Epilogue – Edries
EPILOGUE
EDRIES
One year later
ECCENTRIC BILLIONAIRE EDRIES FRANKLIN GOES AWAY ON SOLITARY CHRISTMAS RETREAT TO MOUNTAIN AND RETURNS WITH A HUSBAND.
I think about the headline for maybe the hundredth time this week.
It was the first thing that greeted us when we left the lodge, where we extended our stay by two weeks and got married.
Yeah, maybe it was jumping the gun. Maybe it was ill-advised.
Maybe we doomed ourselves before truly giving our lives together a chance.
Yet, it’s still the best decision I’ve ever made.
A smile is never far from my lips, especially not when I’m wrapped around him. Holding him close, feeling his body heat seep into me, warming all the chilly cracks that were there for too many years.
I hear the kids trying to be quiet just beyond the door, but their excitement can’t be contained. It only makes me smile wider.
A lot has happened in the past year. As I suspected would happen, Bernice remarried, and I doubt this second time was for love, as she told me it would be. And as I also predicted, she lost interest in our kids. Which, as much as it hurts them, I’m stupidly thankful for.
As soon as I got them back, I hugged them each for a long, long time and apologized over and over for the shit they’d been through. Not just since our divorce, but the oppressed childhood they had until that point. We had a long talk, and I promised things would change.
“Starting with your husband?” my oldest, Liam, asked.
I couldn’t tell what his thoughts on the matter were, but I nodded. Gabe was in the room already. He’d been there for the entire hurricane since coming home and the media having a field day with this twist in my life.
“Yes,” I told him. “Starting with my husband.”
“Mom says you were having an affair,” my ten-year-old, Theodore, says.
“She says that to make herself feel better. Your mother is very good at being a victim without—”
Gabe clears his throat, and I suddenly hear the words coming out of my mouth.
I cringe. “You know what? I’m not going to talk about your mother.
Your only jobs are to be kids, not deal with the burdens of your parents.
You can talk about her as often as you want and I’ll very happily listen, but I will never say another bad or mean thing about her. Okay?”
I didn’t imagine the way all three of their shoulders relaxed.
A transition in parent figures from a mom and dad to two dads was perhaps the hardest thing for them. They liked Gabe right away. I mean, who wouldn’t, right? But getting a grasp on Dad’s now bisexual and there isn’t going to be a mom in the picture was difficult for them.
Even with that challenge, life did a complete 180. There was suddenly laughter in my house. The noise and the mess increased. And the kids had freedom to run around and be children.
We left the big house and put it up for sale right away, which had us moving six states away and in with Gabe.
The two boys had to share a room, but they didn’t seem to mind at all.
They seemed to take the transition in stride.
It was a happy change for them. They were suddenly allowed to be kids and get dirty.
To have likes and dislikes. To choose how they wanted to decorate their rooms and what music they listened to.
What they watched on television. My oldest got a skateboard and almost immediately broke his wrist, which he fucking loved.
Gabe was a little overwhelmed at first. It wasn’t hard to see that. He went from a very quiet, solitary life to suddenly being a parent-figure in a ready-made family. There was noise and mess everywhere, which I think stressed him out a bit.
I brought in a full-time ‘house tender’ and the stress lifted considerably. Except for the noise and kids everywhere he turned. That took a little longer to get used to.
But even in those early days, Gabe was an amazing father. His instincts were spot on. As were his soccer reflexes when he dove across the room to prevent my daughter from tumbling off the chair and smacking her head on the fireplace hearth (electric fireplace, mind you).
The way my love for my husband quadrupled at that moment… there just aren’t words enough to say.
We made one change recently, and that was to sell Gabe’s house and buy a slightly bigger one. More bedrooms, so my fifteen-year-old could be a teenager in private. And… we might be planning for our own baby together. It’s not something we’ve put into words, but all the signs are there.
Comments on what room would make a good nursery when we were touring houses. If a layout made sense for a toddler to learn how to walk in. Whether our room was close enough to the kids so we could get to a crying baby in the night quickly so they wouldn’t wake up their siblings.
The way Gabe would smile at me when he brought it up, but smile wider when I did. I’ll never get tired of the way he looks at me. Like I’m everything. His love shines through in all that he says and does.
I couldn’t have predicted how very different my life would look from one year to the next. But I love every second of it. Even when my husband is doing his soccer thing and is busy for weeks and months at a time. I love my life. Our life.
A loud giggle and a loud shush following makes me grin. Gabe sighs. “I think they’re quite literally right outside the door,” he mutters.
Pressing a kiss to the back of his shoulder, I chuckle. “Probably. It’s Christmas morning.”
I can feel his smile even though I can’t see it.
We’re at the mountain resort again, though not in the same cabin.
That wouldn’t have worked. It would have also been very awkward considering I’ve made my husband come on nearly every surface of that particular cabin.
I was not going to let my kids step foot in there. Ever!
However, when we’re done with our new Christmas tradition of renting a family cabin with my kids, my parents and Gabe’s will be flying out to stay with them for the following week while we spend our anniversary in our cabin. That we both paid for.
“Fine. Let’s get up,” he says.
As much as he’s dragging his feet and pretending to be put out, the excitement Gabe has for today has been the light in my life for the past month.
He loved shopping for the kids. Decorating with them.
Doing Christmas activities with them. He took them shopping so they could buy gifts for whoever they wanted.
I might have noticed several with my name on them, something that might have had me choked up a little. The entire time I was with Bernice, I rarely had gifts. It’s been clear since meeting Gabe that he had every intention of changing that. He’s always leaving me little gifts. For no reason at all.
Gabe gets up and we head into the bathroom to wash our combined orgasms and sweat off. Yeah, that hasn’t changed. My need for Gabe hasn’t slackened at all. Sometimes, I think it’s only magnified. Maybe because he never stops looking at me like I’m sexy. His desire for me has never waned.
He puts on a one piece romper, though this one has an ass flap that secures shut. I’m both bummed about it and thankful since the kids just don’t need to see that much of my husband—their stepfather.
When we open the door, all three kids suddenly become still and stare at us with wide eyes.
“I tried to keep them quiet,” Liam says.
“No, you didn’t,” Theodore says indignantly. “I’ve been shushing you for an hour!”
“I’m going to get breakfast started,” Gabe says.
Lyssandra bounces to her feet. “I want to help.”
Gabe waits while she bounces to his side, and he drapes an arm over her shoulders. Fuck, I love it. I love this. Everything about this.
“You’re looking sappy again, Dad,” Theodore says.
I level him with a look until he stops fighting the grin. No one has to say it. And they don’t. We can all see how much happier our household is now. I’ve caught all three kids on occasion just looking around with a somewhat awed expression, as if thinking, this is my life?!
Once, my youngest said it. “I’m so happy now.”
Those words both made my heart sore and felt like a punch to the gut.
I should have stood up for what I wanted for my kids a long time ago.
I should have given them the home they deserved.
It’s not like they were lacking anything.
They weren’t abused or neglected. But they were painted up like dolls and demanded to play a part.
Stripping away all those expectations has been one of my favorite things this year.
Handing them the freedom to be whoever they want to be without fear of someone telling them it’s wrong.
Seeing how all three of them have blossomed with such smart and sometimes sarcastic personalities has kept me on my feet, constantly laughing. Loving them with my whole heart.
“Maybe I am sappy,” I say, rubbing his hair in the way he hates. I’m rewarded with an eye roll as he leans away from me. “I’m so… ecstatic to finally give you the kind of Christmas I had growing up. It means everything to me to be here with you like this right now.”
Theodore sighs heavily and gets to his feet. He’s not too young to wrap me in a hug. “Stop being sappy.” I laugh, hugging him tightly. His arms are fierce around me. “We’re really excited too,” he says quietly. “It’s like we’re in a whole new world.”
“A better one,” Liam says. “A happier one.”
I nod. “Yes. All that.”
“It’s because you married a man, isn’t it?” he says, narrowing his eyes on me. “Is that the key to happiness?”
I laugh, rubbing my fingers in my eyes to get the moisture away.
“No. It’s just marrying the right person.
Maybe listening to those around you when literally everyone tells you that you’re making a mistake.
” I pull my middle back and frame his face with my hands. “Don’t ever let love blind you, kid.”
He shakes his head. “Never,” he whispers.
Gabe and Lyssandra meet us in the living room and we spread out in the room for stockings while breakfast cooks.
Since Gabe and I loved being surprised with the stockings last year, we opted for that this year, too.
I’d kind of thought we’d also let the resort choose presents like last year, but Gabe had far too much fun shopping.
I admit, shopping for him was a challenge.
Not because I didn’t know what to get. But because I didn’t know how to stop.
There are more under the bed in our room because I didn’t want the entire living room to be stuffed with gifts for him. It might look like I was playing favorites or something.
We did, however, give the resort some lists for each person and asked for a few from those, just so we could simulate the Santa experience again. I was truly looking forward to it.
Gabe and I curl up on a big chair together, just like last year, but this time, we’re too busy watching the kids with their stockings to truly get into ours. Only when they’re done and I hear, “Dad, Gabe—you haven’t done yours yet!” so we turn our attention to our own.
We eat breakfast and move onto the main presents. Theodore—the one who likes to pretend that he’s indifferent to anything sentimental—decided that only one person opens at a time so we can all see it and it’s not over so quickly. He can’t hide his true colors. He’s just as much a sap as I am.
It’s past noon when we finish, and I almost miss the sly look our kids give each other.
“What are you up to?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
“We have one more gift,” Lyssandra says. “Well, two. Kind of. But we wrapped them together.”
She fishes a thick box from under the couch and crosses the room, handing it to Gabe. Then she joins her brothers. Gabe looks at me with a brow raised as he unwraps it, handing me the wrapping so I can toss it into the pile next to me, ready for the fire.
There’s a smaller, square box inside, sitting on more wrapping paper. He pulls the top off and his eyes immediately fill with tears, his hand covering his mouth. He looks up, trying to hold himself together as he shows me the ornament.
It’s a family one with a little tag that reads ‘2021’ hanging off the top, five little snowmen with their names under them—Liam, Theodore, Lyssandra. Then there’s Dad and Daddy. At the bottom it reads ‘The Franklins—our first Christmas as a family’.
My kids are smiling at Gabe as he tries not to full on cry. “Thank you,” he says. “I love it.”
“We love you,” Liam says. “Just so you know.”
Gabe turns his face into my shoulder.
“There’s more,” Lyssandra squeals, nearly jumping on her knees.
Gabe takes a deep breath to gather himself and turns back to the box in his lap. He moves the tissue and then stares.
“There’s two. One for each—just in case but we voted, and we want the top.”
I lean over and find a little onesie that reads ‘baby brother.’ Raising an eyebrow at my kids, I wait for a better explanation.
Theodore rolls his eyes. “Don’t think we haven’t heard you two whispering about a nursery and whether the houses we’re looking at will work for a baby.”
Liam shoves him lightly. “We’re happy,” he promises. “Really, Dads. We’re excited to have a baby brother. Or sister, but yeah, we voted on a brother.”
“Girls are a lot of work,” Lyssandra says, grinning. “When do we get a baby? Can we help name him?”
Gabe looks at me. There’s a moment when we just stare and then laugh. “Fucking kids,” I mutter, pressing a kiss to Gabe’s forehead.
“I suppose if we’ve been waiting for a sign that we’re ready, this is it, huh?”
“I’ve been ready since we met,” I tell him.
“Ugh,” Theodore grumbles.
Gabe melts into my side. He leans his temple against my shoulder and stares at the onesie as his fingers smooth over the words on the front. “Me, too, Edries. I’m ready.”
I’ve never heard such wonderful words. I’m not sure this Christmas can get any better.