Epilogue – （I’ve Had） The Time Of My Life
Performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
EIGHT MONTHS LATER
HER: Do you know what time it is, Husband?
HIM: Time for me to come home and reward you for using my favorite word.
HER: As much as I’d love that, it’s time for you to meet me at the hospital.
“Hurry the fuck up,” I told Sweeney, “or pull over and let me drive.”
“I’d like to make it into town in one piece, thank you,” Sweeney groused.
“I knew I shouldn’t have gone up today,” I growled, hitting my fist on the dash.
Our baby girl had helped us out by holding on to her mama and being two and a half weeks past her real due date. It meant no one would think twice when Fallon went into labor a couple of weeks earlier than when we’d told everyone she was due. But I’d been sweating it out every day.
And this morning, when Fallon had felt more uncomfortable than usual, I’d almost cancelled the flight planned for the ROTC kids.
But she’d insisted I go, insisted my fledgling business needed to honor its commitments.
“How will it look to kids you’re trying to teach about duty and honor if you don’t show up? ”
I’d hated that she’d been right. But for the first time since Sweeney and I had started the flight school, I hadn’t looked forward to going to it .
Sweeney and I had resigned our commissions in September and spent five months getting the school up and running.
We were training the high school kids pro bono.
It served as both charity and advertisement, making us look good to the community and the government bigwigs who still had to approve our contract for the military training we had planned.
We’d barely hit the ground after the jump with the teens, repacked the parachutes, and started a debrief when my phone had started jangling.
Lauren hadn’t sounded frantic. She’d been perfectly calm, but knowing Fallon had been in the far field, checking on the goddamn cows, when her water broke was enough to make me more agitated than I’d ever been.
“I told her to stay close to the resort today, but did she listen?” I asked.
Sweeney grinned at me. “Did you really expect her to?”
No. I loved her for that independent, defiant nature. For the endless energy that meant she could work hard all day and then spend hours tangled with me in the sheets at night.
Back in July, when I’d made Fallon mine, I hadn’t thought I could love her more, hadn’t thought I could love anyone more, but I’d been wrong.
Every day, the love I felt for her, Theo, and the little girl inside Fallon seemed to expand until it was spinning out endlessly, until I’d finally realized it would never stop growing.
I’d always love them more today than I had the day before.
More with this very breath than I had the last.
Sweeney turned the corner, and the hospital finally came into view.
The truck hadn’t even stopped before I leaped out, running at full speed for the entrance. I knew the way to the maternity ward like the back of my hand. I’d done enough reconnaissance missions to make sure I could get us here in record time.
At the outer doors of the ward, I pushed the intercom and tried to keep my voice calm as I asked to be let in. The nurse at the desk directed me to a room, and I jogged in just as a gasp of pain escaped my wife.
She was in a hospital gown, brows furrowed, sweat beading on her forehead, braids askew, cheeks flushed, and she’d never looked more beautiful—another thing that seemed to grow every second of every day.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded, all but pushing Maisey aside to take Fallon’s hand.
Maisey chuckled, noting something down on her tablet. “Nothing, idiot. She’s in labor.”
I turned to see Lauren in the corner of the room, pacing. Her stride was smooth these days. If you didn’t know she had one mechanical leg, you’d never be able to tell by how she moved. She did everything with the same powerful movements as her daughter.
A moment later, Fallon relaxed, the anguish disappearing from her face, and a small grin took hold. “So. How did the flight go?”
I chuckled. “Damnit, Ducky. Don’t make small talk. I’m mad at you.”
“I knew you would be,” she said. “Everything is fine. She’s fine. I’m fine. You’re here. That’s all that matters.”
“Where’s Theo?”
“With Teddy.”
“Why were you in the goddamn far field with the cows?” I demanded.
“Because she’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever known,” Lauren said, approaching the bed. “More stubborn than even her father—and that’s saying something.”
“Oh God, here we go again,” Fallon said, hunching over, pain coating her face, and grabbing my hand and strangling it.
“Has the doctor been in? What happened to the epidural?” I snapped.
“The doctor’s been in and out, and she’s had an epidural,” Maisey said calmly.
“And she’s still in this much pain?” I croaked. Fallon had an enormously high pain tolerance. I’d seen it firsthand. Broken fingers. Cracked heads. Emotional distress. She rarely even blinked through half of it.
“If you can’t stay calm, you’ll be asked to leave,” Maisey said with a wink.
“Like hell am I leaving.” I focused on Fallon, watched her breathe through the worst of the contraction, and then my entire being eased as her face relaxed again.
“Ducky,” my voice broke. I hated seeing her this way, hated there was nothing I could do to ease it or make it go faster or to skip time till the worst was over.
But she wasn’t alone. I’d promised her never again, and I’d keep that promise today just as I did every single day of our lives.
? ? ?
Hours later, I was still in awe of Fallon, women in general, and the sweet little girl wrapped up in my arms as I sat on the bed next to my wife. When the nurse had come in with the baby, she’d given her to me instead of waking up Fallon, who was asleep with her head on my shoulder.
Lila was fussing, wiggling, and almost ready to cry. I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, and she scrunched her face. I wanted to laugh because the expression was just like Fallon’s had been when she’d been a little girl and hadn’t gotten what she wanted from Rafe.
I ran a finger along her cheek as words I never thought I’d sing came quietly pouring out of me. “I’ve had the time of my life… And I owe it all to you…”
“I wish I was recording this,” Fallon teased, shifting next to me. “I bet I’d get good money selling it to Sweeney and the gang.”
I ignored her and kept singing to my daughter until Lila’s little lashes drooped, and her fussing stopped.
All I could do was stare in wonder at the beauty of her.
Fallon trailed a finger along the baby’s downy hair. Fine and thin but light, like her mama’s. “She looks like me, don’t you think?”
I heard the worry in her voice, the fear that somehow the little girl would end up looking more like JJ than her. That someone would question who the father was.
I shifted, putting Lila in her arms and then pulling them both against my chest. “I know they say babies look like nothing, like little impressionable blobs, but I don’t agree. She does look like you. Even your mom said so.”
Fallon stared into Lila’s face with a fierce look, one full of love and determination—one I’d seen Fallon give me and Theo and all the people she cared about. But somehow, this time, it was different, as if she was daring the universe to try to take the baby from her.
I’d sworn I wouldn’t bring up his name today, wouldn’t even give him a thought, but he was in the room with us anyway. He was bringing fear to a day that should have been nothing but joy.
In the months since he’d been arrested, JJ had reached out to Fallon twice. The first time, she’d gotten a letter. The second time, it had been a message left with the front desk at the hotel. Both times had sent her into a tailspin of worry.
On one of my trips down south to meet with my former commander about the training facility Sweeney and I were building, I’d stopped by the prison where JJ was doing his time.
I’d pulled some strings, so I’d been able to walk right into his cell instead of meeting with him in an interview room.
The message had been crystal clear—it would be easy for me to get in and finish him off if he ever contacted her again.
And it would be even easier to get to him once he’d done his time and was out on parole.
If he wanted to live to see his forties, he’d forget he ever knew someone named Fallon.
Prison had already beaten him by the time I got to him. He’d already been skittish and wide-eyed. My threat had landed on perfectly persuadable ears.
I hadn’t kept the visit from Fallon. I’d simply told her after the fact.
I wanted her to know he’d be stupid to even come near her, to even lift a finger in her or Lila’s direction.
But the truth was, she’d always have a teeny-tiny fear I wouldn’t be able to completely wash away without ending JJ’s life.
But she wouldn’t let me. She didn’t want me to have that on my conscience.
I didn’t care about mine, but I did care about hers, and she’d carry the weight of the loser’s death if I killed him.
So I didn’t. But I would, without hesitating, if I ever sensed he’d become a real threat.
“She’s you,” I told Fallon, “from the top of her head to her little tiny toes, and all the way into that fierce heart.” I kissed Fallon’s forehead before placing a similar one on Lila’s.
Our daughter’s lashes fluttered back open to stare at us with as much wonder as we were staring at her.
“But you see that look in her eyes? That’s all Steele. She’s mine.”
I was surprised to see a tear land on the baby’s cheek. Fallon quickly wiped it away, and I pulled her chin up, watching helplessly as more tears fell from her eyes. “What’s wrong, Ducky?”
She leaned in and kissed me…with love and passion and hope.
“It’s the stupid hormones. I’m happy, Parker. So happy. Thank you for choosing her. For claiming her just like you claimed me and Theo. For agreeing to my stupid proposal and making us a family. Thank you for loving us enough to give up your dreams and be here with us every day.”
“I haven’t given up my dreams,” I insisted once again.
I’d told her this a hundred times over the last eight months, but I’d just keep telling her until she finally believed it.
“I didn’t ring a bell, Ducky. I didn’t give up or give in or choose something lesser.
I simply signed up for something greater, with much better rewards.
Thank you for showing me it was possible.
For giving me a better life than I’d ever imagined for myself. ”
I kissed her, trying to infuse every ounce of love I had for her, our children, and our life into it so she would finally accept the truth—this was the only dream worth living.
Thank you for reading Fallon and Parker’s heart-stopping spin-off of my Hatley Family series.
I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it.