Epilogue #7
Beatle froze. His eyes whipped to Casey, who was staring at him curiously. “And?” he asked, needing more information before he said anything to clue his wife into what was happening.
“She’s been adamant from the beginning that she didn’t want the child. Her parents refused to allow her to get an abortion. The father isn’t in the picture at all. Child services is looking for a foster home ASAP. I just thought… Can I be frank here?”
“Please,” Beatle said, still in shock.
“We’ve been through a lot together. The last thing I wanted to do today was break the news that the procedure once again didn’t work.
You and Casey are the kind of people who deserve to be parents.
You’d be amazing, I have no doubt. I know you both want children more than anything.
So, I pulled some strings… You could pick up the baby tomorrow.
But you’d have to go in and fill out the application to be a foster parent first. They’ll do background checks, and you’ll have to put up with home visits for a while too.
Then there will be court dates to make sure the mother and her family have relinquished all rights to the child.
“It won’t be easy, but then again, what the two of you have gone through in the last six years hasn’t been easy either. This little girl needs you, Troy. Needs you and Casey.”
“When do I have to give you an answer?” Beatle asked, not taking his eyes from Casey.
“Sooner rather than later would be better, but I know you need to talk it over with your wife. Tomorrow morning would be best, as I can make arrangements for you to meet with child services and sign the paperwork, then you can take the baby home as soon as tomorrow afternoon, if everything checks out.”
“Tomorrow?” Beatle choked out, wanting to make sure he’d heard the doctor right.
“Tomorrow,” Doctor Harris confirmed.
“I…shit…” Beatle stammered.
“Talk to Casey. I’ll wait for your call in the morning.”
“Right.”
“Troy?”
“Yeah, Doc?”
“You deserve this. I know it’s scary, but it’s nothing you can’t handle.”
“Ten-four. I’ll call tomorrow.”
“You do that. Bye.”
Beatle clicked off the phone and stared at his wife. She still had tracks on her face from her tears, and she furrowed her brows in concern.
“What did the doctor want?”
Beatle ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath—then told her everything he’d just heard from the doctor.
For several moments, they stared at each other in shock.
“Tomorrow?” Casey whispered. “We can take her home tomorrow?”
“That’s what the doc said. What do you think?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you a biological child.
But I think we both knew before we even started on this last round that the possibility of it failing was high.
I want to give you everything your heart desires, and I hate that I couldn’t.
But…I think this is a sign from God. What’re the odds that this girl gave birth today of all days?
And that her doctor was friends with ours? I think we should do it.”
“Me too,” Casey whispered.
Beatle kissed her, then pulled back and asked, “Did we just become parents?”
Casey chuckled. “Well…foster parents for now, but…yes, I think we did.” Then the smile fell from her face and her eyes got huge.
“Oh my God. We don’t have anything. The house is a mess and we don’t even have a room to put her in.
We need clothes. And diapers. And formula. Oh, shit…we need to go shopping!”
Beatle grabbed her right before she leaped up from the couch. “Calm down, Case.”
“I can’t!” she screeched. “We’re gonna be parents!”
He simply held her and arched his brows.
“Oh my God, Troy. We’re gonna be parents,” Casey whispered, then she burst into tears once again.
As he pulled his wife back into his arms, Beatle beamed. It was so strange how the world worked, but he knew they were meant to be this little girl’s parents. He already loved her. It was crazy. Insane. But true.
After Casey had gotten herself under control, he said, “Come on, let’s go call your brother. Then our parents. They need to know they’re going to be grandparents.”
Blade and Wendy, thirteen years after the weddings.
“I’d like to make a toast,” Jackson Tucker said as he raised his champagne glass.
Blade stared at his brother-in-law proudly. After his rough start to life, he’d not let anything stand in his way. Wendy had done a hell of a job raising him to be an amazing, smart young man. He was now thirty, and had just gotten married.
They were at his wedding reception, and before anyone could eat, they had to get through the toasts. His best man had done his thing, telling stories about a wild and crazy Jackson at college.
But now it was Jackson’s turn for a toast.
Wendy leaned into Blade’s side and he wrapped his arm around her. The thirteen years they’d been married had been amazing. They didn’t have children; Wendy said raising her kid brother had been more than enough child-rearing for her, and Blade didn’t protest.
He liked kids, but didn’t really want any of his own. He was content spoiling his friends’ children…then giving them back.
“Today, I not only married the most beautiful woman on the planet, I married my best friend,” Jackson began. “I met her in high school, and knew there’d never be another for me.”
Blade half-listened as he leaned down and whispered to Wendy, “How long do we have to stay?”
She elbowed his side and glared up at him. “Hush,” she admonished.
“Seriously, how long?” Blade asked.
Wendy pressed her lips together and refused to engage him in conversation.
“Because seeing you in that dress has had me hard all night. All I can think about is whether your panties and bra match.”
“Aspen, hush,” she said, but he could tell she wasn’t exactly mad at him. Her hand moved to rest on his thigh, then slid so her fingers were caressing his inner thigh. If she moved even an inch higher, she’d see for herself how badly he needed her.
“…all I ever needed to know from my brother-in-law, Aspen.”
Blade tore his eyes away from Wendy’s cleavage—prominently yet tactfully displayed in her custom-made light gray dress—to look at Jackson.
He stared at him as he continued his speech.
“I learned how to treat the woman I loved, and that nothing was more important than making her feel safe and protected. That’s probably not a popular sentiment in today’s age, with women still fighting for equal rights, but I don’t care.
” He turned to his bride. “Jenny, I promise to always be there when you need me. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you can achieve your dreams and support you however you need me to.
I’ll fight dragons for you, and stand between you and anyone who dares try to hurt you.
I love you. Thank you for loving me, and for saying yes. ”
“Oh, Jackson,” Jenny said, and stood up to kiss her new husband.
“Why’d it take them so long to get married again?” Blade asked as he tightened his arm around Wendy. He was trying to distract her because she was about to lose it—again. She’d been crying on and off all day, and he would do anything to keep those tears from her eyes…even happy tears.
“You know why. He didn’t want to hold her back.”
“But she went to the same college he did and they dated throughout.”
“I know.”
“And they’ve been living together for years,” Blade went on.
“I know.”
“So explain it to me?”
“I can’t,” Wendy finally said. “They’ve loved each other since they first met, but I think they were both afraid something was going to happen and ruin it. It just took them a while to take the plunge. But it’s always been the two of them.”
“Hmmm,” Blade said, and nuzzled the skin by her ear.
“Besides, I think they would’ve gone on forever simply being common-law married…except she’s pregnant.”
Blade’s head whipped up and he stared at Wendy. “Really?”
“Yup.”
“Holy shit! I can’t believe that kid is gonna be a parent.”
“He’s thirty, Aspen. He’s not exactly a kid. In fact, he’s older than I was when we met.”
“Damn,” Blade said again. “I can’t wrap my head around it. I’m gonna be an uncle.”
Wendy chuckled. “Yup. And I’ll be an aunt.”
The waitstaff began to circulate in the room and serve the first course for dinner. Blade looked around and mentally said, fuck it.
He grabbed Wendy’s hand and stood.
Ignoring the knowing looks from his teammates—and the confused ones from their wives—he towed Wendy out of the ballroom. He went straight to the elevators and impatiently stabbed at the up arrow.
“Aspen, what on earth?” Wendy asked.
The elevator opened and Blade pulled her inside, pressing the door-close button so the businessman coming their way with a suitcase had to take the next one.
He backed Wendy against a wall of the elevator after pushing the button for their floor and said, “I can’t go another minute without being inside you. ”
“For God’s sake, Aspen, my brother’s reception is going on!”
“Right, and he doesn’t give a shit who’s there and who isn’t. All he’s thinking about is getting Jenny up to the honeymoon suite and making love to his wife.”
“Ew, gross,” Wendy said, covering her ears with her hands.
“I love you, Wen,” Blade said. “I can’t think about your brother being thirty.
I can’t think about the fact that thirteen years has gone by since we met.
I love you just as much as I did when we said our own vows, and I want you just as badly.
I’ll always want you. Even when I’ll have to take those little blue pills to get it up. ”
Wendy giggled and Blade relaxed. He was afraid he’d really pissed her off this time.
“You’re lucky I love you,” she told him, unbuttoning the first button on his shirt. “But this has to be quick. I’m hungry and we’re missing dinner.”
“I’ll make sure you get dinner,” Blade told her. “I’ll track down the wedding coordinator and tell her you had an allergic reaction and missed it.”