Epilogue #3
“Oh my God,” I said, covering my face with my hand.
“Careful, Leo,” Elena said, pushing past us. “I was conceived in there you know. You might just knock her up.”
Leo’s face broke out into an evil grin. “There are too many people in here for me to tell you how the thought of getting her pregnant really makes me feel.”
“Okay,” Mom said. “Let’s not talk about their sex life anymore. Or really anyone’s, if you can all help it.”
Leo smirked at me. “You should finish reading Danny’s books, Hawaii. That one about Kat and Eric was pretty interesting. It’ll be easier if you know what the evil sister and I already know.”
Elena snorted from the kitchen where she stole a sip of Kennedy’s margarita. “I still can’t look Uncle Eric in the eyes. Don’t read it, Soph. He’s been pretending to be less sexual than them. He isn’t.”
“Will the embarrassment never end around here?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Adrian said, taking a sip of beer, his arm around Sutton’s waist.
“Hey! There you all are,” Aunt Kat said as she and Uncle Eric stepped into the house. “I thought you were coming out to the fire. What are we talking about?” She looked at Leo and me. “Why are you wet?”
“Gorgeous, you should know better than to ask what Kennedy and Dave are talking about,” Uncle Eric said with a grimace.
“I’m getting the impression Sloane only makes them worse.
” He glanced at us and turned back to Aunt Kat.
“And the last thing I want to know is why they’re dripping water all over the floor. ”
Sloane laughed. “The hunky SEAL speaks the truth.”
Lavi closed her eyes and shook her head before facing Kat. “I’m so sorry for my wife, she’s not hitting on your husband.”
“Yes, I am,” Sloane said.
Lavi took a deep breath. “Okay, she is. But she’s harmless and loyal to me, I promise. Though I am concerned that Dave and Kennedy might be her new best friends and I’ll never get her to leave.”
Sloane had really hit it off with Dave and Kennedy at graduation and she and Kennedy had even been chatting regularly since then. Over the last two weeks that Leo’s family had been staying with us in Oahu their bond had only seemed to solidify.
Aunt Kat smiled at Uncle Eric. “She can admire him all she wants. I’m the one who’ll be underneath him later tonight.”
“The fact that you don’t know how much more that turned me on tells me we need to get to know each other better,” Sloane said with a coy smile.
“You’re worse than Kennedy, aren’t you?” Aunt Kat said.
“Yep,” Kennedy and Dave said at the same time.
“Which, frankly, I find astonishing,” Dave said.
The twins came sprinting into the kitchen with Koa just as my teeth started to chatter.
Leo pulled me against his side, rubbing my arm through the blanket to warm me up as Jace came flying in after the boys with Izzy on his hip.
He was shirtless in his swim trunks, a chest full of tattoos on display, and all the kids were in bathing suits, dripping wet.
“How did you end up with all the kids, man?” Leo asked, laughing.
The twins and Koa went sprinting up the stairs and I envied their ability to dry off and change while Leo and I were still trapped in the dining room.
Jace narrowed his eyes at Elena. “Elena tricked me.”
She shrugged. “He’s weak.”
“You might be a little bit evil,” Jace said, eyeing her suspiciously.
“I’ve been saying that all along!” Leo said.
“What are you all doing in here?” Dad asked, stopping in the still-open doorway. “I’ve been sitting by the fire by myself.”
“Well, I was trying to sneak my wife in and get her some fresh clothes,” Leo grumbled.
“Aren’t her clothes in the pool house?” Dad asked.
Leo looked at me and I nodded, realizing he was right.
“Why did we come in here, Hawaii?” Leo asked.
“I don’t know. I thought we were headed for a bathroom.”
Leo shook his head. “We’ve made an unnecessary mistake.”
“Did you two just go swimming in your wedding clothes?” Dad asked, looking confused.
“Okay, we should go home,” I said, grabbing Leo’s hand and heading for the door. “Thanks for a beautiful wedding, I’m sure we’ll see you all tomorrow before we leave for the Maldives in the afternoon.”
I stopped in front of Jace and kissed my baby sister on the head before dragging Leo out the door.
“Did we scare them off?” Dave asked behind us.
Sloane laughed. “Who cares, now we can say whatever we want.”
“I’m still here,” Elena complained.
“Me too,” Jace said.
All I heard as we walked back to the pool house was a series of voices talking over one another.
“You sure you still want a bunch of kids?” I said as Leo dropped his blanket inside the pool house and slid his hands under my blanket to hug me. “Because we’re only going to add to this chaos with each one.”
Leo chuckled and touched my stomach, smiling at me with adoration. “It’ll be worth it.”
After a few years of his NHL career, I was sure we’d be settling into a rhythm and ready to start our own family. No matter when we started, we’d have an entire village in Oahu and another in Boston ready to support us however we needed.