Epilogue
Ten Years Later…
“Idon’t see how this benefits my client,” Garrett said, never taking his eyes off the adorable little girl sitting across from him as he tossed the list of demands that she’d written in crayon back to her.
“He gets to live,” Bailey said, making his lips twitch as she narrowed her baby blue eyes on him, letting him know that she wasn’t about to backdown.
“The top bunk is Connor’s,” Garrett said, watching as his baby girl’s lips pulled up into a pitying smile.
“Is it, though?” she asked, her face squishing up adoringly as he sat there, struggling not to smile.
“They made a deal, Shayne gets the bottom bunk and the best game controller in the house and Connor gets the top bunk,” Garrett reminded her.
“And your client went back on their deal,” Bailey said, never taking her eyes off him as she reached down and grabbed the black and white game controller that all the kids fought over and placed it between them on the table.
“Meaning?” Garrett asked as Nicholas grabbed small handfuls of his pant leg and tried to pull himself up onto his lap.
“That this is a dummy controller and that boy,” Bailey said, pausing to point a damning finger at her twin brother, who was sitting next to him, “Bought this off a kid at school for a buck and kept the good controller for himself.”
“Where’s your proof?” Garrett asked as he reached down and picked his baby boy up and placed him on his lap.
“You mean besides the text message bragging about it?” Bailey asked, blinking at him as she reached over and snatched the cellphone from Shayne’s hands, and after a few swipes and clicks, placed it on the kitchen table and shoved it towards him.
“Anyone could have grabbed his phone and sent that message,” Garrett pointed out, watching as his baby girl narrowed her eyes dangerously on him.
“You really want to play that angle, Daddy?” Bailey asked as she sat back in her chair and folded her small arms over her chest as she leveled a glare on him that reminded him of her mother.
Absolutely. Fucking. Adorable.
“Unless you can prove that my client sent that text, I’m afraid that you don’t have a case,” Garrett said, moving to stand up when her next words had him going still.
“He didn’t pay you yet, did he?” Bailey asked as her expression once again turned pitying. “What did he promise you? Half his Easter candy?”
“That’s privileged information,” Garrett said, only to watch his little girl release a heartfelt sigh.
“Did he tell you that he already ate all of his Easter candy?” Bailey asked as Garrett slowly, really fucking slowly, looked to his right to find his son struggling to bite back a wince.
Clearing his throat, Connor said, “I, ummm, may have accidentally finished it off last night.”
“Try last week,” Bailey said, selling her twin out.
Nodding, Garrett kept his eyes locked on his son, who at this point decided to go for a hopeful smile, and said, “Looks like the deal’s over.”
“And it looks like Mom’s about to find out that you drank the rest of the chocolate milk this morning,” Connor countered with a smug smile that quickly died away when Garrett said, “Bailey?”
With a satisfied sigh, Bailey shoved Shayne off his chair, ignored his pained grunt and moved over so that she was sitting across from her twin brother as she said, “Unless you have proof that my client drank the rest of the chocolate milk, I’m afraid that you’re going to have to keep your mouth shut or risk waking up to find me trying to smother you with a pillow again. ”
“You said that was an accident!” Connor bit out with an accusing glare aimed at his twin sister.
“I. Lied,” Bailey said, earning a gasp of outrage from her twin as Garrett got to his feet with a satisfied sigh and made his way up the back stairs towards the nursery with Nicholas fast asleep in his arms.
After carefully tucking his baby boy in, Garrett kissed his small forehead before making his way back to the door and-
“Where is it?” the small woman that he adored suddenly demanded, making his lips twitch as he turned around to find her glaring up at him, but then again, that was to be expected.
“That depends,” Garrett said, leaning back against the wall as he made a show of studying his nails.
“On?” Kristen asked after a slight hesitation, knowing him well enough by now to know that she wasn’t going to like whatever he had planned.
“On whether or not you go camping with us this weekend,” he drawled, his gaze flickering to her in time to watch her release a strangled whimper.
“I would. I really would, but my religion forbids it,” Kristen said with a heartfelt sigh.
“And what religion would that be?” Garrett asked, watching as she struggled not to panic.
“The one that forbids me from going camping?” Kristen said, sounding really fucking hopeful.
“Then, I’m afraid that I can’t help you,” Garrett said, pushing away from the wall and-
“Someone needs to stay home with Nicholas,” Kristen said with a helpless shrug.
“My parents are watching him,” he reminded her, watching as her mouth worked soundlessly while she struggled to come up with something that would save her.
“Did I mention that it was against my religion?” she said, sounding really fucking hopeful.
“I believe it might have been mentioned,” Garrett said, watching as her eyes slowly narrowed on him as she debated her next move, keep trying to get out of this or...
“Here are my terms,” Kristen said, holding up a hand to stop him from saying anything until she was done. “I’ll go, but I’m staying at the hotel, I get veto powers, and if I even see a chipmunk, I’m filing for divorce.”
When he opened his mouth, she held up a single finger, letting him know that she wasn’t done yet. “And my favorite child gets to stay with me if they want,” Kristen said, making him frown.
“Which one is your favorite?” Garrett asked, only to chuckle when she said, “Whichever one is willing to stay with me.”
“I suppose we could do that,” Garrett said, not bothering to mention that he already reserved a room for her with two queen beds and a cot, knowing their children well enough to know that at least two of them would break as soon as they found out that the hotel had room service.
“Then, we have a deal,” Kristen said, gesturing for him to get on with it.
“I left the epilogue along with a box of Snoballs in your bottom desk drawer,” Garrett said, only to add, “Right side,” when she opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question.
“Is it everything that I hoped it would be?” Kristen asked as he reached over and took her hand in his.
“And more,” Garrett said, using his hold to pull her closer so that he could lean down and brush his lips against hers as he pulled her into his arms.
“My reward?” he asked as she wrapped her arms around him.
“You’ll have to wait until after the kids are asleep,” Kristen said in a conspiratorial whisper that had his lips twitching.
After he wrote the epilogue for their story, her readers insisted that he wrote all the epilogues from that point on.
Since they were the reason that his wife was able to do the one thing that she loved more than anything in this world, besides him and their children, that is, he happily did it, ensuring that he gave the readers the over-the-top ending they were looking for.
He-
“Where’s Tristan?” Kristen mumbled weakly when the banging on their front door began.
“I have a bad feeling that we’re about to find out,” Garrett said, brushing his lips against his wife’s one last time before he reluctantly made his way downstairs, the banging on their front door getting louder and angrier with each passing second.
Before he finished opening the door, his oldest son, who appeared to be covered in black and red paint, was shoved into his arms. Garrett looked from his son, who was sending him a sheepish smile, to the large man holding back what appeared to be an angry little girl covered in red, green, and black paint as she struggled to break free and-
“Oh, crap!” Tristan barely managed to get out before Maddison, Maddie for short, managed to break free and took him down with an impressive tackle. God, she was an adorable little thing.
“I held her back for as long as I could,” Tom, their neighbor and the man who bought Kristen’s old house, said, gesturing helplessly towards his daughter as she managed to get Tristan in a chokehold only to rethink the move when his son began laughing his ass off at the attempt and settled for grabbing a handful of dirt instead.
“What did he do to piss her off this time?” Garrett asked as they watched Maddie try to shove that handful of dirt down Tristan’s throat, which only resulted in his son laughing harder.
“Exist,” Tom said with a heavy sigh as he reached down to pull his daughter off Tristan only to pull his hands away and swallow hard when she released what could only be described as a warning growl.
“That will do it,” Garrett said, closing the front door behind him before he stepped over the two nine-year-olds trying to kill each and grabbed the hose, turned it on and-
Released a satisfied sigh when they released startled gasps as they broke apart and made a run for it, racing across his front yard in an attempt to get out of the hose’s reach and-
“It was a good try,” Tom said as they watched Maddie suddenly shift left and-
“Evil little leprechaun!”
-took Tristan back down with an impressive tackle as she grabbed a fresh handful of dirt and picked up where she left off.