Epilogue
IVY
Three Months Later
I hum to myself as I open the front door of Chad’s house.
“I’m here!” I call. It echoes in the empty entryway.
Chad and the girls will be moving in a week, and most of their stuff has been packed up, waiting for the movers to come transfer it.
Chad felt like it was time for a fresh start, and after Shelby showed up unannounced again—high and dragging a new boyfriend along with her—something had to change.
“Coming!” Chad’s voice comes from upstairs.
“I brought the pizza!” I yell in the direction of the stairs. “Where are the girls?” Chad is an administrator now for the medical supply company he works for and has a nine-to-five schedule. He’s loving it. Especially all the time he gets with Scarlett and Zoey.
“With Carlie.” Chad gives me a grin as he comes jogging down the stairs.
“I wanted some time alone with you.” He sweeps me up into a hug and a kiss of greeting when he meets me.
I melt into him. I hang around Chad and the girls a lot these days—I only went back to Nashville to pack up my apartment—but to them, I’m just helping out in the evenings so Carlie can be with Law, now officially her fiancé. Or that’s what we tell them.
Like Chad needs help parenting his children.
And yet, he’s basically made me his partner in the last few months.
I can see how much of a load it’s lifted off him to have someone to talk about decisions with, to confide in about hard days, and to spend time with and have adult conversations.
He’s told me over and over that this is the relationship he’d always hoped for with Shelby but never got—both of us having each other’s backs always and helping each other.
Being able to ask the other one for help when we need it.
“I thought the plan was to dig into that cheesecake once the girls were in bed,” I murmur when we pull away.
He slides his hand down into mine, taking me through the entryway and into the family room at the back of the house.
“Change of plan.” His tone says there’s something more.
I wonder if it’s something about the new house.
Chad wasn’t shy about asking me to come house-hunt with him when he made the decision to move.
We’ve talked about the future a lot. It’s something that came quickly for us, given that Chad has the girls to think about.
I knew the first time Chad kissed me that I was in with both feet—in for forever—and nothing about the last few months has changed that.
When we sit down on the couch, I raise my eyebrows at him. “Okay, what’s up?”
He gives me a quick kiss. “I love how intuitive you are.”
“I do make life easy, don’t I?” I wink at him and rest a hand on his leg as he faces me.
“You make life the best.” He leans toward me, and we lose a few minutes kissing in the silence of the house.
It’s rare. Most of our dates are places other than here, and there’ve been a few stolen moments when the girls are in bed, but we always have to be mindful of what the girls might walk in on.
“But,” he says when he pulls away, “I do have something I want to talk to you about.”
I press my lips together to show him I’m silent and ready to listen.
He reaches up to run a finger over them softly.
“No, don’t do that. It doesn’t help things.
” His gaze lingers on my lips, and they creep up into a smile.
His obsession with my lips will never get old.
“Okay,” he says, pointedly raising his gaze to my eyes.
“I’ve been talking with the girls more about me dating again.
Letting them know sometimes when we go out that I’m on a date. Stuff like that.”
I nod. It’s something we’ve discussed. We don’t want to just spring the relationship on the girls one day, so he’s been finding moments when it’s appropriate to chat about how the concept in a way they’ll understand.
“It’s been kind of easy, honestly.” Chad shrugs.
“They don’t remember a lot about Shelby being around, about us being a couple.
I worked so much, and there was not a lot of ‘us’ in our relationship.
It was more like a tag team. I got home and Shelby needed me time.
Carlie and Law are what they know about boyfriends and girlfriends, and they’ve done a good job modeling a great relationship for them. ”
“I’m glad it’s going well.” I reach over and squeeze his hands. It’s exciting, especially when I know that all of this is leading up to the day when we’re ready to tell them about us. When we’re as sure about the future as we can be.
Chad chuckles. “Scarlett actually suggested that I should ask you on a date sometime.”
I laugh. “What did you tell her?”
He reaches up and cups my cheek in his hand. “That it seemed like a good idea to consider,” he says softly. “Wanna go on a date with me sometime?”
“Mmmm.” I lean into his hand. “I’d love to.”
He kisses me, long and lingering, before pulling away again. “They’re ready,” he says meaningfully. “I’m ready. We’re ready to tell them.”
Tears immediately well in my eyes. I have never felt the need to rush into them knowing just so we could kiss and hold hands or whatever.
My relationship with Chad is much more than that—and so is my relationship with the girls.
I have never wanted to just be their dad’s girlfriend.
I want to belong to them too. That’s what I’ve been waiting for.
“Yeah?” I say in a wobbly voice.
Chad pulls me close, kissing me again. “I love you, Ivy,” he says gently. “I am going to love you forever.”
“I love you too. So much.” I throw my arms around him, laughing with happiness.
His phone dings, and Chad, who normally ignores those now when we’re together, reaches into his pocket. It’s easy to read that the text is from Carlie.
Carlie
Ready, or should we go visit Law for a minute?
I lean against Chad’s shoulder as he types.
Chad
Ready.
We’re not sitting as close when Carlie brings the girls in a couple minutes later. “Ivy!” Zoey cries, running right up to me and jumping in my lap.
“Hey, sweetie,” I say, snuggling her close and kissing her cheek.
“Hi, Ivy,” Scarlett says, hugging me too, and I pull an arm from around Zoey to include her in our embrace.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Carlie says with a wave, even though her face says she wants to stick around to see how this goes.
“Bye, Carlie.” The girls wave excitedly to her, and she slips out.
“Ready?” Chad mouths. He’s scooted back next to me and has an arm around the back of the couch behind me.
Zoey is still sitting in my lap, and Scarlett has wedged herself into the sliver of couch between me and Chad. Another thing that will never get old is how cuddly the girls are with me. “Yes,” I mouth back.
“Scar, Zo? Ivy and I have something we want to tell you,” Chad says. Both girls whirl to look at him.
“Another something to talk about?” Scarlett says with wide eyes. The last month has held a lot of changes with them selling the house and moving, plus Chad changing jobs the month before that.
“I think you’re going to like it,” Chad says, his smile growing. “Remember how I talked to you about how I was going to go on dates and maybe get a girlfriend?”
Scarlett nods, but Zoey scrunches her brows in confusion. “I thought Ivy was your girlfriend!” She turns to look at me.
Chad blinks, stunned.
Scarlett reacts first, putting a hand on Zoey’s leg. “Daddy said it’s different from a friend who’s a girl, remember?”
“Oh.” Zoey nods. “Yes. A girlfriend is someone you love.”
“And want to kiss and stuff,” Scarlett adds wisely. They both turn to Chad expectantly.
“Well,” he says. “You made this easy.” He looks over at me, and I bite back laughter. “Ivy is my girlfriend.”
Scarlett bounces upright. “You went on dates with Ivy?” Her tone is surprised, but not in a bad way. “You kissed Ivy?”
“Oh!” Zoey says, turning to look at me. She leans up and kisses my cheek. “I kiss Ivy too!”
Scarlett starts clapping excitedly. “Ivy! Does this mean you’re going to be our mommy too? Carlie said that when Daddy finds someone to marry, that she will be a mommy to help us, not like a nanny.”
“We’ll have two mommies?” Zoey says, eyes wide.
“Yes,” Scarlett says, turning to her sister. “Carlie says that the new mommy will probably do more than our other mommy, since she’s sick and can’t do much.”
I look over at Chad, questioning. The plan was always that we’d tell the girls and getting engaged would be the next step. He didn’t want them to know until we were both sure, and even though telling them isn’t the same as him asking me to marry him, it basically is. He smiles and nods.
“Yes, someday I’m going to be another mommy to help,” I say.
Scarlett throws her arms around me. “This makes me very happy. I told Carlie I wished you could be Daddy’s girlfriend so you could be our mommy too.”
“And what did Carlie say to that?” Chad asks, pulling Scarlett onto his lap.
His grin is wide. Carlie has obviously been supportive of his choice not to tell the girls about us dating until later, but considering how much time she spends with them, it must have been hard to dodge questions like this.
“She said Ivy would be a good choice because she’s such a good helper.” Scarlett pats her dad’s arm, like she’s telling him he did good.
Zoey wraps her small arms around my neck in a hug. “I love you, Ivy. I’m glad you’re Daddy’s girlfriend.”
I kiss her forehead. “Me too, Zo.”
I meet Chad’s gaze over the two girls’ heads, and my heart warms. This is such a perfect moment: Zoey in my lap, and Scarlett between me and the man I’ve fallen completely in love with over the last few months.
He leans toward me and I meet him, smiling at the simple kiss he leaves on my lips. It’s perfect.
The girls squeal in delight, both clamoring to get in on a family hug, making Chad and me laugh. His eyes are bright, and his grin is wider than I’ve ever seen. I know how much this means to him.
“Ivy brought pizza,” Chad says, “Who’s ready to eat?”
They both hop up, dancing around and clapping.
Sausage pizza from a place nearby is their favorite, and I see now why Chad asked me to stop and pick it up before I came over.
Tonight is a celebration for all of us. He asks the girls to set the table and then comes over to slide an arm around my waist before I make my way into the kitchen. He’s still beaming.
“Well, they seem to be okay with this,” I say in a low voice, leaning my head on his shoulder as I watch Scarlett help Zoey get silverware from the drawer.
Chad kisses my head. “I didn’t think I was going to get this, Ivy—the perfect family.
” He squeezes me closer as I turn toward him to protest that description.
“I know, I know, there’s no such thing as perfect and all that, but this is close.
With Shelby, I lowered my expectations to how it would be, and then when she left, I didn’t know what to think about the future. ” He turns me to face him. “Thank you.”
I lean into him, tilting my head to stare at him. “You make up at least one quarter of our perfect family,” I say softly. “Thank you.”
We kiss, short and just a lingering of our lips on each other’s, given that the girls are just across the room. “I promise a nice big party of a proposal later,” he whispers, “but … marry me?”
I smile and lean up to kiss him again. “Obviously.”
I wrap my arms around him, hugging until the girls come and join in again, then tell us it’s time to eat. We laugh, and Chad hoists them into his arms to carry them to the table, the girls giggling all the way. I watch for a moment, the vision of my amazing future spreading before me.
It’s so much better than I ever could have imagined.