Epilogue
Annie
M y arm was going numb from holding Mell in the same position too long, and he was fussing, that soft little half-cry he made when he was hungry but too sleepy to really commit to wailing. I jostled him gently on my hip, pinning the phone between my shoulder and my ear.
“I know ,” I said, trying to keep my voice somewhat patient while pacing along the back side of the couch. “But I had a baby four months ago, Connie. I can’t just drop everything and turn up when you ask me to come in same-day, especially not when that studio is over three hours away.”
Connie sighed. “But your husband said?—”
I turned on a dime, staring at Cole over the breakfast bar as he did the dishes. “ Which husband?”
Cole’s eyes widened.
“It was one of the C ones,” Connie said. “I’m sorry, I get them confused. Similar names.”
Mell’s fists curled up near his face and he muttered another little protest, turning his head toward my chest like a heat-seeking missile.
“Did you tell Connie I could be in the studio today?” I asked Cole, shooting him a look that said I will actually kill you if it was you.
“Nope,” he chuckled. “Not me. Does she mean Colton?”
“Fucking Colton,” I muttered. “Okay, Connie, respectfully, maybe get confirmation with me and not one of them before you go and schedule things in the future.”
I moved to the couch, sinking down on it with one hand supporting Mell and the other fumbling to free a breast from under my shirt.
“I appreciate that, but we’ve made time for today ,” Connie insisted.
“Do you want me to invent a teleporter, Connie?” I asked, my eye twitching with irritation. Mell latched fast, like he’d been starving all his four months instead of just twenty minutes. “Because I can’t just appear in Savannah in 20 minutes. We can rebook it, the producer and engineers can reschedule.”
“All right,” she sighed, but I was already lowering the phone and hanging up, letting it drop onto the table beside the couch next to a baby sock and someone’s protein bar rapper. Probably Xavi’s.
I groaned, my head falling back onto the cushion.
Cole raised a brow at me as he wiped his hands on a dish towel, soap and water dripping down his forearms. “What did Colton do?”
“Told Connie I could make it to the studio today and then failed to inform me about it,” I sighed. “To be fair, I think that was last week before the big game. He said he needed to tell me something and I completely forgot about it.”
Cole chuckled and threw the towel over his shoulder.
“I swear, the music business moves way too fast for a mom,” I grumbled, readjusting Mell on my stomach. “A day isn’t enough notice. A week isn’t enough notice. I need, like, eighteen years of notice.”
“You do know you can shift him off to one of us if you need to do something last minute, right?” Cole grinned, winking at me as he slipped around the bar and came to sit down beside me.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But that means having to be apart from Mell, and if I’m being honest, I need at least thirty business days to prep for that. Even if that’s toxic parenting.”
He chuckled and leaned in, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re doing great. It’s not toxic, darling,” he grinned. “You just love him almost as much as I do.”
I hit his chest playfully.
“Besides, you’ve got full control of your trust now. Just tell them to fuck off if they’re being too much. You can fund your own tour with it,” he grinned.
The door to the garage opened, and I heard the unmistakable stomp-thud of running shoes being kicked off and abandoned. Colton’s voice came first, low and rumbling, and then Xavi’s sharp laugh behind him.
They walked into the kitchen, sweaty and flushed and smiling like idiots. Xavi rounded the breakfast bar and dropped down on his knees in front of me, leaning in to press a kiss to my cheek before placing another on top of Mell’s fuzzy head, slipping a finger between his little fingers and palm.
“Miss us?” he asked, grinning ear to ear.
“Something like that,” I chuckled.
Colton leaned over the back of the couch, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. His lips brushed against my ear, and I had half a mind to swat him away, but I let him. “You all right, sweetheart?”
“Mostly,” I said, shifting slightly to give all four of them more room. “He’s eating like he hasn’t seen food in his entire life. And someone forgot to tell me I was supposed to be in Savannah today.”
Colton grimaced. “Shit, that’s my bad. Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I told Connie off for not asking me directly.”
Xavi waggled his finger, making Mell’s hand rise and fall. “I really don’t understand how we made such a perfect baby. Why aren’t all babies like this? Like, what are people doing wrong?”
Cole snorted. “Everyone feels like that about their kid.”
Xavi shook his head. “Maybe, but, like, this one might not even be mine . And I still feel like that.” He leaned forward, kissing Mell’s head again, and again, and again. “He doesn’t even look like me. He doesn’t look like any of us except for Annie. It’s like none of us were even involved in making him except her.”
I smirked down at him. “Good. Growing him was a hell of a lot of work, I deserve full credit.”
Colton chuckled behind me, his chin coming to rest on top of my head. “She’s not wrong.”
Mell started to slow down, his sucking turning lazy and sleepy, and I gently detached him and pulled my shirt back down.
“Want me to take him?” Xavi asked, holding out his arms like he’d been waiting for this moment all day. “Chief Burper on call.”
I nodded and passed Mell over and the burping cloth over, watching as Xavi stood, throwing the cloth over his shoulder and tucking him in close, swaying in soft side-to-side steps as he patted Mell’s back, grinning like he was dancing with someone precious. Mell made happy little noises, his eyes fluttering as Xavi moved in circles.
“Such a show off,” I muttered.
“I’m just trying to be his favorite,” Xavi laughed, the sound of it teetering out into hums of one of my songs, Mell cooing softly in his arms.
“He already likes you best,” Colton grumbled. “You’re making it harder for us.”
“We’ll just have to make a couple more, then,” Cole said casually, and my head whipped in his direction. “What? We need one for each of us, right?”
I blinked at him. “Do you think I’m a cannon?”
Cole snorted. “No. But making a new one sounds fun right about now.”
Colton tightened his grip around me. “Mmm, it does .”
“Cole’s the only one who’s clean right now,” I shrugged. “Guess he gets to be the sperm donor.”
“I’ll go take the fastest shower of my goddamn life,” Colton said, his arms leaving me immediately as he sprinted down the hall.
“Wait, we’re making another? What are you talking about?” Xavi asked, narrowing his gaze at us as he spun back around.
“Apparently, Cole, Colton, and I are,” I laughed, pushing up from the couch. “Someone else wanted to be on Mell duty.”
Xavi’s eyes went wide. “No, wait, that’s not fair?—”
“I’m sure he’ll zonk out before we’re done,” Cole smirked, getting up and wrapping his arms around me from behind. “Just be careful not to wake him up when you put him in the crib.”
“ Guys . Come on.”
“Oh, and make sure you don’t accidentally turn off the sound on the baby monitor again,” I added, letting Cole lead me back toward our room. “Good luck!”
Xavi’s groan followed us down the hall, something muttered under his breath about mutiny and cruel betrayal , but I caught the smile in his voice, the kind he tried to hide outside of this house and never really could. The shower blasted as we walked past the bathroom, Colton desperately trying to clean himself up from his run to join in, and Cole squeezed me a little tighter, his lips brushing the top of my head.
We slipped into what they’d once considered the guestroom, the one we’d decided was all of ours. Behind us, the soft hum of the monitor crackled to life, Xavi’s gentle humming and Mell’s cooing filling the space between my giggles and our footsteps. And for the first time in what felt like too long, there was no storm looming, no shadow waiting to catch us off guard. Just this house, and the life we’d all built inside of it together, no matter how messy and chaotic and impossibly full it was.
It was mine.
It was ours.
What to read next? You’ll love Coach’s story in The Secret Play: A Silver Fox Hockey Romance. Read now!
Check out the first chapters on the next page…