Extended Epilogue
Boone
Five Years Later
Kit raises his little gloves, looking at me over the top with his mother’s bright, alert eyes. At the edge of the cage, my wife stands, her hand on her swollen and beautiful belly. I swear, my woman somehow gets more attractive as the years pass.
The last five years have been good to us. We’ve got Kit. I’ve retired from fighting to open my own elite gym, and two of my fighters are now world champs. Most importantly of all, my angel, my Snapshot, has become a photographer for the stars, while still finding time to be a kickass mom and wife.
“Get him, Kit!” she yells playfully.
“I’m gonna,” Kit says, grinning as he moves closer.
“Oh yeah, big man?” I tease lovingly, moving from side to side.
He rushes me with one hell of a battle cry for such a little man. He jumps on my leg and tackles me off my feet, leaping atop me and yelling as he throws little play punches down at me.
I give him my back, and he leaps on it with good instincts, already snaking his arm under my neck for the choke. When I stand up with him attached, he lets out a delighted giggle.
There’s nothing like his laughter. It’s like a drug.
And so is my wife’s laughter. She laughs as I walk around the cage with our son attached and struggling to hold on.
“Careful,” Lila says between giggles, her hand always resting lovingly on her swell. “That’s quite a long way to fall.”
“I don’t fall!” Kit announces. “I win!”
I stumble against the wiring of the cage, winking at Lila as I make gasping noises and then slowly—careful not to land on Kit—fall back to the canvas. Kit puts in the choke like I taught him. When I tap out, he lets go and runs around the cage, his hands above his head.
“Kit McGraw, world champion!” Lila sings.
“Yay, Mommy, yay!” Kit yells. “Did you see, Mommy? Did you see?”
“I sure did, you little warrior!”
I smile over at my wife, as beautiful as the day we met, glowing with her second pregnancy, glowing with the light of our lives. Each year makes her more perfect, any lines or extra weight only deepening our lives, our bond, because everything she does, everything she becomes, is her.
That’s my only criteria. I love her soul. I love her bones. I love her everything.
Kit rushes over and throws his arms around me, lowering his voice. “Thanks for letting me win, Daddy.”
“Letting you?” I chuckle, lifting him up and cradling him to my chest. “I did no such thing, young man. You kicked my ass.”
He giggles again. “Hear that, Mommy? I kicked Daddy’s ass!”
“I think you mean butt, young man.”
“Ass, ass, ass!” Kit sings.
Lila tries to keep a serious face, but after a pause in which it looks like she can’t breathe, she lets out a huge laugh. I do the same, throwing my head back. Kit can’t stop either.
I carry Kit out of the cage and to his mother. Lila embraces us both, and as we hold each other, I let my hand rest on her bump, the soon-to-be fourth member of our family.
The End
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