Epilogue
LUCAS
___
Five years later
“ D addy! I want ice cream! Please!”
“Did you ask mommy?”
“Yes. Mommy said yes.”
I glared at the tiny carbon copy of my wife, nearly certain she wasn’t told she could have more ice cream.
“Penny? Are you in here? I brought you ice cream before we head down to the lake!”
My father walked into the kitchen holding one of those packaged ice cream cones. Penny squealed and took off in his direction. I’d argue, but the Fourth was his holiday and I’d already prepared myself for the disaster that would be bedtime tonight.
“You’re taking her to light fireworks?”
I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I didn’t need my three-year-old anywhere near a bunch of explosives.
“I told her she’s in charge of lighting them this year,” he deadpanned.
I waited for the follow up because there was zero chance that was happening.
“Kidding Luc. Your brothers are doing the lighting. I’m just taking the grandkids.”
I doubted Liv would hand him our six-month-old son, but the man could dream.
“Let’s go, little P.” Taking her tiny hand in his, my father guided Penny toward the lake to get a suitable spot for the show. The rest of the guests did the same until the deck had almost entirely cleared. With everyone gone, the one person I was looking for appeared.
Nestled in a carrier on her stomach was our little boy, passed out from a long day. Liv looked over his head at me. She looked gorgeous, as usual, but tired.
Raising these kids wasn’t easy, but we were doing it together.
Arlo was a great baby, but so much more needy than little Pen had been.
So even though Olivia had worked while Penny was a baby, this time around she’d pulled back.
She’d spend more time with the kids and let her designers take on more of the responsibilities for her business.
It wasn’t an easy decision and like always, I’d stressed about her missing out on her dream. She’d told me, in no uncertain terms, that our family was her dream.
Damn if that didn’t make me swell up with love every time I heard it. Those babies meant more to me than anything in the world, next to their mother. And it was truly something else to raise them with my favorite person on earth.
Watching Liv with our little boy right now, I could feel that familiar squeeze. The one I got whenever I looked at her with our children.
“Hey, Angel.” I dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“Hi, daddy.”
“Olivia. Watch it.”
Her eyes dropped to my pants.
“Love to.”
I bent down and skimmed my lips over the shell of her ear.
“You’re in trouble after bedtime, wife.”
“That may be an empty threat. I saw Pen with another ice cream on her way to the fireworks.”
I chuckled. Bedtime with Pen would be my job tonight. Since Arlo was still on a boob-only diet, Liv spent most of her time feeding and hanging with him. Little Penny would be up to me.
“I’m banking on a sugar crash that wipes her out for a solid eight hours.”
“Ah, we’re cute and delusional tonight.” Olivia smiled up at me with humor dancing in her eyes.
“As long as I’m cute.”
I missed her. I was standing right next to her and somehow I still missed her. After years together and having built our family, I didn’t think that was ever going away.
I would always do my best to soak up every ounce of her I could, though.
“Happy Fourth, Angel.”
“Happy Fourth.” She reached up on her tiptoes for a kiss and I happily obliged her, grabbing her chin in my palm to help her balance. “I love you.”
Against her lips, I whispered, “I could not love you more.”
Even as I said the words, I knew I was wrong. Tomorrow I would wake up and somehow, impossibly, I would.