Epilogue Piper
ONE YEAR LATER
Ifeel a tickle on my chest, and my eyes flutter open before my body jerks awake.
“Hey, relax.” Hudson speaks in a hushed tone.
It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to our dim bedroom, and then panic sets in when I look down to see my daughter in my arms.
“It’s okay, you fell asleep,” my husband assures me with his hand resting on my shoulder from where he’s standing next to our bed.
Grogginess fogs my brain, but I register that during feeding the baby I must have dozed off. Meanwhile, Grace Ruth seems to be at peace in my arms, alas awake, with her little eyes wide open. We call her Gracie for short.
“What time is it?”
Hudson brushes his finger along my bare breast to Gracie’s cheek. “It doesn’t matter. You go to bed and get some sleep. I’ll take this one and burp her.”
I blink my eyes a few times. “Hudson, you have to travel later for the game. I am positive you need more sleep than I do.”
“Me going away is the very reason that you need a break now. Don’t argue with me.” His voice is soft yet firm as he coos at our daughter. “Mommy just needs to obey a little more.”
A short laugh escapes me. “She may have you wrapped around her finger, but Mommy runs a tighter ship.” I smile because Hudson and I have a tendency to speak in a saccharine tone around Gracie. It happened as soon as she was born, as if we were possessed.
Hudson begins to take our daughter out of my arms. “Go on. I’ll see you at breakfast.”
I yawn and reality hits me that I probably need an hour of shut-eye if I’ll have any chance to survive the day. “Fine, Coach.”
He is already patting her back as she rests her head against his shoulder, and he stares intently at Gracie. “Good girl, Piper.”
Daddy Hudson is my undoing. He has an uncanny ability to sound so incredibly sexy, even when he is in full-on father-duty mode.
I begin to shuffle down and back under the covers of our bed.
The moment that my head hits the pillow, I already feel sleep hitting me.
Since Gracie is so young, and Hudson is in football season, I keep her in our room in one of those co-sleepers to avoid going back and forth, but we are evicting her as soon as she wakes less at night, and truthfully, she is growing so fast that she could use her crib too.
My eyes close, and I vaguely hear Hudson leave the room.
The next time I wake, I know the sun is up and it’s morning.
I have no idea how long I slept, but I take advantage of the fact that Hudson is downstairs with our daughter and decide to take a shower and throw on some makeup to accompany my yoga pants, t-shirt, and the mom-who-needs-sleep look.
At least I know my bra is always sexy, even if I look a jumbled mess.
I started a line of nursing bras, especially for my current state of life.
Heading down the stairs, I hear little noises from Gracie, and there’s music on too.
We have her on Bruce Springsteen in lullaby tones.
I sigh when I see Hudson’s suitcase by the front door as I walk to the kitchen.
For the most part, we have found a routine, and we do our best to accommodate his schedule, but a lot of the away games are just too far for such a short period of time with the little one.
I smile at the view of Hudson leaning against the counter, drinking a smoothie, and making faces at our little girl in her bouncy chair. His eyes instantly turn to my direction when he notices me.
“Morning, beautiful.”
I wave a hand in the air. “Get real with me. What time was it when you woke me earlier?”
He chuckles under his breath. “It was five, but just pretend it was eleven.”
I groan as I grab a glass from the cupboard. If it was five, then it means I only got two more hours of sleep.
Hudson is quick to wrap his arms around me, take the glass from my hand, and pour me some smoothie. “Drew and Lucy said they could come up this weekend, even if I’m not here.”
“When did they say that?”
“Check the family chat.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and slides his thumb along the screen, then he shows me.
I smile brightly because Gracie is in her onesie that says Coach’s Daughter and she seems at peace. He must have taken the photo earlier this morning, as it’s the outfit she is wearing now, accompanied by Hudson’s mug of coffee next to her that is one of those “world’s greatest dad” mugs.
Drew wrote a message back.
Drew
She’s growing so quickly. Lucy and I want to come to babysit. This weekend? We can watch the game on the big screen.
Our daughter is a spoiled little girl. By everyone—her dad, brother, my grandmother, April, and I know I will be stopping by the baby aisle in the grocery store later when we don’t need anything at all.
“I guess… well…” I’m reluctant, then Hudson gives me the pointed look. “Yes! Please send reinforcements my way,” I admit with such relief.
I love motherhood, our routine, and our days together. But damn, this lack of sleep is a whole new world of crazy, and I welcome any opportunity for extra help.
Hudson smiles with reassurance. “Thought so. What’s the plan for today?” He hands me a glass of green smoothie that I hate, but I know all the vitamins are exactly what I need, especially while breastfeeding.
The corners of my mouth stretch, and my face must look elated with happiness as I answer, “The usual. Pack up the stroller, stop in town to check on my boutique, then grab some lunch because I’m always starving these days, then naps, do laundry, afternoon walk, and sleep… hopefully.”
“I will be back in two days,” he reminds me.
“We’ll be watching in the living room, I promise.”
Hudson’s fingers crawl up my arm, and he has a look that is the devil’s good work. “We have a Sunday-afternoon game down in Kansas City. I’ll be back late, but maybe Drew and Lucy can stick around Sunday night so I can take you to breakfast on Monday? Just you and me.”
“I’d like that.”
He leans his head down, and I stand on my toes to kiss him. “I’ll miss you,” he murmurs.
“Me too. But next week is a home game. We’ll be there, and we are making this work. I promise to send you videos later today.”
“Good.” His phone gets a notification that his driver is here. He kisses me again, this time with more force and longer for good measure.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Mrs. Arrows.”
We both look at our daughter who coos. Hudson is quick to go to Gracie and kiss her chubby cheek. “Of course, we love you too. Remember our talk earlier.”
“Talk?” I wonder.
“The usual reminder that she is never to date athletes.” He smiles at our daughter. “I’ll be back soon. Be good for your mommy and protect her from pinecones.”
“It was one time!” I protest.
“Yeah, and it knocked sense into you,” he teases before ruffling our daughter’s hair.
I wave a hand at him to get out of here, and exhale loudly, because even chaotic, life feels perfect lately.
After heading to town, checking on my boutique where my staff was packing a bunch of orders, I went to the general store to pick up a salad at the deli counter and chatted with the old ladies from the knitting club who reminded me that there is a Lake Spark festival coming up.
By the time I got home, I was ready for a long walk, so I put Gracie in a baby carrier and did my usual round up to the viewpoint and back.
But to my surprise, as I approach the house, I notice that April is parked on Spencer’s driveway next door, and she is opening the trunk of her car.
“April?”
She looks at me as she swings a suitcase out of the back and her new beagle dog jumps out too.
“Oh, hey.”
“Uhm. Think you parked at the wrong house. I wasn’t expecting you. I mean, it’s great, I just need to change the sheets in the guest room.” I look down at my daughter, fast asleep.
April brings her hand to her hip and looks at me awkwardly. “I’m not here to stay with you.”
“Right… then what are you here for?” Now I’m just confused.
April smiles tightly then bites her lip. “I’m… going to temporarily live with Spencer.” Her hand comes to cover her face, as if she doesn’t want to see me and would rather hide.
Which makes sense because I’m puzzled and don’t understand. “As in my neighbor? The guy you hate? Wait, the guy who you actually call the asshole baseball player?”
“Yep.” She pops the P with her lips.
“Why?” I ask blankly.
She nervously laughs. “Fun story. Or not. Remember your baby shower?”
“Of course.” I smile because it was amazing.
It was more a party for Hudson and me. We did a gender reveal, had lunch at the Dizzy Duck Inn, ate cake, and Drew even made Hudson play ridiculous little games.
It was a bigger event than our own wedding, which was a handful of people on the dock at the back of the house, a few weeks after Hudson proposed. “But what about the baby shower?”
She motions with her fingers to indicate size. “I might have made a teensy-weensy mistake with Spencer, and the man forgot to use the delete button. So, I need to hide out here in case the press figures it out.” She speaks at the speed of light, but I heard a few keywords there.
When my jaw that went slack returns to normal position, I speak. “Oh my God!” I’m shocked but totally in a good way, well, minus the leaked-video part.
Her dog Pickles makes a whimpering sound, as if he agrees with me.
April waves at me. “Howdy, neighbor.” She smiles weakly.
“We are not telling Hudson the specifics of this,” I state.
“Please don’t,” she agrees.
I shake my head, but as I register everything, then a smile grows because I could kind of… see her and Spencer together.
“Oh, hey there, roomie,” I hear Spencer call out as he appears to walk slowly with a swagger down his driveway.
April’s face turns stiff, and she holds up her middle finger to him, but her eyes stay fixed on me. Her nostrils flare before smiling sweetly at me. “You’ll be my alibi if a hot baseball player turns up at the bottom of Lake Spark?”
My grin doesn’t fade. “I shouldn’t highlight the fact that you just called him hot, should I?”
She grumbles as she starts her march in the direction of her new temporary home, but I have a feeling it might not be temporary at all.
My phone vibrates in the pocket of the carrier, and I’m quick to pull it out to see a message from Hudson that he landed and already misses us.
Glancing between my phone and a disgruntled April walking away, I chortle a laugh.
They’re the reminder that the best risks may just turn into something well worth it.