Epilogue 1 - Sutton
“Daddy, daddy, come,” our almost three-year-old daughter Lou Lou says, tugging on my pant leg.
“What’s up?”
“Daddy. You’ve got to come see,” she says emphatically.
“OK. OK.” I leave the dishes I’m washing, drying my hands before holding my arm out for hers, loving the happiness shining back at me in her bright blue eyes. “Where are you takin’ me, precious?”
“This way.” Then I’m being dragged toward the hallway and to the door leading to the back of the house where our family’s ‘wing’ of the house will be finished soon.
Birdie and Will’s part was first, coming off the lounge at the front side of the house. Case and Isla’s wing incorporates Will and Case’s old bedrooms and then extending out to the opposite front side of the house.
This one that will belong to me, Blair, and Lou, is at the far back of the house, taking up the bedrooms that used to being to me and Jude.
Basically, the original ranch house remains as our common areas, but we each have our own space for our individual families.
“What do you want me to see, Lou Lou?” I ask her.
“Look outside, Daddy. There’s two Grumps,” she says, finishing off his name with a raspberry like she always does.
Curious enough to believe her, I lift her up to sit on my hip and peek out the window of her all- pink, fairy princess bedroom. And yep, there is another donkey standing right next to Grumps. “What the f… fudge.”
Lou frowns and cocks her head. “Not fudge, daddy. A don-key.”
“Where did you come from?” I ask the mysterious arrival through the glass.
“I came from mommy’s tummy,” my far-too-clever daughter replies. “You’re silly daddy.”
I arch a brow her way. “Is that right, precious. How do you know that?”
“Babies come from mommy’s tummies. Aunt Izzie told me. Then I asked Mommy, and she told me it’s true ‘cause there’s a little brother or sister in her tummy.”
My mouth drops open because my gorgeous wife has told our little family’s life changing news to our daughter before me. “And look! She gave me a shirt to show you too!” Lou wriggles in my arms, trying to pull her jersey off over her head.
Bending down, I put her back on her feet to help her remove it, freezing when I see what she’s wearing–or more importantly–what it says. ‘Big sister to an incoming baby.’
I stare at her shirt in wonder, tears stinging my eyes.
Blair and I have been trying to give Lou a sibling for two years now and the words ‘secondary infertility’ had already been floated by the OB/GYN. We were both starting to believe that it would never happen. And now…
“Mommy!” Lou cries out excitedly, forgetting me and running toward the door to her most favorite person on the planet. I turn my head to see my grinning wife. She’s my equal favorite too.
Blair’s all-knowing gaze meets mine and just like the day I first saw her across the quad all those years ago, my heart skips a beat before thump, thump, thumping against my ribs like it’s trying to escape.
“I love you, gorgeous. So damn much,” I rasp.
Lou runs back to the window, talking to Grumps and “Grumps Two” through the window, but I only have eyes for my wife who closes the distance between us.
As soon as she is within touching distance, I slide a hand around her shoulders and rest the palm of my other one on her still flat stomach. “I didn’t think…”
She cradles my face. “Neither did I,” she says, tears falling onto her cheeks. Hating to see her cry–even if they’re happy tears–I reach up and sweep them away with my thumb. “But I woke up a few days ago feeling gross and I’m over a week late. So…”
“Just when I think life can’t get much better, you surprise me and prove that there’s no limit.”
She playfully claps my shoulder. “Stop being sweet and making me swoon.”
I pull her in close and dip my mouth to hers. “Is it workin’?”
“Maybe…”
I smile, loving the way her eyes sparkle. “Guess I’ll have to keep doin’ it then.”
“Daddy! Daddy! The donkeys are huggin’ too,” Lou announces, shocking us both out of our moment.
That’s when Blair and I rush to the window to see that, yes, the donkeys are ‘hugging.’
“OK, Lou Lou Bear, how about we celebrate you becomin’ a big sister by havin’ some ice cream?” I say, trying hard not to laugh.
“Yay!” she says, the donkeys thankfully forgotten about as she rushes out of the room, her little feet stomping down the hallway toward the kitchen.
Blair looks back out the window before turning back to me, her brows raised. “Since when did we have two donkeys?”
“Grumps and Grumps Two, apparently.”
“Well, I’m guessing one of those Grumps is not like the other, so I think she is going to need a new name,” she replies, her lips twitching.
“How ‘bout we discuss this important decision over ice cream with our daughter?” I say, reaching down and lacing my fingers with hers.
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”
I lean in and brush my lips over hers. “Love you.”
“Love you too, doctor. Now show me how much by getting me ice cream. I am eating for two again, after all.”
“Anythin’ for you, gorgeous.”