Epilogue #2
I stopped Kinsley long enough to kiss Shae’s cheek and the top of Bray’s downy head.
Then we all went downstairs and admired Kinsley’s new car.
Another set of parents walked by, loaded down with things to move into their own kid’s dorm room, but the mom stopped and took our picture when I asked, extending my cell phone.
Cassie, Kinsley, Shae, me, and little Bray arm in arm in front of the white Jeep. A family. Not conventional, by any means, but ours.
And you’re damn right I had my World’s Best Father T-shirt on.
That picture was going in a frame on the fireplace mantel.
Back home in Blueball the next day, it was the two-year anniversary of Dad passing away.
My brothers and I decided we’d swing by the cemetery to pay our respects.
Mom and all the wives and grandkids came too.
It was quite the crowd now hovering around his headstone.
At his funeral, it had just been us boys, all of us in different places in our lives.
Mom laughed as much as she cried, which I decided was a win. She didn’t hesitate to step forward and tell her Willy she had things handled.
“You’d be proud of them. Every single one.
They’re good boys and they have even better partners in their lives.
We couldn’t ask for anything better.” She lifted her head and looked at each of us.
“That’s why he made those final wishes. We’d been happily married for so long, he knew that was your ticket to happiness too. ”
Warrick pulled Emmerleigh even closer. Colson kissed Tully on the top of her head. I already stood behind Shae with my arms around her waist, both of us supporting Bray in his sling.
“I’m not quite sure those were final wishes,” I said dryly, breaking the emotional moment.
Mom’s sharp gaze landed on mine. Colton snickered. Warrick grumbled something under his breath.
“More like final demands ,” I finished.
Mom rolled her eyes and looked back at Dad’s headstone. “See what you left me here with?”
“You know you love us,” Colton said.
“Loving and liking are two different things,” Mom snapped back.
Warrick let go of Em to drape his arm across Mom’s shoulders, steering her away from the gravesite. “You go get the brownies out of the back of your van. The grandkids will go apeshit and think you’re the best. Me and my brothers need a minute with Dad.”
She shot him a thoughtful look, but she did as he suggested, unable to turn down handing out sugary treats to her grandkids.
Shae kissed me, shot me an encouraging wink, and wandered off to the van, chatting with her sisters-in-law.
They’d all been a huge help the last few months.
Made me realize that raising a kid really does take a village, a fact I hadn’t been aware of when Kinsley was growing up.
Just another mistake I’d made. Thankfully, Kinsley was able to forgive me for being an idiot.
I’d be forever grateful she was more emotionally mature than I’d ever been at that age.
My brothers and I formed a human wall in front of Dad’s grave, reminiscent of that awful day we’d put him in the ground.
We stared down at his name engraved on the stone, wishing he were still here with us to see how we’d turned out.
We all were a little late to the “happily ever after” stage of our lives, but we’d made it eventually.
“I think I can speak for all three of us when I thank you for your final demands, Dad,” Warrick said.
“We had to get out of our own way to see how good life could be. I know you sent me Emmerleigh and Georgia.” His voice went wobbly.
I put my hand on his back and tried to swallow down my own emotions.
“And you sent me Tully again.” Colson took up the thread of conversation. “I was too hurt by everything that went down to reach out to her myself, so thank you for forcing the issue. I’ve never been happier now that we’re married again.”
There were a few beats of silence. I supposed it was my turn. I wasn’t much for emotional speeches, but I was doing a lot of things differently lately.
“Well, I don’t think you sent me Shae,” I joked. “Unless you were matchmaking a long time ago, but I thank you the same for making me come home. I can’t fathom what my life would look like without this last year with Kinsley and Shae.”
Warrick cleared his throat. “We’re back, we’re happy, and we got Mom, don’t you worry. Rest easy, Dad.”
Colson and I echoed that sentiment, and with a final look at Dad’s headstone, we made our way to Mom’s van where the kids were already hyped on sugar. We tailgated while the kids ran around and got out some energy, enjoying the soft morning sun before it became blazing hot.
And just when we were about to pack it up and go home, a flutter of orange butterfly wings had all of our gazes swinging to Dad’s headstone. A pair of Monarch butterflies flitted around the headstone, landed for just a moment, and then flew off again.
Mom sighed, a peaceful smile on her face. The tears from earlier were long gone, replaced by chocolate kisses from her grandbabies. “That’s my Willy. Always showing me signs he’s still here with me.”
And dammit, wasn’t that just the kind of love we were all working toward? Dad may not have been there in physical form, but he was still teaching us boys valuable lessons about loving someone for all eternity.
The End