Epilogue
Six months later…
“Oh, come on, car! Would you move or change lanes?” Cherry yelped in frustration and glanced at her watch again. She had agreed to meet Evan and Jeremy at the baby shower for Trophy’s wife, volunteering to pick up the cupcakes, and sneaking a pregnancy test for herself.
She was late.
Not just a day or two, but a month.
Late late, she thought distractedly, and had walked into the grocery store to pick up the cupcakes that Trophy ordered for Stephanie – only to indulge in what she called ‘A side quest’ on her part. She went through the self-checkout line and bought a bottle of water and a pregnancy test. Guzzling the water down, she went to sit in the café of the grocery store, reading the instructions on the box.
Life had been good, and things were crazy sometimes, but there was not one thing she would change. Even the bridge between Debbie and Evan was starting to mend as they talked on the phone for about an hour last week, clearing the air. He cared for his sister, but no one would ever harm his family, and she seemed to accept that – and the fact that he and Cherry were very happy together.
She waited for what felt like forever until the urge finally hit her. Immediately, she shot to her feet, pregnancy test in hand, and darted back to the bakery and the bathrooms.
“I’m here to pick up an order for Lance Cavanaugh. It should be a bunch of pink and blue cupcakes with little crowns on them…” Cherry instructed the clerk, trying not to ‘dance’ as she stood there. The directions on the pregnancy test had said to test in the morning when the stream would be most concentrated – but she couldn’t wait. If she was having Evan’s baby, then she was going to shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone in the entire world. Looking at the clerk once more, she hesitated. “Do you have children?”
“Oh yes, a boy and two girls.”
“Nice,” she replied distractedly, holding up the box. “If I take a pregnancy test in the middle of the day, do you think it will work, or do you have to do it first thing in the morning?”
“Depends,” the woman chuckled. “If you are a day late, I’d wait because those tests are expensive…”
“I’m a month late,” Cherry uttered uncomfortably and crossed her legs, bobbing slightly because the urge was really strong now.
“Honey, go pee…” the woman smirked. “The cupcakes can wait two minutes for your news.”
“Exactly,” she yelped – darting off and leaving her shopping cart there at the bakery counter. Running into the doorway, she barely had the stall door closed in time, sighing in relief and a mixture of disgust.
Taking a pregnancy test was not glamorous.
As she moved to set the stick down on a mitt of toilet paper she’d wadded up to keep from making a mess, she blinked and blinked again, before making a noise. Slapping her hands over her mouth, she started crying as she stared at two blue lines indicating that she was pregnant and froze, before laughing hysterically like a mad woman as she openly talked to herself in the bathroom.
“I peed on the stick and put my hands on my face… oh gosh, that’s soooo disgusting,” she wept and giggled at the same time. “How am I going to show Evan? I cannot walk out of here with that – and carrying food.”
Yanking out her cell phone, she took a picture of the pregnancy test showing a positive result and then took a selfie of it, smiling broadly with her shiny eyes before giggling again. Thank goodness Evan cannot see me right now, she mused, completely beside herself. I’m standing in a public restroom, my jeans around my knees, holding a pregnancy test, crying and laughing. If this isn’t madness, I don’t know what is.
Cleaning up her mess, throwing away the beloved pregnancy test, and washing her hands thoroughly two times, Cherry returned to the bakery counter and burst out crying the second the woman said, “Well?”
“Pregnant!” she wailed happily, dancing all around and throwing her arms in the air happily. “I’m having a baby… me! I never thought I’d be married, a stepmother, or have my own baby – but just look at me now,” she gushed in disbelief and exuberant joy. “The misfit and obnoxious child who was always in trouble growing up is going to be a Mommy – again – and I freakin’ love it. I love being a mother with my entire being and my husband is the best father around.”
“I’m sure he is, dear.”
“Oh, he is – and he’s going to be so excited about the baby.”
“I’m sure.”
“And we’re going to a baby shower for some friends of ours, which means that we’ll have our own in several months. Oh gosh, Jeremy will be a big brother, and he’ll be the sweetest thing.”
“I bet… do you want to pay back here or up front?”
Cherry blinked at the abrupt dismissal, realizing that she was causing a scene and pouring out her guts to a perfect stranger. “Oh,” she blurted out, laughing nervously, and glanced at her watch again. “I’ll pay up front because I’ve got to get going.”
“Congratulations again,” the woman said easily, handing her the cupcakes, and Cherry nodded. She couldn’t wait to tell her family the good news.
Walking up to the apartment building, Cherry balanced the box of cupcakes carefully in her hands, trying not to start crying again. She almost texted the photo to Evan to share the good news, but wanted to look into his beautiful hazel eyes when she told him. As she started up the stairs to the building, she felt her eyes sting.
I’m not gonna cry…
I’m not gonna cry…
And saw the balloons at the top of the stairs, causing her to suck in her breath in awareness. The door to the apartment was open, and people were moving around inside. Evan had told her about Trophy’s idea to surprise his wife, and she was glad he’d shared with her, or she might have been upset seeing her husband kneel before another woman.
There, before a very pregnant woman, was her husband’s dark head held high with a foam sword in front of him. Jeremy was kneeling beside his dad with a matching foam sword, both of them wearing T-shirts with crests painted on the chest.
“I, Sir Orion of the Squadron…”
“And Sir Jeremy…” her son chimed in happily, causing Cherry to stand there as she witnessed the two of them together. Her favorite people in the universe, there, side-by-side.
“My squire,” Evan added, grinning at Jeremy before nodding. “We promise friendship and laughter to your child, hoping that it is blessed with quick wit and a lighthearted temperament.”
“That means no crying babies,” Jeremy added for emphasis and then started, looking directly at her. “Oh boy! Mama’s here with the cupcakes!”
Mama?
Jeremy called me Mama?
Oh gosh… cue the waterworks!
Evan was getting to his feet, his eyes glistening in emotion as they shared a look, and she let out a broken sob. Shellac dove around Evan, plucking the cupcake box out of her hands and chuckling just as Evan rolled his eyes, pushing the man out of his way.
“Hey sweet… Mama?” Evan said hoarsely, giving her a strange yet pointed look as Jeremy chuckled.
“Daddy, she can’t be your Mama when she’s my Mama.”
“That’s true.”
“Oh my gosh, come here, you two,” Cherry ordered tearfully, drawing Jeremy into her arms and hugging him as Evan stepped forward enclosing the two of them into his capable arms. “I have a secret to tell you, but we have to keep it to ourselves. I don’t want to ruin Stephanie’s baby shower.”
“What is it?” Jeremy hissed excitedly, jumping bodily between the two of them as Evan looked at her curiously.
“I almost texted you,” she whispered, holding her breath and waiting for his reaction. They had been trying for a baby from the very beginning, but nothing had happened until he suggested maybe they needed to start tracking her periods on a calendar. That was when it clicked in her mind that something was off.
“And?”
“Yes,” she whispered excitedly.
“Yes?” her husband began, drawing in a deep breath of awareness. “You’re sure?”
“Two lines, Evan. There were two lines.”
“Well, okay…” he chuckled proudly, his eyes glittering with joy. “I don’t know if I can keep this a secret.”
“What secret?” Jeremy interrupted, frowning. “I wanna know…”
“Hang on!”
Stephanie’s voice pierced the air, causing the trio and everyone else to look toward the woman sitting on the couch. She had this alarmed look on her face as her eyes looked directly at Trophy who was standing beside Tic-Tak, the two of them obviously chatting. “Could someone get me a towel?”
“A towel?” Moonbeam asked, kneeling in front of her with his foam sword.
“Oh no…” Trophy uttered in disbelief.
“Uh oh…” Pasteur chuckled.
“Why does she need a towel?” Shellac blurted out, obviously confused.
“Cause her water broke, you dolt. You fly an airplane – how do you not know stuff like this?” Evan said in disbelief, shaking his head. The poor man looked completely bewildered.
“Because I’m not pregnant or getting anyone pregnant anytime soon.”
“Never say never…” Evan replied, turning to smile at her as he laid a hand on her lower stomach knowingly – and she nearly melted. Jeremy’s face split in wonder as he looked at Stephanie, then at her, and his eyes dropped to where Evan’s hand was.
“Mama…?”
Things were falling apart quickly. Shellac was getting upset and defending himself because he hadn’t caught on about Stephanie’s water breaking. Pasteur was grinning at the man’s discomfort. A woman across the room was staring at Pasteur in confusion, Moonbeam was looking around at everyone in obvious discomfort, unsure if he should move from his spot, and Stephanie was getting upset because out of all the people in the apartment, no one was making a move to get the towel she had requested.
“TOWEL?” Stephanie reminded everyone. “I hate to cut this short, but we’re leaving.”
“Yup! I’m on it,” Trophy began and hesitated as he looked around. Evan rolled his eyes, tossed her a smile, and yanked open the hallway closet, not three feet from him, chucking a towel at Trophy.
“Go!” The woman who’d been eyeballing Pasteur stepped forward, taking charge of the room and pointing at the door, which seemed to spur Trophy into action. “We’ll handle this and meet you at the hospital in a bit. I’ll get a ride from someone who knows the direction.”
“Go,” Evan did the same, waving Trophy forward. “We’ll take care of everything and lock the door behind us. Take care of your wife.”
Cherry pressed Jeremy back closer to the wall so they could move out of the way of the couple, noting that Stephanie was clutching her stomach and Trophy was right there for her.
She glanced at Evan, who smiled and slowly nodded. That was going to be them in several months, she realized, and felt a tug on her arm. Looking at Jeremy, she saw his eager and hopeful smile.
“Mama, are you going to have a baby too?”
“Yes,” she smiled tearfully, smoothing his hair as he moved to hug her.
“Orion, your wife is pregnant?” Shellac blurted out and heard Evan’s dramatic sigh as all the men shouted excitedly and watched in fascination as her steady, quiet, loving husband was quickly surrounded by seven men. All of them were dancing wildly, bumping into her husband like he was a bowling ball pin to be knocked over, and Jeremy’s laughter pierced the air as he ran over to join them.
“Me too, Uncle Shellac! Me too!”
“C’mon little man – everyone gets a little ‘bump and grind’ after your daddy has been obviously doing the ‘bump and grind’!”
“Oh my gosh,” Cherry and the woman muttered in unison – causing them to look at each other. She walked over to Cherry, extending a hand and smiling as she rolled her eyes, shrugging.
“Since they’re busy, I’ll introduce myself,” she began, just as Evan’s exclamation caused Cherry to glance back at the pile of bodies. Shellac, Pasteur, and Jeremy were all bent over, hands on their knees, shaking their butts at Evan, whose face was buried in his hands in embarrassment.
“I’m gonna tell everyone I bumped… and I grinded!” Jeremy exclaimed, causing the men to laugh wildly.
“Don’t tell anyone that – please!”
“Tell them you slung it around with a bunch of fellas, Jeremy…”
“No! Shellac, why would you say that?!”
“Cause it’s true in a manner of speaking…”
“Jeremy, always ignore Uncle Shellac…”
“As I was saying,” the woman smiled as Cherry took her hand. “My name is Lila Brooks, Stephanie’s best friend from Louisville and…”
A loud curse word split the air, drawing several shocked sets of eyes to Pasteur as he fell forward onto his knees and closed his eyes. The man didn’t move as he swallowed and hung his head in defeat.
“What’s that word mean, Daddy?” Jeremy asked in the silence.
“You are not allowed to say that word,” Cherry uttered at the same time that Evan blurted out, “Don’t repeat that!”
“Pasteur?”
“Bro, are you okay?”
“Pasteur, bro, what’s wrong?”
Everyone was looking at the pilot, who looked so forlorn and confused. Cherry saw him open his eyes and look forward unseeingly, before his face turned slightly and looked at Lila standing beside her.
The woman’s entire expression changed rapidly, shocking Cherry. The easy, happy-go-lucky smile faded, and in its place was a very harsh grimace as she whispered under her breath.
“You’re… Lila?” Pasteur said hoarsely.
“I think that is our cue to leave,” Shellac interrupted, grabbing Tic-Tak by the arm and gesturing to Moonbeam. “Let’s go.”
“Cherry, Jeremy – we’re leaving too,” Evan said grimly.
“What’s wrong?” Cherry said in confusion to her husband, except the answer came from Lila, standing right beside her.
“I can’t believe those two set me up… with you .”
Hours later, Evan’s phone beeped on the nightstand, and he rolled away from her to check it. Chuckling easily, he leaned over and kissed her shoulder.
“Cherry, look…”
She opened her eyes and smiled at the picture of Trophy holding a little pink bundle in his arms. The man was smiling from ear to ear and obviously had been crying at some point. His cheeks were wet, and he looked so proud in that moment.
“I have one of those pictures of me holding Jeremy in my wallet – and on the wall of my bunk aboard ship.”
“You’re going to have another one, too,” she reminded him tenderly as they shared a smile. “Come here, you… and put the phone away.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled happily. “Have you got something on your mind, beloved?”
“That headboard still isn’t broken,” she teased intimately, angling her arm above her head and giving it a little knock. Evan laughed sheepishly, shaking his head.
“Maybe I was bragging just a little bit…”
“Perhaps,” she shrugged easily as he leaned forward to kiss her tenderly. His lips held hers as she felt his hand move up her arm, pinning her hand against the pillow behind her as he broke the kiss and met her gaze. They shared a heady look and treasured the way her breath seemed to catch in her chest.
Evan was a miracle, filling every corner of her soul with joy and love.
“But it’s certainly fun trying – isn’t it?”
“That it is, my love.”