Epilogue Two （because there’s just more to tell!）
“Don’t you dare hang up, Doc.”
“I won’t,” I groaned at the same time that the real doctor agreed, too. I laughed—barely. It was hard to laugh when you were in the most pain you had ever experienced in your entire life.
My core was aching; sweat was dripping down the side of my face. My mom’s hand was in mine, and I squeezed the life out of it.
I looked at Luke’s face through the phone, and I could tell he was driving like a madman to get here.
Three months into my pregnancy, Luke had to deploy. I know, go figure. We had just moved to California on his new orders when I found out I was pregnant with our first baby. Over the moon was an understatement.
Our families were pissed when they found out that we had eloped, but when we told them, not even a year later, that we were expecting, they forgot all about being mad.
Luke’s mom cried over and over again when we told her she’d be a grandma, and she had sent us so many gifts that I’d lost count.
She and Luke’s younger brother flew in on a red-eye last night when I went into labor.
I couldn’t get a hold of Luke for hours. He was flying home from Afghanistan, and it was impossible to reach anyone on a military flight back home (not that that stopped my father from trying).
I just hoped the little bundle of joy inside me, trying so desperately to join our family, could hold on for a few more minutes, just until his or her daddy got there. Okay, I’m lying. I wanted it out, now .
I grunted, waiting for the next tightening sensation in my lower stomach. “Luke, I can’t hold on any longer.”
Tears were streaming down my face, and my mom bent down to kiss my glistening forehead. The doctor below my legs was doing all sorts of things to my body, and the pain was excruciating. I began to feel lightheaded, like I was going to pass out.
“I’m almost there, baby,” Luke said through our video chat, but he was becoming blurry and fuzzy.
“No!” I yelled when I saw the call had dropped, but I couldn’t get too wrapped up in the fact that Luke’s face had disappeared, because Dr. Armanda’s face popped up, and he smiled.
“It’s time to push again. Are you ready, Cammie?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “No.”
He laughed. “Too ba—”
The doors flew open, and my body visibly relaxed at the sight of my husband, still dirty from Afghanistan and garbed in his uniform, completely out of breath. He stalked toward my bed, his eyes never leaving my face.
He bent his head down and rested it on my forehead when my mom stepped away to take my other side. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.” He was out of breath, and so was I.
“How…did…you get here”—I took a huge breath—“so quick?”
“I have my ways…” He grinned.
I pushed one more time, and then we both cried when we heard a loud wailing. My heart flourished in my chest. I had never been so elated in my life.
“It’s a boy!” Dr. Armanda said, showing me a screaming baby from below my legs.
“It’s a boy, Cam,” Luke whispered against my cheek, staring at the nurses who were cleaning our baby off.
My eyes never left my new son. My gaze followed him everywhere. I followed his tiny body as they weighed him, as they put a diaper on him, and then as they wrapped him up in a baby-blue blanket.
The second he was placed onto my bare chest, I felt an overwhelming amount of peace. He snuggled up and stopped crying almost instantly. Luke kissed his little head and looked me dead in the eyes.
“You did it.”
I shook my head, looking back down at my brand-new son. “No, we did it.”
I placed my lips on his tiny, wrinkled forehead and whispered, “Welcome to the world, Alex.”
My mom started to sniffle beside me. I’d forgotten she was even in the room. For a moment, I had been completely wrapped up in my own world that consisted of no one but Luke and baby Alex.
“I love his name,” she said as she wiped her tears and leaned in to kiss my forehead. Then, she patted Luke on his shoulder. “I’m going to go tell your dad, Cam. I’ll tell your family, too, Luke.”
I smiled a tiny smile. “Text JoJo, too, okay?” She nodded, and then I cast my eyes down onto my baby, his eyes shut, already cooing on my chest.
It was amazing how life worked out so much differently than I had originally planned.
My parents—who were divorced and who I’d thought were mortal enemies—were now on speaking terms. I liked to think that Luke and I getting married brought them back together, because their shared anger at our elopement meant they actually agreed on something.
Now, we’d brought this little baby into our lives, and not only was he the glue that would forever hold Luke and me together, he was the glue that would hold both of our families together.
After Alex had died and my family separated and went in different directions, I honestly thought that I would never truly be happy again…
.that I would never feel content. But here I was: happy, living, breathing, and now madly in love with the most amazing man on this earth, and completely smitten with our little bundle of joy.
Just before I kissed Alex’s little forehead again, I looked out the far window and saw the sun shining brightly, cascading gracefully through a set of thick, white, puffy clouds.
I smiled, and I knew that, in that moment, it was Alexander, reassuring me that he was there with me, and that he was happy, too.
The End (seriously)