Epilogue
Kian
Ten years later
“You won by one. It’s not really a victory,” Summer says, rolling her eyes at me.
It feels good to play hockey with your best friends and beat them. I’ve been floating on that high ever since we got back to Aiden and Summer’s house.
Tonight is family dinner, which means it’s that time of the season when our teams compete. New York and Toronto are neck and neck this season, and we’ve played a lot of games against each other. But my favorite part, after beating them, is our postgame dinner.
“You’re just bitter I beat your husband, Sunny. You lost the bet fair and square.”
“I just pushed out a human child. I should be let off the bet,” Summer argues.
Four months ago, Summer gave birth to her and Aiden’s second kid, Lucas. He’s got green eyes and dark hair, stealing different parts of his parents. Since she had him in the off-season, I spent every minute I could with my nephew.
“And I just got rocked by the biggest defenseman in the league.”
“Sorry,” Eli mutters from his seat across the table. Sage rubs his shoulders and offers me an apologetic look.
“What’s the bet? I’ll do it,” Aiden says after he’s cleared the table. Of course, saving his wife from any hardship.
I roll my eyes. “You guys are lame.”
The bet started as a joke, but the closer we got to game day, the more Summer insisted that Toronto would take the win.
She was sorely mistaken when I scored the game-winning goal moments before the final buzzer.
Since she lost, she has to chauffeur me around the city whenever I ask.
If I lost, she wanted me to get Aiden’s number tattooed on me. I would have.
“She was supposed to be my chauffeur,” I tell him. “And I’m having a hankering for a special dessert.”
Aiden raises a brow. “That’s it? You gotta get better at making bets, Ishida.”
I chuckle. “Oh yeah? How do you like your tattoo?”
He narrows his eyes. In college we had a hat of consequences, and the moment Aiden had to pick his, he got the consequence I had written down. The spider tattoo.
“I like his tattoo,” Summer chimes in.
I pretend to gag.
That’s when Dylan walks out of the kitchen with my cat on his shoulder, holding a tub of Reese’s Pieces ice cream, with Sierra not too far behind with her own spoon.
“You did not just steal that from me!” she shouts, trying to tiptoe to Dylan’s height. But she’s freakishly strong, because with one quick move she’s maneuvered the ice cream out of his grip and sprints back to her spot at the table.
They’ve been on some sort of break from skating, but they haven’t announced anything. Most days they stay holed up in their house back in Connecticut, but on days like this, they always fly out to see everyone.
It’s been a while since we’ve all been together, but my favorite part about this is that my wife agrees to join me on the road.
Scarlett walks back into the dining room, having excused herself to go to the bathroom earlier. She’s been jittery all day, a little distant.
I pull her into my lap before she can sit on her chair. Red hair curls around her face, making her skin glow bright. “You okay?” I ask.
She nods. “I’m just worried about us driving that sports car of yours in this weather.”
I chuckle. “We’ll be fine. It’s barely icy out there.”
“I’d take an Uber if I were you, Scar. That thing is a death trap,” Summer says, sticking out her tongue at me. She hates my car only because I talked Aiden into getting it first.
“Besides, you insisted on driving it all the way here. You love that thing,” I tell her.
Scarlett stands to cross her arms. “Maybe I’m thinking more practically now.”
I tilt my head, confused about what’s suddenly changed her mind. Just as I’m about to ask, the baby monitor crackles, and we hear Lucas’s faint cry. Aiden presses a hand to Summer’s shoulder to tell her to sit, but I wave them both away. “I got it.”
“Need help?” Dylan calls. “I’m practically a baby whisperer.”
Sierra scoffs. “He’s not. Kids just think they’re on a ride when he picks them up.”
I shake my head and walk up the steps. Lucas’s room is across the hall from Aurora’s, who seems to be taking her older-sister duty very seriously because there’s a sign on her door that reads No Boys Allowed (Except Daddy).
The sound machine plays a loud whooshing noise; apparently, the ocean sounds calm Lucas the most. He’s sound asleep in his crib when I gingerly take him in my hands and pull him out until he’s wrapped in my embrace.
Sometimes I can’t believe that this is our life now, that I’m holding something my friends created with their love.
It seemed like eons ago when Aiden texted the group chat two words: It’s happening.
The home birth wasn’t planned, but it turns out, when your water breaks before your due date, and you’re as stubborn as Summer, you ignore the signs so you don’t veer off plan.
Luckily, Aiden wasn’t buying her “don’t leave your game” nonsense and came straight home after only playing in the first period in a playoff game.
He still had a week before his paternity leave began, but the baby boy had different plans.
Lucas coos in my arms as if recalling the memory with me.
I walk him around the room that glows a dim blue color from the sunflower-shaped nightlight that’s plugged in to the far wall.
It reflects little flower shapes all over the wall and ceiling.
But it’s by the window where we look out into the sky, toward the scattered stars.
I don’t know how long I stand there, staring down at him with the moonlight illuminating his face, but I could stay here forever.
Scarlett and I have talked about kids, but I’ve never brought them up unless she does.
She’s busy with the shelter and the classes she teaches, so I want to make sure it’s what works best for her before I start thinking about us.
But there isn’t a moment in the last ten years when I haven’t wanted a family with her.
She’s the most calm and caring person I know, and I would kill to have a little mini version of her in my arms.
We got married a year after Scarlett graduated from college.
We had attended one of Sierra and Dylan’s performances in Vegas, and she was adamant that we just elope and skip the whole wedding part, but there was a much louder, much angrier voice in my head that told me if I took his daughter to a chapel and married her without letting him know, he’d never let me live it down.
As if I’ve summoned her, my wife steps in the room, tiptoeing up toward me. I didn’t even realize I was humming until she joins in on “Over the Rainbow.” Lucas sleeps peacefully in my arms, making little shapes with his mouth every so often.
Scarlett watches me for a moment, as if taking in the sight before her, memorizing it. Then she steps in front of me, staring down at the sleeping baby. “God, he’s just the cutest thing,” she whispers. “So perfect.”
“I’m gonna be this one’s favorite,” I say to her.
Ever since Aurora developed a soft spot for her Uncle Dill, it’s been pretty downhill for me. The kids seem to gravitate to everyone but me. Nina, Eli and Sage’s daughter, was close to her teenage years when we met, but she’d already picked her favorite: Aiden.
I’ve been patiently waiting for my turn, and ever since Lucas came into the picture, I’ve been plotting. I would be his favorite uncle, no matter what.
When I gaze back up at Scarlett, the tension in her face is illuminated by the moon. I raise one hand to brush it against her face, tucking her hair behind her ear. “You okay, sweetheart?”
She swallows, nodding slowly, but then she takes my hand and moves it lower, all the way down toward her stomach. I don’t understand what’s happening until she looks at me with watery eyes and says, “You’ll definitely be this one’s favorite.”
My heart falls out of my chest, I swear it does. The warm weight of Lucas in my arms only makes her reveal that much more special. She’s watching me, waiting for me to say something, standing just a step away like she’s unsure of what I’d respond.
I pull her into my side instantly, feeling the sting in my nose. Scarlett lets me hold her tight and kiss every available inch of her face. “We’re pregnant?”
Tears spill onto her cheeks, but I’m quick to wipe them away. She does the same to me, running her thumbs over my ears gently. “I found out this morning, and I wanted to do something special to tell you, but I could barely keep it inside. I wanted to share it with you.”
I capture her lips in a deep kiss. “This is special. So special. Fuck, I love you so much, Scar.”
She chuckles. “I don’t think we’re supposed to swear anymore.” She points a look at the baby in my arms for emphasis.
Then the reality of it hits me. “Oh my God, our kid’s going to be best friends with Lukey.”
Scarlett laughs, lightly brushing Lucas’s tiny nose, and I can’t help but imagine what it would look like to see her with our baby. One who looks like her.
“Do you think it’ll be a boy or a girl?” she asks me, almost giddily.
“As long as they have a part of you, I’m happy,” I whisper.
She grins. “Is it too early to think of names? It is, isn’t it? I haven’t even gone to the doctor yet. But I think I’m a few weeks. I’ve been so busy with the women’s shelter and traveling, I didn’t realize.”
I kiss her again. “I don’t think it’s too early. We can talk about whatever you like, baby.”
When I hand her Lucas, she releases a contented sigh. “I was thinking Kai,” she says. “It works for a boy or a girl. I want our baby to have that connection to you, you know? Like the one you have with your dad. What do you think?”
She may as well have pulled my heart out of my chest with her bare hands. “I think that’s a great name, sweetheart.”
I can barely swallow, and Scarlett must notice because she hugs me tight. My body is on fire, and her touch is like a cool breeze over my skin.
“Did you tell your parents yet?”
She shakes her head. “I wanted to tell you first. So we can tell everyone together.”
“We can tell them now,” I say. “Who knows the next time we’ll all be together like this.”
“I think we should tell someone else first.” She lifts her eyes to mine, warm and expectant, then gestures toward my phone on the dresser.
It takes a second for the meaning to land. When it does, it makes the tightness in my chest settle. She always manages to do that. Knowing what I need better than I do.
So I do, I grab my phone.
We’ve done this since our wedding night. After I took off her heels and the corset that left tiny red lines on her skin and I told her I was going to make a quick call, she caught my wrist and asked if she could join.
Ever since then, every big moment has ended with the two of us and that phone.
Now I sit in the rocking chair and she settles carefully onto my lap with Lucas still sound asleep in her arms.
I dial the number; it goes to voicemail. Like always.
“Hey, Dad!” we both say. The smile on Scarlett’s face makes my own break free.
In that moment, I know all over again that she is my best friend, and I’ll always be hers.