Epilogue
HENDRIX
You’ve always been mine, even when you didn’t know it yet.
—Hendrix’s secret thoughts
“You going to marry that girl soon, brother?” Leo asks as we walk out of the locker room, cameras shoved in our faces before we can get to where Serena stands with Addie and Kenzie.
Each wearing her Sinclair jersey. Serena’s a little tighter than the others since her baby bump popped a few weeks ago.
“Eventually,” I tell him and smile. “We’re already committed to each other. We already live together, so why does it bug you so bad that we’re not married?”
“It’s been two years, Henny. Marry the woman already,” Nix groans.
“Let me get right on that, brother,” I groan and shove him away, then stalk across the crowded hall and lift my woman right off her feet. “Hey, baby. How are you feeling?”
She wraps her arms around my neck and giggles. “Like a beached whale, Sinclair. Now put me down.”
“Damn. That’s hot,” Addie sighs, and Leo pouts.
“No staring at my brother, Adelaide.”
“Yes, dear.” Well, that didn’t sound sarcastic at all.
“Are we still doing dinner tonight at your house for Bodhi’s birthday?” Kenzie asks.
“Yup. Gotta love afternoon games,” Serena tells them all as I set her back down and wrap an arm possessively around her. “He’s so excited. He just keeps talking about how being five means he can go to school next year.”
“Sounds good,” Addie tells her. “Let me know if you need me to bring anything.”
“Just yourselves. See you tonight.” She sighs and digs a hand into her ribs. “How many more months?”
“Five,” I remind her and try to ignore the ice in her eyes. “It’s not like you were unaware twins run in my family.”
Oh shit.
Was that a growl?
“Fine.” She slides her hand into mine and lets me guide her through the chaos to the players’ parking lot and into our car. “Do you think they suspect anything?”
I open her door for her and kiss her cheek. “Not a thing, baby.”
“Good,” Serena sits, smiling. “I don’t know why anyone bothers with big weddings when you can surprise everyone for a tenth of the hassle.”
Serena
“You look like a princess, Mommy,” Bodhi tells me from where we both stand in front of the mirror, and my heart melts in my chest.
After the fire, Hendrix and I tried to take things slow, but neither of us wanted to be apart for long. I didn’t officially move in with him until after the new year, but I spent every night he was home in his bed, and a few of the nights he wasn’t home, too. It just felt right.
Bodhi started preschool the following September, and after a few months and a few playdates with the kids as well as his hockey tots team, he was surrounded with kids who had mommies. So when he asked Hendrix if he could call me Mommy, we were surprised but not shocked.
What shocked me, however, was how well Mel took it when we talked to her about the new development. She and I have grown to have a lot of respect for one another. She’s still taking care of Bodhi while Hendrix and I work. Although, she found her own home before I officially moved in last year.
Sometimes, it’s hard not to think about Britt’s letter when I look at my son.
We have a special photo album that we call his Momma Britt’s Album.
It has pictures of her growing up and ones from Hendrix’s and her wedding.
Gorgeous photos of her pregnant with Bodhi and holding him after he was born.
And then it has important moments in Bodhi’s life.
We take a picture every time we mark another inch on his height chart in his bedroom and add it to the album.
Christmas mornings in our matching pj’s with all his cousins go in there too.
His first hockey practice in his mini-Revolution jersey, Halloween costumes, and Easter egg hunts.
His first day of preschool and his last day of the school year.
We title each one and write the date on the back, and then Bodhi helps us glue them in the album.
All the things I know Britt would have loved documenting, we document just for her and keep the album on Bodhi’s bookshelf so he can look at it whenever he wants. We even have a special polaroid camera we like to use that I can keep in our room.
“A princess, huh?” I ask and tickle his side.
“That makes you a prince, sir. So how about you stand right here” I squat down, wondering how exactly I’m going to do this in a few months when I’m as big as a house, and hold the camera up and angle it toward our smiling faces.
“Okay, ready to add another picture to your album?”
“What are we going to call this one, Mommy?”
I kiss his handsome cheek and snap the picture. “How about we call this one Destiny?”
“What’s destiny?” he asks with a tiny hint of a lisp from the tooth he lost last week.
“Destiny”—Hendrix walks in and helps me stand, then lifts Bodhi up and settles him on his hip—“means Daddy was always going to fall in love with Mommy and marry her one day.”
“It was written in the stars,” I add and kiss Hendrix’s sexy face.
Pregnancy hormones are a bitch, and I swear I’ve wanted to jump my husband twenty-four seven for months now. Not that he minds.
“How’d they get up there to write it? Did they take a rocket ship?” he asks, and we laugh.
“Something like that, bud.” Hendrix runs his palm over my bump then wraps it around my waist so he’s holding Bodhi and me. “Something like that.”
“You ready to go get married, Superman?” I ask, so unbelievably ready to take this man’s name as my own that I made Olivia promise to keep it short and sweet when she offered to get ordained to marry us, and she was more than happy to oblige.
“You ready for your father to throw me off the team for keeping this from him?” he mocks.
“He would never,” I tease, hoping I’m right.
“Guess we’ll see about that.” He sets Bodhi back down on his feet between us, and we each take his hands.
Today is about our family.
All three of us. Well, soon to be five.
I look at this man and this boy, and I’m looking at my entire world.
“I love you, Hendrix.”
“I love you too, Serena.”
“What about me?” Bodhi asks excitedly, and we both bend down to kiss him.
“We love you most, my handsome man,” I coo.
“In this lifetime,” Hendrix says.
“In every lifetime,” I promise.
The End.