Epilogue
It was a hot, perfect August afternoon and we were all enjoying the sunshine together in the meadow; that taboo piece of land that our families had fought over for many years. Now, it belonged to all of us . Gone were the old animosities, the McKenna family and the Taylor-Joys were now not only connected by a marriage, they were united through friendship and respect.
I was sitting on the soft grass, making a daisy chain with my husband sitting above me on a chair and my sister and Mason beside us. Amy and Mason were now together and had been going strong for well over a year. She was sitting on his lap, lazily tracing one of his biceps with her fingertip.
My brother and Alex were also official now and were due to get married the following year. Having come out to us the year before, Mattie now wore his gay colours with pride. He was so happy, we all were. Mattie and Alex were made for each other, even Amy could see that now. Today they had joined us and were laid on their towels, closer to the water, sunbathing. Chrissy was sat with her feet in the water talking to her friend Daniella. They spoke behind their hands quite a bit which probably meant they were ogling Seth. He’d changed from a boy to a man quite rapidly over the last few months. He was stood with his chest out, wearing only board shorts, flipping burgers. Or should I say, burning burgers from the smell of it?
As Nixon started to massage my shoulders, I cast a glance around the area. My father, Nixon and Mason had built two wooden picnic tables that were placed at the top of the embankment that led down to the water. They were permanent fixtures now and we had shared several BBQs there over the summer. That’s what we were doing that day, soaking up the sun and each other’s company, eating and drinking. Although we were not quite at the eating stage, Seth seemed to be taking forever on the grill. It probably didn’t help that Boyd kept trying to interfere. Too many cooks and all that .
“Do you think we’re ever going to eat?” Amy pouted as she shuffled on Mason’s lap. I lowered the daisy chain I had been making, it was impressively long now but I had run out of flowers and couldn’t be bothered to go and find more. I was relaxed and Nixon’s fingers against my skin felt delicious. Why would anyone want to move?
“I must admit, I’m pretty ravenous myself, although not necessarily for food,” Nixon whispered sensually in my ear. His breath against my neck gave me goosebumps. I twisted and gave him a suggestive smile to say, we are totally on the same page. We just couldn’t get enough of each other. Our sex life was insane, like being on a rollercoaster that you never wanted to climb off.
“Come on you two, we’re fucking starving over here,” Mason suddenly boomed, making me jump. He had a mouth like a fog horn. He then lowered his voice and whispered in Amy’s ear, I didn’t hear what he said but Nixon did and it must have been suggestive.
“I heard that. That’s my sister you’re talking to with that potty mouth,” my husband said in a firm voice with a trace of humour. I loved the fact that he and Amy had buried the hatchet. They were quite close now and Nixon was extremely protective. To be honest, he looked out for all of us. He was the strongest and toughest of the McKenna family and pretty much ruled the roost. No one stepped out of line anymore. Even Boyd who was especially sweet to me now. Brotherly, almost . No one fucked with Nixon McKenna.
I grinned as Seth started to jab at Boyd with the BBQ tongues. The two brothers were hilarious and were constantly at each other. In a playful way of course. I enjoyed soaking up their banter. It was refreshing.
Nixon pushed my hair to the side, exposing my neck. His strong hands continued to work their magic. He then leaned forward and placed his mouth there and my pulse twitched.
“I’d better intervene or we’ll all starve,” Nixon informed us all with a sigh. He then pushed to his feet, stroking my hair as he stepped over me and moved towards the grill. Placing the chain, I had made on the grass, I lifted myself up onto his vacated seat, bringing me almost eye level with Mason and Amy. I watched my husband’s firm backside as he strolled over to his brothers with a determined grace. His broad shoulders and arms rippled with muscle.
“Alright, if you’re going to be a cock about it,” I heard Seth grunt.
As I shuffled further into the seat, I rearranged the skirt of my summer dress and leaned back, allowing the sun to warm my cheeks. It was heaven, the weather was so lovely and being in the company of those I loved the most always put me at my best. And of course, things hadn’t always been that way.
I shot a pained glance toward Orchard View, the scaffolding was still up around my parent’s house. It had taken over seven months to rebuild it after the devastation caused by the fire and it still wasn’t fully habitable. My family were due to move back in over the next few weeks.
After the fire. Everyone had pitched in, helping to clear the site. Nixon being the one to work the closest with my father.
It was very much a give and take scenario as my mum would also help Melanie with Mitchell. Nixon and the boys ran the farm now and it had become even more profitable. My parent’s farm had of course taken a slight hit after the fire. No fields had been damaged but orders had been late and we did lose one of our major clients. The business was gradually getting back on its feet but it was a slow process.
I had my own path to follow, career-wise. My accountancy course was going well and I had started to help at Lamb Hill with the financial side of things.
I thought back to that night of the fire and everything we had lost. Especially Nixon and me. It had taken months to recover and I still wasn’t completely over the loss of our child, and would never be. I didn’t allow myself to dwell on that too much. Those thoughts were decaying .
So as not to burden others, we kept our tragic loss to ourselves. Amy had found out by accident and was the only other person along with Melanie who knew about our loss. And that is how we wanted it to remain. Especially now.
The worst thing of all was looking back. Guilt stabbed into me like a knife whenever I thought about it. At first, I had blamed my inexcusable weakness. I still struggled to escape those terrifying echoes of the past but Nixon helped me. He was my rock. Now I had to be strong and focus on the future and the news we had received a few months ago, which had changed things. Made the loss slightly easier to cope with. I no longer allowed my mind to fully focus on that night. It was just too painful. But now, we had been given a second chance. I was almost four months pregnant. You couldn’t tell without looking, not really. Only a slight bump now.
Nausea stirred in my stomach. The Proctor twins were responsible for the fire that took our home and several other fires in the area, including the McKenna’s house. Their deliberate cruelty still appalled me. The sadistic swine.
They were now behind bars which was probably the best for them. At least in prison they were safe. Safe from Nixon who had vowed to make them pay. He’d even given a fake name and visited Tyler in prison so he could deliver a message. I didn’t need him to tell me what he’d said. It would have been somewhere along the lines of I’ll be waiting. It would have been interesting to have been a fly on the wall that day and watch Tyler squirm, but I didn’t relish the day they would be released. Hopefully by then Nixon would have moved on. If he had managed to get his hands on either brother immediately after our loss, he would have maimed one of them (or both). Both brothers had written letters of apology to both my sisters but as far as I knew, they remained unread. They both said in their statements that they thought the house was empty at the time. But how could you trust the word of liars?
Nixon’s anger at the situation burned slow and dangerous .
We didn’t talk about them out loud now, no one did. It enraged us all. The memory of that night was still quite fresh but as I said, I didn’t stay there for too long. It wasn’t good for my mental health and I needed to be calm and healthy both body and mind. I owed that to the new little life growing inside of me. We were going to share our news with our families over the next few days.
My train of thought was derailed by both Seth and Boyd, who whilst still arguing had jumped in the pool, attempting to bomb each other. Mason then lifted Amy off the chair and ran toward the water, jumping into the river with her in his arms. She squealed in both delight and shock. To think that my little firebrand of a sister had been tamed at last. She worshipped Mason as he did her. The fact that she had almost lost him in the fire was an extra grudge to bear in respect of the Proctor boys. Mason had now fully recovered from his head injury but he was scarred. A slight one across his head and a larger scar across his torso. Amy said it didn’t bother her as he looked even sexier. Like a pirate. I understood that scars could be deemed sexy.
A splashing war ensued, dragging my attention back from the past. Everyone was in their swimming gear and so it didn’t matter. I was the only one fully clothed. Nixon had attempted to teach me to swim but I still wasn’t confident in the water and due to the baby, I wasn’t to do anything out of my comfort zone. I had also stopped riding temporarily. Once I was past six months of my pregnancy, I would be fine to follow my usual routine, but until that time. I would do as the doctor and Nixon instructed.
“Mattie, Alex, grubs up,” Nixon said as he filled a plate with a couple of burgers and handed them to the boys who were now sat up and looking rather red from the sun.
“Oy, dickheads. Foods ready when you’ve finished behaving like twelve-year-old girls,” Nixon shouted over to Seth and Boyd who were attempting to fake drown each other. He ignored Mason and Amy who appeared to be sharing a moment. She had her arms around his neck and they were kissing .
As my husband walked toward me, I eyed his manly glory. I loved every oversexed inch of him. He was a work of art and so perfect, both inside and out. He moved with a wave of splintering, vibrant energy, dominating the space that surrounded him. Like a prowling tiger. He had that disturbing quality of raw sexuality but was still a strong, caring man who would do anything for me. He worked on the farm full time now with his brothers and his body was even more toned than it had been when he was a soldier. Physically he was gifted. My dark fallen angel. He also had regular sessions with a counsellor and was starting to come to terms with what had happened in the army.
Nixon moved the chair Mason had sat in further toward me and lowered his large frame into it. I also shuffled around, thanking him as he handed me a hotdog in a napkin. My tummy grumbled.
“You think our boy will like hot dogs? Mystery meat and all that,” Nixon said, taking a healthy bite of his burger. His strong jaw flexed as he chewed. He had a slight beard now which suited him. I liked the coarse feel of it against my skin and around those private places where it pleasantly tickled.
Taking a nibble of my hot dog, I carefully licked some sauce from the corner of my mouth before swallowing.
Nixon eyed the movement. He was probably turned on. Sexually, the man was insatiable.
“Our son or daughter,” I began, pointing out that the baby could be of either sex, “will like whatever I like, I imagine.”
He grinned. I knew he did it one purpose. The ‘it’s going to be a boy’ thing. Nixon would love our child no matter what the sex.
“Well, once he’s here. We can concentrate on making more,” Nixon said with a suggestive smile. His expression wolfish.
I raised my eyebrows, “And how many babies will you be wanting Mr McKenna?” I questioned, my eyes roaming over his strikingly male features.
“That’s easy. Five.” He didn’t even need time to think about it .
“Five!” I squeaked, a surge of surprise shooting through me. My goodness.
Nixon took another strong bite of his burger before saying, “Yeah. For my five aside football team.”
I grinned, “You don’t follow football,” I pointed out.
“Well, I would do if I had my own team,” he shot back with a cocky smile.
Nixon and I ate our food and spoke about the house he was building for us. We had decided to call it The Meadows after the place where we had first met. It would sit separately from the main farm house at Lamb Hill and would be ours. My dad’s architect was also helping with some of the designs. Part of the Foundations had been laid close to where the old fighting paddock was that the boys used for their fighting club. A club which was now defunct thank goodness.
At the end of the day, after the peace between everyone, there seemed less to get angry about and the boys worked so hard on the farm. This had replaced their need to let off steam. Even Boyd had hung up his designer jeans and got dirty.
It had not been an easy journey, over the last year. There had been highs and lows for everyone, but individually we had all grown and had come together.
Nixon and I were now well-cemented as a couple and were thoroughly looking forward to that next step of becoming a family.
I remembered those first few weeks when he’d come back from the army that first time. He had been so stubborn and refused to allow himself to get to know me. Nixon had said that my warm, affectionate nature had made mincemeat out of his defences. I remember how he’d fought our attraction and then one day just caved. That day he had taken me to the base and unearthed his demons.
He still struggled from time to time, but he had my support now as well as having the counsellor. We all needed help during our darker moments and let’s face it. Everyone had bad days .
But for most of the time, things were good. I had developed from a shy girl, who was at times nervous and quiet and had found myself. I still wasn’t overly argumentative and didn’t like conflict but I didn’t hide from things. I dealt with them and didn’t allow them to be buried. There were so many uncertainties about what to expect of the next couple of years, but Nixon and I had agreed, one step at a time. We would continue with our journey and there was no rush, we had the rest of our lives together. However, Nixon’s ambitions for his football team may have to wait a while!
I lovingly fingered my wedding rings, looking at the masculine beauty of my husband.
“If you keep looking at me like that Jenna, I may have to take you to bed and do depraved things to you,” Nixon promised. His voice was a sexual caress. Oh, I so hoped so. Nixon was an amazing lover. He had tutored me and together we had explored new depths to our sex life. Nothing was out of bounds between us.
My face lit up as I smiled.
In respect of the forbidden boy next door, what can I say? He was now my loving, yet at times volatile and domineering husband and I loved him. Him, and our unborn baby were everything to me. My world.
Since that first day at the pool where we’d shared our first kiss. It had hit me like a tidal wave and there had been no escaping it. Nixon McKenna had always been the man of my dreams and as our lips had met, I had well and truly fallen.
THE END