Epilogue
SLADE
“Close your eyes,” I tell my wife.
Lila obliges, a small smile curving her lips as I put a black bandana over her eyes.
“Ooh,” she says. “Is this a new sex thing? Are you going to play the villainous train robber, and I’m the innocent maiden you kidnap to be your plaything?”
“No, but now that you mention it, we’re coming back to that plan,” I say. I kiss her, sliding my tongue against hers. She tastes like cinnamon and sugar. Like heaven. “That’s your creative genius at work right there. But for now, I need you to just follow me.”
Lucky and Chance jump in the backseat of the truck. The entire truck shakes with their movement. Chance might have been the runt of the litter, but he’s turned into a damn giant, even bigger than his mama.
I roll down the windows for them so they can stick their heads out and enjoy the journey.
It’s not a long car ride, but it feels like an eternity as we head down the highway.
This plan has been a long time in the making.
As a freshly-retired hockey player, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, and I’ve been using it.
It’s felt strange having to keep this a secret from Lila, to tell her only half the story of what I’ve been doing with my time, but I know she likes surprises, and this will be a big one.
When we arrive at our destination, I carefully lead her out of my truck.
The sound of multiple, happy, excited barking dogs fills the air. Chance bounds out ahead of us to greet his friends while Lucky stays close to our side.
Beneath the bandana, Lila’s brow furrows.
I press a kiss to her cheek before I untie it and put the bandana in my back pocket. “Happy one year anniversary.”
Lila blinks against the sudden sunlight.
And then she takes it all in. The brand-new buildings dotted across the plains.
The big, fenced open spaces. The dozen or so dogs, happy and playing or relaxing, milling about the property.
There are some horses too, and even a pot-bellied pig with one eye, along with her piglet.
“Slade,” she says, “what is this place?”
“This is the Lucky Chance Animal Sanctuary,” I tell her. “We take in animals with special needs. Neurological or orthopedic issues. Blind, deaf, deaf-and-blind. Dogs with three legs.” I glance down at Lucky. “We know a little something about those.”
Her laugh comes out watery.
“We’ve got horses and goats too,” I continue. “That one-eyed pig over there came from a farm that was shutting down. Her piglet was born here last month. In that building to your right, we’ve got our cats and bunnies.”
Lila is looking around at all of it with her hand still over her mouth.
“It’s a fully staffed nonprofit,” I add. “Two full-time handlers, an adoption coordinator, and Dr. Monroe’s best vet tech on staff three days a week. Kay herself consults on the medical cases.” I reach down and rub Lucky’s head. “The rest of the time, Lucky runs the place.”
Lucky wags her tail like she knows she’s being talked about.
“When did you do all of this?” she whispers.
“Told you I’ve been fixing up some of the acreage that Dad put aside for us.”
“You told me it was heavy machinery storage! You did all of this on your own?”
“In all fairness, I hired plenty of help. My carpentry skills are decent enough, but not Noah’s Ark level good.”
She turns to look at me fully then. Eyes wet, chin wobbling slightly.
“You did this,” she says. “You built this. For all these animals.”
“I built it for you,” I say simply.
She doesn’t reply. Just looks at me with those brown eyes that have been making it impossible to think straight since the first day I met her.
“It felt strange to keep it from you,” I tell her, “but I wanted to do something big for our anniversary. I love you, baby. More than anything in the world.”
“I love you,” she whispers. “I love you so much.”
Her lips land on mine. I return her eager, passionate kiss with my own, feeling her body pressed against me.
I’ll never get over it, the feel of her in my arms. The knowledge that I managed to find and keep the love of my life.
I feel her laughing in my arms and I pull back to look at her. “What’s so funny?”
“Just that you came up with the best present of all time and my one year anniversary gift to you is… oh, I don’t even want to say it now.”
I feel a smile curve my lips. I’ve been smiling more in the last year than I have in the previous decade combined. “C’mon baby, out with it.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s a blank photo album. For your photography.” She sighs. “Paper is the traditional one year gift, you know. I would have been happy with a print of one of your photographs.”
With Lila’s encouragement, I’ve taken up photography on the side. I’ve gotten pretty serious about it, learning how use cameras with actual film, developing my photos in a darkroom. She’s been encouraging me to exhibit my work in a gallery, but I’m still coming around to the idea.
It feels a little weird to be all come look at me and what I made. But maybe one day.
“You can still have an art print,” I tell her, tucking a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “But I’m thinking I want to do a boudoir shoot of you. Maybe wearing that bridal lingerie. Maybe with nothing on at all.”
Her cheeks flush, but she gives me a coy smile and says, “Why not both?”
That deserves another kiss.
My body heats at the feel of her, at the thought of photographing my wife nude, but before I can take the kiss to a really interesting place, she puts a hand on my chest and takes a deep breath.
“Speaking of paper,” she says. From her pocket, she pulls out a rolled up strip of paper and clutches it between her pink fingertips. She gives me a shy smile. “I have a surprise for you too.”
Curiously, I take the little cylinder of paper and unroll it.
It’s a picture, a grey grainy wedge with a patch of black in the center.
And within the black void is a tiny grey smudge. No bigger than a bean.
I stare at it.
“My annual doctor checkup was this morning,” she says. “I was going to tell you at home and then you blindfolded me. They had me pee on stick as part of their routine pregnancy tests and… well… surprise. An ultrasound confirmed it.”
Somewhere in my caveman brain there are fireworks going off, grey matter permanently rearranging itself, my entire sense of self being turned inside out.
“You’re pregnant?” I manage.
Her beautiful brown eyes stare up at me, a little anxious now. “I can’t tell if that’s a happy question or a scared one.”
I stare again at the little bean on the ultrasound picture. Then my wife’s stomach. Then back again.
And then I’m sweeping her off her feet, spinning her in a circle as I laugh with my whole chest. “Holy fucking shit, sweetheart. You’re pregnant.”
Our lips meet in deep, intense kiss. When we pull back, I put my hands on her belly. “Our baby. You’re going to be a mom. I’m gonna be a dad.”
“That’s how it usually works,” she says, grinning. “You’re really happy about this? I know we’ve talked about having kids, but this happened fast.”
“Happy isn’t a strong enough word,” I say. “I’m… damn it, I don’t have the words. This is beyond words.”
I kiss her again, hoping that my body will say everything my brain can’t manage to put together.
“I can’t believe it,” I say. I cup her cheek with my hand. “Are you happy?”
“I don’t think it’s possible to be happier than I am now,” she says. “I’ve wanted this so badly and now it’s here, and I’m also… I’m nervous. Overwhelmed.” She laughs breathlessly. “And of course I just took on the biggest commission of my career. A full boutique hotel renovation, no less.”
“You can cancel the contract,” I tell her gently, already knowing what her response will be.
Those eyes flash fiercely. “No way!” But worry creeps into her expression. “Slade. Twelve floors. I’m going to be on the job site constantly. I’m going to be exhausted. I’m going to be—”
“Delegating,” I say.
She blinks.
“Sarah co-leads,” I say. “You supervise from a chair. Hire more staff. You eat lunch every single day, not just when you remember.” I hold up a finger for each item.
“You’re not on your feet more than a few hours at a stretch.
You call me if anything feels off.” I kiss her softly.
“And if I find out you’ve been climbing ladders… ”
“You’ll what?” she says, crossing her arms, fighting a smile.
“I’ll come down there and carry you away myself.”
She grins up at me. “I know you mean that literally, too.”
“Yup.” I pull her in close and she leans her forehead against my chest. My wife, I think, my heart swelling. And now the mother of my child.
“I don’t want to give up the commission,” she says in a small voice.
“And you shouldn’t. I’m just letting you know I’ll take care of you while you take over the world.
” I press my lips to the top of her head.
“You can have a baby and have a career. And I’ll be by your side every step of the way, supporting you and cheering you on and being there in every way you need me.
” I slide my hand over her belly. “In every way this little bean needs his or her daddy too.”
She shakes her head, eyes wide. “I can’t believe there’s a tiny person inside me. I want to do right by them.”
“You will. You’re going to be an amazing mother.”
A shy smile. “And you’re going to be an incredible dad. I hope the baby gets your green eyes.”
“I hope they get your brown eyes.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “Really? My mother always told me they were my worst feature. Common. Like dirt.”
“Lila, your mother is jealous as hell of you. You can’t take anything she says at face value.
” My fingertips skim over her cheekbones as I look into those eyes I love so much.
“Let me tell you something about my favorite color. Brown is beautiful. It’s warmth and sweetness and all my favorite things. ”
I smile. “I look in your eyes and the color reminds me of whiskey in the sunlight. It’s the sweetness you’ve brought into my life, the maple syrup and chocolate you bake with.
It’s luxury and beauty, like those gemstones you wear, tigers eye and smoky quartz.
It’s striking, like the mountains in autumn, and it’s comfort, like honeyed tea my mom used to make.
Your eyes make me think of only the best things. Of home.”
Those eyes blink up at me now. “Jeez, Slade,” she whispers. “I think we can officially say you’re good with words.”
“You bring out parts of me I never knew were there.” I put my hands over hers on her belly. “You know, we could end up like Walker and Sadie, with twins.”
“You just want more tiny ranch hands to help out,” she teases.
I make sure to keep a straight face as I sternly say, “Damn straight. This land doesn’t work itself. We need a whole new generation of Rhodes kids.”
“They might not take to ranch life. Could end up like me, running in the opposite direction of how I grew up.”
I kiss her cheek. “Yup. We could have daughter who wants to be a hotshot lawyer in New York City. We could have a son who grows up to own an art gallery in Palm Springs.” I kiss the other cheek. “And you know what that means?”
“What?”
“Means you’ll have a couple of vacation homes of ours to design.”
She laughs. “Palm trees to skyscrapers to mountains. You just don’t want to sit in one place too long.”
We kiss again then. Her arms wrap around me, sliding down to my back pockets. She fishes out the black bandana and presses it into my hand. “What do you say to stealing me away now, Mr. Rhodes? A little blindfold action, and who knows what else, from the man who stole my heart?”
“Anywhere, anytime, Mrs. Rhodes.” I press my lips to hers. “As long as you’re with me, I’m home.”
Thank you so much for reading!