Extended Epilogue
Xander
Five Years Later
I partied more than my fair share in life.
Ibiza, Amsterdam, Berlin.
Nothing was more exhausting than my kid’s birthday. And this was just the small one we had with family before the actual party
in a week.
“Daddy.” Lily pulled on my pant leg, looking up at me with her bright green eyes. The carefully placed ribbons in her hair
were lopsided in the sea of onyx after hours of playing with her cousins. “Is it time yet?”
Toys and games were scattered all along our living area. Sloan, Marcus, Henry, Selena, and Penelope were chatting while the
kids played.
“We may want to spin the globe before this little one falls back asleep,” Penelope said softly, rocking our son, Luca Sutton,
in her arms. It was his birthday but since Luca was too young to spin the globe, his big sister, Lily, kindly offered.
And reminded me every few minutes that she was going to do it for him.
“Sure, why don’t you go get your cousins,” I told Lily gently and she was off in a sugar-fueled flash.
When Lily was one, we helped her spin it and that decided where we’d go next. Now it was a little tradition for our little
family. One that everyone else was happy to come along on.
Seconds later tiny giggles could be heard getting louder as their feet stampeded in a quake down the hallway.
Meera Sutton—the oldest—darted around a corner first, followed by Lily right on her heels. The tornado of dark black hair
and ribbons was chased by Maxwell, Meera’s little brother and the twins—Esme and Aisha Amari—who held each other’s hands as
they haphazardly ran behind them.
They all darted right to the globe sitting in the corner. Once there, they waited for us.
“Okay, my love.” Penelope bent down to Lily, giving her a kiss on the head. We gathered behind the kids. “Spin it for your
baby brother.”
Lily nodded, spun it, and landed in the ocean. She did that for another few spins before a brief negotiation with Meera ended
with both of them pointing to somewhere in Brazil.
The two smiled, looked at us like tiny versions of Sloan and Penelope side by side, having accomplished the task.
“Okay.” Henry knelt down to scoop up his little girls, one in each arm. They squealed with laughter. “Rio?”
“Sounds wonderful.” Penelope leaned into me. Luca fussed and cried a second before drifting off to sleep in Penelope’s arms.
Both Lily and Luca looked like Penelope with the notable exception of their eyes. Those they got from me.
Lily sped off toward the kitchen and, before I could turn to go get her, she was back.
“Daddy.” Lily chaotically held a cupcake in her hand. “You didn’t eat your cupcake.”
The lopsided cupcake with more sprinkles than it could handle and frosting everywhere looked like something she made especially for me.
I smiled, expecting it to taste like an entire bucket of icing. I took a bite and stopped when what felt like gravel moved
between my teeth.
“Lily?” I began, not opening my mouth again, looking around for a napkin.
“I made it.” She beamed, her smile stretching all the way across her cheeks.
“Lily, he loves it,” Sloan cooed loudly from a few feet away, a manufactured smile painted along her face. “Don’t you, Xan?”
Lily looked at me expectantly, her eyes filled with pride.
“I do. I love it.” I kissed Lily on the forehead and forced down whatever the fuck that was. “You made this?”
She nodded her head with so much excitement she looked like she could burst. “We used the stuff from the garden.”
Dirt. I was eating dirt.
Luca had a June birthday. The official start to summer. And with his first birthday and Lily looking exactly like her mother
but acting exactly like me, we’d had our hands full.
I forgot this was usually when we kicked off the annual prank wars.
I shot an unamused look to Sloan. Meera caught Lily’s attention and they ran off. The rest of the kids taking that as their
cue to chase.
“What?” Sloan moved out of the way as the kids raced past her. “It’s summer. And that one was your wife’s idea.”
Over the last couple of years, Selena, Sloan, and Penelope created an alliance. And I hated to admit it, but they were hard
to beat.
Especially because Marcus and Henry were my teammates and generally deadweight.
I stood, choking down the rest of what was in my mouth. Penelope laughed quietly, walking over to the corner of the room and laying Luca in the portable crib we kept there.
“You picked the wrong side, again.” I shook my head, downing a glass of water that sat on a console table. Following behind
her, I wrapped my arms around her waist.
“I’m not worried.” She leaned back into me and turned her head to give me a baiting smile. “Penelope Sutton does not lose.”
I chuckled, basking in the warmth of her smile, glancing around at my life as it was now.
My house was a mess. My family was chaos. My world was unpredictable.
It was perfect. A kind of perfect I never imagined I’d have.
I laid a kiss on her shoulder. “Game on, Poppy.”