Epilogue One
Gigi
Seven years later
I ring Jax and Audrey’s doorbell. I know it’s nine a.m. on a Saturday, but Wren left her teddy on their couch last night, and it’s been a rough ten hours.
Wren tugs on my shirt. “Are you sure Alastair is here, Mommy?” The name became one of her favorites after watching the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim, last Christmas. Of course, when she got the teddy bear from Linc and Melonie for her birthday in January, it was the chosen name for the new stuffy that is now her ride or die.
I look down, running my hand through her red curls, messy from a sleepless night. “It’s the last place you had him, right?”
She nods, her big brown eyes still filled with concern. At four years old, your stuffy is your life, so I know she won’t be back to normal until she’s holding it.
Adam answers the door. “Hey, Aunt G.”
“Hey, sorry it’s so early, but I think Wren left Alastair here last night.”
Jax rounds the corner, holding the beloved bear. My shoulders relax as Wren starts jumping up and down, holding out her hands. “He’s really here! Thanks, Uncle Jax.”
Jax hands it to her. “You’re welcome.”
I smile at him. “Thank you.”
“No worries. Do you want some coffee?”
“No thanks. I need to get started on everything for Millie’s birthday party.”
He nods. “We’ll all be over in a couple hours to help. Do you need anything before that?”
“Don’t think so, just have to get the decorations up before the caterers get there.”
“Well, if you need help, text us, and we’ll come over.”
“Will do. Thank you again for keeping Alastair safe.”
He smiles at Wren, stooping down so he’s at eye-level with her. “Anytime. Wren-fest, you and I are going to have cake together at Millie’s party, right?”
“Oh, yes. We will have all the cake, Uncle Jax!” She flings her arms out to her sides.
Jax laughs. “You bet. See you later.”
“Bye Uncle Jax. Bye Adam.”
They both say goodbye, and we walk down the steps of the porch to the sidewalk to go back home. Jax and Audrey bought the house across from Linc and Melonie’s, right down the street from Marcus and me, five years ago. Having all of my friends living on the same block has been such a blessing. We rotate dinners, game nights, school carpools, sleepovers. The kids can walk into any of our homes and know that there are snacks and people who love them.
The chilly air of November whips around us as Wren skips beside me, elated that her bear is back in her presence. Sometimes, I wish I could make time stop, keep her this age forever. I’ve felt that way at every age. But then she learns something new or does something on her own for the first time, and I realize every day, every year, is more fun with her. Being a mother is the biggest mixture of happiness, sadness, pride, and frustration that I’ve ever experienced.
Marcus and I sold the spa shortly after we got married, and I started watching Adam for Jax and Audrey while they worked. Linc and Melonie welcomed Asher a few months after our wedding, and then Gary two years later, just a month after Wren was born. Being pregnant at the same time as my best friend was so fun. We puked together, took naps together, and we both gained more weight than our doctors preferred, due to shared craving binges. But we had the blessing of our men to eat what we wanted in controlled portions and Audrey’s knowledge of the best take out in the area.
Marcus and I hadn’t touched the subject of having our own child very often until one evening after dinner at Melonie and Linc’s. We were getting ready to leave, and Millie looked up at him with her big blue eyes and said, “I love you,” for the first time. I had only seen tears in Marcus’s eyes once before that, and later that evening, he told me to throw my birth control away.
After watching him with Millie for so long, I knew he would be an amazing father, and we both deserved the chance to do better than our own parents. That’s our pact: to provide Wren with stable, secure, loving, and supportive parents. All the things that were missing from our broken childhood homes would never be a concern for her.
So, we started trying, and a few months later, I was knocked up. We figured out that we had conceived the weekend we attended a Renaissance Festival. The combination of ovulation hormones and seeing Marcus dressed up in a tunic and tight leather pants was a deadly duo, I guess. So, when we found out it was a girl, we landed on the name Wren. Once the group figured it out, they started calling her Wren-fest. A nickname that they will have the obligation of explaining one day once she’s old enough.
We walk in the front door of our home, and Wren runs to Marcus. “Daddy! Alastair is safe!”
He scoops her up. “I’m so glad, my love. I know you were worried.”
She lays her head on his shoulder and says in a serious voice, “I really was, Daddy.”
“Now that he’s back home, are you ready to eat breakfast?”
She nods her head, and he places her in her booster seat at the kitchen table. I stand and watch as he moves around the space, placing a plate of eggs and fruit in front of her, along with some juice. The curls at his temples have a dusting of gray now. There are lines around his eyes—not as many as mine—but I love those changes in his appearance. Being his wife and watching him grow into a hot, silver fox Daddy is my privilege. He’s so fair and loving with Wren that my heart falls deeper in love with him with each passing day. And I’m so blessed to have a partner who understands me, makes sure I know that I’m loved every day, and cared for in a way that I never imagined possible from a man.
Wren sets Alastair on the table beside her plate, and Marcus takes the chair beside her. He pokes her side, her laughter filling the room and egg shooting from her mouth. He looks up from the table to me, smiling. “Baby, come eat breakfast.”
Wren points at my plate with her little finger. “Yeah, Mommy, you have to eat all your food or no cake.”
I take my seat at the table. “Well, I certainly don’t want to miss out on cake.”
Marcus
“I can’t believe she’s eight.” I shake my head, looking at Millie, surrounded by her friends in the living room.
Linc sighs beside me. “Melonie said she asked for a sports bra last week. I can’t handle that, man.” He sniffles. “She doesn’t need one, so why rush it? She’s still my little girl, and I’m not ready for all that yet.”
I hand him a tissue from the end table. “I’m sorry.”
He blows his nose. “Thanks.”
Melonie comes to his side. “What’s wrong, Daddy?”
His face strains, and he shakes his head. “I can’t talk about it.”
She rubs his back. “Go outside and sit with Jax for a bit. Take a break.”
He blows out a breath. “Okay, a break might be good.”
Linc walks out to the patio, and I laugh. “Your husband is ridiculous.”
“I know, and I love it.” She smiles. “I know I’ve already said it, but thank you for hosting the party. Everything is great.”
“Happy to do it.”
“Big guy! Food’s ready!” Gigi shouts from the kitchen. The kids must have heard her, because there’s a herd of children passing by us. Millie’s friends put her at the front of the line, a tiara on her head and her cheeks rosy. When I look at her, I still see baby Mills, the child who knew I needed to open up, who claimed me as her favorite, who softened my heart in a way that I didn’t know I needed.
As the kids eagerly make their plates, they leave us adults with a mess of scraps to assemble our tacos from. Wren sits to Millie’s right, and as I approach the table, balancing my own plate, Millie points excitedly to the empty chair on her left. “Uncle Marcus, sit next to me!” she exclaims.
I take my seat, watching Wren, who is captivated by Millie’s every move. From the moment Wren was born, Millie took her under her wing, and Wren quickly became her little shadow. Millie’s sweet, nurturing spirit shines through as she effortlessly includes her “cousin” in every aspect of her life, whether it’s with friends, at parties, or during holidays. She has such a gentle, caring soul.
The sounds of conversation, laughter, and playful squeals fade into the background as I lock eyes with Gigi across the room. Her curls are just as wild as the day I met her, her eyes still sparkling with that wanderlust for life that’s uniquely hers. My love for her is overwhelming, something I never anticipated but am endlessly grateful to have found.
After our wedding, my father handed over Holt Contracting to me, and Gigi has been my unwavering support as I navigated the responsibilities of becoming a CEO and shaping the company’s direction. She’s my sounding board for new ideas, a stunning presence at events, and a calm place to land when the pressures of life become too much.
In the first year of our marriage, I insisted we attend counseling together. We both carry scars from our past, and I was determined not to repeat the mistakes of those who came before us. It was the best decision we ever made—building a strong, healthy foundation grounded in our friendship and love for each other. It’s the greatest gift we could have given ourselves and our daughter.
Before Millie, I never envisioned myself as a father. But once I opened my heart to the idea, all I could think about was Gigi carrying our child. The months we spent trying were so much fun—we explored every position, every location, at any time of day we could imagine. It was fun and helped us stay light-hearted, easing some of the pressure while we waited for that positive test. Even with a small child in the mix, our passion hasn’t faded. We still carve out time for each other, and I still can’t keep my hands off her.
As I gaze at Gigi now, she smiles at me. There’s something about her smile that brings a wave of calm over me every time. She winks at me and then bites into a taco, half of it crumbling back onto the plate, lettuce shreds hanging from her mouth. I laugh and shake my head; it’s never a dull moment with her.
The kids finish eating, and the girls all head back to the living room while us guys start cleaning up.
“Why did we think shredded cheese was a good idea for eight-year-olds?” Jax says as he sweeps the floor under the table.
“Yeah, we didn’t think that through very well. Salsa, either,” Linc adds as he collects the globs of tomatoes from the counter with a paper towel.
I pause at the sink where I’m washing dishes. “You guys, we’re really lucky to be cleaning up cheese and salsa.”
Linc’s head whips in my direction. “Are you about to get sappy?” His eyes widen. “Do you need a tissue?”
“No, you idiot, I don’t need a fucking tissue. All I’m saying is, that cheese, that spilled salsa, these dishes, they’re signs of life, of celebration.”
Jax slowly rises to his feet, dustpan in his hand, from gathering the cheese from the floor. “Oh my God, you’re getting sappy.”
I shake my head in frustration and vigorously scrub a bowl. “Forget it.”
Linc throws his paper towels in the garbage before coming to my side at the sink, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “No! We’re going to get sappy right along with you.” He looks over to Jax. “Jax, what do you feel sappy about right now?”
Jax comes to my other side, dish towel in hand, to grab the wet bowl from my hands. “Well, if Millie is turning eight, then Adam is turning seven in a few months, and I’m having a hard time with him not needing me so much anymore.”
Linc nods. “Good, good. I’m sappy about the fact that Gary is going to be turning three soon and Asher is moving up from mini mite hockey next season. Shit, Millie is going to be in middle school in a couple years. I won’t have any more babies in my life. I have to wait to be a grandparent to experience that newness again.”
“You two are crazy.” I pass Jax another serving dish.
“We’re not crazy, we’re just getting old.” Jax scoffs.
“Speak for yourself,” I quip back.
“Okay, silver fox,” Linc says as he flicks the hair by my ear.
I shove him away. “Worry about your own gray hair, old man.”
I drain the water from the sink and take the towel from Jax, drying my hands. “When I was younger, I just never thought I could be this happy, that I would have these moments in life, and now, we’re surrounded by them almost every day. It’s like when those women and kids came into our lives, they fixed all our broken pieces.”
Linc wipes a paper towel across his eyes. “I love it when you speak about stuff like this.”
Jax squeezes my shoulder. “I get it. And you’re right. Cheese and salsa be damned. We’re lucky to have times like this.”
Gigi walks into the kitchen with an empty candy dish, grabbing the bag to refill it. She notices Linc’s current state. “Melonie, come get your husband!”
Melonie enters the room with a confused look, Audrey right behind her. “What’s wrong now, pretty boy?”
Jax stands behind Audrey, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “We were talking about sappy stuff, and well…”
Melonie curls into Linc’s side. “It’s been a full day for you, huh?”
Linc nods. “They were talking about cheese and salsa and birthdays. It was a lot.”
“Understandable.” Melonie taps his chest.
“I love it when you get sappy, big guy,” Gigi says as she presses a kiss to my cheek.
“You’re all ridiculous. Let’s go see what the kids are doing.” I rub the skin of her neck as she stands beside me. The others leave the room and I hold Gigi’s wrist to get her to stay behind with me. Once they’re all gone, I pull her to me, placing my hands on her cheeks, and kiss her hard. She inhales sharply and sinks into it, lacing her hands through my hair. That small thing that she does that drives me insane.
I calm the pace and pull my lips from hers. Her eyes slowly open, her lips still caught in the mold of the kiss. “What was that for?”
“Thank you for this life. Thank you for loving me, for being an amazing mom.”
She smiles sweetly. “You’re welcome.”
“I’ll put Wren to bed tonight. While you wait, you can put your Cinderella dress on for me.”
Her brows shoot up. “Okay, Prince Charming.”
I spin her and smack her ass. “Let’s go get everyone ready for cake.”
She squeals and starts moving. “Yes, Charming!”