Epilogue
The Future
Finn
I can’t say the years have been easy, but they’ve been full of life and love. Including today, even though the house doesn’t sound like it.
“Mom!” our oldest, Eden, yells from the top of the stairs. “Where’s my purple shirt?”
Sara presses her face against my chest as I pause, thrust deep inside her while fucking her on the counter of our bathroom.
“Someone left the bedroom door open.” Sara tightens her fingers on the back of my neck.
I chuckle. “I locked the bathroom door.”
She laughs and the door handle jiggles. I put my hand over her mouth and we stay quiet for a second.
“Violet.” Drew sounds exasperated. That’s our five-year-old he’s dealing with.
“Want Momma, Dada.” Her voice sounds so sad. I’m tempted to go help her out.
Sara covers my mouth and whispers, “Not until we’re finished.”
“Why don’t we see what Papa is making for breakfast?” Drew raps his knuckles against the door.
I sigh. “Now I owe him.”
Time alone with Sara is in high demand these days. She’s taken on a new role at Cliodhna and works long hours. While we try to find time for each other, the kids demand a lot of our time too. We hear the outer doors shut. I lift Sara against me and walk into the shower. She wraps around me.
“We’re going to have to multitask.” I turn on the water and press her into the wall.
“This was your idea.” She narrows her eyes. “I told you we have too much to do today.”
I chuckle. She’s right, but she moans as I thrust in and out, slowly torturing both of us.
“Hazel kept me up all night. I couldn’t perform my nightly duties.” When I brush my lips over hers, she trembles in my arms. I still like to fuck her when she’s asleep. It’s easier now that we’re all in the primary bedroom. The rooms upstairs are all occupied.
She tips her head back. “Did she have another night terror?”
Our three-year-old Hazel has always had trouble sleeping on her own. Most nights she sleeps with Nora, the nine-year-old, but even Nora has her limits.
“We watched Beauty and the Beast until she fell asleep on my chest in the TV room.” I huff out a breath. “Can we focus?”
She arches an eyebrow.
“I don’t get you naked often anymore and just want to fuck your brains out without talking about the girls.” I rest my forehead against hers. “Flower.”
Her eyes soften as her pussy tightens around me. Her fingers thread into my hair. “Finn.”
For a moment, we’re who we’ve always been. And not Momma and Daddy. I press her into the wall as I fuck in and out, feeling that connection as strong as ever. Our gazes locked on each other. I slide my hand between us to stroke her clit, and she cries out as she shatters around me.
Her cunt pulsing around me draws me into my release. We just breathe for a moment, still locked tight with each other.
“I love you, flower.” I kiss her as I pull out.
She sighs and lowers her feet to the tile floor. “I love you, Finn.”
I draw her under the shower and we clean up quickly. As we’re drying off, there’s a tentative knock at the door.
“Mom?” Amelia’s voice is hesitant.
I swoop in for a kiss before wrapping a towel around my waist. Sara has her towel tucked around her as I open the door. Amelia is seven years old. Her red hair is almost orange and curly. Behind the frames of her glasses, her green eyes are shy.
“Yes, Amelia?” Sara tucks Amelia’s errant curls behind her ear.
“Papa says breakfast is almost ready.”
“Well, we can’t keep Papa waiting.” I pick Amelia up and her solemn little face breaks into a grin. “Daddy,” she chastises.
I swing her around once until she’s giggling before setting her back on her feet. “Go tell Papa we just need to get dressed.”
She pushes her glasses up her nose and gives me a little nod before heading downstairs.
We walk into the closet and dress quickly.
“Momma. Daddy. Eddy birthday.”
I turn at Hazel’s voice. She’s three. Like all the girls, she has a head of red hair, but her eyes are brown.
“Yes, Hazel, it’s Eddy’s birthday.” I grin and lift her in my arms. Her little arms wrap around my neck and she plants a wet kiss on my cheek.
“I need five minutes and probably to go see what Eden needs help with.” Sara presses a kiss to Hazel’s puckered lips. “Are you excited about the party?”
Hazel’s eyes light up. “I get a balloon.”
I laugh and press a quick kiss to Sara’s lips. “See you downstairs.”
Hazel and I discuss the type of balloon she wants. Purple and big are her main criteria. Eden is turning thirteen. It seems impossible when just yesterday I was holding her against my shoulder and pacing the floor with her to get her to fall asleep.
The kitchen is beautiful chaos like it is most weekend mornings. I pause in the doorway and Hazel rests her head against my chest as she watches everyone with me.
Dante sits with Nora on his lap while he braids her hair.
Lillian, our ten-year-old, stands behind him braiding his.
He prefers a bun still, but the older girls love to braid his hair.
The younger sisters won’t sit still long enough or deal with the pulling for them to practice.
Dante has infinite patience with the girls though.
Amelia stands next to Drew, who’s still holding Violet. Violet peers over his shoulder at me with her light blue eyes. They stand at the island putting together fruit cups for breakfast. Though Violet keeps eating any strawberry she picks up.
Wyatt is at the stove with Chloe on his hip.
She’s our youngest. She’s one and supposedly our last until one of us convinces Sara that maybe we should try for a boy.
It’s almost a joke at this point. We don’t need a boy to make our family whole, but we all love having a large family.
We’re happy with our girls, and they outnumber us already. It’s the family we always wanted.
Chloe grins and bounces on Wyatt’s hip when she sees me. Her little fists dig into Wyatt’s shirt. Her green eyes sparkle. “Daddy. Daddy.”
Hazel wraps her arms around my neck tighter. Even though we haven’t done DNA tests, Hazel is most likely Wyatt’s. She has a possessive streak that’s going to get her into trouble in the future. I rub her back.
“Where Eddy?” Chloe asks.
“Having a meltdown over a shirt,” Lillian scoffs as she ties the end of Dante’s hair with a hair tie. Lillian’s red hair falls over her shoulder in a fancy braid. Any braid the girls find, Dante will make happen. The girls take it as a challenge. “It’s just a shirt.”
Lillian’s new jeans already have rips in the knees and grass stains that are going to be a bitch to get out. Eden, on the other hand, always looks meticulous.
“Lily pad, you know it’s important to your sister.” Dante glances up at her. “We don’t discount what’s important to others.”
“Yes, Poppa.” Lillian sighs and drops into the chair next to Dante as he finishes Nora’s hair.
She still doesn’t understand, but maybe in a few years when she’s turning thirteen it will make sense.
Or maybe it will never make sense to her.
Each of our daughters is their own little person with personalities as wildly different as ours are.
Sara
If someone asked me twenty years ago what my life would be like now, I would have told them that I would be married to Wyatt Hawkins and mother of his two children. I wish I could go back to the girl I was and tell her how much fuller my life is now.
Is seven daughters a lot? Well, so is four husbands. There are hard moments, but so many moments filled with joy.
I knock softly on Eden’s door. “Eddy?”
She jerks the door open and looks about five seconds from crying. I draw in a breath and take her into my arms. She wraps her arms around me and rests her head against my shoulder. She was our first and she’s been a trooper through all of her sisters dividing our time.
“Happy Birthday, Eden.” I kiss her red hair.
“Thanks.” She pulls away and inhales to calm herself. Her pale green eyes lift to mine. “I can’t find my purple shirt and Lillian said she didn’t take it. And I need that shirt because it’s the one you bought me last week.”
“How about I help you look for it?”
She nods and we spend the next five minutes searching for the elusive purple shirt. When I walk into Hazel and Nora’s room, I find it. Hazel loves all things purple, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
When I walk back in, Eden smiles and takes it.
She quickly ducks into the bathroom to change, but I wait for her. Wyatt will keep my omelet warm and some pancakes for Eddy. This room used to be Wyatt’s. When Eddy was born, Wyatt was the first to offer up his room until everyone was down in the primary bedroom with me.
Instead of getting me all night, we do date nights where we get to spend usually an hour together after the girls’ bedtimes.
Eden steps out of the bathroom and her smile is huge.
“It looks lovely, Eddy.”
Her cheeks flush and she looks in the mirror. “Do you think Oliver will like it?”
Oliver is Madison’s oldest and he’s fifteen. Part of me is worried her crush on him will consume her the way my crush on Wyatt did me.
“He’ll be here for your birthday party,” I hedge, because I’m pretty sure Oliver has a girlfriend at school.
She turns and narrows her eyes on me. “That’s not what I mean, Momma.”
I sigh and pat the bed beside me. She comes over and sits down, looking at me expectantly.
“I don’t know if he’ll notice you or not, Eddy.
” I take her hand. “I do know that you look lovely and any boy would be lucky to have you for his girlfriend. But Oliver is at that age where, even though you guys used to be friends, he’s interested in girls his age.
I just don’t want to get your hopes up.”
Eddy releases her breath and leans her head against my shoulder. “I just want him to like me.”
“You both are still growing up. He may not see you until you’re older.” I tuck her hair behind her ear and tip her chin up, so she meets my eyes. “Things don’t always happen the way you want or expect them to.”
“Like you and our dads?” Eddy, of course, was the first one to experience being different because, instead of a dad and maybe a stepdad, she had four dads. Of course, she didn’t think anything of it when her best friends also had four dads.
“Someday I’ll tell you about how we ended up together.” I stand and reach my hand for hers. “But today, it’s your birthday and Papa has been cooking all morning for your breakfast.”
She smiles and we walk downstairs to the kitchen. Everyone yells, “Happy Birthday, Eddy!”
I walk over and give Wyatt a kiss.
“Me too.” Chloe reaches for my face and I lean in to kiss her. She makes an exaggerated mwah sound before lurching for my arms. I catch her and set her on my hip.
“Everything good with Eddy?” Wyatt asks quietly.
“Yup, just needed a shirt to make a boy notice her.”
Wyatt’s eyes widen and then narrow. “Oliver, Liam, or Xander?”
Of course, he focuses on Madison’s boys. I laugh and meet his dark eyes. “Why not all of them?”
Wyatt runs a hand through his hair and glances over at Eddy at the table. “I mean...”
I laugh at the put-out expression on his face. “You didn’t even mention Killian or Callum.”
“Bast’s kids?” Wyatt actually goes a little pale. He glances at me with true panic in his eyes.
“Oliver. She’s crushing on Oliver.”
He releases a relieved breath.
I adjust Chloe before I whisper, “But I think both Killian and Liam like her.”
Wyatt groans as I leave him to join the rest of the family at the table. Hazel rubs Eddy’s shirt while Eddy talks to Lillian. This house might have been bought on a whim to protect me, but it’s become our home.
Today, all of my friends and family will come over to celebrate Eddy’s birthday.
The house will be overfilled with everyone who matters to me.
With so many kids and friends, I don’t ever think about Verity Baron and what she did to me anymore.
Last I heard, her husband was on trial for embezzlement.
I have friends who love me and we’re building on Deidre’s legacy together. Taking Cliodhna to new levels.
I can’t wait for the next chapter of our lives to begin. And I’ll do it with my guys to support me every step of the way.