Extended Epilogue
Alex
Eight Years Later
Luna giggles as I hug her to my chest. I smile, stroke my hand through her hair. “Quiet or they’ll find us.”
But she can’t stop laughing. Something about hide-and-seek always makes our four-year-old go nuts.
We’re crouched down behind a trellis, ripe grapes all around us. I can hear Jack laughing as he skips along the rows. “Mommy, come on!”
“They won’t find us, Daddy,” Luna insists.
“Only if we keep the giggle monster away,” I say, and that sets her off even more.
I bite down to try and stop a laugh from escaping me.
“Mommy, I hear something!”
That’s the thing with this place.
It’s where people come to find the thing they didn’t even know they were looking for. That special vintage. A tour to top off their holiday. The perfect snap for their social media.
Or the woman of their dreams. A woman who gave a mafia man two kids and is growing another in her perfect body. A woman who runs the vineyard while being a nationally recognized artist. A woman who is the best mother these glorious, charismatic, hilarious kids could ask for.
Jack leaps out, hands at his sides, laughing. People say he has my eyes. But whenever I look at him or Luna, I see Bella through and through.
“Got ya!” Jack laughs.
“Nope!” Luna ducks and runs away.
Jack giggles, chasing after her. “Hey, this is hide-and-seek, not tag!”
But he chases her anyway.
My heart floods with a fresh wave of love as I watch them.
Then my Bella walks around the corner and more love rushes in. No matter how much swells in me, there’s always room for more. And as I look at my wife, I know that my lust meter is never going to stop going up either.
Eight years has made her more beautiful. Curvier. More confident. She wears a summer dress that reminds me of the first time we met, hanging from her five-months pregnant body, her figure so full I almost lose it right here.
She smiles, reading me. Always reading. Always knowing.
“Later,” she murmurs, wrapping her arm around my waist.
“I love you so much,” I say, kissing the top of her head, breathing in her scent.
“I love you too. And this life we’ve built. More and more every day.”
The End
Thank you for reading! Truly, it means the world to me.