Epilogue A Long-Awaited Redemption #3
I breathe out, a shuddering exhale that empties me to the bones. There is a panic in me, an old fear that I’m not built for this, but underneath it is something else—a deep, yawning want. A hunger. I have never, in my life, needed anything so much as this woman and the future she’s carrying.
I pull her into my lap, wrap my arms around her and hold tight, so tight I hear her ribs creak.
“You’re going to be a dad, Trevor Cahill,” she whispers, voice muffled in my shirt.
I kiss the top of her head, then her temple, then her lips. There’s a salt taste to her mouth, and I wonder if it’s tears or sweat or both. I want to devour her, to swallow her whole, to keep her and our kid safe from every evil I ever conjured.
We sit like that, tangled up, until the world is full night.
She’s the one who breaks the silence, as always.
“So what do you want to name her?” she says.
I stiffen, then laugh. “How do you know it’s a girl?”
Kayleigh giggles, and the movement is full of sunlight. “Just a feeling.”
I think about it. The grave in front of us, the old story, the way everything comes around if you let it. There is only one answer.
“If it’s a girl,” I say, “let’s call her Aleatha.”
Kayleigh kisses me again, soft and deep, and we hold each other until the first star comes out, and the white flower against the stone glows in the dark, the only point of light in the whole silent field.
I close my eyes, and for once, the future looks brighter than the past. I’m so grateful to this woman for accepting me the way I am, including my massive fuckups, my hesitancies, my mistakes, and most of all, my past. I was fucked in the head by what happened with my former stepsister, but with Kayleigh, it’s getting sorted.
Her love protects me, warm and responsive, and with the golden girl by my side, I know we have only happiness in our future.
THE END