Epilogue
SIX YEARS LATER
WINTER
I’ve never pictured myself doing a gender reveal. The whole “pierce a balloon” slash “cut a cake” slash “kill your loved ones with suspense” thing has never really appealed to me. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people do it. I just always thought when the time came, I’d tell my family up front and get it over with, quick and easy.
But that was until Auntie Allie had a say.
“It’s a girl!” Kass squeals.
“What?” I exclaim, my gaze jumping to Haze as he cuts the cake. We come to the same realization at the exact same time.
The inside is pink.
Pink.
Pink as in not blue.
Pink as in this is the wrong cake.
The sixty-five-dollar gender reveal cake that I had to run all over town to get, almost dropped five times on the way inside our house, had to go above and beyond to make sure my daughter didn’t eat. That cake… is the wrong color.
And this, my friends, is why I didn’t want a gender reveal.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I whine, and a deep, quiet laugh flares on my right. Strong arms—one tattooed, one not—wrap around my body and atop my huge baby bump from behind.
“Picked up the wrong cake, huh?” Haze mocks. “Way to go, babe.”
“I didn’t! There must’ve been a mix-up at the shop or something. I can’t believe it.” I pout and Haze smiles, leaning in to peck my cheek. He releases me from his embrace too soon.
“So… it’s a boy?” Kendrick states the obvious.
“No, it’s an alien, dipstick,” Haze says.
“What’s a dipstick?” a small voice asks.
My eyes jump to my baby girl seated next to her uncle Kendrick.
Shit.
Haze just had to say that in front of Desiree, didn’t he?
Her soft brown hair trickles down her face, concealing parts of her blue eyes—guess who she got them from. I really need to cut her bangs soon.
I glare at Haze, and he slaps a hand on his mouth overdramatically. I bite back a grin. Idiot. That’s just what Haze does. You’d think teaching our six-year-old all the wrong words is a passion of his.
“It’s hm… something you use to check the oil on your car, honey.” Haze tells her with a shit-eating grin, and Desiree nods, but I know she has no idea what he’s talking about.
“Back to the point, please. You’re having a boy!” Kass is the first to hug my whale-ass—I’m due soon and so big I’m sure you can see me from outer space—then comes Alex, Maria, Kendrick, my brother Jaden, the whole party. Congratulations come flying left and right, and by the time I’ve hugged everyone, I want a nap. Pregnant woman problems.
I can’t believe Allie couldn’t be here for the gender reveal after she planned the whole thing and invited everyone. She said we had to make up for the gender reveal party we didn’t throw for Desiree. She even stayed up until midnight to finish decorating our backyard last night.
Part of me knows if she’d been there to see the pink cake, she would’ve insisted on driving it back herself and getting a refund immediately, but she had to go pick up her son earlier than expected. I know Des will be over the moon to see him. She and Nathan, Kendrick and Allie’s kid, are just one year apart and pretty much inseparable.
I expected Kass to bring her twins, but she said she needed a break. She left them with their godfather Ethan and hopped on a plane to Canada. I get it. Can’t be easy raising two kids by herself. It sure doesn’t hurt that she’s got a lawyer wallet to do it.
As for Judy and my dad, I assume they’re sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere. One of my dad’s past investments paid off out of the blue and let him retire early last year. He and Judy hopped on a plane to Hawaii two weeks ago to celebrate their six-year wedding anniversary.
Meanwhile, Maika is at Lauren’s. Crazy, I know, but in the past six years, Lauren completely turned her life around. The billion conditions she had to respect to win back shared custody of Maika? Well, after I visited her asking about my dad, she started following each one to a T. She even went back to school for a better job, and after a year of therapy, she was allowed near her daughter again.
I thought I was going insane when she showed up at our door one day. Haze nearly chased her off our porch, but I decided to hear her out. She hugged me—I repeat, my mother, who’s never touched me unless she absolutely had to, hugged me— apologized, and asked me if she could possibly meet her granddaughter.
I let her hold Desiree for a good two minutes—which is impressive considering my major trust issues. I think we both know we’ll never be close, or at least not in the way that a mother and daughter should be, but we’re on okay terms now, which is more than I ever thought possible.
“Do you have a name for the little dude yet?” Kendrick asks.
“Yeah, we’re going to name him Harry.” I smile. Haze circles my shoulder with his arm and pulls me into his chest.
Kendrick nods. “Oh, for your dad?”
“No, for the guy in One Direction. We’re big fans,” Haze deadpans, and Kendrick looks like he doesn’t know if Haze is serious or not. Haze breaks into laughter, and Kendrick rolls his eyes, elbowing him in the stomach.
They start wrestling each other like kids, and I smile. These two are best friends now. They watch sports together every week, hang out just to hang out.
To think they used to be sworn enemies.
“We’re starving over here. Can we eat the cake?” Jaden and his boyfriend Dan come up to me. I have to crane my neck to glimpse at my brother’s features. He’s gotten so tall. He’s a man now. Still, I don’t think there will ever come a day where I won’t look at him and picture my greasy-haired little bro.
I give in, surrendering my wrong-color sixty-five-dollar cake to my hungry guests. They’re quick to dig in, lining up for a piece. When they point out that there aren’t enough utensils, Kass offers to get more. I watch her enter the house and decide to follow her, asking Haze to watch Desiree for a bit.
Walking in a minute after Kass, I stop dead in my tracks at the sight of her staring blankly at the utensils she just pulled out of a drawer. Her back is facing me, but I don’t need to see her to know exactly what’s going on.
I hear her sniffling.
I don’t say a word and step closer. She jumps, noticing my presence and wiping her eyes quickly.
“Hey.” She acts as though she wasn’t just crying. “I’ll be back out with the forks in a second.”
I don’t budge, arching an eyebrow. She doesn’t have to pretend with me. I know her.
Defeated, she lets her walls hit the ground. “I’m sorry. I know today’s your big day. I’m just being a baby.”
“No, you’re not.” I offer her a hug, and she walks straight into my arms. “I miss Will, too,” I whisper, and she comes apart, crying into my shoulders.
“I just wish he was here,” she admits.
“I know, honey, I know.”
I hug her for a few seconds longer, my huge belly smashed down by our embrace, until she dries her tears and pulls away.
“I should probably bring those out before the guys start eating with their hands.” She motions to the forks she’s holding, and I chuckle.
“Good idea.”
I watch her slide the patio door aside and walk back into the party. My attention wanders around our cluttered kitchen. It’s still a work in progress as we haven’t gotten around to repainting the hideous green walls and renovating yet. When Haze and I bought this house last year—right after Haze got his Canadian citizenship—we promised to make it home, but Haze’s house flipper business has been doing so well lately he can’t even focus on our own.
I’ll be done with my psychology degree in a year, which means I’ll have way more time and money to pour into renovations, but for now, nauseating green walls it is.
“There you are,” a voice I know by heart says. “Admiring our ugly house?”
I peek over my shoulder, only to see the most beautiful man I’ve ever laid eyes upon smiling at me.
Damn , I still can’t believe I scored Haze Adams.
“Admiring how far we’ve come,” I correct.
Six years ago today, we were standing in a dark motel room, watching Mike be taken into police custody. I remember it so clearly: I’d just found out I was pregnant with Desiree. I remember how scared I was, dreading what life had in store for us.
Now I know the best was yet to come.
“Did you hear?” Haze asks, and I connect the dots.
“Yeah.” I nod and turn around. Haze wraps me up into a warm embrace, resting his chin on top of my head. I listen to his heartbeat and inhale his cologne.
Mike passed away two days ago. Heart attack. The police called me at home since I was his only relative, but we were too busy trying to convince Desiree to take a bath to pick up, so they left a message. Haze and I heard it at different times.
Since Mike was sentenced to life in prison, some could say he was lucky to escape his sentence early. Still, when I found out, I felt a bit… sad? I beat myself up over it. His confession doesn’t change what he did , I repeated to my heart.
Then I realized that while his surrendering to the police didn’t change the past…
It sure as hell changed the future.
Haze picked himself off the ground and built himself back up after that night. He even got in touch with his family. They’re not what one would call close, but they’re on speaking terms. In a way, that one awful day opened the door to a million beautiful ones.
“Hey, where’s Des? I told you to watch her,” I realize.
“She’s playing with Nathan. Allie just got here. You should’ve seen her face when she saw him,” Haze remarks. “I swear if he grows up to break her heart, I don’t care if he’s Allie’s kid, I’m kicking his ass.”
I laugh and plaster my lips to his. He kisses me back, gripping my waist and lurching my body as close to his as the big bump sticking out of me allows him to. This still feels like the first time. Like the night he first kissed me on that beach all those years ago. My meteor shower tattoo has been a bit stretched out by my pregnancies, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“Hey, Kingston?” He pulls away.
“Yeah?”
“Any reason you didn’t tell your family about me proposing to you last night?”
I grin.
We were cleaning up in the kitchen after we put Desiree to bed yesterday. I asked him to hand me a clean glass so I could get myself some water.
He did just that.
He handed me a glass.
But… with a wedding ring at the bottom.
Want to know what the worst part is?
My dumb ass didn’t even see it until the glass was almost empty and I was this close to swallowing it whole. Haze yelled to stop and saved me from certain death by choking on jewelry.
Then he got down on one knee.
“Yeah, about that. I changed my mind,” I tease.
“Did you now?” he smirks, smoothing his hand up and down my arm. Shivers erupt over my skin.
“I’ll tell them soon, I promise.” I kiss the tip of his nose. “I just wanted this day to be about our little guy.”
This seems to be Haze’s cue to sprinkle my stomach with kisses and talk in a ridiculous high-pitched voice to his unborn son. I’m smiling so wide my face hurts.
“We should probably pick a venue,” I say once he’s done conversing with my belly.
“And a date,” Haze adds.
“And write our wedding vows.”
“I don’t need to write my wedding vows. I’ve got them all right here.” He taps his forehead.
“Really?” I cross my arms over my chest. “Go ahead. Let’s hear it, then.”
He clears his throat and picks my hand into his. “When I was in high school, I met a girl. She called me out on my shit. We fell in love. After six years of me pestering her, she finally agreed to marry me.”
“That’s it?” I mock.
“I didn’t say it was long.”
He draws a laugh out of me and grins, proud of himself.
“Jerk,” I tell him.
“Prude,” he says right back.
Thank you so much for reading Haze and Winter’s story!