10. Epilogue – Harmony
EPILOGUE – HARMONY
“Mom?”
I glance into the rearview mirror. “Yes, honey?”
“You knew Dad before he was a firefighter, right?”
I smile as I stop at a red light. Beside me on the passenger seat, a large container of still-warm cookies fill the car with the buttery aroma that always reminds me of one very impulsive afternoon years ago.
“I did.”
“What was he like?”
Our oldest, Owen, is ten years old now, full of endless questions and serious eyes that look exactly like Lucas’s. His little sister, Emmy, is eight and currently trying very hard to covertly sneak a cookie out of the container.
“I saw that, Emmy,” I say.
She sighs dramatically. “It’s just one cookie.”
“And there are plenty of extras waiting at home.”
Owen leans forward between the seats. “Well? What was Dad like?”
“The same,” I answer.
“That can’t be true.”
“It is.” I laugh. “He was always looking out for people. Even when we were kids.”
“He rescued people?”
“Mostly me.”
Emmy finally gives up on the cookies. “From what?”
“Tree climbing. Bike crashes. The time I got stuck halfway across the creek because I was convinced I could jump farther than I actually could.”
Owen’s eyes get wider. “You got stuck?”
“Very much.”
“What did Dad do?”
“He carried me out, and then reminded me for the next six months that he’d been right.”
Emmy giggles. “That sounds like Dad.”
I take a turn at the next intersection, and the fire station comes into view. The bay doors are open, just as they were the day I walked in carrying cookies after all those years apart. Some memories fade around the edges. That one never has.
The fire engine is parked out front, gleaming in the sunshine while several firefighters wash it down. Water sprays across the pavement, laughter carries through the warm afternoon, and the familiar sight settles something happy inside me.
“There he is!” Emmy squeals.
Lucas looks up from the hose in his hands.
Even after all these years, my heart still does the same ridiculous little flip.
He catches sight of our car, and his entire face changes. The grin that spreads across it is exactly the one I fell in love with, only now it’s framed by a few faint lines at the corners of his eyes that I helped put there.
“Well, well, well,” one of the other firefighters calls as we climb out, “the cookie delivery has arrived.”
“I helped make them,” Emmy announces.
“Save half a dozen for me!” another firefighter calls out.
We barely make it halfway across the parking lot before Lucas is there. He kisses me first. It’s a quick kiss. Easy. Completely automatic after all these years of marriage.
“Hi,” he says.
I grin. “Hi.”
He looks at the container in our hands. “Those for us?”
“I don’t know.” I tilt my head. “Depends how nice you’ve been.”
“I’ve been extremely nice.”
One of the firefighters snorts loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Ignore him,” Lucas says without looking away from me. “He’s jealous.”
“Of the cookies?”
“Of everything.”
The crew laughs.
Emmy wraps herself around Lucas’s leg. “Daddy.”
He bends, scooping her into one arm as though she still weighs nothing. Owen immediately starts telling him about the science project he finished this morning, talking fast enough that half the words run together.
Lucas listens to both of them at once. He somehow always has. One question for Owen. One kiss on Emmy’s forehead. One hand reaching for mine.
Watching him with our children truly never gets old. I knew he’d be a wonderful father long before either of them existed. I just didn’t know how much joy there would be in seeing it every single day.
“Mom told us she knew you before you were a firefighter,” Owen says.
“Oh yeah?”
“She said you used to rescue her from trees.”
Lucas looks over at me.
“She left out the part where she climbed them after I told her not to.”
“I was adventurous,” I protest.
“You were stubborn.”
“You still married me.”
“That I did.”
Lucas smiles at me with so much affection that it still steals my breath.
A decade ago, I stood in this same spot watching a fire engine disappear around the corner, completely overwhelmed by the realization that the gangly boy I’d spent every summer with had somehow become this broad-shouldered firefighter I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I had no idea that my oldest friend would eventually become my husband, the father of my babies, and the person I reach for every morning. That he was destined to become my forever.
Lucas catches me staring at him.
“What?” he asks, laughing as he swipes at his mouth. “Do I have cookie crumbs on my face?”
I smile and shake my head.
“Nope,” I say. “You’re good. You’re perfect.”