Epilogue
11 months later
It’s the middle of the night, but I couldn’t sleep, and I had to pee. I tiptoed into the bathroom and quietly ripped open a box that I had hidden under my sink.
My period was due yesterday, I know it’s not technically late, but I just had a feeling.
I closed my eyes and counted the minutes as I waited for the test to finish processing and when I looked down, my heart jumped, and a smile crept across my face.
It was positive.
I could barely contain my excitement and forced myself to put the test down and try to go to sleep. I left it on the counter, knowing he would wake up before me and see it there in the morning.
* * *
I laid in bed for a few moments, soaking in the feeling of a new life growing inside me, before heading downstairs.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
He says to me as I enter the kitchen, still clad in my robe and in search of caffeine. He’s smiling at me, it’s that big cheesy smile that he usually has when he can’t keep a secret.
He saw it!
He reached me in two strides and lifted me onto the counter, his hands resting softly on my belly and his eyes looking into mine, questioning if it was real. I nod, “I’m pregnant.”
I tell him, smiling so hard, it hurts my face. He’s laughing and I’m crying, and I brought him to me so I could kiss him.
“What’s going on down here?”
Dylan asks, hesitating at the bottom of the stairs. He’s gotten used to seeing us together pretty easily and showing my affection has never been awkward like it was when I dated in the past.
Lee pointed to me, and I shook my head, giving him the go ahead to tell Dylan the news.
“You’re about to be a big brother.”
he tells him through a grin.
“For real?!”
“For real!”
We both say at the same time.
* * *
It was still really early when we went to my first appointment at eight weeks, but he cried when we saw a heartbeat on the ultrasound, and he was a ball of emotions the first time he felt the baby move.
The night our baby girl was born was surreal. Having Lee there with me throughout the pregnancy and during her birth was an entirely different experience than the one I lived through with Dylan.
While the two of us slept on our first night home, Lee wrote a new song about taking a chance and finding his long lost love where they write new beginnings together. He called it Love Always and it’s been playing on the radio for weeks.
* * *
Dylan was proud to have his dad in the stands at all of his baseball games during his senior year. When the coach introduced all the seniors and invited their parents onto the field for the senior ceremony, he stood tall next to the man he always hoped would find his way into our lives.
And when Dylan and Carrie graduated in June, Maggie and I threw the biggest party in their honor. We had a beautiful cake, decorated on one side with the United States Air Force emblem and Duke’s colors on the other. Dylan will be off to Texas for training in two short weeks and Carrie is going to nursing school in North Carolina in August. Before they parted ways, Dylan asked her to wait for him.
Sometimes life feels like a spectator sport, and I stand back and watch from the sidelines. Other days, life feels like a dream; a dream where love always conquers the hardest obstacles.