of the car, put her hands on her hips, and said, “No, I can do it by myself,” just as Gabriel said, “It’s not slippery.”
“Can you help carry in the presents then?” Jack asked, which were apparently the magic words, because Gabe was back in a flash to help, begging his dad to load them up high on his arms.
Noelle opened the back door and helped her one-year-old, Leo, out of his car seat and into her arms. He was the sweetest little boy with the softest curls. She gave him a kiss on the cheek as Jack got their dish of freshly roasted cinnamon butternut squash out of the trunk. He came over to her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and placed a kiss on her temple. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
She smiled and gave him a kiss right on the lips. Christmas Eve— her birthday— got busier with the birth of each of their three kids, but Jack never ceased to make her feel like she was worth the sun, the moon, and the stars every time.
Actually, he never ceased to make her feel like that every day, not just on her birthday.
As they went around the car and to the sidewalk, Evalena was still standing in the same spot, just gazing at all the decorations that covered the front lawn. She looked up at them with her big eyes and said, “They’re just so beautiful! Don’t they make you want to cry because they’re so pretty?”
Noelle loved that Evalena thought so. All of her kids loved Christmas. She made sure they were all growing up enjoying the same traditions that Noelle had loved doing with her gran-gran. And she made sure they knew all about the woman she’d loved so fiercely so she wouldn’t ever be forgotten.
“They are beautiful,” Jack said, and he leaned down to hold her hand with the hand that wasn’t holding the baking dish and walked with her up to the front door.
Noelle followed behind with Leo, taking in how adorable it was to see her husband holding her little girl’s hand. She would never tire of seeing that. Or of seeing him care for and play with any of their kids. She had known Jack would be a great dad by seeing the way he interacted with his nephew, Aiden, when they were first dating, but it had grabbed hold of her heart like nothing else to see him with their own kids.
They went inside and greeted and hugged her parents, Becca and her family, and Hope and her family, and then she got Leo settled and playing with some blocks that her parents had placed near the Christmas tree.
When the front door opened, she leaned forward to see around the wall toward to see Nick and Rachel come in with Aiden and Holly. Holly must’ve had a hockey game or practice because she was wearing her team’s jersey, looking pretty proud of herself. Aiden walked beside her, holding a present in his hands.
She couldn’t believe how tall the two of them had grown! They were both thirteen, so she guessed it was to be expected, but they had just shot up in the past little while. Aiden might have passed her height, even.
She got up off the floor to greet Jack’s sister and her husband. Then Jack put an arm around Noelle, gave her a squeeze and a kiss to the temple, and said, “I’m going to help out in the kitchen. Have a seat on the couch and socialize. You’ve had a long day and it’s your birthday— kick your feet up.”
“You’re the best, you know that?”
Jack gave her that smile she loved so much. “I try to be.”
Rachel
In the festive home where Rachel and her family now spent every Christmas Eve, she hugged all her brother’s in-laws who had become her family as well. She loved this place and she loved these people.
Nick went up to their nephew, Gabriel, and, crouched down, said, “How’s my favorite six-year-old?”
“Great!” Gabe said. “Because not only is it my mom’s birthday, but Santa is coming tonight, and I really hope— and I mean crossing-all-my-fingers hoping— that he brings me this Lego set I’m really wanting. And not only that, but tomorrow is my birthday! This really is the greatest time of the whole entire year.”
“It sure is,” Nick said. Then he turned and chatted with their niece, Evalena, his “favorite four-year-old,” and then he told Leo that he was as cute as ever.
Gosh, she loved this man. She loved seeing how great he was with kids, especially with her brother’s kids, and she loved seeing him with their own kids. Even now, as Aiden and Holly were entering their teenage years, he was still great with them. Even when they really tried to test exactly how much patience he had. So far, Aiden and Holly had learned two things— that they still hadn’t seen the limits of their dad’s patience, and that he loved them unconditionally.
As soon as Julianne and her family came in the house, their ten-year-old, Tommy, called out “Happy birthday to Noelle,” and everyone else replied with “And to Noelle a good night!”
Aiden, present in hand, sat down on the couch next to Noelle. He might be an official teenager now and had been growing like crazy lately, but he still never lost the way he sat down with a bounce anytime he took a seat on the couch. He handed the gift to Noelle and said, “I made you a birthday present.”
“You have a present for me? Aww! And you made it?”
Aiden’s smile was wide as his Aunt Noelle opened the package. It was a ten-inch square piece of art that was maybe two inches thick and made of resin. He had poured the resin in layers, carving parts of the intricate lines of a snowflake into each layer with a little tool before adding the next layer. Each of the layers was a slightly different shade of blue or silver, and the end result was a beautiful masterpiece. The artist that her little boy had turned into never ceased to amaze her.
Noelle was pretty amazed, too, and so touched. It warmed her momma heart to watch their interaction. Nick came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her. She reached up to place her arm on his and leaned her head into his arm.
Then her eyes caught her daughter in the kitchen as she went up to Connor. Connor had been cutting Brussels sprouts but stopped when she neared and came around the counter to talk to her. “Did you win?”
“Still undefeated!” Holly said with a grin on her face that hadn’t left since the game yesterday.
Connor put out his palms and she slapped them with hers, then put out her palms and he did the same, and then they bumped fists. “Right on! Did you score?”
Holly folded her arms, looking pretty satisfied. “Twice.”
“We’ve got some pretty great kids, don’t we?” Nick said, his breath warming her ear.
“We do,” Rachel said. “And a pretty great life.”
Nick had been able to continue working four days a week at home, only going into the office one day a week, for their entire marriage. It had allowed her to do really well at her job, knowing that he was able to take care of things on the home front as needed.
Plus, she had passed the five-year mark of being cancer-free over a year ago. Which meant that she no longer had to have that deep down, constant worry that it could come back. She hadn’t realized how big a part of her had been worrying without her even realizing she was doing it until that threat was gone and she experienced the freedom of living without it.
She looked around at everything. At this big, beautiful family. At Aiden and Holly. At her husband, Nick. All of them together, celebrating Christmas. All of this wasn’t anything she was sure she would ever get. It made having it all the sweeter, and she would never stop being grateful for every single bit of her incredible life.
She turned so she was facing Nick and wrapped her arms around him. She gave him a kiss on the lips, then said, “Thank you for being part of what makes my life so great.”
Nick grinned, not entirely following her train of thought, but clearly enjoying it.
Katie
Katie and Connor had been trying to get pregnant from pretty close to the day they got married five years ago. In the beginning, it was fine that each month they found out that they weren’t. The extra time they had with just the two of them gave them a chance to really bond as a couple and to figure out who they were separately, who they were together, and how to best support each other.
And it gave her time to figure out life being married to a hockey player who had 82 games a year, all while her company was growing at a rate fast enough that she was constantly having to figure it out anew.
But as the years went on, it became a lot harder. They both just really really wanted children. As much as she loved holding each of her new nieces and nephews, the emotions she experienced as she did were so much more complex and difficult when they wanted so badly to have their own.
And now they were. The fertility treatments they’d been doing for what felt like an eternity had finally worked. Not only had they worked, but they were going to be having twins. She was now thirteen weeks along, and things looked fantastic and the babies were so healthy. After their last doctor’s visit, she and Connor decided that they were ready to share the news with everyone.
And because it was Christmas Eve and she was going to be showing the annual Allred Family Christmas Video that she made every year, they decided that they would make the announcement part of the video. She’d made a lot of these videos over the years, but none of them had been as fun— or made her tear up as much— as this one.
Since she filmed events for a living, she made sure to have the camera rolling at all the important parts of their lives. The video tonight had clips of them with their eyes glued to the pregnancy test that Katie held, waiting for the results, and the jumping up and down, cries of joy, and hugging when it revealed that the test was positive. The doctor’s visit where they confirmed it. The looks of surprise, joy, and lots of shock during the ultrasound when they found out that two little babies were growing inside her.
Her stomach was getting all fluttery just thinking about pushing play on that video tonight and watching everyone’s reactions to the news.
It had been a long, hard journey to get to this point. But after facing all the emotional, physical, and mental struggles of infertility together, she and Connor were so much stronger as a couple than they ever could’ve been without. Katie was sure they could face absolutely anything together, side by side. Connor could be traded to another team across the country, or even Canada, the day before she gave birth to her twins, and they could handle it.
She looked over at him from where they were cutting up vegetables next to each other in her parents’ kitchen. After making sure no one was close enough to hear, she said, “Please don’t get traded to another team the day before I give birth.”
He chuckled. “I won’t.”
She knew he wouldn’t. Her due date was in the off-season, so if he did get traded, it wouldn’t be rushed like it was when he was traded to the Glaciers. At least she expected the births to happen in the off-season. But the Glaciers could go to the playoffs, and she could have the twins early. Twins usually came early.
“But even if you did, we could handle it, right?”
He gave her a kiss. “Together, we can handle anything.”
“Even twins.”
He nodded. “Even twins. Especially twins.” He cut a few more carrots, and then paused before adding, “Maybe even a move.”
Katie’s eyebrows rose. “A move?”
He lifted a shoulder. “What do you think? We’ve always talked about moving back here when we have kids. I don’t think we should hold off just because I might get traded to another team someday. I might stay with the Glaciers until I retire from hockey. And it’ll probably be easier to get the house before the babies come because then we can get it ready for them.”
Katie let go of the knife and the cauliflower she’d been cutting and turned to face Connor, putting her hands on his cheeks, and pulled him toward her, planting a kiss on his lips. She hadn’t even realized that a happy tear had escaped her eye until she felt its wetness as it made its way down her cheek.
She pulled back just a bit but kept her hands on his face. “I think we’re ready for all of it, Connor. The house, the babies, and whatever life throws at us.”
“I think we are, too,” he said and kissed her again.
Want to read more Christmas romances by Meg?
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