Epilogue
Our children are going to change the world. We just have to survive raising them, first.
—Text from Ellodie to Quaid
ELLODIE
“Did you see this?” I asked as I showed him the article.
“ThatDr. Brewn had his leg chopped off by a shiv in prison?” Quaid asked idly as he searched through Amazon for a new screen protector.
“Yes,” I gasped. “You knew and didn’t tell me?”
“I knew, and only found out when you came back in the room,” he muttered as he clicked a few more buttons.
“This is the second limb he’s lost there,” I said. “Is this something that we’re going to continue to hear about?”
“IfGod loves us, it will be,” he griped.
Dr. Brewn was living a life that most would call tortuous.
But you couldn’t kill multiple women and live the rest of your days comfortably in a cell in a maximum-security prison.
Especially after he was asked in a court of law why, and he replied with ‘because I wanted to. I like to hear them scream.’
“You forgot to brush your teeth,” he said when I started to crawl into bed beside him.
I got up and headed to the bathroom to wash my face, getting my nightly routine in now so that I didn’t have to get back up to do it later. I hadn’t planned on going to bed yet, but since he’d called me out, I decided to appease him.
“Goddammit, Ellodie,” I heard him bellow from the bedroom.
I was used to hearing ‘dammit, Ellodie’ a lot. ButGoddammit, Ellodie was rare for me to hear.
“What?” I asked around a mouthful of toothpaste and toothbrush, glancing in the mirror as he appeared at my back.
Quaid looked at me with murder in his eyes. “I hope that you wanted all that stuff in the Amazon cart, because I just accidentally ordered it all.”
I laughed so hard sprays of toothpaste foam went all over the floor.
“It’s not funny. That was like eighteen hundred dollars’ worth of stuff. Why do you do that?”
BecauseI was scatterbrained and didn’t have enough time to get a shower in, let alone press ‘order’ on my amazon cart.
He didn’t like my answering shrug, either. “Because it’s all stuff that I want, but I can’t make myself buy.”
He threw up his hands. “Well, just fuckin’ buy it. Now the goddamn UPS driver is going to curse us on the doorbell camera again.”
“It’s his job, Quaid,” I told him as I rinsed my mouth. “Also, I tip him every Christmas really well. AndI feed him. He likes coming to our house.”
“Whatever you say,” he said as he cranked the shower on.
“Whatever you say,” I mocked as I tried to leave the room.
The squeal that left me when he pulled me into the shower fully clothed would’ve been funny had it not been followed by a scream that penetrated even the sound of our laughter.
“Shit,” I exclaimed.
“I got him,” he offered as he shoved me farther under the spray. “Get a shower in. You stink.”
I flipped him off, realizing that I did indeed stink after a day in the sun.
I collapsed onto the bed, intent on getting my retribution, but the only thing I did was fall asleep.
When next I woke, it was with my nose inches away from the door, and my HotCop guiding me back to bed.
“You’re sleepwalking,” he grumbled.
I fell into the bed, then twisted until my face was buried in Quaid’s side.
“Thanks.”
WhenI woke the next morning, it was to find the bed empty, but a note on Quaid’s side of the bed saying, “I’ll meet you at the gas station.”
I smiled, feeling a sense of peace at his words.
I hadn’t been to the gas station alone since the day that I’d been hurt.
Then again, I had a feeling I never would again.
Even now, three years later, I couldn’t scrounge up the courage to go on my own. AndQuaid couldn’t let loose enough to allow me to do it myself.
It wasn’t the most convenient of things for us to do—him always pumping my gas—but it worked for us. It made him feel better, and it made me feel safe.
It was a win-win situation in my book.
A lot of things had changed since the worst had happened to me, but one thing was still very much the same.
I loved Quaid, and he cherished the ground I walked on.
Today was a much-deserved day off.
I had nothing at all planned today but lunch with the Carter women, and a whole bunch of nothing else.
But since I knew he needed gas in his own cruiser and wouldn’t be able to muddle around town without getting it first, I set off getting myself and our son ready to leave the house.
After picking up a coffee for both Quaid and me, and a small cup of whipped cream for our baby boy, Cam, I texted that I was heading toward our favorite gas station on the corner of the road that led to our house.
I waited patiently in my car for my knight in shining armor to arrive.
It took him two minutes before I saw the sleek black of his police cruiser pull up.
Seconds later he was pulling in behind me, and I was staring at HotCop as he walked up behind my car, and to the pump.
I rolled my window down as he slipped the nozzle into my gas tank.
“How much for the service, Officer?”
He twisted his face so that his mirrored aviators caught my gaze and said, “You can’t afford me, Calamity.”
I giggled.
“Daddy!”
I glanced in my rearview mirror at my son.
My three-year-old son who acted exactly like the Carter man he was spawned from.
I rolled down Cam’s window so Quaid could see him.
“Hey, buddy,” Quaid greeted our baby boy. Our soon to be eldest child. “I like your shirt.”
I glanced down at the shirt that read ‘FuturePoliceOfficer.’
“You can’t wear it,” our three-year-old declared.
Quaid shook his head. “I didn’t ask to wear it.”
“Because you’re too fat,” Cam spoke like Quaid hadn’t said a word.
Quaid shook his head. “I didn’t ask!”
Cam shrugged. “Even if you weren’t too fat for it, I wouldn’t let you wear it. Grandma got it for me.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and tried to keep the giggles at bay but failed.
My door was opened, and then there was my husband, glaring at me.
“You’re not fat, HotCop,” I told him.
He pulled his aviators off and put them on the dash of our brand-new Suburban.
A purchase that happened once a year now since he’d made me get rid of my Corolla after we’d found out that I was pregnant with Cam.
“I have gained a bit of weight,” he admitted.
He’d gained a small amount. All of ten pounds at most. And that happened with my first. It was like his body decided to go into sympathy mode with each baby we had together. Though he lost it a hell of a lot faster than I did after the baby arrived.
His seemed to melt off. Meanwhile, I was still ten pounds overweight from my last pregnancy, and I was pushing thirty-five pounds gained with this one, with no apparent end in sight.
“You gained very little weight compared to me,” I patted my distended belly.
It was so big now that I had to sit farther back and tilt the steering wheel way up.
Oh, the joys of being pregnant with twins.
Goddamn the Carter family genes.
I would’ve been so much more comfortable growing one baby instead of two…
He leaned in until his arms were resting on the ledge of my window. “Why do I like you so much, Calamity?”
I flipped my hair and said, “It’s totally my winning personality.”
The gas pump clicked, and he pushed off the door to replace the nozzle.
When he came back, it was to stop at Cam’s window first and say, “WantChick-Fil-A, buddy?”
“No,” he denied. “I want burgers.”
Quaid shook his head, swept his beautiful hair off his forehead, and said, “Of course you do.”
When he came back to my window, he said, “What’s your plan today, Calamity?”
I beamed. “We’re meeting the Carter girls for lunch. Then we’re going to the bookstore for story time. Then we’re going to buy new bathing suits for our baby moon.”
His lips turned up into a leer. “A bikini?”
I scoffed. “Absolutely not.”
“Come on, baby.” He leaned in, his lips a hairsbreadth away from mine. “For me?”
I groaned. “Shit.”
“Shit!” Cam cried out.
Quaid shook his head, pushed forward, then kissed me on the lips.
Cam groaned. “Gross!”
“Your kid,” Quaid said.
I snorted. “Totally yours.”
“I’m the mailman’s!”
“You better not have told him that,” I grumbled as he pulled away.
Quaid snorted. “No, I think that one was Quincy. Sadly, I gotta go. Assman’s working by himself in the south district, and I can’t leave him there all alone.”
I winked. “I can’t wait to see you at home, OfficerHotCop.”
He backed away, his hips swaggering, as he said, “I’ll be the one in black.”
I snickered. “I’ll be the one naked.”
His smile flashed, and then he was gone. “Why will you be naked?”
I ignored my son, and hoped he wouldn’t repeat my words when we got to lunch.
My hope was in vain.
AndI had to explain to the entire girl clan of Carters why my son was telling everyone I was meeting his daddy in bed naked later.
Oh, the joys of parenthood.