Extended Epilogue
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
King – Two Years Later
I stare anxiously at the stage from my seat in the risers. I still can’t believe I’m really here right now.
I have an eighteen-year-old daughter, and today she’s graduating high school. It feels like just yesterday Ellie was looking up at me excitedly with her big brown eyes as she took her first steps.
Now, she’s walking across a stage and getting her high school diploma. I don’t know where the time went.
“Are they gonna start soon?” Willow asks from where she’s sitting next to me, getting jittery.
She’s fourteen years old now and has even less patience as a teenager than she did as a preteen, which is saying a lot.
“Any minute now,” I tell her.
She huffs in annoyance, turning to talk to my mom, who’s sitting next to her. Everyone wanted to be here for Ellie’s graduation, but even with some bribing and begging, there were only so many tickets we could get.
We decided to have a graduation party for her instead next weekend, so that everyone would get a chance to celebrate with her.
But for now, it’s just my parents, me, Willow, and Sawyer. And our one-year-old daughter, who lays sleeping in her arms.
Lily King.
She’s absolutely perfect. Just like Ellie and Willow were.
Sawyer and I started talking about whether we wanted another kid pretty soon after we got engaged. I knew I did, but she wasn’t sure at first.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want another baby, but she never wanted Ellie or Willow to feel like our future child would be more of a child to her than they are.
Sawyer’s treated both my girls like her own since the second we got together, and she never wanted anything to take away from that.
Willow started calling Sawyer mom not long after we got engaged. We never brought it up to her or questioned it, we just let her decide. And Willow decided that Sawyer being her mom is what she wants.
Although Ellie has never called her mom, she treats her as though she’s her mom for all intents and purposes too.
The thought of a new child threatening her relationship with either of them scared her.
It took a lot of conversations between the four of us where both Ellie and Willow reassured her that they thought it would be more than okay to have another sibling, in fact, it would be pretty cool before she jumped on board.
It was a good thing she did too, because we didn’t know it at the time, but she was already pregnant.
It was so different from the time Jillian found out she was pregnant. I remember Jillian being, yes, terrified, but mostly angry. She was just so pissed that it was happening to her.
Sawyer wasn’t anything like that. The second she saw the two pink lines on the stick, her face lit up like nothing I’d ever seen before. She was ecstatic and emotional, sure, but in the best way.
And I felt exactly the same.
I watch Sawyer as she watches our daughter, not paying attention to everyone else who impatiently waits for the ceremony to start. She leans down, placing a kiss on her forehead and then brushing her lashes against Lily’s.
Butterfly kisses.
I smile at the sight, knowing what it means to her. What it means to us. To our family.
The ceremony starts about ten minutes later, and it feels like it goes on for hours with the size of Ellie’s graduating class.
About halfway through the ceremony, Lily wakes up and starts crying, so thankfully, my dad takes her from Sawyer into the hallway to calm her down.
When Ellie walks across the stage, all of us are standing from our seats, yelling loud enough that she sees us from the stage. She gives us a look that we’re embarrassing her as she walks back to her seat, but none of us care.
I’m just so fucking proud of her.
When the ceremony ends, we wait outside for her to meet us before she goes to her friends for a graduation party of their own that they’re throwing.
We wait around for about fifteen minutes before she comes running out to us.
“Congrats, big sis.” Willow wraps her arms around her and Ellie laughs, hugging her back.
“Get over here,” I say, pulling her into me when Willow is done with her. “I’m so proud of you, kiddo.” I squeeze her tightly.
“You’re suffocating me,” she mumbles, and I laugh, letting her go.
She hugs both my parents and kisses Lily on the head from where she’s sitting in her stroller in front of me. Then she moves to Sawyer, who looks at her with the biggest smile on her face.
“Get over here, graduate.” She pulls her into a hug. “You’re so fucking amazing.” She shakes her head, her eyes beaming with how proud she is of our daughter.
“Language.” She winks up at Sawyer.
“Eh, you’re eighteen.” She shrugs. “An F-bomb is necessary for special occasions.”
“Special occasions?” Willow laughs. “The two of you say it like thirty times a day.”
“Shush, you.” Sawyer rolls her eyes, laughing. “I know we said we’d do presents later, but I have one for you now,” she says to Ellie.
“You know you didn’t have to get me anything,” Ellie says. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It’s a huge deal,” Sawyer assures her, pulling the small black velvet bag out of her purse. “It’s just something small.” She hands it to her.
Ellie opens the bag, a genuine smile spreading across her face as she pulls out the gold butterfly necklace.
It’s identical to the one around Sawyer’s neck. Sawyer told me about her idea to get one for Ellie for graduation a few months ago.
She wasn’t ready to give up her mom’s, which still sits in the back of the picture frame on our dresser, but she insisted on making an exact replica.
It was a good memory that she and her mom shared, and she wanted to be able to share that with her daughters too. All of them. That’s why there’s another two identical ones sitting in our nightstand drawer at home to eventually give to Willow and Lily.
“I love it,” Ellie says softly. “Put it on me?” she asks.
“Of course.” Sawyer takes the necklace from her, clasping it around Ellie’s neck.
“Thank you.” Ellie hugs her. “I know how much it means to you, and it means just as much to me.”
“I love you, El.” Sawyer smiles, squeezing her tightly. “Ugh, I can’t believe you’re leaving us in a couple of months.” She whines, refusing to let go of Ellie even as she tries to pull away.
“I can’t believe my firstborn is going to college.” I sigh, rubbing my hand over my face.
“Yeah, you’re like super old,” Ellie jokes.
“ Super old,” Sawyer says sarcastically, all of them laughing at my expense.
“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes at the three of them. “Did you have to pick a college on the other side of the world, though?”
“Duh, it’s New York City,” Ellie says. “Plus, Arison University has one of the best programs for music production.”
“Which makes it perfect for you.” Sawyer nods. “You’re gonna be such a star.” She smiles at her, finally lifting her arm from around her.
“I want to go to New York City.” Willow sighs.
“You can visit me.” Ellie nudges at her.
“We’ll all visit you,” I say, squeezing her shoulder.
“You guys better.” She smiles at all of us genuinely. “So, can I go to my party now?” she asks, bouncing on her feet in excitement.
“Chloe’s mom is driving you guys?” I ask.
“Yup, and I’ll call you if we need a ride home or anything, I promise,” she assures me.
“Okay, fine. Come here.” I pull her in to hug me one more time. “Have fun, okay?”
“I will.” She smirks.
“And be careful, please,” Sawyer adds. “Text if you need anything at all.”
“I know, Mom. I will.” She laughs. “Love you guys,” she calls out as she walks away.
I look at Sawyer, whose eyes are wide as she watches her go, tears instantly filling them.
Ellie’s never called her mom before. She said it so casually just now, I’m not even sure she realized she did it.
“She called me mom,” Sawyer says, the words barely a whisper.
A wide smile breaks out across her face.
“Yeah, she did.” I smile down at her, pulling her under my arm. “You are her mom, Sawyer.”
“And mine,” Willow says singsong-like from where she’s standing next to us playing on her phone.
“And a pretty amazing one at that,” I add.
“We should celebrate.” Sawyer nods to herself.
“Ooh, yes,” Willow says. “Can we get cake?”
“Absolutely,” Sawyer says. “And Sour Patch Watermelon.” She throws her arm around Willow, the two of them walking ahead of me to the car.
I watch the two of them walk together, and if I squint, I can still see Ellie a couple hundred feet ahead of them. And then I look down at Lily, her big brown eyes the same as mine, staring up at me curiously.
All four of my girls.
Fuck, I’m lucky to have them.
And it was all because of a spilled drink.
Maybe I did make her spill it. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I needed her in my life, and getting in her way was how I made that happen.
I may have knocked her off balance physically then, but she made me lose all sense of stability from the second I saw her.
And now, with her by my side, as my wife, the mother of my children, and the love of my life, I feel steadier than ever.