Epilogue
ALESSANDRA
Watching the city fly by out the car window, I shift in my seat, getting antsy even though we’ve only been driving for a few minutes since we left Benjamin at Jude and Angelina’s. “You are really not going to tell me where we’re going?”
Pope glances over at me from the driver’s seat with a smug grin. He shakes his head. “Nope. It’s a surprise.”
There was a time when I used to love surprises and being spontaneous, but now my nerves get the better of me, making my knee bounce. I huff and cross my arms over my chest in the beautiful, flowy, purple dress Pope bought me and insisted I wear today. “The last time you drove me somewhere without telling me where we were going …”
I let my thought trail off, and he tosses me a dirty look.
“This is totally different, and you know it.”
Neither of us want to relive that drive or the two weeks we spent trapped together in that house in the woods. Though, ultimately, that time is what brought us back to each other; there’s too much bad wrapped up with the good. Too much pain with the hope.
We’d both rather look to the future, and I would really like to know where he’s taking me.
“Why couldn’t Benjamin come with us?”
The corner of his lips twitches again. “Your sister and Jude just wanted some quality time with him.”
I roll my eyes since they see Benjamin all the time and Jude has started watching him when I pick up shifts at The Grind and ease back into working. “Yeah. Ooookay. Rather convenient to have volunteer babysitters on the day when you’re taking me somewhere mysterious.”
He chuckles and winks at me. “You’ll see in a minute.”
That’s what he said five minutes ago.
My knee continues to bounce as I scan the street he turns down.
I recognize the Algiers Point neighborhood—beautiful, old houses similar to the one Nora and Stone own line each side of the road, and stunning, massive trees stand near each curb.
It’s the perfect, picturesque area.
“Whose house are we going to?”
“You’ll see.” He reaches over and squeezes my leg. “Don’t be so nervous.”
It’s hard not to be.
I feel like it’s a constant state these days, ever since he signed on to be Satriano’s doctor. He hasn’t received that call in the middle of the night yet, but we’re always waiting, wondering when it’s going to come and what he will be asked to do.
But it’s a minor kink in an otherwise pretty normal return to our lives before the whole world went to shit, that I didn’t think was possible even a few short weeks ago.
Of course, having Benjamin has changed my daily routines, and I’m still trying to figure out how to do all the mom things without failing miserably, but the Hawke women—and men—have all stepped up to help and offer advice when needed.
I never thought I’d want unsolicited advice from anyone, but being a mom has changed a lot of things.
Including me now imagining how incredible a house like the ones we’re driving past would be to raise Benjamin in. Just as I admire another approaching one, we pull up to the curb in front of it—a huge white and pale pink Italianate with a massive front porch on both floors.
Pope shuts off the car and climbs out, then makes his way around to open my door for me. He holds out a hand, and I slide my palm across his and let him pull me up.
He drags me against him to steal a mind-bending kiss, then turns me to face the house. “What do you think?”
Anyonewould be spellbound by the old home.
The stunning craftsmanship of the woodwork and beams, the history it must hold within its walls. It’s the kind of house all the tourists come to New Orleans to see.
“I love it. It’s…spectacular.”
Pope leans in and brushes his lips against my ear, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back to him. “It’s yours.”
It doesn’t quite register, my mind too busy taking in all the ornate details.
“Wait…what?” I jerk in his hold and look up at him over my shoulder. “What do you mean it’s mine?”
He waits for a moment to respond, searching my face to ensure he catches my reaction. “I bought it.”
“No. You. Didn’t.”
His head bobs, and a slow grin spreads across his lips as he tightens his hold on me. “I did. And please, please tell me you’re not pissed at me about buying a house without letting you make the final decision on this because I—”
I whirl to fully face him and throw my arms around his neck, kissing him so he’ll stop rambling before he ruins the moment with his completely unnecessary worry.
He groans into my mouth, squeezing me to him, returning the kiss with fervor before he finally drags himself away, breathless. “So…you’re not mad?”
I shake my head. “God, no, I’m not mad. I just…” Peeking over my shoulder at it, I try to wrap my head around the fact that Pope now owns this magnificent home. Any free time Pope has away from his duties at the hospital, he’s spent with Benjamin and me, which makes the fact that he was able to do this without me knowing about it even more surprising. “When did you have time to do all this and…I don’t understand how this happened.”
Clasping my hand in his, he drags me up the front walkway and through a small, bricked front garden area. “Let me show you, and I’ll explain everything.”
He pulls the key out of his jeans pocket and unlocks the front door, ushering me inside to an exquisite foyer.
Hand-inlaid marble floors sparkle, leading to a sitting room on the left and a formal dining room on the right.
A spectacular staircase takes up the center, leading upstairs, with red runners down the middle of each tread.
It’s the kind of house you can feel the history in, and I spin, trying to take it all in.
“How old is this place?”
“It was built in 1850, but meticulously maintained. The kitchen’s been upgraded. The bathrooms are state-of-the-art.”
I gape at the interior as he leads me in deeper, through the living room, currently empty of furniture, past a massive fireplace that runs all the way up to the fourteen-foot ceilings and back through a kitchen with spotless, stainless-steel appliances and a stove that would make Nana faint.
God, it’s so beautiful.
I press my hand over my heart, and Pope immediately narrows his eyes.
“Are you feeling all right? Is it your—”
“No, it isn’t that.”
Thank God.
I haven’t had many symptoms from my heart condition in a long time, and Dr. Boggs continues to believe that I might make a full recovery, given time to heal and less continued stress. “It kind of takes my breath away. That’s all.”
“Wait ‘til you see the upstairs.”
Pope takes me to a second staircase that leads from the kitchen upstairs and shows me five bedrooms until we reach the one at the front of the house—the master, connected to the covered balcony that overlooks the street below.
He pushes open the glass doors, and we step out on it, staring down at the people riding their bikes, the beautiful flowers in the neighbors’ yards, and other stunning, historical houses lining the street.
“You really bought this?” I look over at him. “You’re not joking?”
That little grin plays at his lips. “I’m not joking. We can move in whenever you’re ready.”
I was ready three weeks ago, but we didn’t have anywhere to go.
Nowhere that was ours.
Splitting time between Mom and Dad’s house and his parents’ place hasn’t been ideal, but I never thought we would find a home like this.
Pope grasps my shoulders, turning me to face him, dipping his head slightly to meet my gaze without me having to stare up at him. “What are you thinking, Al?”
I chew on my lip, considering how to put the whirlwind of emotions and thoughts into words. “I’m thinking you did really well, but it’s a lot…”
His brow furrows, true concern replacing the good vibes he’s been emanating since we arrived. “If it’s too much, we don’t have to go see the other surprise I have for you.”
“No!” I shake my head. “Of course I want to see whatever it is.”
He drops a quick kiss on my forehead, then tugs me off the balcony and back through the house, down the front stairs this time, but then out through the kitchen to a back patio.
A wrought iron tea table sits in the center of it with two chairs and a spread of all my favorite things laid out to eat for lunch.
Damn.
“You really thought of everything, huh?”
He grins.
“You didn’t have to do all this, Pope. You know I’m a sure thing.”
Laughing, he pulls my chair out for me. “I know. I wanted to.”
He helps me push it in, then goes around to the other side to take his seat. His hand disappears under the table, and he comes back up with a bottle of champagne. He pops the top, pours us two glasses, and holds his up. “To new beginnings.”
I clink my glass against his. “To new beginnings.”
It’s honestly the best toast I could have picked for today’s vibe.
Things are finally starting to feel like they’re coming together, evening out, the past moving further away in the rearview and the future closer on the horizon.
Pope reaches back under the table and comes up with an envelope. “There’s something else.”
“Another surprise?”
His humor fades slightly, and the bubbles in my stomach turn.
“Pope, what is it? You look worried.”
He clears his throat. “I guess I am a little.” His hand shakes as he reaches in, pulls out some papers, and slides them across the table to me. “I need you to sign these.”
“What are they?”
“It’s so we can modify Benjamin’s birth certificate.”
My breath catches in my throat, and I look down at the papers in front of me, all filled out in Pope’s meticulous handwriting—an acknowledgment of paternity required to amend the birth certificate to list him as the father.
* * *
POPE
Allie stares at the papers,tears streaming down her face.
I squat in front of her, pulling her hands into mine, hating the wet streaking down her cheeks because I can’t tell what they mean. She hasn’t said a word. “I’m sorry to just spring this on you, Al. I should have talked to you about it before.”
“No.” She squeezes my hands, inhaling sharply, trying to regain control of herself. “Pope, I’m crying because I’m happy. I’m just overwhelmed. This is a lot.”
“It is, and I’m sorry. Maybe I should have waited.”
It’s only been two weeks since she and Benjamin were freed from Roselli. Two weeks since we were finally able to start going out, enjoying life, and being together without worrying—at least about him coming after the baby.
I should have given her some time to decompress, instead of springing the house and these papers on her all in one day.
She shakes her head. “No, you shouldn’t have. This is perfect. But”—her brow furrows—“are you sure you want to do this?
Christ, after all this time, she still doesn’t get it.
I tug her up from her seat so she can feel my heart beating against her chest and know the truth of what I’m saying. “Allie, since when has this family ever been about blood? The Hawkes have always been about finding the people you care about and protecting them, creating your own family, no matter how it looks or how the people get there. That’s what we’re doing.”
For some idiotic reason, I hadn’t anticipated the amount of emotion this was going to bring—for her or for me.
My throat tightens, and I swallow past it to say the words she needs to hear, the ones I’ve been dying to say.
“Benjamin is my son. I’m the first person he saw when he was born. I’m the one who witnessed his first breath, who held him while he slept that first night. You and he are my heart, and you always will be.”
She releases another sob. “I don’t deserve you, Pope.”
Tilting her chin up to force her to meet my gaze, I nod. “You deserve the world, Al. What happened in the past is just that. This house is our future. The place we’ll watch Benjamin grow up and maybe give him some brothers or sisters to play with, out here in this grassy yard. We have all the time in the world and nothing stopping us now.”
Even the fact that my phone might ring at any moment with the call I’ve been dreading can’t spoil the moment or my plans for our new lives together.
Allie has never been able to think beyond tomorrow.
Since that day I broke her heart, she’s spent each day looking for the feeling we only bring each other. And now that we have it, I know she will hang onto it as tightly as I do.
She leans forward and kisses me again, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her hips to mine. “I love you so much, Pope.”
“I love you, too, Al.”
Anything else either of us want to say gets carried away on the wind blowing through our yard, and our kiss grows almost frantic, with Allie clinging to me, desperate to get closer.
We definitely can’t do this out here.
Snooping neighbors witnessing us having a nooner in the backyard on the first day in the house would certainly send the wrong impression.
I lift her to wrap her legs around my waist, then walk us back in through the open kitchen door, my cock growing against her as I move. By the time we reach the island and I set her on it, she’s practically trying to rip the zipper off my jeans.
Chuckling against her lips, I nudge her hand away to do it myself. “I guess we’re christening the house today.”
She pulls back and smiles, and this time, I don’t mind seeing the tears because I know why they’re there. “I guess we are. How long will Jude and Angie watch Benjamin? Because there are a lot of rooms in this house.”
I lean in and press my lips to hers again as she finally frees my cock and takes it in her warm hand, making me twitch. “We could always save some of them for when we formally move in…”
Brushing her thumb over the head of my cock, she spreads the precum, making me jerk in her hold.
A playful grin pulls at her lips. “That could be a fun way to celebrate each new day here.”
Nodding my agreement, I slide my hand up under her dress and find her pussy bare and already slick. “No panties today, huh?”
She offers a slight shrug. “You didn’t include them with the dress when you told me you bought me something new to wear for the surprise.” Her brows rise playfully. “Did you have this in mind when you picked it out? Giving yourself easy access?”
I shake my head. “Actually, no, but it’s a nice perk.”
Feeling her response to me.
How a simple touch or kiss can ignite her for me.
It always undoes me completely.
This woman has given me her everything when she had every reason not to trust anyone again, and I will never let her regret that decision.
I hike up her dress around her hips and drag her to the edge of the counter, putting her at the perfect height for me to line up my cock between her legs and drag it through her slick arousal.
Sweet mother of God…
The tease meant for her sends a bolt of pleasure straight through my body, and she bucks in my grip and wraps her fingers around the edge of the countertop.
A vision of spreading her across this marble and eating her for lunch flashes through my head, but we’re both too far gone for that. Both needy and desperate for this.
I angle her hips slightly, then push into her slowly, watching myself disappear, her pussy swallowing me inch by inch.
The tight heat makes me grit my teeth, and she squeezes around me, making herself even tighter, torturing me even more with her cunt. I drag my hips back and plunge into her all the way, and her mouth falls open on a silent gasp as her knuckles whiten due to her death grip on the counter.
Taking her mouth with mine, I pull my hips back and drive into her again, pushing myself deeper inside her. She groans against my lips and rolls her pelvis to meet mine, setting a slow rhythm that will build us both up to that heavenly place where any troubles plaguing us are wiped away in a few sweet moments of utter bliss.
This is where we want to be.
This house.
Locked together like this in this place forever.
It’s these moments that make it easy to forget everything else but each other and the things we can feel and touch and experience.
Right here.
Right now.
The drag of the head of my cock on that spot inside her. The way my fingers dig into her fleshy hips. The gasps and moans that tumble from her lips. The slap of skin on skin.
I reach up and grasp her chin, crushing my lips to hers in a bruising, searing kiss designed to seal the moment and convince her that she doesn’t have anything else to worry about anymore.
Now we have each other.
We have Benjamin.
And we have a home.
We have a great life, an incredible family who supports us, and we’ll never go back to those people we were only months ago, avoiding each other, volatile, so much pent-up animosity and unspoken words.
With every plunge of my cock and drive of my hips, I convince her that this is forever because there’s nowhere else I would rather be.
She releases the counter to wrap her hands around my neck, scoring her nails down it, that little bite of pain, enough to make my cock twitch inside her and my balls pull up tight and start to tingle.
My orgasm hangs right there, on the edge, threatening to break. She clenches around me with each retreat, and her hips meet mine with every thrust until sweat trickles down my spine and also dampens her temples.
I reach behind her and grab her hair in my fist, tugging her head to the side, exposing her neck and giving me access to that spot behind her ear that I know she likes so much.
Licking, kissing, and sucking there, I keep pounding into her, until her body starts trembling, her legs and grip around me tightening. And finally, she explodes.
Her body convulses, her hips bucking frantically as I pump my hips, chasing my own orgasm. The walls of her pussy ripple along and clench around my cock, finally drawing it out, and I come deep inside her.
A release of those final vestiges of the horrors of the past.
I catch her as she comes down and sags back, then kiss her softly against her cheek and over to her mouth. “Welcome home, Allie.”
Her eyes flutter open to meet mine. “Welcome home, Dr. Clarke.”
* * *
ATLAS
The doctor standingin front of me blurs into an indistinguishable shape as my vision darkens around the edges at his words.
“Excuse me…can you…can you repeat that?”
He shifts nervously from foot to foot, the same way a rookie fighter does when they’re nervous about stepping in the ring. “Of course. I’m sorry, Atlas, but there appears to me more extensive nerve and muscle damage in your shoulder than we originally anticipated. You’re still recovering from the surgery, and there’s always a chance that with physical therapy, you can regain somewhat regular control of the limb—”
“Control of the limb?” I gasp, my lungs seizing in my chest. “But…I’m a boxer…”
“I’m afraid that might no longer be an option for you, given the damage to…”
The rest of his words don’t matter.
Nothing does anymore.