Epilogue
Splash.
“Damnit, Titus!” I jerked my arm into the air to protect my beer. Thankfully, the tidal wave after Titus leaped into the pool stopped just short of me. My beer might have been free since it was part of Tyson’s new sponsorship, but I wasn’t about to waste a good drink.
“That was a close one,” Tyson said. He sat beside me on the pool’s edge, wiping a few droplets of water off his own beer can.
I groaned at my big silly dog. “Boy, have some self control!”
Titus ignored me, happily paddling around the sparkling pool while Kierra and Tarik laughed from their floaties in the shallow end. A square of blue fabric floated toward me and I plucked it out of the water.
“And you ruined your outfit too.” I dropped the sopping bandana beside me. “Olivia isn’t going to be happy.”
I knew as soon as I tied that blue bandana around Titus’s neck that it wasn’t going to last. I had told Olivia that maintaining matching outfits for the twins’ first birthday party was too ambitious, but did she listen to me? Of course not.
The sun started to dip toward the horizon, casting a warm glow over Titus’s fur and making the water glitter as he swam.
Aw, I couldn’t stay mad at the big guy. He had been very patient throughout the day, after all.
Other than some adorable messiness during Annie and Brady’s cake smash, the party had gone off without a hitch.
Olivia had chosen a retro theme for the party, so she covered the manor in pastel balloons and ribbons.
Annie wore a fluffy powder blue dress and Brady had a very dapper bowtie-and-suspenders combo for the first half of the party.
The family had sent the twins an egregiously large pile of presents, my mother being the main culprit.
Olivia’s favorite gifts were the stuffed elephants from Aunt Daphne. I was partial to the tiny motorized cars the twins were too little to drive. I couldn’t wait to watch them race across the pasture the instant they could reach the pedals.
I sipped my very orange beer as I listened to the easy jazz playing over the patio’s speakers and tossed a glance to my wife. Olivia stood on the other side of the deck with Annie on her hip as she talked with Ashley, who floated in the pool below.
Damn, Olivia could work a blue polka dot bikini.
The tight knots securing the bottoms created a dip in the curves of her hips.
Her stretch marks glistened in the sun across her soft tummy.
She tested the strength of the top’s fabric each time she bounced as she talked, and I sure wouldn’t have minded if one of the straps broke from the weight of her breasts.
I tried to limit my shameless ogling since the whole family was still around, but I was a mere man. Besides, Olivia just looked so cute holding Annie, who wore a matching blue polka dot swimsuit with a ruffled skirt.
Did that mean that I was wearing a ridiculous pair of blue polka dot swim trunks to complete the family set? Yep. Happy wife, happy life, after all. Good thing I spent most of the birthday party taking pictures instead of being in them.
I couldn’t hold back a smile as I looked at my girls.
Annie still had pink frosting from her cake smash smeared on her round cheek, but she was still cute as a button.
Her auburn hair was pulled into pigtails with white bows and she wore a pair of tiny white sunglasses that had pointed corners, like something my grandma would have worn as a teenager.
She had certainly inherited her mother’s love of accessories, but I had started to suspect that wasn’t the sole trait she had received from Olivia.
“So I was getting ready for court and who did I get a call from at the eleventh hour?” Olivia said to Ashley. “Herringbone’s attorney! He started acting like it was the first time he had seen my settlement offer when I had been trying to get a response for months!”
“Wow, what an asshole,” Ashley said sleepily. She rested her cheek on top of her folded arms on the edge of the pool as she looked up at Olivia. “Did you settle?”
“Only after I added another million to the offer.” Olivia held up a finger, her nail painted a pretty delicate blue. “You want to waste my time? You pay for it.”
“Ya!” Annie cried, holding up a finger to mimic her mother.
“Ouch,” Tyson said with a smile. “Olivia is killing ‘em out there.”
I shrugged. “She’s the ballsiest in-house attorney Fontaine Energy has. When your name is on the building, you can do anything you want.”
Chuck came around the deck and handed Annie a juice box. She looked up at Chuck with furrowed brows and let out a string of very demanding babbles.
“More cake it is,” Chuck said with a smile.
“You’re going to spoil her rotten, aren’t you?” Olivia called as Chuck headed toward the snack table.
Chuck turned around. “That’s part of my uncle privileges. Just wait until I teach the twins curse words.”
I caught Olivia rolling her eyes just as I received a tap on my shoulder. I turned to find Kierra standing next to me.
“Mr. Beau,” she asked, “do you have any ponies?”
I laughed. “God, no. Horses are giant babies that eat hundred-dollar bills and are only useful to make glue. I have cows—they’re tax write offs that taste delicious.”
Too late did I notice the sparkling rainbow pony on the front of Kierra’s swimsuit. Just as I thought she might cry from my insult to all pony-kind, she instead looked me dead in the eyes and gently placed a small hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll put your name in my prayer journal,” she whispered. She gave my shoulder a simple pat and then left to join her little brother in the pool.
Tyson could barely contain his laughter as his daughter passed by. “Oh no, she’s spent way too much time around my mom.”
I shrugged. “Hey, the kids have to go somewhere while you’re filming the new show.”
Tyson sighed and shifted his beer from one hand to the other. “Thanks, by the way, for being part of it.”
Letting a camera crew into Fontaine Manor to film the first episode of Ashley and Tyson’s new renovation show had been a test of my resolve, but I did it for Olivia.
“No problem, man,” I responded. “The primary suite needed some major work, so the timing was perfect. I can hardly wait to move out of my grandparents’ old room.”
Tyson gave me a half smile. “I don’t really tell people this, but I’ve never liked the cameras.”
I paused just before taking a sip of my beer. “Really?”
“Yeah. They make me nervous, I just put up with them to provide for my family.” He shrugged and looked up at me. “But being with a friend makes it a lot easier.”
I smiled back at him. “Just like the good old days.”
We clinked our beer cans together in a silent toast.
“Ugh,” Ashley groaned at us as she waded toward the pool’s steps with Tarik in her arms. “Can you two stop having so much fun over there? You’re making me want a beer.”
Tyson gave a sweet apology to his wife as she slowly climbed out of the pool, her very pregnant belly visibly dropping as she left the water.
“I still can’t believe it,” Tyson said with a shake of his head as he watched his miserable wife waddle to the snack table, “identical twin boys. How lucky can a man get?”
“Well,” I said with a soft smile as I turned my eyes to my own wife, “you could get lucky enough to reunite with the love of your life after ten years. Or finally get your mother to come to holidays again. Or find out that your most trusted employee is actually your half-brother-in-law.”
Olivia caught me looking at her and smiled back.
“You might have never expected twins,” I said, “but they’re just the beginning of everything good that’s coming to your life.”
Olivia bounced Annie on her hip and pointed at me. Annie looked at me and waved, shouting “Dada!” from across the pool.
Speaking of twins, where was Brady?
I turned my head just as my mother squealed with delight. She stood by the manor’s back doors with Aunt Liz, holding an ugly lacy bundle in her arms.
Wait, that wasn’t a mere pile of ivory frills—it was my son!
I jumped up from the edge of the pool and rushed over. “Mom, what are you doing?”
“The Fontaine gown still fits!” Mom said triumphantly as she held Brady out. “It was still in storage from when you were born!”
I had spared Brady from the God-awful tradition of being stuffed in that frilly abomination for a year, but my damn mother took advantage of me being distracted with the party.
Though Brady had more strawberry in his blonde hair than I did, he looked horrifyingly like me in that abomination of a gown.
I took him from my mother’s arms, but Brady still looked at me as if to say, “Father, why have you forsaken me?”
“I’m going to change him,” I said as I brushed past my mother and aunt.
“Go ahead,” Mom responded with a cackle. “I already took pictures!”
I opened the French door into the manor and crossed into the foyer. Brady rested his head against my shoulder and let out a miserable whine.
“I know, I know,” I soothed as I patted his back. “I’ll liberate you from that gown as soon as—”
The portrait on the wall caught my eye and I stopped. It was my favorite photo from our wedding—Olivia and I stood in front of the stained glass window at Miss Kaye’s house as we each held a twin.
I lightly bounced Brady as I remembered just how small the twins used to be—they had looked like perfect little peanuts in our arms. Annie had on a sparkling white dress with a flower headband and Brady had somehow managed to keep his white tuxedo clean for most of the wedding.
Brady had completely outdressed me, but Olivia looked like a queen as she held our princess.
Olivia’s big pink—or as she had called it, blush—dress flowed down the first steps of the wooden staircase and Adelaide’s emerald brooches glittered in her hair.