Epilogue
S lade turned down a long drive leading to Spencer’s family estate.
Bloody hell.
Was this a good idea? She didn’t really know how to interact with normal parents.
“Baby girl? Everything all right?” Quaid asked.
“Yes, of course.” She looked out the window so he wouldn’t see the lie on her face.
That would get her into trouble. She squirmed as she remembered the spanking she’d gotten last night when she’d started to freak about Spencer’s parents not liking her. Which had spiraled into her speaking badly about herself.
A habit she still hadn’t kicked.
Slade had spanked her until she cried. Then the guys had all taken turns reassuring her.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Shit. That was his Dom voice.
Quaid had stopped tip-toeing around her. As her trust in him grew, he’d loosened the tight grip he’d had on his dominant side. It was hot when he got all bossy in the bedroom. Outside of the bedroom . . . well, sometimes it wasn’t always great for her bottom.
But he wasn’t going to spank her now, right?
“Yes?” she asked, turning to him with a smile.
“You’re lying. Slade, stop the car.”
Slade stopped the car in the middle of the drive and they all turned to her.
Sheesh.
That was a lot of frowning.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re not okay and you’re lying about it,” Quaid told her. “That’s unacceptable.”
“I’m just nervous. That’s okay, right? To be nervous when you meet new people. Especially when those people are important.” She gave Spencer a shaky smile.
But he just looked concerned. “Princess, they’ll love you. Who wouldn’t love you?”
Her mother.
Spencer reached back from the front passenger seat to squeeze her hand and Rock reached over from the back to touch her shoulder.
Quaid gripped her chin in his hand. “Everything will be fine. Do you think we’d allow anything else? We will always protect you. No one here will judge you or hurt or reject you.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry for being nervous,” Slade said.
“But there’s a price to pay for lying,” Quaid added in a deep voice.
Oh bollocks.
“You can’t spank me here!” she protested.
“Why not?” Spencer asked with a cheeky grin. “Plenty of quiet, secluded spots around here, and I know all of them.”
She was in trouble now.
They all gave her a final squeeze of reassurance before Slade started driving again .
It had taken a couple of hours to drive here.
The guys hadn’t been sure about taking Hope this far, but she’d handled the trip so well.
They’d been home for six weeks now, and Hope was continuing to thrive.
She’d gained weight and was starting to smile and had even lifted her head up yesterday while doing tummy time.
Surprise filled Indie as she saw that there were Christmas lights set up in the trees along the driveway.
“Do they leave their Christmas lights up all year around?” she asked.
“No, they’ve left them up for you,” Spencer said.
“What? Really? Why?” she asked.
Spencer turned and gave her a gentle smile. “So you could celebrate a proper Christmas.”
Wow.
“Mum wanted you to have a real Christmas. Even if it’s very late,” he said as Slade pulled up in front of the manor. “I told them all to be calm, but they’ll probably ignore me.”
There was a note of exasperation in his voice, but she could tell how much he loved them. It wasn’t something she had a lot of experience with.
Suddenly, her door opened and Rock was there, eyeing her with worry.
His fingers moved fluently.
Are you all right?
She nodded. Nervous.
He gave her a nod back. He understood her. They are good people. They will love you.
She smiled. She wasn’t sure she believed that, but she knew that they’d been really good to Rock.
So that made her grateful to them.
Indie glanced over to see that Spencer had lifted out Hope. He grinned over at her. He’d been on cloud nine for the past few days, full of energy, excited to introduce her to his family.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said. “Hope, want to meet Granny and Pop-Pop? Yeah? ”
Hope stared up at Spencer, then blew a small bubble. Indie guessed that was a yes.
They stepped through the front door. The hall was gorgeous inside, filled with comfortable furniture and lots of photos on the wall. She’d study those later.
“Hello! We’re home,” Spencer called out as he wrapped his free arm around her. Suddenly, they were surrounded by people. It was almost overwhelming. The noise. The touching. The excitement. She leaned against Spencer, wondering how Hope was handling it all.
But when she checked on her, Hope seemed perfectly content. An older woman with Spencer’s smile approached them.
“My baby!” she cried. Reaching up, she drew Spencer down to kiss his cheeks. “And my other baby!” She turned to Rock, reaching up to tug at him until he bent down so she could kiss him as well.
When he straightened, he was pink. It was so cute.
“Rock, are you eating well? You seem smaller.”
“The boy is fine, Celia. Stop fussing.” A man who looked like an older version of Spencer walked up to Rock, patting him then Spencer on the back.
Celia turned to her. “And you must be my new daughter!”
Um. What?
Indie would have stepped back if she weren’t surrounded. Was every member of Spencer’s family here? She knew he had three older sisters, but it seemed like there were twenty people in the foyer.
“Hello, Mrs. Hensley,” she said.
“Don’t start with that nonsense!” she cried. “Call me mum.”
Was she serious?
And then Indie was suddenly surrounded by Spencer’s mum. And it was the best hug she thought she’d ever received.
She wanted to bury her face into the other woman’s shoulder and just let her hug away all the pain from her own mother’s neglect .
“You are so beautiful,” Celia told her. “Isn’t she beautiful, Richard?”
“She is,” Spencer’s dad said with a smile and a wink at Indie. “How about you let her breathe?”
“Oh, Spencer, you did well,” one of the younger women said.
“Yeah, squirt,” another one said with a grin. “You’d better treat her right.”
“How did he get someone as gorgeous as her?” another one said with a sly look.
She guessed these were his sisters. One of them was sitting in a wheelchair, looking pale and thin.
“Hey, I’m a catch,” Spencer exclaimed. “Everyone, this is our girl, Indie. And our daughter, Hope.”
Suddenly, everyone focused in on Hope.
“Oh,” Spencer’s mum said. “She’s just adorable. Give her to Granny.”
Indie watched as Celia expertly took hold of Hope. Spencer’s sisters gathered around and even Richard was smiling.
“Come in,” Celia said. “Come, come.”
They walked into a cozy living room that was dominated by a huge Christmas tree and piles of gifts underneath it.
“Merry Christmas!” Celia smiled at them all. “We’ve got all your gifts ready for you and we’re going to have a big dinner tonight. Turkey, cranberry sauce, the lot! Hope you brought your appetites.”
Wow.
“Don’t worry, dear,” Richard murmured to her as everyone started talking at once. “You’ll get used to how crazy it is here.”
“Really? How long do you think it will take?” she asked.
“Hmm. Only about ten or fifteen years.”
Indie had to laugh.
“You all right, Boo?” Slade asked, walking over to her and wrapping his arm around her.
“Oh, yes. It’s just . . .”
“A lot?” he guessed.
“Amazing,” she said .
“Even after all these years, I’m still shocked by how welcoming and warm they are,” Quaid said, moving to her other side. “They treat us all like we’re theirs.”
“Come on, stop standing around and take a seat. Richard, can you ask Hilda to bring in some tea. Come on, Indie. Come sit with me.” Celia sat while holding Hope. “I want my new daughter close.”
“Are you . . . are you sure?” Indie whispered, sitting beside her.
“I’m very sure,” she said with a warm smile.
For the next twenty minutes, Indie’s mind was in a whirlwind as she met all the members of Spencer’s family and they oohed and aahed over Hope.
Then Quaid approached. “Give Hope to me. She needs a nap. I’ve set her bassinet up in her room.”
How had he known which room was hers?
Actually, that didn’t really matter.
Spencer’s mum wasn’t given a chance to object as Hope was plucked out of her arms and then cradled against Quaid’s chest. She seemed to snuggle in as he carried her away.
“Always so serious, that boy. He rarely smiles. Not that I blame him with an asswipe for a father.”
“He smiles now,” Indie replied.
“Oh, does he?” Spencer’s mum replied. “And what about Slade? How is he doing now? Is his anger more under control?”
“He’s always taking care of us, putting us first, and I’ve never seen him this calm before.”
“Hmm. And Rock?”
Indie’s gaze went to her gentle giant. Spencer’s sisters were talking to him animatedly and he just kept nodding. “He’s found his voice. And his place.”
“Which is?”
“Right by my side,” Indie replied.
“Good. And my boy?”
Indie turned to Spencer’s mum and then hugged her. “He taught us all how to be a family, because he was the only one of us who had one. A good one. Thank you for raising an amazing son. ”
“Oh. Well.” His mum pulled back from her and wiped at her eyes. “Yes. It’s your family, too, now. I hope you know that?”
Indie sank into the sofa, letting the laughter and happiness in the room warm her from the inside out.
Glancing around, she took in all of her men, including Quaid who had returned with the monitor in his hand.
Maybe her life had started off rough, but it was ending with so much love it made her heart full .