Epilogue
en Years Later
“Damn it, Ryan, give me that wrench,” Maverick said, watching his three-year-old son running away with the tool he’d put down for a moment.
He glanced around the garage and Freya was due back from the store in ten minutes.
Kasey, their eldest, had her head in a book. At ten years old, it felt like she was going on thirty. She was so damn smart already.
Then there was Benjamin, who was playing with his toy water guns, aiming at targets. He wanted a gun like his Grandpa Elliot, and to become a hunter.
Lilly, their next child, was in dungarees, covered in oil, as she insisted on being exactly like her father.
Then of course there was Ryan, who Lilly was chasing after. He didn’t just have four kids. Nope, it would seem when it came to Freya, he couldn’t keep his hands off her, and she had their twins with her at the store.
He heard the truck pulling into the driveway. She’d left him alone with their kids, and they were running amok. Crap. She didn’t need this now, seeing as she was already pregnant again.
Freya climbed out of the car, as did his twins, Marcus and Susan, and they came running to him.
His wife, being the woman in charge, gave a whistle, and just like that, their children stopped. They turned to look toward their mother, and she went around to the back of the truck.
“Come on, you’re all going to want to be fed tonight, help me with the food!”
Not one argument. One by one, they all lined up, kissing their mother’s cheek, and taking a bag. Ryan even gave her the wrench, and she gave him a bag, and they all took the bags up to the house.
Maverick was the only one left, and she held out the wrench for him.
“You’re a genius,” he said. “I don’t know how you do it.”
Freya laughed. “I have a good mom.”
He laughed.
Tilly Parker was always there whenever they needed her. When one of the kids wouldn’t sleep at night, they called her, and she turned up at three in the morning to help out.
He loved Tilly Parker.
Not like he loved his wife.
Freya’s parents had become his parents, and they helped him to feel like one of the family.
“Now, let’s go and eat,” Freya said.
Maverick pulled her in close, kissing her lips. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
“Have I told you today how much I love you?” he asked.
The smile on her face lit up his whole world.
“Yeah, you have, but I never get tired of hearing it.”
“Well, Freya Lavin, I do love you, and you have made me the happiest man in the world.”
“A morning with the kids, and you realize how good I am?”
He snorted. “No, I know how good you are, I’m just lucky I got you when I did.”
“You, Mr. Lavin, say all the right things.”
And with that, she put her hands on his chest and leaned in to kiss him. This was what luck felt like. This was what life was about, and Maverick knew he was lucky to have a wife, children, and above all, a family.
The End