Epilogue
Five Months Later…
“Do you need anything else?” Jodi asked, absently rubbing her large belly.
Danny rolled his eyes playfully as he rolled away from the table. “I’m fine, Tinkerbelle.”
“Are you sure?” Jodi asked, walking over to the refrigerator so that she could make sure that everything was within his reach. Once she’d made sure that he could reach the beer and soda to watch his game, she moved onto the counters and double-checked that he could reach all his favorite snacks.
“Tinkerbelle…” Danny said in a chiding tone with a touch of exasperation. “I’m fine. Go take your shower.”
She glanced around the large country kitchen in their new house and sighed at the stacks of boxes that she still needed to go through and nearly groaned.
She should go through a few more of these boxes before she even thought about taking a shower, but she was so tired.
All she wanted to do was take a shower and curl up in bed and sleep for the next two days, but there was just too much to do.
They’d been back for almost two months, but it felt like only two days.
It seemed like she’d been going non-stop since the moment that she came out of her drug-induced haze.
Danny had broken his back in three places and had needed around-the-clock care and two additional surgeries to fix everything.
A week after her surgery to fix her hand, she’d made the choice to stay with him in Florida while he recovered.
She’d taken a leave of absence from work and prepared herself to be fired, but instead, her boss had found a way for her to run the library from Florida and save her job.
When she wasn’t sitting with Danny, holding his hand and trying to distract him from the pain, she was working and trying to fit in a few hours of sleep.
Thanks to her father and Danny’s father, she hadn’t had the additional stress of worrying about her bills, car, or anything else.
They’d even rented her a house down in Florida so that she could have a place to rest when she wasn’t at the hospital with Danny.
They’d moved all of her things into Danny’s apartment, boxed up their stuff, taken care of their cars, made sure that all their bills were paid and even found an old colonial farmhouse that needed work.
His father and Trevor bought the house and all the men in their family, including their cousins up in New Hampshire, had spent the next two and half months repairing the house, making it livable and handicap accessible for them.
When they’d discovered that she was pregnant a month into their stay down in Florida, they’d tripled their efforts.
They’d made sure that there was always at least two people staying in the house with her at all times to help with Danny and to make sure that she was taken care of.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to do anything about the morning sickness.
Or the exhaustion…
The raging hormones.
The insatiable appetite.
The spontaneous crying.
And about a hundred other problems that went along with pregnancy that managed to turn the men in his family into mother hens.
They’d done their best to take care of her even those times when it was obvious that they wanted to run away screaming.
They’d been great, but even with all of their help and babying, she’d still been exhausted and that hadn’t changed since Danny was released from the hospital.
If anything, she was even more exhausted now.
It seemed like one minute, she was helping Danny into his wheelchair and waiting for his discharge papers, and the next, he was kidnapping her with the help of his family, whisking her off to Nevada, sneaking her into Vegas and marrying her.
From there, he’d whisked her off for a honeymoon that had drained every last ounce of energy she’d had left, but it had been amazing.
After they’d finally come home, things had only become more hectic.
They had a new house that needed to be organized and set up so that Danny could get around with his wheelchair.
On top of that, she was running the library, making sure that Danny made it to all of his appointments, running back and forth all day between the library and home to make sure that he was okay and trying to set things up for the babies.
She was just so tired.
“Go take a shower. I’m fine,” Danny told her with a reassuring smile.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” Jodi promised him, leaning down so that she could kiss his cheek.
He shot her a wink as he pushed away with his wheelchair and rolled towards the living room, leaving her standing there, wondering if she should follow him to make sure that he had everything that he needed.
With a shake of her head, she forced herself to walk to their bedroom and strip her clothes off while she ignored the incredibly comfortable bed only a few feet away.
A shower, she needed a shower and more importantly, a shower would help her wake up so that she could make a run to the store, pick up Danny’s medication, come home, make dinner, do the laundry, and make something decent for Danny to have for lunch tomorrow before she helped him with his shower.
Sighing, she resigned herself to the long night ahead and turned the shower on. She waited for a minute for the water to get hot and when it did, she placed her hand on the wall and carefully moved to climb into the tub. She placed her foot on the bottom of the bathtub and-
Slipped.
She barely managed to get out a startled gasp when she found herself falling forward and-
Suddenly in the arms of the man that she loved.
“Shhhh, Tinkerbelle, it’s okay,” he said, brushing his lips against hers.
She opened her mouth only to sob and shake her head because it wasn’t okay. She was exhausted, but that’s not why she was crying. He was standing. Danny was standing and holding her in his arms.
He was also completely naked.
“I was trying to surprise you,” Danny said with a rueful smile as he carefully turned with her in his arms and carried her into their bedroom.
“Well, you did,” she said around a sob that was borderline hysterical as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
“Dad suggested that I should wait until I got the all-clear from the doctor tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait,” he said, pressing a kiss against her forehead as he laid her down on the bed.
“I’m glad,” Jodi said with a watery smile as she forced herself to release him.
“Now,” Danny said, sitting down by her side and placing a hand on her belly, “I get to take care of you.”
“I don’t need anyone taking care of me,” Jodi said with the most pathetic sniffle that he’d ever heard. “I’m fine,” the little liar said.
“Too goddamn bad,” Danny said, carefully lying down next to her and biting back a wince when his legs and back protested, but not enough for him to notice, not when he was able to crawl in bed with his wife for the first time on his own and pull her into his arms. “Go to sleep, Tinkerbelle.”
“But-”
“Sleep.”
She stubbornly shook her head and tried to sit up, but he wouldn’t let her, not when he knew that she was planning on babying him.
He appreciated everything that she did for him, more than he could ever say, but those days were now over.
He wasn’t at a hundred percent yet, but he was at the point where he could say fuck it and take care of his wife.
He didn’t give a rat’s ass if rushing this meant that he would never be able to run again, or that he would have to accept that job offer from his uncle to be a field supervisor because he’d rushed this and fucked up the bulging discs in his back and couldn’t pick up anything heavier than a gallon of water for the rest of his life.
She was exhausted and she needed him. She needed him to step up and put his own shit aside and take care of her and that’s exactly what he was going to do.
“Go to sleep, Tinkerbelle,” Danny said, gently guiding her onto her side so that he could curl up behind her.
“But I need to go to the store and get your medicine and-”
“No,” Danny said, pressing a kiss between her shoulder blades, “you need to rest, sweetheart. Just rest.”
“Which bedroom am I taking?” Duncan asked as he ripped open another box.
“You can have the master if you want,” Danny said, pressing a hand to his back as he walked stiffly towards the kitchen counter where Jodi kept all his medicine. He ignored the major painkillers and grabbed the bottle of Advil liquid gels and swallowed four of them dry.
“Are you sure?” Duncan asked, glancing down at the bottle of Advil, but he didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, we’re not going to need it for a while,” Danny said, walking over to the refrigerator and grabbed one of the icepacks that his wife kept on hand for him and pressed it against his lower back. “I don’t want her climbing the stairs.”
“Good idea,” Duncan agreed with a nod as he grabbed another box to unpack. “Why don’t you go lie down for a while?”
He hated how much he needed to do just that, but he knew that if he seriously fucked up his back that it would only make things worse. “Call me if you need anything,” Danny said, heading for the kitchen door, pausing along the way to pull his little brother into a one-armed hug. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Duncan said, returning the hug. “Go get some rest. I’ve got this.”
Nodding, Danny released his brother and continued the long journey back to his bedroom.
When he walked past his wheelchair where he’d left it against the wall, he forced himself to keep going.
Biting back a groan, he pulled his shirt off and pushed his pants and boxers down.
He slowly crawled back into bed and curled up behind his wife.
He wrapped his arm around her, kissed her shoulder and slowly exhaled, forcing his mind away from the pain.
Two months after that…
“You don’t have to wake up,” Jodi informed him as she shifted, careful not to fall over thanks to her very large belly, and slowly impaled herself on his erection.
Danny chuckled sleepily, reaching for her as he slowly opened his eyes. He gently cupped her hips to help guide her. “Couldn’t wait?”
Licking her lips, she shook her head as she reached down and grabbed onto his arms to steady herself. “You were taking too long,” Jodi moaned, using her hold on him to raise herself only to slide back down.
He felt so good…
Over the past two months, she’d been able to get more rest, her stress was practically gone, Danny was doing so much better and she’d finally been able to enjoy being pregnant. She ate whatever she wanted, slept whenever she wanted and did this whenever she wanted, which was admittedly a lot.
She’d quit her job at the library, which had actually helped quite a bit with her stress.
Okay, so she hadn’t so much as quit the library as Danny had been called in to come get her because she wouldn’t stop crying.
The realization that she hated her job had been kind of depressing.
When she’d earned her Master’s degree, she’d never thought she’d have to use it to decide between French roast and Arabian roast coffee to sell at the coffee bar that she was forced to manage so that the library could generate some income for the City Council.
She’d hated it.
When Danny came to get her a month ago, he’d sighed heavily and quit for her.
She’d been so happy to finally be free of that place that she didn’t argue with him.
She’d allowed him to bring her home, tuck her into bed and curled up with him and spent the next two days sleeping.
When she woke up at the three in the morning two days later, she somehow found herself at her desk, writing that historical romance novel that she’d been toying with in her mind for years but never really seriously considered.
Now…
Now she couldn’t imagine doing anything else, and thanks to Danny, she didn’t have to.
He’d been amazingly supportive about this.
He’d even bought her a MacBook so that she could work wherever she wanted.
He’d turned the old den that he’d been planning on turning into a game room into an office with a large comfortable sitting area and play area for the babies so that she could continue working after their children were born.
He was such a sweet man, a wonderful husband and she knew without a doubt that he was going to be an incredible father.
“More research for your book?” Danny asked, sitting up so that he could wrap his arms around her and hold her as she slowly rocked herself on him.
“Mmmhmmm,” she murmured against his lips. “You’re a very helpful man.”
“I do my best,” he said as he reached up between them and-
“That’s it!” Duncan announced, throwing their bedroom door wide open. “We’re moving!”
“Get the fuck out!” Danny shouted, grabbing the comforter and yanked it up to cover her, because in her current state, she was in no condition to jump off his lap and hide and she really, really, wanted to hide at this moment.
She opened her mouth to beg Danny to roll her off the bed when the smell hit her, which caused her to promptly close her mouth.
She grabbed hold of the comforter and yanked it completely over her head as she buried her face against Danny’s chest, right above the tattoo of Tinkerbelle, and hoped like hell that it was enough to block that rancid odor.
“Why are you covered in garbage?” Danny demanded as she struggled not to gag.
“That woman!” her normally loveable and considerate brother-in-law snarled, making her smile.
“Problem with the new neighbor?” Danny asked, sounding amused as she bit her lip, trying not to laugh. “Do you want me to go have a word with her mommy for you?” he asked in a mocking tone that had her chuckling.
“I hate you, you heartless bastard!” Duncan shouted dramatically as he slammed the door behind him.
She sighed happily as she pushed the comforter off her head. “I love our new neighbors.”