Epilogue
Anastacia
Three months later…
Dorothea’s room is trashed.
The laundry is piled up.
The dishes are overflowing the sink and the dishwasher.
And don’t get me started on the fridge. I’m pretty sure something is growing in there.
None of us, not a single adult in this house, has the energy to clean. Not after dealing with two screaming newborns and a one-year-old who has more battery life than the energizer bunny. I don’t know how she does it.
Oh, maybe because she gets to sleep at night. Somehow, the babies don’t wake her up at all. She sleeps like a damn rock.
I’ve just dropped onto the bed, ready for sleep, and Grizz pulls me close.
“We need to hire a maid,” I complain.
“I’ve got the prospects coming in here tomorrow,” he says, sounding half asleep.
“You really shouldn’t have them do stuff like that. How does that prove anything?”
“It proves they know how to listen, and that they’re loyal and willing to do anything for the club.”
I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”
I rest my arm over my eyes and fall into a deep sleep… for about ten minutes before the baby starts crying again.
“I don’t think I’m going to survive this one, Grizz,” I say.
“We’ve got this,” he says, sitting up with a huff. He comes around the bed to get our baby, our daughter, from her bassinet. He rocks her from side to side, sweetly shushing her.
It doesn’t work.
“I think she’s hungry,” he says.
With a sigh, I sit up against the headboard and hold my arms out. He passes Francesca over to me, and I lift my nursing bra and let her feed. She is hungry. She’s always hungry. Dorothea did not eat this much, and she definitely slept more.
I smile at Grizz. “You’re such a good father.”
He kisses my forehead. “Are you hungry?”
“It’s two in the morning.”
“And? We’re adults. We eat when we want.”
“A snack sounds nice.”
He leaves the room, and I catch him popping his head into Dorothea’s room to check on her, then he moves down the hall.
Our house that once seemed huge, suddenly feels so small with two extra people in it, even if they are little babies. Soon enough, they’ll be big and running around.
I’m not sure what Tommy and Grizz are going to do with all these women in the house, because yeah, Tommy and Kels had a girl too. Vivian. She’s beautiful, and an absolute angel. Except when she’s screaming her head off like Francesca does.
They were born on the same day, only hours apart. It’s funny how the universe works. I love that they’ll be like sisters growing up, though. I didn’t have siblings, and I love how much of a family my girls have.
Tommy and Kelsey don’t plan on going anywhere, and we love that. But we are going to switch rooms around, once we have the energy to do it. There are more bedrooms upstairs, and we need more rooms because of the two girls. So they’re going to come down here and we will go upstairs.
At least, that’s the plan. Maybe we’ll never have the energy to do it, so maybe it won’t happen at all.
Grizz comes back about twenty minutes later with a sheet pan, which has me raising a brow. He gets onto the bed, then puts it down between us. I can’t help but laugh.
“Can you say random?”
“I grabbed the first things I found, and all the other dishes are dirty.”
“And that was pancake mix and tortillas?”
Grizz picks up a pancake and tears off a huge bite, then offers it to me. I take a bite, because I’m starving. My eyes widen.
“Mmm, banana,” I say.
He continues to take bites and feeds me until the pancakes are gone, then he moves onto the cheese quesadilla that’s burnt on the edges. I don’t care though; it’s delicious. For some reason, food in the middle of the night always is.
When Francesca is done eating, I carefully put her back into her bassinet. Grizz and I finish the last bites of food, he puts the pan on the floor, then we lay down to go to sleep.
Only to do it all over again in a couple hours.
I get Dorothea strapped into the front seat of the stroller while Grizz gets Francesca’s carrier into the spot by the handle.
“I think this is in right,” he says, bending down to look beneath it.
“Let me check,” Tommy says, coming over to look at it. He gives it a little shake, and it barely budges. “Looks good to me.”
The sun is bright, but soon enough the snow and cold will be back, so we’re enjoying it while we can.
Today, we’re going for a walk on one of the newly built trails around the lake.
We’re all tired, but we need to get out of the house.
Besides, none of us want to be there while the prospects clean it up.
“What are we doing for dinner tonight?” Kelsey asks as she slides her sunglasses down over her eyes.
“Ordering pizza, like usual,” Grizz says.
“I’m tired of pizza,” I add.
“Me too,” Tommy says.
“Well, I’m not cooking.”
“Neither am I,” Kelsey adds.
“We could get subs from the place by the grocer?” I suggest.
“That sounds good,” Kelsey says. “A grinder? Yum.”
“We can stop on the way home,” Tommy suggests.
Our walk lasts only thirty minutes, but it was nice to get out of the house. We pack the girls into the car, and head home after giving Tommy our orders.
The house is quiet when we get back, but more importantly—it’s clean.
I drop onto the couch, and Dorothea comes over to jump on me, lying on my chest.
“Mama, mama, mama,” she says, closing her eyes.
I squeeze her tight, kissing her head. Grizz gets Francesca out of her carrier and comes to sit on the couch with us. I rest my legs on his lap.
I can’t help but smile.
“I’m exhausted, but this is so perfect,” I say.
Grizz smiles too, rubbing his hand up and down my leg.
“I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
And I couldn’t either.