Epilogue 2
Ten years later
Ghost
The soft brush of fur against my beard doesn’t come as a surprise. But the spiky tongue licking my shoulder does. That’s new. Did this furry asshole break something else of mine and now he’s trying to butter me up before I even get out of bed?
I huff silently through my nose and open my eyes slowly. Gary’s partner in crime has been giggling at the side of the bed for a good minute now. But it doesn’t look like she’s planning to make any moves.
Time to wake up.
With a roll of my shoulder, I push Gary away, then carefully slide my arms from around Adora.
In one swift motion, I’m out of bed and crouching beside it, looking right into the dark brown, almost black, eyes of Riley — my seven-year-old daughter and also the reason the no clothes in bed rule had to be abolished.
This kid looks frighteningly similar to me, but her soul is all Adora.
If anyone is ever going to give me a heart attack, it’ll be her.
“Good morning, daddysaurus,” she whispers through a toothy smile. The two missing teeth make her look completely innocent, but I know better.
“Good morning, T-Rex,” I murmur, unable to stop myself from smiling at the act. “What did we agree on about letting Gary into Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom in the morning?”
Her grin brightens even more. She doesn’t even try to look apologetic.
“He’s not allowed in your bedroom in the morning because he puts his stinky butt on your face to wake you up,” she declares proudly.
I nod and pick her up, her arms curling around my neck.
“Let’s try to remember that tomorrow, okay?” I say, kissing her temple as I start walking.
“Okay, daddysaurus,” she whispers right into my ear. “Can I have pancakes now?”
“Did you brush your teeth?”
“Yes,” she lies immediately.
I narrow my eyes and keep walking toward the bathroom. “Then you won’t mind brushing them again, will you?”
She pouts but, to my surprise, gives me a half-hearted “okay.”
Huh.
Usually we’d have a whole back-and-forth about it, but I’m not about to poke the baby dinosaur. I’ll take the win.
Gary joins us in the bathroom, stretching out on his favorite thing in the universe — the small blue mat in front of the shower.
There are three more cats somewhere in the house, a shaggy dog probably decorating the living room couch with hair, and — God help me — a cow.
Fang got Daisy a friend a few years ago, but Daisy wasn’t feeling very friendly, and he had to give up the new girl.
Adora didn’t miss the chance to adopt Mookie, and that’s how we ended up changing homes.
Luckily, the farmhouse next to Fang’s was up for sale. Even more luckily, there are five whole miles separating us. I wish there were more.
By the time my little T-Rex and I are done in the bathroom, it’s already past seven-thirty.
“Go play downstairs. I’ll wake up your brother and then make you pancakes,” I say, clipping the last dinosaur into her braid.
Never thought I’d ever fucking learn how to braid hair, much less decorate it, but here I am.
I won’t complain, though. I got it easy compared to Bones. That fucker has one boy and four girls — two pairs of twins, mind you — and all of them, including the boy, wanted long hair. And each one likes a different style. He had to learn fast. It was fun watching him flail for a while.
“Tate’s already up,” Riley says, smiling at herself in the mirror.
I freeze.
“He’s playing in your office.”
Shit. I’m going to find toy soldiers and Barbie heads stuffed into every crook and cranny again.
I leave Riley in the living room trying to have a conversation about pterodactyls with Greg — the family dog, name chosen by Adora, of course — and head toward my office.
The door is wide open, and Tate, my four-year-old, is right in the middle of the room, playing pirates on the floor.
But he isn’t looking at the toy ship in his hand. He’s looking at the display case on the shelf in front of him. My old violin, the one Adora broke over a decade ago, is inside it. Still damaged.
Worth about sixty grand when it was in good condition, it’s the only thing of actual value I inherited from my mother. But the truth is that this violin is worth more to me broken than whole. Because when it crashed against that wall and shattered, Adora’s silence toward me shattered too.
She’s the one who put it in the display case and, ever since Tate first laid eyes on it, he’s been fascinated by it.
“Make magic, Daddy!” Tate says excitedly, pointing his toy at the violin.
That’s what he calls music — magic. He knows the violin in my office isn’t for playing, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to convince me to use it.
“Later, Blackbeard," I say, picking him up and walking out of the office. “First, breakfast. I’ll play for you later.”
“Okay,” he agrees without a fuss, holding his toy in one hand and running his fingers through my beard with the other.
He’s been an incredibly easy-to-please kid so far. An absolute delight compared to all the other gremlins running around the clubhouse at all times.
I put him in a chair at the kitchen island and Riley immediately joins us. Well, this morning is just full of surprises, isn’t it? We usually have to spend at least fifteen minutes convincing her to sit down for breakfast. Hell, convincing her to do anything.
Suspicious. Judging by that eager look on her face, something is definitely up.
I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
I place Adora’s forgotten tea mug in the dishwasher before grabbing the flour for the pancakes.
“With strawberries, daddysaurus,” Riley pipes up. “Get them from the fridge.”
“And chocky-late syrup,” Tate adds, smacking his lips.
“Yes. It’s in the fridge,” Riley says, nodding eagerly at me.
I narrow my eyes. She’s cooking something. And it’s not pancakes.
“We’ll need the milk before the strawberries, T-Rex,” I murmur, moving toward the fridge.
Did she hide another toy frog in there? Adora got her a bag with, like, a hundred of them a few months ago, and we’ve been finding them all over the house ever since.
I open the fridge door.
PFFFT!
Suddenly, it’s ten years ago again.
Fine pink glitter hits me straight in the face. It dances through the air, coating the inside of the fridge door, me, and the floor at my feet.
I’m pink. Shiny. And the fucking fridge is empty.
High-pitched excited screams ring out right before Riley and Tate throw themselves at my legs from either side.
“It’s a proposition from mommysaurus, Daddy! You’re getting married!”
“Sparkly!”
They both yell at the same time, bouncing up and down.
I don’t think I heard that right. That glitter must’ve gotten into my ears.
Adora
Everything went without a glitch. I was nervous Riley might give the plan away too soon, but she played her part perfectly.
I had to include her after she woke up last night for a glass of water and caught me red handed, installing the glitter bomb inside the fridge.
Right after I moved all the food into the one in the garage.
It was almost impossible to keep all of this hidden from Dominic. I’m sure he suspected I was planning a prank, but he always lets me play them out. Sometimes, I swear he’s almost eager to find out what I’ll come up with next.
I step out from behind the corner and walk toward the three most important people in my life, keeping my eyes fixed on the stunned biker in the middle of them.
His eyebrows fly off his head the moment he sees me. It’s a silent question, full of disbelief.
I don’t keep him waiting. I slide my arms around his neck and give him a short, sweet kiss.
“Good morning, Dominic. We’re getting married,” I whisper when I pull back. “Today.”
Suddenly, Riley is in his arms. It’s my turn to look stunned.
“You grab Tate. Let’s go,” he growls, eyes burning, voice unshakable.
I laugh, picking Tate up and pressing a loud kiss to his chubby cheek, making him giggle. But I don’t move.
“We don’t need to go anywhere. The wedding is coming to us,” I say, still laughing.
He inhales sharply, but before he can answer, the rumble of engines followed by car doors slamming and loud voices drifts in from outside.
“Your cousins are here, baby. Aunty Liz and Grandma too,” I say, kissing Tate’s cheek one more time before putting him down. “Go greet them.”
Riley cheers and starts wiggling in Dominic’s arms. The moment he sets her down, she bolts through the kitchen door, Tate close behind her.
Dominic looks at their glitter footprints on the floor, then back at me.
“What are you doing, adorable?” he murmurs, trying not to smile.
Then he steps closer, placing his hands on my hips.
“Don’t get me wrong — I’ll marry you anytime, anywhere. But you know you don’t have to do this, right?”
I run my fingers through his sparkly hair and flick away a particularly big piece of glitter.
I already changed my last name to his years ago. It was easier with the kids and, of course, unbeknownst to him, I was also fulfilling a teenage wish of mine. And letting go of my mother’s last name at the same time.
But I was too afraid back then to take this last step.
Not anymore.
“I want to. I’ve wanted to for some time now,” I whisper, trying not to get too lost in his eyes. “And there’s something else too.”
I rise onto my toes and lean in, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath.
“I love you, Dominic.”
His breath stutters. His entire body shudders.
“I love you too,” he murmurs, his voice cracked, almost strangled, pulling me closer.
He kisses me deep, igniting a fire inside me that only he can. His arms clamp around me so tightly I can barely breathe. And I know why. It’s been over a decade since he heard those words from me.
He heard me say them to the kids countless times, but never to him. Not even my many sessions of continuous therapy helped me shake the fear of saying them out loud to him.
That fear followed me until four months ago, when I came home late from the bookstore one night, exhausted after hours of inventory, and found him reading a story to the kids.
It’s something he’d done so many times before, but for some reason, it hit me so hard that night that I barely stopped myself from blurting out I love you right then and there.
That’s when I started planning.
When he pulls back, his forehead drops to mine, his eyes closed, glitter falling from his hair around me like rain.
“I’m still going to spit in your drinks,” I mutter, trying to keep my stupid tears at bay.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he snorts, his shoulders shaking.
He leans back and looks down at both of us.
“We’re both covered in glitter. Do we have time to shower?”
I shake my head, smiling up at him. “Don’t you dare take it off. This is perfect. You can change your clothes, but the glitter stays.”
He nods slowly, smiling back at me. “Okay, adorable. You’re the boss.”
Then he kisses me again, so hard the world disappears around me.
Reality only returns when half the Vultures and their kids come bursting through our kitchen doors, each one louder than the last.