Epilogue #2
His eyes darken. “Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy trying.”
Brookes groans. “Less sex talk in the diner. It’s a family establishment.”
I sip my milkshake again, slower this time, just to watch both of them suffer.
“You two are very easy to torment.”
“You’re lucky you’re pregnant,” Brookes says.
I blink innocently. “Am I?”
His gaze drops to my mouth. “Extremely. Hearing you make those sounds puts us both in mind of breeding you all over again.”
The diner door chimes again, and I look up, half-expecting another judgmental stare from a local.
Instead, Brandy walks in, still wearing her signature colorful scrubs from the care home.
She spots us, and her eyes light up as she makes her way over to our booth, her expression warm and professional.
“Janey! I didn't expect to see y’all here so soon,” she says, her gaze flickering between Mason and Brookes with a questioning tilt to her head.
“Celebratory burgers,” I say, patting my stomach and offering her a genuine smile. “We just came from the imaging center.”
Brandy leans against the edge of the booth, her smile turning curious as she takes in the way Mason’s arm is draped over the back of the seat behind me.
“You look wonderful, Janey. Honestly. There’s a light in you.
” She shifts her focus to the brothers. “Which one of you is on daddy duty in a few months?”
“Both of us,” Mason and Brookes say in unison.
“Alrighty,” she smiles. “You two take good care of her? I’ll be checking in with Angela, so don’t think you can slack off.”
“With everything we have,” Brookes says, his voice dropping into that serious, gravelly tone that always makes me feel like the center of the universe.
Brandy laughs, a warm, rich sound that cuts through the hum of the diner. “Lord, I don't know how you handle two of them. One rugged cowboy is too much trouble for me,” she adds with a wink.
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” I say, wiggling my eyebrows.
She shakes her head. “My life is complicated enough. Enjoy that milkshake. You’ve earned it.”
As she walks toward the counter to place a to-go order, a sharp thump hits the window beside us.
Brookes nearly jumps out of his skin.
Wade grins through the glass, palm still pressed to the window. Beside him, Joelle is laughing, with one hand resting on her small bump while Caleb holds Little C against his shoulder.
Little C waves both hands wildly.
I wave back, laughing.
A minute later, the diner door opens, and my bestie’s family spills inside.
“Well, well,” Joelle says as she reaches the booth. “Look at you three. Glowing after the ultrasound?”
I immediately pull the pictures from my purse. “Look.”
Her face softens at once. “Oh, Janey.”
She slides into the booth across from me, and Wade and Caleb settle beside her. Little C hovers impatiently until Mason lifts him onto the edge of the booth.
“That the baby?” he asks, pointing at the picture.
“That’s the baby,” I say.
He squints. “Looks like a bean.”
Brookes laughs. “That’s what I said.”
“You did not,” I say.
“I thought it.”
Mason taps the picture gently. “That’s the best-looking bean I’ve ever seen.”
Joelle wipes at the corner of her eye. “I can’t believe this is happening. Both of us.”
I reach across the table for her hand. Her fingers squeeze mine.
“Two pregnant best friends causing scandals together,” she says.
Wade chuckles. “This town’s never gonna recover.”
“Good,” Brookes says. “It could use some excitement.”
Little C climbs onto my lap and announces that he's going to help me drink my milkshake. Wade immediately slides it out of reach.
“Ask first, buddy.”
Little C looks up at me with enormous eyes. “Can I please help drink the baby’s milkshake?”
I burst out laughing. “The baby says yes.”
Wade gives him the straw, but only after a stern look. “Slowly.”
Little C takes one dramatic sip and smacks his lips. “Baby milkshake yummy.”
Across the table, Joelle grins at me.
And the people who stared when it was just my men and me? Now they're in a frenzy of whispers, and I still don’t care. Because when our families are together like this, our arrangement doesn’t feel strange. It doesn’t feel scandalous, impossible, or fragile.
It feels normal.
It feels like peace and security, and the kind of love people spend their whole lives looking for yet might not be lucky enough to find.
Brookes leans close to my ear. “You okay?”
I nod, watching Joelle tease Wade about ordering extra fries so he doesn’t steal hers. “Better than okay.”
Mason kisses my temple. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
And I am.
The final knot inside me loosened last week when Mom called.
I had stared at her name on my screen for three full rings before answering. Mason and Brookes had been in the kitchen with me, both pretending not to linger and both failing miserably.
Her voice was stiff at first, then it broke.
She told me things I never expected to hear.
About a mistake she made before she married my father.
About a pregnancy she never told anyone about until it was already gone.
Her parents would never have accepted a child out of wedlock, and the man she’d loved had disappeared the moment she confessed.
She told me she’d been young, terrified, and alone, and suddenly, so much of my life made sense. Her control. Her fear. Her obsession with appearances. The way she’d tried to steer me away from anything that looked uncertain or dangerous or too much like the cliff she once fell from.
It doesn’t excuse the way she treated me. It doesn’t erase the years of pressure or the way her love sometimes felt like a cage.
But it gave me an explanation, and somehow, that explanation became a bridge.