Epilogue
Grizz
Six months later…
“Come on, baby, you can do it. You can do it! Come to dada.” I hold my arms out, opening and closing my hands toward Dorothea.
She’s standing in the grass about ten feet from me, looking at me with the biggest smile.
Her arms are outstretched, and every now and then she slaps them down onto her legs, which are trembling a little. “Come on, sweet pea. Come here.”
She takes a step, then another, then falls on her butt.
“You did it!” I run to her, swooping her up and spinning her around. She laughs uncontrollably, then I pull her to my chest and hug her. “Your mama is going to be so mad she missed it, but you can do it again for her, can’t you?”
“Uh-oh, what did she miss now?” Tommy says as he comes around the house, hammer in hand.
“She just took her first steps.”
“Fu—udge.” I chuckle, and he gives me a frown. “Anastacia is going to kill you.”
“It’s not my fault she’s out every time Dorothea does something new.”
“She missed her first word, first roll, first crawl, and now the first steps? You know she’s going to cry.”
Shit.
“Yeah, I know.”
Hormones have not been good to her this pregnancy. She cries all the time. Literally, it could be a dog walking by and the waterworks start. I’m helpless and never know what to do.
“They should be back soon,” Tommy adds, heading over to the rideable car that Dorothea loves. She smashed it into the porch one too many times and the wheel fell off, so Tommy is going to hammer it back on—hopefully.
We go over to watch him work, and she gasps and makes the most dramatic faces I’ve ever seen as he bangs the tire back into place.
“It should stay for a while, but she’ll need a new one,” he says.
“Tell that to Anastacia. She thinks it’s a death trap.”
“Well, she might not be wrong with how many times this thing falls apart.”
“And if she had a new one, it wouldn’t happen.”
He rolls his eyes, and I help my daughter into the little car. She scoots around the driveway, purposely slamming it into the porch and laughing like crazy. How can I tell her to stop when she laughs like that?
A few minutes later, Anastacia’s car—yes, her car—pulls into the driveway and parks behind my truck.
Tommy and I head over to help them get whatever they need out of the trunk, since both of them are as pregnant as can be.
We’re having a barbecue here at the house tomorrow, and they offered to go shopping for everything we need.
Tommy and I have learned not to tell them no.
Not when they’re both very pregnant, in the summer, and with full intention to double-team me and Tommy.
They’re close to demons, but I dare not say that out loud.
“You going to tell her?” Tommy says.
I smack him upside the head.
“Tell me what?” Anastacia asks.
I grit my teeth, scowling at Tommy. “Asshole,” I mutter under my breath.
“Tell me what?” Anastacia repeats, this time putting her hands on her hips. She’s standing by the trunk, glaring at me.
With a sigh, I say, “Dorothea took her first steps.”
She doesn’t say a word, but I watch her face flush and her eyes turn red. Then it’s only a second before the tears start, and then she’s sobbing. I go to her, hugging her tight.
“Why do I always miss everything?” She sniffles and cries harder.
“I don’t know, Angel. I’m sorry.”
“And you didn’t record it!” She shoves me away and slaps my arm.
“Ow! No, I didn’t record it because it just happened.”
“You can see it on the house camera,” Tommy adds helpfully, only it makes her cry more.
“You’re terrible,” Kelsey says, shaking her head and wiping her own tears. “Come on, Anastacia. Let’s let them take everything inside.”
They both waddle toward the house. Fuck, they really are waddling, the poor things. Before they go up the porch, Anastacia stops to hug and kiss Dorothea, then she starts scream-crying again.
“Fuck, who said getting them pregnant at the same time was a good idea?” Tommy mutters.
“No clue, but let’s not do it again.”
We get everything inside, taking turns so someone is always outside with Dorothea, then come back out with a beer to let Dorothea play until the sun goes down.
We sit on the lounge chairs on the newly built porch.
We have wide steps that allow us to see right out into the front yard, and it wraps around the entire house.
The back is even bigger, allowing us to put more furniture.
I wanted a grill and table up there, but Tommy made a good point about the propane tank being dangerously close to the house.
Especially since it’s so high up, and not so easy to transport it further away.
But because of that, we tiled a section of the yard in the back for the grill and an outside dining set.
And Anastacia doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be getting a hot tub real soon.
Once she can use it. Getting it for her now, when she can’t go in it, will only make her cry.
“Soon enough, there will be three of them running around,” I say, gesturing to Dorothea who is pulling grass out of the ground and tossing it away.
“Can’t wait.”
I huff a laugh, then take a swig of my beer.
“I’m glad you moved here,” I tell my brother.
“Me too. Seems like it was just what we needed.”
We’re quiet for a while, just sipping our beers and staring out at nothing, but also keeping an eye on Dorothea. We enjoy the peace together, because soon enough, we won’t have any. Soon enough, we will have two screaming babies in this house, along with a one year old. Lord, help us.
“Is everything all set for tomorrow?” he asks.
“Yep,” I say with a grin. “And they have no idea.”
Tomorrow, we will realize we “accidentally” forgot some ingredients we need, but really we’ll be setting up for their surprise baby shower.
We’re having a barbecue, but that was a cover up for their shower.
They’ve been inseparable since Anastacia came back to me, bonding because they’re both pregnant.
Tommy and I both love it and hate it, but we thought what better way to celebrate than to throw them a joint baby shower?
Neither one of them got the chance to have one before, which is really fucking sad.
I should have thought about that sooner, when Anastacia was still pregnant with Dorothea, but I didn’t know anything then. I’ve learned a lot over this year.
“Good. Everything will work out then,” Tommy says, holding his glass bottle out.
I clink mine with his and say, “It always does.”
“What do you mean you forgot to put pans on the list?” she cries, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I don’t want to go back to the store, Grizz. You go.”
“I can’t go, Angel. I’m helping Tommy with the food.”
“The food can wait!” She throws her arms up, letting them fall to her sides.
“Angel, please. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important. Besides, you love driving that car, right? You have to break it in a little more.”
Her eyes narrow. “You’re trying to get rid of me. “
“Why in the world would I do that? I’m just trying to get everything ready for today.”
She cries more as she walks away, grumbling to herself.
“Does that means she’s going?” Tommy whispers.
“I have no clue,” I mutter, running a hand over my face.
Dorothea is sitting in her high chair, playing with a wooden spoon and eating dry cereal. She’s babbling to herself, whacking the tray with her spoon and then laughing.
“Guess I better go talk to Kelsey.” Tommy wipes his hands on the dish towel and tosses it onto the counter. Maybe this wasn’t such a good plan after all.
“You better work your magic. We need them both gone.”
“Yeah, no shit,” he mutters. “Fu—” He groans. “I mean crap.”
I laugh to myself. Not swearing has not been easy around here, but we’re trying our best. Thankfully Dorothea hasn’t repeated anything bad yet… yet.
I keep chopping up all the vegetables, and it takes about ten minutes for Tommy to come back down. Thankfully, Kelsey is behind him, cheery about going out.
“Thank god,” I mutter to myself.
He hands her the paper list I tried giving to Anastacia, and after kissing Tommy, she heads off to find her.
“We’re good,” he says, wiping his brow.
“You broke a sweat doing that?” I ask.
“Shut it.”
The girls call out their good bye to us and kiss Dorothea before leaving.
I was worried about teaching Anastacia to drive while she was pregnant, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
We drove around parking lots and practiced on all the wider roads.
She caught on quickly, which I guess is easy when you aren’t in the big city.
I walk over to the front window and watch the car turn around in the driveway, then disappear onto the main road. I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Kaison.
“We’re ready.”
“We’ll head over.”
I end the call and go back into the kitchen to help Tommy finish the food.
“He sounds tired as fuck,” I say with a laugh.
“A new baby will do that to you.”
“We are so fucked,” I mutter.
I am beyond happy that I’m having another child.
I can’t begin to express the way I feel about it, and I know Tommy feels the same.
But we’re in for it. Dorothea was difficult at times.
Sleep deprivation is real. And now we’re going to have two babies in this house, keeping all of us awake, so it’s not like we can take turns or anything.
Of course it’ll be worth it though. There’s no doubt in my mind that growing this family will be worth the shit we go through.
Cars start pulling into the driveway fifteen minutes later, since they were all waiting for the call. We have at least a half hour before the girls get back, so we all scramble into the back yard to set up the decorations. Cora stays with Cecilia, her and Shark’s baby, and Dorothea.
“Can’t guarantee this is going to look good with a bunch of dudes out here setting it up,” I mutter. “Maybe we should have thought this through.”
“Do not worry!” Spam calls as he heads over with a box over-flowing with pink… stuff. “I’ve totally got this.”
“So you cook and decorate?”
He shrugs. “What can I say? I grew up in a house of women. Yo, Pancake! Bring up the chairs!”
“Yeah, I got you, bro!”
“These prospects are coming in handy,” Tommy says.
“Yeah, it’s nice to say shit like that now that you’re officially patched in, huh?”
Club life has never been better. Though it doesn’t beat home life.
“We weren’t even gone that long,” Kelsey mutters, looking at all the cars. I’m standing on the porch, waiting for them to walk up. Anastacia hands me the bag, and I catch her around the waist, kissing her.
“Thank you, Angel.”
“Aww, you’re so sweet,” Kelsey says with tears in her eyes.
“Everyone is here already,” I whisper against Anastacia’s lips, then kiss her again. She moans against me, deepening our kiss. I chuckle as I pull away. “You hungry?”
“I’m always hungry.” She smiles up at me, and I’m glad she’s feeling better. I feel bad I upset her to go to the store, but I had to get them out of here.
“Food is already on the grill, if you want to head around back?”
“God yes,” she says, and the three of us walk down the path to the backyard.
The moment we reach the end of the house, everyone shouts, “Surprise!”
Anastacia and Kelsey have a similar reaction—their hands going to their mouths and tears filling their eyes.
“Surprise, Angel,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “And surprise to you, too, Kels.” I kiss her cheek next.
“You did this for us?” Anastacia asks as Tommy walks over, putting his arm around Kelsey.
“Of course we did. This is special, and we wanted to make sure you both got a baby shower. Doing it together just made sense.”
“I swear, they’re going to go into labor at the same time,” Shark says as he stops beside us.
“That would be kind of awesome,” Kelsey says, resting her head on Tommy’s shoulder.
“It totally would,” Anastacia says.
We go into the yard, saying hello to everyone as we make our way to the patio. The decorations are bright, and though we have no idea what we are having since we chose to keep it a surprise, we chose pink because Kels and Anastacia both love it.
They each have their own chair, decorated in bows and balloons. The tables, chairs, and trees are decorated, too, with streamers, balloons, and little cut-outs.
We eat a lot of food. We play games. We open gifts. It’s a beautiful, perfect day. Anastacia and Kelsey are celebrated, and we get all sorts of gifts for the babies—which makes the girls so happy. And the best part yet? Dorothea takes more steps—and Anastacia doesn’t miss it.