Epilogue
Xylina
Imagine being pressed about me and I’m on the beach with white sand between my toes and my man.
I grinned as I hit post and leaned back in the beach chair, enjoying the sun kissing my skin.
The post was two pictures, one with my toes in the sand and the second with me and Yosiah sitting on the deck, the infinity pool in the background, overlooking the green covered mountains in the distance.
I was surprised when Yosiah informed me that we were taking a vacation to St. Barts in order to celebrate my birthday.
The summer had been busy for both of us.
My name as a stylist had been getting around and I had more people reaching out to me.
While I wasn’t in the position to take them all on, I did a couple single jobs as well as took on Kayleigh Barker as a full-time client.
Currently working with her and Simone had been more than enough, and with the baby coming in a little under two months, I didn’t want my plate overloaded.
Yosiah’s expansion was out of the beta phase and due to release at the beginning of the year, meaning his load would slowly start to lighten.
The villa Yosiah rented was beautiful and the scenery was gorgeous. It was the perfect way to bring in my twenty-fifth birthday.
I adjusted my sunglasses as I scrolled through InstaFlik, ignoring the notifications already coming in from my last post.
Movement to the side of me caused me to take my attention off my phone and focus on my husband who looked good enough to eat.
Things between us had been good, even with our busy schedules.
We were still legally separated and dating.
We slept in separate bedrooms, but our sex life was as healthy as ever.
Both of us were eagerly excited about the arrival of our baby girl and the next chapter of our lives.
“You hungry?” Yosiah asked. He approached me and rubbed my bulging belly. My stomach was about the size of a medium beach ball.
“I’m always hungry,” I complained, removing my sunglasses and poking my lips out for a kiss. He chuckled lowly, bent down, and connected his mouth with me.
My clinginess had gone up a couple notches, but thankfully Yosiah didn’t seem to mind.
“You think something light will do until dinner tonight?”
I squinted at him. “What do you have up your sleeve, hubby?” He ran his eyes down my body.
“Just trust it’s something you’re gonna love.” He pecked my lips. “Tell me, are you happy?”
The smile on my face grew. “Happier than I’ve ever been.”
That was the truth too. These past five months had been the best and happiest times of my life. It also showed me that before all this I was just coasting though life numb. I finally had someone in my life who cared about me and we were about to start the family I’d always wanted.
“Twenty-five is a big deal, yeah? Getting up there in age.”
“Ugh, don’t age me too soon, hubby,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “Plus I’ll be considered a MILF soon.”
“A MILF, huh?” He laughed. “Mom I’d like to fuck. I’m not disagreeing with that.”
Between my legs throbbed and the pit of my belly swirled. Nowadays it didn’t take much to get me hot and bothered and Yosiah knew that.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled him into me. “Watch your stomach. Can’t be squashing my baby girl.”
“She’s fine, hubby, don’t worry.” I leaned up, kissing him again. “How about we make use of the pool and have a little fun?” I nipped his bottom lip with my teeth.
Yosiah licked his lips and grabbed my hands, pulling me up and helping me out of the seat. “I’ve got a better idea. I’ve got plans for us that we’re due to be at soon. How about we make use of that shower in the bathroom? Hmm?”
Heat swarmed my lower belly. “Race you!” Breaking away, I took off toward the house.
“Ay, be careful!”
Ignoring him, I continued into the house.
Yosiah had loosened up a lot more over the past couple of months too.
He was still all about his work but he also didn’t mind taking time to smell the roses.
It was no longer like pulling teeth to get him to notice me either.
We still had some work to do, but I loved the track we were on.
“Yosiah, what’s going on? Where are we?” I asked, walking aimlessly.
“Just let me guide you so you don’t trip,” he answered, keeping a firm grip on my wrist.
“Can you at least take the blindfold off?” I waved my hand in front of myself.
“Just a couple more seconds. We’ve really got to teach you some patience.”
I rolled my eyes under the blindfold. The smell of seawater hit my nose and the sound of moving water hit my ears. “Yeah, yeah, so I’ve been told.”
Finally, after what seemed like forever, we stopped walking and the blindfold was removed. Luxury was nothing new to me. I had been to private islands, yacht parties, all the above, but right now I was left speechless.
“Yosiah,” I said slowly, quietly. Tears clouded my eyes taking in the scene in front of me.
“Happy early birthday, baby.” He kissed the side of my face.
I swayed a little, realizing the boat had set sail and we were now moving on the water.
“You’re okay? You’re not feeling sick, are you?” Yosiah grabbed me in a panic.
“No, I’m fine.” I laid my hand on top of his. “And this is beautiful.” I turned to face him and hugged his neck.
Just a couple feet from us was a candlelit dinner. A vase of pink roses rested in the center. The night sky was above and the full moon shone down on us.
Breaking away, I allowed Yosiah to lead me to the table where he pulled my chair out.
“I made sure to not get anything that would upset your stomach,” Yosiah informed me, rounding the table and taking a seat across from me. Even though I was way past my first trimester, my sensitivity to food and smells hadn’t gone away.
“Whatever it is smells good.” My stomach grumbled at just the mention. “Baby girl thinks so too!” I rubbed my stomach where my daughter was moving around.
“Then we shouldn’t keep either of you waiting. Let’s bow our heads.”
After blessing the food, we removed the silver domes. Underneath was parmesan-crusted lamb chops with a loaded baked potato and steamed broccoli.
“So, I saw Daddy’s trial starts next week,” I mentioned after a while. The evening was going well, the food was delicious, and I was over the moon.
“How do you feel about that?” Yosiah looked at me over his glass.
“Nothing.” My shoulders lifted. “He deserves to be behind bars for what he did.”
Since he had been arrested, I hadn’t had any contact with my dad, but I couldn’t help checking in on his case from time to time.
He was being represented by a public defender and it wasn’t looking good for him.
As for my mom, I’d seen her around town a couple times but she always walked past as if I didn’t exist. It stung the first couple times it happened, but now I was immune to it.
Oddly, I had grown closer to Yosiah’s parents.
His mom had been playing nice after our lunch meeting.
She’d been active in my pregnancy and we’d even gone shopping a couple times for baby stuff.
We even had dinner with them frequently.
Yosiah reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “You’re right.”
“I’m glad our baby girl has you as a daddy and she’ll never experience the heartache and disappointment I did with my dad.”
He squeezed my hand. “And she never will. I’ma always be here for both of you.”
My heart skipped. “We only have a couple months until we meet her. You ready for that?” he questioned.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m nervous. Never been one to handle pain well.”
Again, he squeezed my hand. “I’m going to be right by your side, baby, every step of the way. And just keep in mind that at the end of all that we’ll be staring into the eyes of our beautiful baby girl.”
The corners of my mouth tipped upward. I always loved talking to Yosiah about our baby. His eyes always lit up every time he spoke about her. Knowing he was the one I was about to start this chapter with was better than I deserved but I was grateful it’d worked out.
“I know I’m a couple hours early, but here,” Yosiah said after a few minutes. He reached under his seat and placed a gold bag on the table a few seconds later.
“I’ll never turn down gifts.” I grinned, pushing my now empty plate away and grabbing the bag. “Mmm, I wonder what it could be.”
Snatching out the tissue paper, I tossed it to the side and pulled out a black square box.
Glancing at Yosiah, he watched me with a crooked grin as I eagerly opened the box. “Oh, Yosiah!” I gushed, lifting the pink diamond tennis necklace. “It’s beautiful.” The diamonds were small, perfectly round, and tasteful. Attached was an X pendant. In the center of the box was a matching bracelet.
“I had it custom made just for you. It’s hard shopping for a woman who has everything already.”
I snickered. “I love it. Come put it on me!” I pulled the bracelet out to put it on my wrist while Yosiah rose from his chair and made his way to my side of the table.
My hand brushed over the necklace once it was on my neck. “Fits perfectly.”
“Thank you, Yosiah, I love it. This whole trip has been wonderful.” I inhaled deeply. It was annoying how emotional I’d grown since becoming pregnant.
Tilting my head upward, I stared into the clear sky. Not a cloud in sight.
“It’s beautiful out here. You can really see the stars.”
When Yosiah didn’t respond, I dropped my attention back to him and was startled seeing him staring at me.
“Do I have food on my face?” I went to wipe it but he grabbed my hand. “No, you look beautiful.”
“Even though I’m getting chunky in the face,” I joked with a grin.
A toothless grin formed on his face. “Even with a chunky face.” He leaned in and pecked my lips.
“Who would have thought you were this passionate in the beginning? I love this version of you.”
“Yeah? And what else do you love?”
His question stunned me. I blinked a couple times before squinting. “What do you mean?”
His thumb brushed over the top of my hand. “I think we both know what I mean.”
I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth. Yosiah had never brought up my slip up confession of love. In fact, both of us acted as if it never happened.
“Does it matter?” I went to pull my hand away but his grip tightened.
“Humor me.”
I stared into his eyes. I wasn’t sure why something that should be so natural to say to my husband had my heart rate skyrocketing. My skin prickled and heat flooded my veins.
“You,” I said, quietly at first.
“Say what now?”
I huffed a deep breath out. “You. I love you, Yosiah.”
This was the first time I’d said those words out loud to my partner, not including the time on the phone. They felt foreign coming out of my mouth.
One corner of Yosiah’s mouth lifted. He pushed up, cuffed the side of my face, and pressed his lips into mine. Slowly, he claimed my mouth. His kiss tasted as sweet as candy. I grabbed his tan shirt, not caring if I caused wrinkles, and leaned further into him.
“I have one more gift for you,” he said, pulling away from me.
Desire danced in the pit of my stomach and my breathing grew heavier than before.
“You’re just a bag of surprises tonight, huh?”
He smiled and lowered himself to his knees. I watched him dig into his pocket and pull something out.
Confusion filled me when he grabbed my left hand and pulled my wedding ring off. Although we were legally separated, I still wore my ring.
“What are you—”
He cut me off and said, “Just trust me.”
Just when I was about to argue, he opened his hand, revealing a ring box, causing me to snap my mouth closed. My eyes ballooned when he opened the box, revealing a beautiful diamond ring. A princess cut white diamond in the center with smaller round stones along each side of the band.
My hand trembled as he removed the ring from the box and slid it on my left ring finger. I rotated my hand, eyeing the new beauty on my hand. I noticed the diamonds along the sides that stopped halfway down and the back of the ring was bare.
“I’m not one to give long speeches or get all emotional, but Xylina, I want you to know that these past few months of getting to know you have been some of the happiest months of my life.
I know things with us have been rocky and it took us some time to get it right, but we did get it right.
I know you don’t always show the vulnerable side of yourself to people, but I’m glad I’m one person you feel comfortable enough to show.
Soon we’ll be holding our baby girl in our arms and that’s the best blessing anyone could give me.
“I know you still hold on to guilt about how we came about and the shit your dad did, but you need to let that go. We’re in a good place.
We’re happy. Being with you makes me happy.
I know we did that whole separation thing in order to give me a choice and I’m ready to finally make it.
No contracts. No blackmail. Just me asking the woman I fell in love with to marry me and stay by my side for the rest of our lives. ”
I wanted to speak but I was too choked up. My hand wouldn’t stop shaking. Tears fell from my eyes.
“What do you say, Xylina? Will you marry me…again?”
Sniffling, I nodded and slid a shaky smile onto my face. “Yes, yes of course.” I grabbed both of his cheeks and leaned down, crashing my lips into his.
“You said the woman you fell in love with. Does that mean…?” My words trailed off against his lips.
“It means I love you, beautiful. I’m in love with you.”
More tears fell. My heart threatened to leap out of my chest.
“You’ve made me happier than anyone has in my entire life. Thank you for being by my side, for seeing me, and for being patient with me. I don’t know how my life would be right now if I never would have forced you to marry me.”
Yosiah chuckled. “Now neither of us have to know.” He kissed me again, then pulled back, staring me in the eyes. “Happy birthday, beautiful. Thank you for coming into my life and never letting go.”
Grinning, I kissed him again.
I never knew loving someone could make me feel like this.
My whole life I’d craved to have just an ounce of attention from my parents.
I looked for love in all the wrong places and acted out, hoping someone would see me.
Now I finally had someone by my side who fulfilled all those wants, showed me he loved me every day, wanted me around, and never looked at me as if I was a burden.
I still had a lot of growing up to do, but one thing I knew for sure as I was determined to become the best mother and wife to Yosiah and our unborn child, so he’d never regret giving me this second chance.
The end!