Epilogue
SAWYER
Shower Sex and Surprises
Taking a deep breath, I shake out my shoulders. Tilt my head to one side, then the other, the sofa cushions groaning as I wiggle my body.
Ava laughs when my neck cracks. “You know braiding toddler hair requires significantly less effort than, say, working cattle, right?”
“Yeah, Daddy.” Ella looks up at me. She’s seated on the floor between my knees, her pretty blue eyes almost translucent in the morning light that slants through the family room windows. “It’s not that hard. Right Ava?”
“Right.” Ava reaches down to give her shoulder a squeeze. “We’re going to turn your daddy into a French braiding pro.”
“Can you do two braids?” Ella glances at Junie, who is seated on the floor between Ava’s knees. Ava patiently brushes the long blonde hair that courses down her back. “I want it to be like Junie’s was yesterday.”
I chuckle, even as my palms break out in a clammy sweat. Mule looks at me in sympathy from his perch by the windows.
“One braid at a time, Elly Belly Boo.”
“I’ll help him do two,” Ava leans down to whisper conspiratorially in her ear. “We’ll make sure it looks just like Junie’s did, I promise.”
It’s Monday morning. Eight fifteen a.m. A few months back, I would’ve dreaded this part of the day—the one where I shook off the cobwebs from the weekend and endured the crucible that was getting my three-year-old ready for school. A long week behind us, and another long week ahead.
Now?
I’m smiling like an idiot as I run a brush through my daughter’s hair. She yelps. Ava stops brushing her own daughter’s hair to grab a nearby bottle of detangler and sprays it on Ella’s hair.
“That will help,” Ava explains. “It keeps the knots from getting too big and hurting.”
Ella grins. “Thank you, Ava.”
“You’re so welcome, sweet girl.”
I’ve lived long enough to know my life is a dream right now. Ella is thriving. Her teachers tell me she’s really come out of her shell now that she’s in class with her bestie, June. Ava bonded with Ella right away, the two of them exchanging giggles and secrets like they’re best friends too.
Junie has become the second daughter I always knew I wanted. She’s so different from Ella with her extroverted personality and fearless approach to pretty much anything and everyone. But I adore her differences as much as I adore how much the two of them are alike. They delight in the smallest things. It’s easy to make them laugh. They both love arts and crafts, almost as much as I love sitting down with them while dinner’s in the oven to color or cut out shapes from construction paper—purple or pink only, obviously.
Best of all, June and Ella delight in each other’s company. They play beautifully together. Don’t get me wrong, they have their moments—sharing is very much a struggle right now—but they’ll also have hour-long stretches where they entertain each other without calling for me or Ava a single time.
Needless to say, Ava and I are in heaven.
We also fuck a lot.
A lot a lot. Never thought that’d be the case with two young children in the house, but our (much) smaller version of the Brady Bunch has actually worked in our favor. The girls play, and so do the adults. Ava and I have become experts at slipping away for a quickie.
While the girls ride their scooters in the driveway, Ava and I get busy in the back seat of my parked truck.
While the girls watch a movie after bath time, Ava and I have some fun in our closet.
My favorite: the girls will often play together in their room before they come downstairs in the morning. That gives Ava and me just enough time for some hot, slow morning sex that fills my bucket in a way I never thought possible.
I can handle any crisis, deal with any tantrum, as long as I have my daily dose of Ava.
“To start,” Ava instructs, using her fingers to part Junie’s hair, “we separate the hair into two equal sections, right down the middle. Just like that. Doesn’t have to be perfect.”
I’m gentle as I do what Ava tells me. “That feel okay, Ella?”
“Yes, Daddy. I’m so excited for my braids. Ms. Sherman is going to think June and I are twin princesses.”
Ava laughs. “That sounds fun. Okay, now we start making our braids. Each of these sections is going to become its own plait. So now we divide this left section into three parts—yep, you’re doing great, honey.”
My chest squeezes at the endearment. I’ve always been a bit of a softy, so of course I love it when Ava’s extra sweet with me.
Same as I love being extra sweet with her.
“You speak too soon,” I reply. “I haven’t even started yet.”
Ava sits up straighter. “Then let’s do this thing. Okay, so you take the first strand, the one all the way to the left, and you cross it over the middle—no, the middle. The other middle.”
“Like this?” My fingers feel big and stupid as I try to mimic Ava’s motions. “How do you make it look so easy?”
“Because I’m an expert,” Ava replies smoothly. “Now try again. That’s right. Great. Now take the right strand and cross it—no, the right strand on this side.” She reaches over to show me which clump of hair I should use.
Ella sighs. “Daddy, you’re not very good at this.”
“No one is very good at something when they’re first learning how to do it.” Ava glances at me, the edges of her eyes crinkling. “We have to be patient with ourselves. Perseverance is everything.”
“She’s right,” I say glumly. “I’m just not used to being this bad at something.”
Ava nudges me with her elbow. “We all have to start somewhere. Now, back to the braid. We cross that strand over the one closest to it, like this. Yes! Yes, there you go.”
It takes several tries and more almost F-bombs than I can count, but eventually my daughter proudly tosses a pair of lopsided braids over her shoulders. Running to the mirror, she squeals with delight.
“Daddy, you did it!”
I lean toward Ava and whisper, “Thank God she doesn’t notice how bad they are.”
“They were made with love.” Ava presses a kiss to my mouth. “Proud of you, honey.”
The girls hold hands and literally skip through the classroom door when we drop them off at school. As I watch them, my throat tightens.
“Aw.” Ava runs a hand across my back. “You all right there, big guy?”
I swipe my thumb over my cheeks. “Yep. Just feeling my feelings the way our daughters taught us. I never—for a minute there, I thought Ella might not have any siblings. Now she’s got a built-in best friend.”
“Sisters from different misters.”
That makes me smile. I pull Ava in for a hug. “Happy?” I ask.
“So happy,” she whispers. “But I’d be even happier if you joined me in the shower when we get home.”
My lips twitch. “I gotta get to work.”
“I’ll make it quick.”
“You’d better.”
Ava is pulling off her shirt before we’re even through the front door. When I slip a hand from behind onto her bare breast, she giggles, the sound turning into a sigh when I gather her nipple between my thumb and forefinger and give it a gentle tug.
“Hey, pretty girl,” I murmur into her neck.
“Get naked,” she pants. “Now.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I shuck off my clothes and follow her into the bathroom. Ava likes the water hot, and steam fills the room as she steps beneath the spray. I watch her for a second as she tilts back her head and lets the water soak her hair.
She’s so fucking pretty. Proud shoulders. Pert tits. That little triangle of curly hair between her legs.
I step inside and bend down to take her nipple in my mouth. Her breath catches. She grins.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“Can I lather you up?”
“I’d like that, yeah.”
I squeeze some body wash onto my hands and get to work. My cock thickens as I work the soap into a lather on her smooth, soft skin, my hand dipping between her thighs. She’s hot to the touch, her hips already rolling as I graze her clit with my thumb.
I make her come that way. One hand on her pussy, the other on her tit. I play with her clit and her nipple, coordinating my fingers so that they work in tandem to bring her to orgasm.
By the time she throws back her head and shouts my name, I’m hard as shit and dying to be inside her. But then I notice how her tits are still lathered in glistening suds.
I’m gripped by an idea.
“Remember how I said I wanted to fuck you everywhere?”
Ava looks at me through heavy-lidded eyes. “When we were at the hotel in Austin? How could I forget?”
I take her tits in my hands. “How about here?”
“Okay,” she replies with a lazy, sated smile.
Then she’s climbing onto the shower’s built-in, tiled bench. She’s getting on her knees. She’s fisting my dick and taking my leaking tip in her mouth. She arches her back so that her tits are thrust high. Giving me one last, hard suck, she angles my dick on her chest so that I’m placed between her breasts.
She pushes them together and meets my eyes. “I’m good. Are you?”
I bite back a curse. Her tits feel warm and soft, a sweet little valley that I begin to rock into. Slowly at first, despite my very real urge to jerk my hips and rut like an animal. The soap and water provide just the right amount of lubrication to help me slide easily in and out, in and out.
Ava looks down, watching my head disappear between her tits, only to reappear seconds later. “That’s actually pretty hot.”
“You kidding?” I put one hand on the tiled wall behind her head and go up on my toes. “It’s hot as hell. You feel so good, pretty girl. You look so good with me fucking you this way.”
Takes me all of two minutes to come on her chest. My entire body seizes as the wave hits, a brutal takedown that leaves me struggling for air.
Ava, being Ava, revels in me losing my goddamn mind. When I open my eyes, I see her swiping her thumb through my release. She brings that thumb to her mouth. Looks me in the eye and laps it up with her pretty pink tongue.
I cup her chin. “We’re still fun, aren’t we?”
She grins. “We’ll always be fun.”
I believe her.
* * *
Later, I’m on horseback riding out of the barn alongside my brothers. It’s a beautiful spring day, warm and dry, and I’d be in an excellent mood if Duke wasn’t a total space cadet.
“Dude, watch out,” I say after he and his horse cut me off, causing me to draw up short.
Duke glances over his shoulder. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“You okay? You seem a little?—”
“Brain-dead,” Ryder finishes for me. He furrows his brow as he trots up beside his twin. “Seriously, now I’m worried. Something happen?”
“No.” Duke makes a face. “Yes. I don’t know. I think … it’s Wheeler. We had a great time together in Colorado?—”
“You were a good man to drive all that way with her,” I say.
Mollie and Wheeler were able to score a trunk show for Bellamy Brooks, their cowboy boot company, at a famous Western wear store in Aspen a couple of weeks back. The two of them had plans to drive a U-Haul full of their boots up to Colorado from Hartsville. But then Mollie, who’s several months pregnant, was told by her doctor that she couldn’t travel.
Duke immediately volunteered to help Wheeler drive to Aspen. No surprise there—it’s pretty obvious he has a crush on Mollie’s business partner.
What is a surprise is the fact that we can’t get much out of him about what went down during their long weekend away. All I know is they got snowed in together at some swanky house on Aspen Mountain. My brothers and I have mentally filled in the blanks. But this is the first time Duke’s opened up about his time with Wheeler.
“Are you kidding? It was an absolute pleasure to travel with Wheeler. Most fun I’ve had in fuckin’ forever,” he continues. “But since we got back to Texas, we haven’t hung out much. I …” He sighs. “I guess I just miss her.”
Cash rides up on the other side of Duke, clearing his throat. “You try talkin’ to her?”
“Of course I’ve tried. She won’t return my calls or my texts. Haven’t seen her at any meals. I get the feeling she’s avoiding me. And you know, I accept the fact that she doesn’t want to see me again. I just can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.”
Cash clears his throat again.
“You chokin’?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Duke, you gotta talk to her.”
“What?” Duke pulls on his reins, slowing his horse. “Do you know something I don’t?”
Cash looks away. His posture is stiff.
“Talk to her,” he repeats.
“How can I do that if she won’t pick up my calls? If you know something, Cash, I need you to tell me.”
Despite Cash’s deep tan, I’m still able to see the flush of red that’s working its way up his neck.
Oh, Lord. Something’s up.
“Not my place to say,” Cash replies evenly. “I’ll tell Mollie to tell Wheeler to call you.”
Duke grabs Cash’s arm, his eyes wide. “Tell me. I’m begging you. She okay?”
“She’s fine. Well, not fine, but?—”
“Jesus Christ.” I look at my brother, shell-shocked as the pieces suddenly click into place. “She’s pregnant, isn’t she?”
I glance at Duke. Duke glances at Cash, panic written clear as day on his face.
“Fuck.” Cash closes his eyes. “I didn’t say that.”
“Is it true?” Duke’s voice is barely above a whisper. “Is Wheeler pregnant?”
Cash opens his eyes. They’re wet.
“Yes, Duke. Wheeler is pregnant.”
* * *
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