Epilogue
Hailey
The kitchen looked like someone had walked in and trashed it. There were cookie trays and saucepans everywhere. Flour was up the wall, the trash can was overflowing, and I had thirty minutes until the guests arrived.
As if he sensed my upcoming breakdown, Louis dropped the spatula he was using to make frosting and came over, wrapping his arms around me. He kissed me gently, licking a bit of chocolate ganache from the corner of my lip. “Why don’t you go get ready? The guys and I can clean this up.”
I looked around at the destruction. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, baby. Off you go. Syke will help, won’t you?
” he called into the dining room, where Syke was fucking with the candles.
He was fully healed and back to his full strength.
I couldn’t have been more thankful. Syke walked into the kitchen in designer black jeans and a button up that looked sinfully good on him. “Of course. Go on, Sunshine.”
I kissed them both and raced up the stairs. Ilyas was at the grill, cooking steaks and mushrooms, and Otis was hanging lights. The fire was lit and roaring, and all the stuff for s’mores was ready.
Eric was in the bedroom when I entered, and he looked so fucking handsome, I had to stop. His hair was a little longer, and he combed it back. He looked debonair, even in a pair of dress pants and a soft pink shirt that he rolled up his forearms.
He spun from the mirror and smiled at me. “Come kiss me, mate,” he said, his voice like a balm on my frayed nerves. My feet led me toward him before my brain even considered it, like my body knew that it needed him in the same way it needed to breathe.
“Is everything ready?” he asked, holding me against his chest.
I pushed back a little. “I think so.” There was a smudge of flour on his chest that had definitely come from me. “I’m making you dirty now.”
He grinned down at me, his smirk downright pornographic. “Not yet, but I think there’s still time.”
Ugh, I was so tempted. I thought my passion for them would ease, but I swear, it was getting worse. I wanted them all the time. I chased that connection with them like an addict. “We better not. I want tonight to go perfectly.”
“It will, sweetheart,” he murmured against my hair.
He smacked my ass and sent me toward the walk-in closet.
“I’ll help out downstairs so I’m not tempted to give you an early Christmas present.
” The way his eyes traveled over my body told me that my present was definitely me bent over the bed, getting fed his cock.
I pouted, and he laughed as he left. I went to the closet and pulled out the dress I’d bought for the occasion, a pretty red satin tea dress that screamed Christmas.
I’d never had a Christmas, not really. This was our first one as a family, and I wanted it to be perfect, including our extended family all getting together for Christmas Eve.
Tiael and Erynan were coming, along with Meadow.
I’d met the little girl a month or so ago, and she was the sweetest little thing I’d ever met.
She reminded me of Tiael so much, but she had Erynan’s wicked sense of humor.
She’d chatted to me like she’d known me her whole life, like I was a long-lost sibling, and I’d come home and cried in happiness at this new family I’d gained, and at the loss of the one I’d never really gotten to have.
Puck was coming too, along with a couple of kids Meadow’s age to keep the girl company.
We’d invited Chet, who’d called last minute and asked if the auditor, Eleanor, could also come, though I hadn’t realized they were still in contact, let alone friends.
Otis had teased him, but he’d just grunted that he knew she’d be alone on Christmas and it was the right thing.
Otis’s aunt and uncle, along with Liam, were coming, and we decided if Chet and Liam were coming, then Deuce needed an invitation too. It was an odd mixture, but I was excited.
Scared as well.
There were five minutes to go, and Louis appeared in the doorway as I was doing my makeup. I was kind of annoyed that it had only taken him five minutes to change and look perfectly delicious. Sometimes it was so unfair being a woman.
He slid into the bathroom behind me, and I smiled at him in the mirror.
“I have a Christmas present, but I’m not sure if you’ll want it or not, so I’m going to leave it up to you.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “What is it?”
He pulled out his phone and showed me a photo of a girl with blond hair and a bright smile with a graduation cap on her head. “Do you want a new girlfriend?” I asked him, mostly teasing.
“No. I, uh, I tracked your sister down.” I grabbed the phone from his hand, staring at the girl in the picture. When I zoomed in on her face, I could see it—the line of her nose, the shape of her eyebrows, the color of her hair… It was my sister.
“How?”
“I called in a few favors. I know you didn’t want to find her, but I thought I could look, and if she was happy and safe, I would tell you.
She is, Hailey. She graduated at the top of her class.
Her parents couldn’t have kids and they love her.
Their whole social media is just pictures of their baby girl and long paragraphs about how proud they are of her and everything she’s achieved.
How smart, beautiful, and kind she is. I know where she got those traits from. She learned them early from the best.”
“She’s happy and safe,” I whispered, running my finger down the familiar face.
“She knew nothing but happiness, just like you wanted.”
I blinked back tears and turned into Louis’s chest. “Thank you, Louie.”
He stroked his hand down my hair. “You can let that wound heal now, baby.”
He was right. It had always been a wound, scabbed over but never healed. I’d never wanted to look at it too hard in case it festered, but now I could let it heal.
The doorbell chimed, and I sucked in a deep, calming breath.
I lifted his hand to my mouth and kissed his knuckles. “I better go greet our guests. I love you.”
“Not half as much as I love you, Hailey Swoon. I love you more with every beat of my heart.”
I kissed him deeply, until he pulled away and gently pushed me toward the door. “Go, or we’ll spend the next thirty minutes here, guests be damned.”
Otis was letting in his aunt and uncle, and behind him was Tiael and Erynan with Meadow bouncing between them.
“Merry Christmas, Hailey,” she sang. “This is the best day of the year!”
“Merry Christmas, Meadow. It really is.”
Ilyas wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “Happy?”
“Beyond anything I could imagine.”