Epilogue
One month later
Carter
“Merry Christmas!” my moms whispered as they came into the house carrying armfuls of presents.
“What is all of that for?” I asked at my normal volume.
“Oh! Is Elliott awake?” my mama whispered.
“Yes.” I rolled my eyes. “As always.”
I knew that wasn’t actually the case. Babies slept more than anyone else, but the times were so spread out and random that it made it feel like he was always awake. Thank god for maternity leave. I don’t know how I would get any work done with his current schedule.
I pointed to the gifts. “Really, though, what is all of that? You did not need to get that many presents.”
“We didn’t,” my mom said cheerfully. “There’s more in the car, don’t worry.”
Damn, these women were crazy. “At least tell me they’re not all for Elliott.”
My mama laughed. “They aren’t. Don’t worry. Only about one third of them are for him. The other two thirds are for Eliza.”
My mom reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope. “And this is for you and Jax.”
“How exciting,” I said sarcastically.
The only bad thing about having kids was that all of the exciting, fun gifts went to them. Our gift was money, which would most likely go toward paying bills. Oh what fun.
I grabbed some of the gifts from my parents, then went back out to the car with my mom while my mama went to relieve Jax from baby duty AKA spend time with her grandson.
“Read any good books lately?” I asked my mom while we walked to the car.
“No. I’ve been too busy staring at pictures of my adorable grandbaby. I heard there is a really amazing book coming out next month though.” My mom playfully elbowed me in the side. “I hear the cover designer isn’t so shabby either.”
I smiled at my mom. There were fewer things that made me happier than sharing this with her. I loved the fact that the woman who passed down her passion for romance books to me now made the covers for mine. It really was magical.
It truly felt like all of my dreams had come true. Even with the sleepless nights, I couldn’t ask for a better life.
When I let out a contented sigh, my mom shared a sweet, knowing smile with me. “You seem really happy. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen you this happy.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. I was honestly just thinking about how this life is like a dream come true. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s real.”
My mom leaned closer to me. “Can I tell you a secret? Sometimes I still have to pinch myself too. Honestly, I probably do it more now than when I was your age. Watching my kids grow into wonderful humans, loving on my grandbabies.” She elbowed me again. “Loving on my wife.”
I cringed at the last part. “Ew. I don’t want to hear about that.”
“Hey, you should feel lucky to have parents who love each other as much as your mama and I do.”
I sighed, because I knew she was right. “I do feel lucky. I just don’t need to hear about how you love each other.”
My mom smirked at me. “Consider it payback for that Christmas a few years ago.”
I cringed again, because I knew exactly what she was referring to. The great vibrator back scratcher incident. “Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore.”
As much as I didn’t want to think about my parents’ intimate lives, I wanted them to think about mine even less so. Gross.
“Fine.” My mom opened the back of her car that was filled with even more presents than they had already brought into the house. “Help me with these?”
I rolled my eyes. “No problem.”
“When are Jax’s parents getting here?” my mom asked as we walked inside.
“They’ll be here in a little while. We are going to time it out with when we start doing gifts because they are picking up a certain special gift and bringing it here.”
My mom wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m so excited. Do you think Eliza has any idea?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue.”
“So, how soon is a little while?” my mom asked. She apparently had even less chill than Jax who had been trying to convince me we should give Eliza her big gift early for weeks.
“Once I put these presents down, I’ll check if we got an update.
” I set the presents down on the floor right inside of the door and took my phone out of my pocket.
There was a text from Jax’s mom telling us that they were about a half hour away from the spot they were picking up the gift, which was about fifteen minutes from us.
“They should be here between forty-five minutes and an hour.”
“Perfect.” My mom started down the hall. “Enough time to snuggle my newest grandbaby.”
When we got another text from Jax’s mom, letting us know that they had just picked up the gift, we headed to the family room to start exchanging gifts.
“Shouldn’t we wait for grandma and grandpa to get here?” Eliza asked.
My heart warmed. I loved how she called Jax’s parents Grandma and Grandpa and my moms MawMaw and MomMom. She still called Jax and I by our first names, but I knew she saw us as parental figures, because she had hinted at it many times.
I put my arm around Eliza. “They will be here soon. We are just letting you get a head start on your gifts because there seems to be a lot of them.”
My mama shrugged. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” Jax said with a laugh.
My mom took a break from staring at the baby in her arms to smirk at us. “You’re right. We’re not.”
I gave Eliza the small pile of gifts from us, which mostly included clothes. Eliza looked at the gifts then back at me and Jax. “Just me? What about everyone else?”
Jax nodded at the pile. “Well, you have more gifts than the rest of us combined, so you might as well get some out of the way.”
“I-” Eliza paused as if she didn’t know what to say. “I just never expected Christmas to be like this. I didn’t really know it could be like this.”
Jax walked over to Eliza and wrapped her in a hug from the side. “Get used to it, kid.”
I wrapped my arms around her from the other side. “It’s only going to get better from here. I promise.”
Eliza opened her gifts from us and just as she was opening the last wrapped gift, we got a text from Jax’s parents saying they had arrived. We told them to come inside and all exchanged hugs and greetings.
Once that was over, I turned to Eliza. “We actually have one more gift for you.”
Jax put an arm around me. “But you need to go outside to get it. It was too big to bring in the house.”
Eliza furrowed her eyebrows. “Too big for the house? What is it?”
Jax pointed toward the front door. “Why don’t you go outside and check?”
“But put on your coat first,” I added. “We don’t want you to get sick.”
As Eliza put on her coat, the rest of us did as well, aside from Jax’s mom who volunteered to stay inside with Elliott.
As soon as Eliza walked outside and saw what was in the driveway, she gasped. “Is that for me?” she asked as she sprinted toward the pink SUV. “You got me a car?”
“We did.” Jax laughed joyfully. “Now, don’t get too excited. It’s definitely not new, but we figured you could use your own car to get around.”
After opening the doors and studying the car from front to back, inside and out, Eliza sprinted back to us and wrapped her arms around both of us, squeezing us into a tight group hug. “You two are the best. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“You deserve all of the best things in the world,” I said while I continued to hug her.
Eliza insisted on taking Jax and I for a ride in her new car, so we did that while the grandparents stayed home with Elliott. Once we got back to the house, we continued to open presents.
After most of the presents were unwrapped, Eliza picked up a small one and handed it to me and Jax. “This is for you. It’s not anything big. Definitely not a car. But I hope you still like it.”
“I have no doubt that we’ll-” My words were cut off when I noticed what was written on the wrapping paper.
I ran my hand over the words as if I was trying to figure out if they were actually there.
After blinking a few times, they still hadn’t disappeared, so I knew that it really said, To: Mom and Mama, From: Eliza.
Tears came to my eyes as I continued to stare at the words.
“It doesn’t matter what’s in here, because you just gave me the greatest gift in the whole world. ”
I set down the gift and hugged Eliza harder than I ever had before. “I’m so so proud to be your mom.”
Two more arms wrapped around us and I could feel Jax shaking against me as she sobbed into my shoulder. “And I’m so proud to be your mama. So damn proud.”
When we pulled out of the hug, we were all crying. Eliza wiped at her eyes. “Wanna see what’s inside the wrapping paper?”
I couldn’t say anything so I simply nodded. I carefully removed the wrapping paper, making sure to keep the part with the writing on it intact so I could save it. I wanted to remember this moment forever.
Inside was a picture frame that had “Family” written on it and a picture of me, Jax, Eliza, and Elliott right before we left the hospital. “It’s perfect,” I whispered.
Jax put an arm around me and Eliza and smiled at our baby who was asleep across the room. “That’s because our family is perfect.”