Extended Epilogue #2
Aaliyah is napping in her car seat when we get back home, so I wait it out for another twenty minutes.
She missed her usual nap time when we left for the flower shop.
But before coming home, we stopped at the supermarket where Aaliyah helped me find all of Lana’s comfort snacks, including the vanilla frosting.
It’s when I start dozing off that I get out of the car and take Aaliyah out of her car seat, holding her to my chest while I grab the rest of the things we bought on our little trip.
I open the new yellow door of our house and it’s quiet.
After I remove my sneakers, I go toward the kitchen, setting everything down on the island before I put Aaliyah down beside Lana and remove her shoes.
I let my girls nap for a bit longer while I get started on a late lunch for Lana.
After Aaliyah was born, our doctor suggested this new diet.
Lana had been lacking nutrients and vitamins so now, we eat the same diet and meals every day together.
Always in solidarity. For Aaliyah, I put together her occasional dino-nuggets with homemade French fries that she loves so much.
The fries are frying on the stove when I hear soft footsteps. I look down to find my baby rubbing at her eyes, her pigtails lopsided and loose on the top of her head. “Daddy, I’m hungry.”
I pick her up and hold her to my hip. “Perfect timing. I’m making you nuggets and fries.”
Aaliyah gives me a sleepy smile and rests her head in the crook of my neck. “Can we wake up Mommy yet?”
I turn down the stove and let the nuggets finish cooking in the toaster oven. “Do you want to bring her the flowers?”
My baby nods and I help her hold the large bouquet with sunflowers and smaller purple flowers Aaliyah picked out. In the family room, I sit with her on my lap and she gently shakes her mother’s shoulder. “Mommy. Mommy, wake up.”
Lana stirs, groaning then clearing her throat softly. “Hey, baby.” She sits up, wincing. “Oh, what is this?”
“Flowers for you, Mommy.”
Aaliyah holds out the heavy bouquet, and Lana accepts them with a grin. “They’re beautiful.” She kisses our daughter's head then reaches to kiss me. She rubs the tip of her nose against mine. “Thank you.”
“Mommy, are you feeling better?”
Lana nods. “I am now.”
“Daddy made nuggets!”
Lana gasps. “He did? Well, let’s go eat lunch.”
Aaliyah hops off my lap and runs through the house, toward the kitchen. “Don’t touch the stove!”
“Okay!” she calls back.
I snort and stand to help Lana. She sets the bouquet aside and I move her legs over the edge of the sofa before I take her hands. “Ready?”
She hisses. “I can stand on my own, Christian.”
“You’re so stubborn,” I mutter and help her up anyway.
On her feet, she winces again and throws her arms around my neck, holding on tight. My hands hold her hips and drift to her lower back, massaging the area. “Oh that feels good,” she moans. “I can’t wait until she’s out of me.”
I chuckle. “If I could carry you everywhere, I would.”
She groans. “I might cave and use the wheelchair.”
The patter of footsteps grows louder until Aaliyah is back and jumps onto the sofa. “Come on! I’m hungry!”
Lana laughs. “Aaliyah, do you want to be my special helper?”
She nods.
“Can you hold my hand so I can walk better?”
Aaliyah jumps off the couch and I say, “Be careful.”
She ignores me and her little hand wraps around Lana’s pointer and middle finger. “Can we eat outside?”
I wrap my arm around Lana, holding her to my side as Aaliyah and I help her toward the kitchen. “Of course we can,” Lana says.
“Lana, don’t push yourself.”
“I’m okay.” She gives me a peck on the cheek.
I open the back door and help Lana situate herself on a chair at the table outside. Aaliyah follows me to help grab our lunches, but she holds her nuggets especially close.
Outside, she struggles to reach the top of the table and Lana reaches to help her. I glare at my wife.
“Oh, stop. I’m fine,” she insists.
“You’re technically supposed to be on bed rest,” I remind her.
Lana rolls her eyes. “I’m sitting.”
“Daddy.” Aaliyah reaches up for me. “Help.”
After setting down the plates, I lift her and seat her down between Lana and me. Aaliyah is kicking her feet, dipping her nuggets in ketchup, and humming happily.
I huff and glance over at Lana. I rub her upper back as she takes a bite of her food. “Baby,” I whisper to her. “You okay?”
“Christian,” she warns through a mouth full of food.
“Are you?”
Lana smiles. Sweetly and lovingly. Happy. “Yes, Christian. I’m okay,” she assures me, wiping the corner of her mouth. “Are you?”
“I’m happy,” I say. “Very happy.”
“Yeah?” Lana sits back and leans behind our daughter. I stretch so she can reach me and she kisses my jaw. “This summer has been a really good one.”
“It has.” I smile and kiss the top of Aaliyah’s messy hair. “For the record, she messed up her own hair.”
Lana laughs, her hand cradling her swollen belly. Aaliyah chimes in to say, “It was the paint monster!”
Lana and I laugh together. “What about you, Aaliyah?” Lana asks. “Are you happy, sweetheart?”
“Yeah,” she says with her mouth full of nuggets and ketchup at the corner of her mouth.
I wipe it away with my thumb, grinning because I can’t help but smile when I look at either one of my girls. “I love you,” I tell my daughter. Then I look up at my wife. “And I love you.” I capture her chin in my hand and kiss her softly. “Thank you.”
She smiles against my lips. “For what?”
So much smiling these days. For the past five years.
“All of this,” I breathe. “I didn’t think I’d live to have any of it.”
“Stop that,” Lana says, her fingers scratching through the hair at my nape. “I don’t like to think of that. You’re here with us.”
“I’m here too!” Aaliyah giggles and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m done, can I play?”
Lana chuckles. “Yes, but don’t go by the water. And no running or you’ll make yourself sick. Stay where I can see you.”
Aaliyah shimmies her way off the outdoor loveseat and toward the mini playground that I built her with help from the guys.
I close up the empty space, sliding closer to my wife and wrapping my arm around her shoulder.
She drops her head to my shoulder, her eyes watching Aaliyah going up and down the slide.
“We have two girls,” Lana says softly. “We have our lake house. It’s everything we talked about.”
“I saw this once in a dream,” I say. “I think it might have been this exact day.”
“Hmm.” Lana kisses my neck, settling her hand on my knee. “Do you think it was all worth it?”
“To get here?”
“Yeah. Maybe not the pain or…stuff. I don’t know. But do you think it was worth it?”
“I think…” I take a breath. “I think, if I had to do it all over again, I’d just make the choice to stand up to my parents and tell them I wasn’t leaving you.”
“But…”
“But if I had…” I scratch at my jaw. “I’m not sure I would have been the man you needed me to be. The man I am now.”
Lana peers up at me with bright, caramel eyes. “So…”
“Yes,” I say, nudging her nose with mine. “I’d say it was all worth it. Everything I’ve done to have the privilege of loving you—having you as my wife and the mother of my daughters… It was all worth it.”
“I love you, Christian.”
“I love you, baby.”