Epilogue
I always see adults pour glasses of wine and only fill it halfway. And I’m like okay, one of us is doing it wrong, and I think it’s you.
— Keely to Dima
DIMA
I woke to a mouthful of cat hair.
I grumbled and shoved the cat that was closest to my face away, then rolled over to see if Keely was still in bed.
She wasn’t.
Though , I could hear the slight strains of her off-tune singing coming from somewhere beyond the master bedroom.
When I got up, I displaced three more cats, all of which let their displeasure be known.
“ Y’all are never sleeping in here again,” I grumbled.
Both the cats and I knew it was a lie.
Every night I locked them out, and every morning, they made their way into our room after Keely walked out.
Keely didn’t try to stop them because she thought it was cute.
But it wasn’t her waking up with cat ass fur in her mouth from a very fuckin’ fluffy cat sleeping on her pillow.
Dressing in shorts, a t-shirt and socks after I got ready for the day, I made my way into the kitchen and stopped dead when I saw Keely rocking my niece in her arms, singing to her.
Milena’s youngest.
Though Keely loved all of her nieces and nephews, she had a soft spot in her heart for Catalina .
Catalina was giggling her one-year-old little heart out as Keely sang “ My Girl ” by The Temptations .
Catalina saw me over Keely’s shoulder and squealed. “ Ima !”
I walked over and pulled Catalina into my arms, snuggling her close.
Catalina was one of the youngest of the Semyonov / Clayborne clan for now, but she would have even more young cousins soon.
One of which would be my very own.
I pulled Keely in close and pressed my hand to her barely-there swell of her belly and breathed, “ Morning . Sleep okay?”
“ I slept meh,” she admitted. “ This nausea thing is really making me rethink any more pregnancies.”
I pressed a kiss to her mouth and inquired, “ How did we end up with only Catalina ?”
“ Cutter went for a run. I was outside watering my plants when he was about to start. He had her stroller out and everything, but Catalina escaped and ran for me. I waved him off when he went to come for her and sent him on his run alone,” she explained.
“ And none of the other kids saw you do that?” I laughed.
“ It was still pretty early. Plus , I saw Nastya heading out with a back seat loaded down with kids and packages.” She smiled.
Shasha’s place was a little too far away from ours to allow for easy traversing for their kids, but Milena’s and Nastya’s kids acted like it was a competition when they saw one of them heading to our house. Then all of them had to head over.
“ When’s Cutter supposed to be back?” I asked.
Keely grinned lecherously then. “ I told him to take the morning. Milena’s off because it’s a holiday.”
I made a gagging face and walked to the fridge, pulling out bacon and six eggs.
The front door of our house opened and shut, and then I heard, “ Aunt Kee ! I want eggs, too!”
I pulled out the rest of the package and set them on the counter, turning just in time to see Nathaniel and Rosie coming into the room, with Desi hot on their heels.
“ I met Nastya at the post office and volunteered to bring them here because they saw Catalina going into your house.” Desi grinned. “ What’s for breakfast?”
I started to brown the bacon, and held Catalina the entire time, being sure to keep her away from the popping grease.
When it was time to cook eggs, I sat her down on the ground and she started toddling her way around our baby-proofed kitchen.
I was flipping my eighteenth egg over when the door slammed for a third time and Vivi ran in.
“ Me , me!” Vivi stopped at my side. “ I want sunny side up, though.”
Keely brought the other package of eggs out of the fridge and then opened another pack of bacon.
The only ones we were missing at this point were Lola , Brando and Redford .
But I felt like the cousins had this sixth sense that predicted they were all at Uncle Dima’s place, because I somehow knew they’d be over soon.
I was right, too, when the door opened just as I was plating every single kid a dish, even the littlest, Shasha and Brecken’s youngest, who was about nine months old now.
“ Uncle Dima !” Brando came barreling in. “ Mom dropped us off. She said thanks.”
I rolled my eyes and set the kids up at the long table in the dining room that got a lot of use now that I kept having random kids dropped off with no notice.
Some might be mad.
But I wasn’t.
Not when I saw Keely beam every time she was called Aunt Keely .
Half a year ago, at the courthouse in downtown Dallas , I’d made Keely my wife.
She was now Mrs . Keely Rose Semyonov .
And the last six months had been everything I could’ve ever asked for.
We’d talked relentlessly about children and had finally decided to take the plunge two months into our marriage.
She got pregnant six weeks later, and had suffered terrible morning sickness ever since, letting me know that we were one and done.
But that was okay with me.
I was happy with whatever she wanted to give me.
“ Hey , Uncle Dima .” Vivi’s eyes went wide. “ Can we go to the park?”
“ Actually ,” Keely said. “ We’re going to all go to your place and go swimming. I’m dying to get a little sun on my skin today.”
“ Aces !” Vivi cried.
So that was exactly what we did.
We hung out at the pool, slathered on so much sunscreen that we’d gone through an entire bottle before the end of the day, and ate so much junk food that Shasha would have to make a trip to the grocery store tomorrow.
And later on, when it was just us again, exhausted from the day and vegging out on the couch watching American Sniper together, I thanked my lucky stars for the life I now had.
“ You are awfully quiet over there,” Keely said as she turned toward me.
I grinned. “ Just enjoying my life, baby.”
She smiled and snuggled deeper, then fell asleep halfway through the most badass fight scene there was.
My hand went to her belly, and the smallest of kicks followed.
Life was good.
Five months later, our daughter Elisabetta Carolina Semyonov was born at eleven fifty-three in the morning.
When I saw my wife with our daughter, I knew right then and there, that nothing would ever hurt her.
Nothing .