Epilogue #2
“Oh, I always loved her. She was one big glass of sunshine, if memory serves. But that family scandal of hers was all everyone in town was talking about. I don’t blame her for moving and staying away.” Peyton shook her head and shrugged at the same time.
“It wasn’t her fault, and, speaking of scandal… How about the fact that you’ve been secretly dating my brother?” Laughter echoed around us, just as Nash came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“You ready to head home, beautiful?”
I turned to see Cutler on his hip, with his head resting in the crook of his father’s neck.
We said our goodbyes and made our way out to the truck. Cutler slept all the way home, and Nash carried him inside, and then I got him undressed and ready for bed. We had our routine, and tucking this little boy in at the end of the night was the highlight of my day.
Well, aside from what happened every night in the room across the hall after he was long asleep.
“Hey, I have something for you,” I said, leading Nash down the hallway. He had his tuxedo coat slung over the barstool, his dress shirt unbuttoned low, exposing his muscled chest.
“Oh, yeah? I have something for you, too,” he said as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
I knew the day that Tara had threatened that Nash might not be Cutler’s biological child had really messed with his head.
So we’d agreed to have him do a paternity test that we’d keep between the two of us, because he needed to know just in case she ever tried to pull anything legally with Cutler.
I’d already seen the test results because I didn’t even know how I’d tell him if the outcome had been different than it was.
I handed him the envelope, and he opened it. His eyes welled with emotion as he read the words that he’d known in his gut were true.
Cutler was his son in every way. Nash had never cared if Cutler was his son by blood. Hell, his best friends were his family. They were brothers not by blood but by history.
But knowing that Tara could never come back and claim Cutler wasn’t his brought him peace of mind.
She’d signed the papers, and we hadn’t heard from her since, which he told me was pretty normal for her.
And it didn’t matter if she came back around, because he had all the paperwork in place to protect his little boy.
Our little boy.
At least he felt like ours.
He was thriving, and that was all that mattered. His asthma was under control now, and the new meds were working wonders. He hadn’t had an attack since that day out on the lake, but we were prepared and ready if he did.
“So, what do you have for me?” I asked, waggling my brows as he wrapped a hand around my neck and kissed me.
“Come on, and I’ll show you.” In the next breath, I was flung over his shoulder as he carried me to the bedroom where I slept every night, though all of my things were still next door in my rental house, as my lease had a few more weeks before it was up.
And tonight was just about enjoying the moment. And that’s exactly what we did. He dropped me onto the bed and buried his head between my thighs as I writhed beneath him.
I loved this man so fiercely that it was hard to wrap my head around sometimes.
He took me right over the edge like he always did, before he undressed me and pulled me on top of him so I could ride him into oblivion.
Which is exactly what I did.
I fell asleep in the warmth of his arms, and he held me there until the sun flooded our room.
I felt him slip out of bed, but I wasn’t ready to get up just yet.
“I’ll get your coffee, okay?” he whispered against my ear.
I heard the sound of Cutler’s laughter come from out in the hallway before he climbed into bed with me, and Winnie jumped up and started licking my cheek. I propped my back against the headboard and opened my arms for Cutler to come on over for his morning cuddles.
This was our routine.
Nash brought in a cup of coffee and set it on the nightstand beside me.
“So, we have a little present for you,” Nash said.
“A present? For what?”
“Pops and I want you to live with us!” Cutler shouted.
“Beefcake! That wasn’t what we practiced.” Nash shook his head at his son.
“Sorry about that. But I got excited. And it’s true, we do want her to live with us.”
Nash handed me the little box he was holding, and my teeth sank into my bottom lip.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a key to the house. To our house.” Cutler covered his mouth with his hand when Nash shot him a warning look.
“For God’s sake, buddy, let her open it first.”
“But it is a key to the house.” Cutler bounced on the bed beside me.
“Yes. Your lease is up, and we want you to move in here with us,” Nash said.
I pulled the lid off the black box and stared down at the key sitting on the cotton inside, but it was the ring it was attached to that had me gasping. The platinum band held a breathtaking round diamond. It was classic and gorgeous.
“Why is she looking like that, Pops? Does she not want to live with us?”
“There’s something else in that box that I didn’t tell you about because, well, you’re not good with secrets.
” Nash moved to the side of the bed and dropped down on one knee.
“I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you, baby. I love you in a way I never knew possible. I want to live with you. I want to laugh with you. I want to fight with you. I want to grow old with you.”
My chest was beating so hard I could hear it in my ears as the tears sprung from my eyes. “Are you serious?”
“Will you marry me, beautiful?”
I nodded and sprung forward, dropping to my knees in front of him and wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him hard.
“Sunny?” Cutler’s voice had me pulling back and turning to see him down on one knee, too.
“Yes, angel face.”
“I want to spend all my days with you, too. I want you to run my bath because you make the tub hotter than Pops.”
“Hey,” Nash said over his laughter, but Cutler smirked and continued.
“I still think you have the best balls in town, Pops, but I like the way Sunny runs my bath. I like the way you read to me every night and the way you teach me new things to bake every Saturday. I love riding horses with you and going out to the lake to swim with you. You’re my forever girl, Sunny. Will you marry me, too?”
If it were possible to have your heart explode in your chest, mine would be doing just that right now. I was overwhelmed and overcome with emotion—in the best way.
“I would be honored to spend my life with my two favorite boys. I love you so much it hurts sometimes,” I said, but my words were barely audible.
But they heard me.
The three of us—we didn’t need words to know how much we loved one another.
It was the way we looked at each other. The way we cared for one another.
The way we fit together like a family.
They wrapped their arms around me, and I breathed them in.
All that joy.
All that happiness.
All that love.
The End
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