Epilogue
Five Years Later
“And then what happened, Uncle Marshal?” Ben asked, clapping his hands.
“I defeated the shark and saved your mother, bringing her to your father, where they confessed their love.”
Knox couldn’t believe how elaborate the story had become. He’d not been wrong, though. Marshal was his friend, his best man, his children’s uncle, and his and Ava’s constant guest.
After saving Ava from the amateur bounty hunter, Marshal refused to stay at his place alone.
He sold his home and moved in permanently with him and Ava.
At first, Knox wasn’t sure it would work.
However, Marshal lived his own life, continuing to run his company from the comfort of their home.
From time to time, he left to go and have some vacation time, but more often than not, they were all together.
It was Ava who told him what Marshal had done. They had become a family.
Even though Marshal had grown up with parents and a family, he didn’t truly have one. They had all found each other, and in that process, become each other’s family. They were together.
Marshal had been there through thick and thin. At his and Ava’s wedding. He’d been the one to drive them both to the hospital when Ava’s water’s broke, not once but twice. Ava was also pregnant with their third child, and he had no doubt Marshal would be there for the birth.
Ben looked on in awe. Maddie, his little girl, didn’t quite comprehend.
Ava stepped into the living room, and the smile on her face told Knox she’d been listening to Marshal in the hallway.
“Uncle Marshal saved you from a killer shark?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, honey, that is the way it went down,” she said with a laugh.
Ben gasped. But he was then distracted with cookies, as was Marshal.
She moved toward him, and Knox pulled her onto his lap, placing one hand on her knee and with the other, he stole a cookie from her plate.
This was his family.
He looked up at Ava, who leaned down and kissed him, and then he glanced at Marshal, who raised a glass to him.
Life truly was full of surprises.
The End