Epilogue
Hudson
Five years later
“Where’s Mommy?”
“She’s out with your Aunties,” I say for the hundredth time today as my son asks, yet again, for the woman we all love more than anything else.
Sometimes it still takes me by surprise that I’m a proud husband and father to two beautiful children. My son is very nearly four and is just like me, and my two-year-old daughter is the spitting image of Mia and has me wrapped around her little finger, just like her mother does.
Once a month the girls get together and do a bottomless brunch.
It’s the one event that us guys and the kids are not allowed at.
They don’t go silly with the drink, but they certainly let their hair down.
They deserve it, though, each one of our wives is a strong working woman. We’re damn lucky to have them.
My girl absolutely smashed her MBA, coming out as the top student in her class and landing a job at a high-flying finance company. The first few years were a struggle, managing our careers and a newborn, but we made it work and I wouldn’t change a thing.
I’m now President of the very college where I met and married one of my students.
“When’s she coming home?”
“Any minute now, buddy.”
The front door clicks and our heads whip toward the sound. A few seconds later and the woman who still makes my heart beat faster every time I see her walks toward us.
“Mommy!”
“Mama!!”
“Hey, baby girl,” I rasp as she gives each of our children a kiss before making her way over to me.
“Hey, Daddy,” she murmurs with a glint in her eye that promises me all sorts of fun later. My wife might still be the brat she was when we first met outside of the bedroom, but she willingly drops to her knees and obeys me in the bedroom now…well, most of the time.
“How was today?”
“Perfect.” She smiles up at me dreamily.
Yeah, you are.
***
We’re lying in bed after a round of passionate sex. Something that, despite our two children, we still manage to do every day. Sometimes several times a day.
“Give me one more, baby girl.”
“Hudson, I’ve already come three times. How are you ready to go again? You’ve only just come.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” My hands come round to cup her stomach. “I want another child.” It’s something I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of months.
“You want another one?”
“Yeah, sweet pea, I want another.”
“We’ve already got two and you always said you wanted all our kids before you turned fifty.” I did, and I’m now fifty-one.
“I know but I want to do it all again with you one last time. How long until your next shot?”
“I have it scheduled next week.”
“Cancel it.”
“Okay,” she breathes and I know this is something she’s wanted, too. She agreed far too easily.
Damn it, baby girl you should have said something.
I turn her in my arms so she’s facing me. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You’re in your fifties. Fifty was always your stopping age for having children.”
“Baby girl, that’s not what we do. We talk through everything, all our wants, all our needs. We talk about them. You should have told me this.”
“I know. But I was so worried you’d feel you had to give me one even if it’s not what you wanted.”
“I want everything with you, always.”
“I was being silly.”
“Yeah, you were,” I agree. “Don’t do it again.”
“Yes, Daddy.” She grins up at me.
“Do you reckon it wore off early?”
“I guess we could always give it another go just in case.”
“Practice does make perfect after all.”
“And we’re nothing if not perfect.”
I roll Mia onto her back and follow her with my body. Pushing her hair back from her face, I gaze down at the absolute beauty that is my wife. She takes my breath away every time I look at her, just like she did that first day I walked into the classroom.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
She smiles up at me. “What for?”
“For loving me. For giving me everything.”
“I didn’t stand a chance against you, and it’s you who’s given me everything. You do every day.”
I’d do anything for this woman, for the children she’s given me. For the life I get to live with her in it.
They’re my everything.
What could have been my downfall, turned into my forever.
The End