Epilogue
BEX
Three months after Corbin slid his ring onto my finger, I married him in a small ceremony at the compound with Jacqueline standing beside me and my father walking me down the aisle, just like I wanted. Five months after the honeymoon, I gave him a son who looked like his mini-me.
By the time Donny was eight, we had two more—Sara, who had my eyes and her father’s dark hair, and a toddler named Jake who destroyed things and giggled about it.
The house that had once been Corbin’s quiet space now rang with chaos most days.
But I never expected my dad to come up the drive in his department vehicle with my son in the back.
Corbin appeared in the hallway as I reached the front window. We both watched as Dad parked, got out, and opened the back passenger door with a calm I knew could only mean he was pissed.
Our oldest son slid out looking entirely too pleased with himself as he raced into the house. “Mom! I got to ride in Grandpa’s police truck!”
The back seat did not mean good things, so I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Dad shut the door and shot Corbin a dark look. “I was already at the elementary school talking to the principal when he was found in the computer lab, using an admin password he should not have known, changing every teacher’s desktop background to a picture of a raccoon wearing a tiny cowboy hat.”
Corbin’s mouth twitched.
I pointed at him without looking away from our son. “Do not encourage this.”
Donny bounced on the balls of his feet, dark hair falling into eyes that were pure Corbin. “It was funny. Mr. Henderson screamed.”
“It was unauthorized access to a school network,” Dad corrected, scrubbing his palm down his face.
“He’s lucky I’m his grandpa. I talked the principal into sending him home with me today.
Unfortunately, the half day home from school won’t be the punishment I was hoping for since he thought the whole thing was cool.
Asked if the lights and sirens could go on next time. ”
Corbin finally lost the battle and let out a low laugh.
Dad’s eyes narrowed as he pointed at my husband. “This is your fault. Every single one of them comes out too much like you. Quiet until they’re not. Stubborn. And already skilled at getting into systems they have no business touching.”
Corbin shrugged. “Jake isn’t quiet at all.”
“I only changed the backgrounds,” Donny protested over my father’s frustrated sigh. “I didn’t delete anything.”
I shook my head. “Shoes off. Homework out. We’ll talk about computer crimes after dinner.”
He groaned but obeyed, pausing only to high-five Corbin on the way past. I caught the subtle curl of my husband’s fingers against our son’s hair—affection and warning in the same touch—before Donny disappeared toward the kitchen.
“I’m serious,” he insisted. “He’s hacking school servers for raccoon memes at eight.”
Corbin settled his hand at the small of my back like he’d been doing for years. “I’ll talk to him.”
“You’d better. Or the next time I catch one of my grandkids breaking into something digital, I’m leaving them in a cell long enough to think about their life choices.”
“He’d probably ask for the Wi-Fi password,” I muttered.
Dad pointed at me. “You’re not helping.”
“But I’m not wrong.”
He huffed, but some of the tension eased. He looked at the toys spread across the living room floor and shook his head with reluctant acceptance. “Your mother would have loved this chaos.”
My throat tightened at the mention of her. “Yeah. She would have.”
He pulled me into a hug, clapped Corbin once on the shoulder harder than he probably needed to and headed back out to his Tahoe.
As he reversed out of the drive, Corbin and I stood in the quiet that never lasted long in our house. Only a minute later, something crashed upstairs. Jake started crying. Donny shouted that it wasn’t his fault this time. The only reason Sara didn’t join in was because she had all-day kindergarten.
I sighed against Corbin’s shirt. “Your turn.”
He squeezed my nape, then headed off to referee whatever disaster our boys had created this time. After a minute, I followed to help.
Some things were worth the chaos. Especially when they looked exactly like him.