Series Epilogue #6
Lips trembling with amusement at her tired nonsense, I replied, “I don’t remember asking. Though at least I wouldn’t get you pregnant.”
“True. We can do anal. When I’m not tired. Which could be awhile. Though I suppose I wouldn’t have to do much, so have at it.”
“As sexy as that offer was, I’ll pass. Mostly because I’m too fucking tired to fuck any part of you.” I stared at the ceiling in horror. “What have we become?”
Callie laugh-groaned again and patted my stomach. “Sleep. It’ll all seem better in the morning.”
I cuddled her closer. “I love you. I love our children, too, by the way.”
“Love you and love them and love sleep,” Callie mumbled.
My eyes closed and I was out like a light.
An hour later, Xander woke us again.
The next morning I called Sloane. She was always offering to help, and I knew Callie didn’t want to take her up on it just yet, but we were done. We were both zombies.
I pretended to get ready for work as usual, all the while trying to help Callie change and feed Harley and Xander. About ten minutes before I’d usually leave for work, we heard the vehicle pull up outside.
Callie looked up from putting Harley’s shoes on. Xander was in his high chair, slapping his hands against the tray that usually contained his food and thankfully no longer did. “Who could that be?”
“It’s your mum.”
“My mum? Why?”
“I called her.”
My wife’s face fell. “Lewis, you didn’t.”
“Granny!” Harley jumped to her feet from her little stool. “Granny’s ’ere!”
“No arguments,” I told Callie as I strode downstairs to open the door. Relief thrummed through me at the sight of my sunny mother-in-law on the other side.
“Gran is here to save the day.” Sloane swooped in, rushing past me with an energy I envied as she took the stairs two at a time.
“Granny!” I heard Harley scream.
As I came upstairs, Harley was jumping up and down at her granny’s feet, showing off her teeth in a delighted grimace.
“Is that a new dance?” Sloane asked, jumping up and down with her.
It made Harley giggle hysterically. “Granny!” She said it as if Sloane were the silly one.
“Mum, you don’t need to be here.” Callie crossed the room.
“Yes, I do.” Sloane ran her eyes over her daughter. “You’re exhausted. You both are. I’m going to take the kids today. Walker is off work, so he’s going to help. And you two are going to get some sleep.”
“Two?” Callie’s eyes flew to mine.
“I’m not going in today.”
Somehow, that made it easier for her to give in.
Together we gathered up all the kids’ things and packed them into Sloane’s car.
Harley was delighted to be spending the day with her gran, enough so not to complain about the car seat.
Sloane had two car seats for Harley and Xander already set up in the back.
“Call if you need us. Bring them back if they’re fussing.”
“I’ve raised two children, baby girl. I can deal with some fussing.” Sloane kissed Callie’s forehead. “Now go sleep. I’ll bring the kids back around dinnertime.”
“Mum—”
“Nope. It’s done.” Sloane threw us a dazzling smile and hopped into her car. She waved as she backed out.
Callie looked ready to burst into tears.
“Hey, hey, come on.” I nudged her toward the house. “We are going to sleep, mo chridhe, and it will make you feel like a human being again. I promise.”
“I feel bad.”
“Don’t.” I took her by the shoulders once we were inside. “Cal, we have to be able to function properly to look after our children, and we’re lucky we have support to help us do that.” I spun her around before she could protest and guided her toward our bedroom.
Once inside, she eyed the bed longingly.
I almost burst out laughing at how adorable she was. “It’s okay? Mum will be okay?”
“She’s more than okay. She’s ecstatic to spend the day with her grandbabies. And we … we can sleep. Really sleep, Callie.” I gestured to the bed. “Do you remember what it was like to sleep for more than one hour? We could have that today.”
Her lips trembled at my melodrama. “We could, couldn’t we …”
“All you have to do is give in.”
“Sleep.”
“Sleep.” I nodded.
Then just like that, we were both stripping off our clothes in a frantic desire for one thing. We whipped back the duvet and dove in. Giggling like excited children, snuggled under the covers, me as the big spoon, Callie as the little spoon.
Despite my exhaustion, my dick reacted to being nestled against my wife’s naked ass cheeks.
She felt it. “I love you so much, but I’m soooo tired,” she whined.
Chuckling, I buried my face in her neck and then lifted it to reassure her. “Mo chridhe, trust me, my cock and I are on completely different wavelengths right now. Just ignore him. Sleep.”
I waited for her response.
A soft snore was it.
Grinning, I hugged her closer and within seconds, I joined her in dreamland.
EILIDH
“Mumma!” Millie called from the living room. “Mumma!”
I glanced up from my laptop to find Millie pointing at the TV. I’d had it on low on one of her cartoon shows while I worked on some rewrites Theo had sent over for our show. Millie, however, must have switched a channel or something because a trailer for Young Adult was playing.
Muttering expletives under my breath, I lunged for the remote and changed it back to her cartoon.
“Mumma!” Millie toddled over to me indignantly, reaching for the remote. “No!”
“Mumma’s right here.” I dropped the remote and lifted Millie into my arms. “You don’t need to see Mumma on TV because I’m right here.”
“No, no.” She stretched toward the remote control, her face crumpling.
The sound of our security system binging had relief flooding through me. “Is that Nana Regan?”
Millie let out a giggle of excitement. “Nana!” I took her hand and we slowly made our way over to the panel on the wall. Sure enough, it was Mum getting out of her car.
She was here to collect Millie because Fyfe and I were celebrating a very belated one-year anniversary this evening.
A lot had happened in the past year.
So much.
Not all of it pleasant.
Of course, I’d had to endure facing Peter Pryor at trial.
Had to endure knowing the jury had seen enough of the footage he’d kept of me to know that he’d violated my privacy for years from the age of nineteen.
The media were like buzzards all over the trial, trying to pick at my innards.
Fyfe and Millie kept me strong. The work Theo and I were doing on the show kept me strong.
Knowing I had a beautiful future ahead of me if only I could get through my ugly present kept me going.
Peter Pryor was sentenced to ten years in prison for stalking, assault, and violation of privacy. To me, it wasn’t enough.
But it didn’t matter.
Pryor died of a stroke three weeks into his sentence.
It was a sad legacy for a man that his death provided nothing but relief for me.
After the trial, I faced another round of scrutiny when I testified against Dr. Cameron Phillips. He wasn’t charged, but it was still worth it to go through that because he lost his medical license. Uncle Lachlan told me just yesterday that Dr. Dick, as we called him, had relocated to Australia.
Good fucking riddance.
Though I felt bad for Australia.
They deserved better than Dr. Dick.
There were some lovely moments in the year. Like Millie calling me Mumma for the first time instead of Ae. And the first time she walked by herself. Now she was toddling around the room, picking up things and usually throwing them. We had to have eyes on the back of our heads.
“Shall we open the door for Nana?” I asked.
Millie clapped her hands and almost stumbled with her exuberance. “Yesh!”
I took her hand again and opened the front door.
Mum’s eyes lit up when she saw Millie. “Millie Billie!”
“Nana!” Millie reached out for her with her free hand, all the while straining at my grasp.
My entire family had fallen deeply in love with Millie.
To them, she was as good as my biological daughter.
Loving Millie made me understand my mum better.
There was a small part of me that had always worried since Morwenna came along that Mum might never love me like she loved Mor.
But I knew now, loving Millie, that I had nothing to worry about.
My heart belonged to Millie just as it would belong to any biological children Fyfe and I might have together.
A half hour later, Mum had departed with Millie and her overnight bag, and I got in the shower. Fyfe and I had a night to ourselves, so I wanted to be plucked and gleaming for what I hoped would be a very energetic evening in bed.
I was straightening my hair when I heard Fyfe downstairs.
He didn’t call up or come find me, so I finished getting ready and strolled downstairs in the sexy floral summer dress I’d bought just for the occasion.
I left my hair down and my feet bare. Rounding the staircase, I turned and abruptly halted.
The lights were low and our dining table was aglow with candlelight.
Fyfe had thrown his suit jacket over the back of the couch, removed his socks, shoes, and tie, and rolled up his shirt sleeves while he cooked at the stove. The living space already smelled amazing.
He glanced over at me, his eyes flickering down my body from behind his dark framed glasses. He’d worn them just for me today. “Hi, baby.”
I bit my lip against a giddy smile because this man still made my belly flutter. Probably always would. “What are you making?”
“Spaghetti puttanesca.”
“Yum.”
“Wine?” He lifted a bottle with his free hand and poured into the empty glass next to his.
“I’m getting the full treatment tonight, huh?” I hopped up onto the stool at the island to watch him. “Anything I can do?”
“Drink your wine, relax.” He gave me a sexy grin full of promise.
Oh yes, tonight was going to be good.
I sipped at my wine and told him about how excited Millie was to leave with Nana Regan.
“Until she realizes she’s staying the night,” Fyfe murmured before taking a drink.
“She’ll be fine,” I promised. “She’ll settle.”
“I know.”