Epilogue — Bree
Apparently, winning the Super Bowl makes your husband physically incapable of sleeping past seven the next morning.
Even with blackout curtains thick enough to survive a nuclear event.
Even after we didn’t actually get into bed until three in the morning, following a long dip in the hot tub that went, admittedly, a little longer than either of us had originally planned.
And apparently, pregnancy does something to your hormones that turns you into a completely different sleeper. I used to be the kind of person who could sleep straight through an earthquake. Now, a simple soft rustle of sheets is enough to wake me up in an instant.
“Hey. Go back to sleep, honey,” Gavin whispered.
“Why are you up?” I asked him.
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pulled me in close, spooning me from behind, tucking me right into his body, and rested one hand flat on my belly.
“I’m feeling too excited to sleep,” he said. “Just thinking about what this win means. For us. For her.” He kept stroking my belly, slow, gentle circles. “I love you, Bree,” he said, running his fingers through my hair now.
“I love you too,” I whispered back.
“And I cannot live without you,” he said.
I turned over, and he helped guide me until I was facing him fully. I smiled at him. He smiled right back, and then he leaned in and kissed me, soft and slow.
“Congratulations again, Mr. Blakley,” I said, once he pulled back. “For the Super Bowl. I’ve been praying for this win all season. Your very last one before you retire.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, and kissed me again.
“And, of course, without your dad shouting his head off in the stands the whole game, waving around those life-size cutouts of the two of us together. Every single time I glanced up and saw that cutout, I thought about you. About the baby. And I knew, right then, I had to win this thing.”
I smiled, remembering the buildup to all of it.
Gavin had scored them the best seats in the entire stadium, and Dad had been positively giddy about it for weeks leading up to the game.
The whole town of New Haven had rotated through the deli in that stretch, and Dad hadn’t stopped showing off a printed copy of his and Mom’s tickets to literally every single customer who walked through the door, so proud of his son-in-law he could barely contain himself.
He’d shouted and cheered so hard during the game last night that his voice completely gave out by the end of the game.
“I hope Dad’s doing better this morning,” I said.
“I already sent James to check on them,” Gavin said. “Apparently your dad said he’s feeling fit as a mule. So they’re finally going to be able to go on that sightseeing trip I booked for them. Limo’s picking them up at nine.”
“Do you want to go join them for breakfast?” Gavin asked.
“No,” I said. “I just want to lay in this bed all day.”
“That,” he said, “is an excellent idea.”
He pulled me back into him, and we spent a long while just like that, trading slow kisses, his hand tracing lazy patterns up and down my arm, both of us laughing quietly into the pillows like a couple of teenagers who’d successfully snuck away from their parents.
“I’m so lucky you gave me another chance,” he said eventually, his voice going soft and serious.
“After I nearly lost you completely. I still can’t believe I got that lucky.
Your dad’s right, you know. I was a jerk.
The biggest jerk in recorded human history.
But you gave me a second chance, and I will never stop being grateful.
To you. To whatever’s up there running the universe. To all of it.”
He kissed me again, slower this time.
“Sometimes, sweetheart,” he said, “I think about what my life would’ve looked like if you hadn’t forgiven me. I lie awake some nights and think about it.”
“And what would it have looked like?” I asked.
“Barren,” he said. “Cold. Meaningless.” He looked right into my eyes when he said it. “But mostly, it would’ve been empty. No you. No baby. No love. No laughter. No nothing at all.”
He rubbed his hand over my belly again and pulled me even closer against him.
I pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I’m glad I took a chance,” I said softly. “You’re an incredible husband, and I love you more than anything in this world. And now that we’re starting a family, I honestly cannot wait to see what’s coming for us.”
“Two more kids,” he said. “Just like you always wanted.”
“No,” I said. “I want four. After our baby girl, I want a boy, then a girl, then a boy again. You know. To keep them balanced.”
“Anything you say, Bree. I’ll do it.” He winked at me. “I am, after all, a very dedicated husband.”
We both burst out laughing.
“You’re an incredible wife,” he said, once we settled back down. “An incredible partner. And I already know you’re going to be an incredible mother. You gave me my whole life back, Bree.”
“Gavin, no, I didn’t really?—“
“You absolutely did,” he said. “When I tell you I can’t live my life without you, I mean it. You are the reason behind everything I do, every single day. I wish there was a more meaningful word than love. But until I find it, I love you is just going to have to carry everything I feel for you.”
He kissed me one more time, and then he just held me, and I let myself sink into it, into the comfort and love I get to find in his arms now, every single day and every single night.
Life felt so perfectly simple, right there.
So peaceful. Wrapped up in my husband’s arms, it felt like my entire world was right there, held safely inside that one moment.