Epilogue
River
I glance at the clock on the wall in the kitchen as I cook my wife’s favorite dinner; she’s late.
No surprise there, though. Ever since she took over running the charity when Donna retired two years ago, she often walks through the door later than planned.
I can’t say I blame her; those kids are difficult to say goodbye to at the end of every day.
It’s hard enough for me and I’m only there once or twice a week.
Coco mewls from by my feet as she headbutts my shin.
“Yeah, yeah, I miss her, too,” I mutter to our little tuxedo cat who definitely favors my wife.
I hear the front door open and close and my body relaxes. She’s home. Coco abandons me and runs off to greet our favorite person in the world. I never knew I could love one person as much as I love Ava — she’s my life. She’s the blood that pumps its way through my veins.
She’s my everything.
“Hmm, something smells good,” she moans as she walks into the kitchen, followed closely by her four-legged friend, and takes my breath away, just like she does every time I see her. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how beautiful she is. “Sorry I’m late.”
She places a kiss on my lips, but I don’t let her get away that easily as I deepen the kiss and wrap my arms around her. We’re both breathing heavily when I release her, and I have to adjust my rapidly hardening cock in my sweatpants as I turn back to stir the dinner.
“How was work?”
“Hard.” Her voice cracks on the word and I spin back around to see what’s upset her, my arms automatically pulling her into me.
“What happened, pipsqueak?”
“Lily’s placement fell through. She’s not getting adopted like we’d hoped, not yet, anyway.”
“Ah, fuck.”
Lily is Ava’s new Paisley. Every so often a child comes through who pulls at your heart strings more than the others, and that’s Lily for my girl, and for me, too. Her story is a hard one and we want nothing more than for her to find the home she deserves. We thought she had.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I know you wanted this so badly. We both did.”
“She deserves to be loved, River. She deserves to have parents; she deserves to have a normal childhood. She deserves to go to school and make friends and have play dates and attend birthday parties. Why can’t she have that? Why can’t someone love her like we do?”
This isn’t the first time I’ve thought this, I was going to say something a while ago before it looked like she was getting adopted, but I can’t keep quiet any longer, not when I believe this is the right thing for us.
“What if we adopt her?”
“What?” she gasps as her tear-streaked face lifts to meet my own watery gaze.
“You said yourself that we both love her. We can give her a great life. We can give her — and I’m hoping this will be soon — brothers and sisters who will be lucky to have her. Pipsqueak, we have an amazing life, amazing friends and family, let’s share that with Lily.”
Fuck, I didn’t realize how much I wanted this until I said it out loud.
“You’d do that?”
“Pipsqueak, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I’m not just doing this for you either, and believe me, I’d do anything for you, but I want this, too. What do you say?”
“This is a big decision, River.” She’s biting her lip like she’s nervous, but I know her, and I know she wants this just as much as I do.
“I know, but can you tell me you haven’t thought about this? That you hadn’t been thinking about it before those people came in to adopt her?”
The bastards, how can you change your mind about a child? A fucking child!
“Of course I’ve thought about it. Oh my God, are we actually doing this?”
“Yeah, pipsqueak, we’re doing this. We’re going to be parents.” She throws her arms around my neck and her head falls back as a happy laugh leaves her body.
“We’re going to be parents,” she squeals as I spin her around.
“We sure are, Mama.” Her pupils widen as her eyes meet mine.
“Call me that again,” she rasps.
“How about I take you upstairs and call you it?”
“What about dinner?”
“Fuck dinner, I need to fuck my wife. Lily’s going to need siblings.”
She wraps her legs around me as I carry her up the stairs of the house we built.
The house we’ll spend the rest of our lives in, the house we’ll raise our family in, and the house I’ll love her for the rest of my days in.