Epilogue
“THANK YOU for the cookies, Miss Ellen,” Grant told the landlady after Willy had explained their future plans. They had been in the apartment for almost nine months, but their time here was coming to an end.
“Yes, thank you for everything. You came through for us when we needed it most.” He was so grateful to her.
“I’m glad we could help. And you were good tenants,” she said with a smile. “I have new renters coming in ten days, and I wanted to make sure that you’d be finished moving.”
“We’ll be getting the last of the things moved today, and I’ll be back over tomorrow to clean up. I can give you the keys then so if there is anything you want to do before the next tenants move in, you’ll have time.”
“That’s great,” Ellen said, and Willy thanked her again for all her help before she left.
“Go check your room to make sure all of your things are out of it, okay?”
Grant hurried away while Willy gathered the last of the boxes and carried them out to the car.
He still had a few things in the one bathroom, and he boxed them up before taking that to the car too.
Grant came down with a few things that had been missed, and Willy loaded them up before walking through what had been their home for nearly a year.
Once he was done, he got Grant buckled into his seat and they headed north of town to their new home.
Kevin had sold the house he had, and Willy added the money he’d saved.
Together they bought a newer home. It had a large fenced-in yard for the dogs, and there was a place for a play structure.
The kids each had a room of their own, and the house had a finished basement that they were turning into a family room, complete with a place for all the kids’ toys.
The house was big enough so that when Willy’s parents came for Thanksgiving, there was enough room for everyone.
Willy pulled into the driveway. Grant got out of his seat and ran up the walk to the front door. Kevin came out with April in his arms, the dogs racing out to greet them. “Did you get everything done that you wanted?”
“Yes.” He leaned in for a kiss. “The place has all working smoke detectors, and the fire extinguishers are hung. I also finished getting this one’s room set up.
Grant’s is pretty much done as well.” He smiled as Grant ran around the yard, the dogs giving chase.
He fell on the grass, and the dogs gathered around.
Willy hurried over, but the dogs got there first, licking Grant until he giggled at the top of his lungs.
Kevin set April down, and she joined her brother.
“Come on. Let’s get the last of this unloaded and inside.
” They had been working for two weeks to get the rooms painted and the furniture moved in and set up, and now that had nearly been completed.
The front of the house had an office, and Kevin had set it up with a desk for him and plenty of shelves for the books that Willy tended to collect.
Kevin lifted the biggest box, his muscles bulging.
Willy got a smaller one and followed him inside.
“Come on,” Willy called. The dogs all raced inside with Grant and April right behind, laughing as they called to one another.
“April’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks,” Kevin said. “I marked it on the calendar.”
“It’s during my spring break. I was going to plan a party for her….”
Kevin tugged him into his arms. “I can get that same week off, and I was thinking that we should take a trip with the kids. My mom would love to come on a trip and help babysit.”
“I know. But I haven’t had the time.” He had been working hard these past few months and had finished his economics book and found a publisher for it.
“I know. You’ve been busy, but we have the time now. So I thought we could drive down to Florida. Mom is already talking Disney.” He said the last part really quietly because otherwise Willy wouldn’t be able to get the kids to sleep for a week. “What do you think?”
Willy nodded. “I think that would be really nice. But what about the dogs?”
“Chase said that he would watch them for us while we’re gone.”
“Will we be able to get tickets? It is spring break,” Willy cautioned.
“I can. Your spring break is early, so there are still tickets available. We can leave on Friday as soon as you’re done with work. I’ll sleep during the day so we can drive well into the night.” He smiled, and Willy swallowed hard.
“You’ve really thought a lot about this.”
“I have. I want all of us to have a great time and do things as a family.” He turned and tugged Willy into a kiss.
“So it sounds like we’ll be taking our first family vacation.”
“Yeah. The first of many,” Kevin said, and Willy nodded and smiled. A family home and family vacations—hopefully without threats or arson. Though truthfully, if occasional drama was the price for having Kevin in his life… bring it on.