EPILOGUE
JAX
WE walk through the front door of the house to Mr. Harlow excitedly waiting in the foyer. He may be a grizzled hardass, but I swear the man’s fucking eyes sparkle when he is around his grandchildren.
I have a car seat in each hand with a tiny bundle in each one, receiving blankets with pink flowers are tucked around each bundle. Over my shoulder is a big diaper bag loaded down with more baby shit than I have ever seen.
Mason and Sloane appear from the kitchen, excited smiles on their faces.
Beckett is sitting on Mason’s hip. The boy is a carbon copy of Sloane with green eyes and black hair.
A door upstairs slams and Kinley comes trotting down the stairs, her long blond hair flying around her face with each step. Breanna is not far behind her.
Tucker couldn’t get away, but he called to check on Marley last week and promised to come home on his next leave to meet his nieces.
The girls have been in the NICU for the past four weeks since they came a month early, little Niki was ready, but Sofi was still comfy so Marley had to have an emergency c-section.
She is walking behind me, I offered to help her in and go back for the seats, but she insisted we all walk in together.
The morning Marley got out of bed and her water broke, splashing onto the hardwood, we both knew it was too early. My heart rate has never spiked that high before. Turns out, Niki punched through her placenta and then on the way to the hospital, right through the cervix.
I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life. When they told me they had to take her to the OR, the fuckers wouldn’t let me in with her. I lost my shit, and Mason ended up shoving me against a wall. I apologized to the nurse for the obscenities later.
Until last year, I never thought I would have children and now I have two perfect little girls. The ache that comes with the depth of love I feel for all three of them is something that I never thought I would experience.
My girls.
A few days after surgery, I called Dimitri and Vasilei to let them know they came early. Dimitri was driving his wife to the hospital. I could hear her Lamaze breathing in the background. He has a little boy, now.
Life sure has a way of twisting and turning and throwing all kinds of shit at you before the sun comes out and warms everything. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s all real.
“Let me see my new granddaughters.” Mr. Harlow’s gravelly voice fills the space, and he claps his hands to rub them together.
“Dad, you have to share,” Kinley says. She’s hovering over both of the seats, looking under the little shades that are pulled up to the handles.
Setting the seats on the leather loveseat in the family room, I push back the shades and the handles to reveal two tiny sleeping babies. Only their faces are visible under their caps and blankets.
Kinley sucks in a breath and her fingers cover her mouth. “Shit. They’re so small!”
Marley sets her purse on the chair next to the loveseat and tosses her coat on top of it. “Niki was four pounds nine ounces and Sofi was five pounds twelve ounces, but they’ve each gained a pound. The doctor says they’re doing great.”
Over the past four weeks, I have watched their personalities show.
Niki is impatient and not afraid to let you know she wants something, a lot like my sister Niki was.
Sofi is quiet and watches everything, there is a sweetness about her that squeezes my heart every time I hold her. She’s a lot like her mama.
Marley holds out hand sanitizer and Mr. Harlow eagerly holds his hands out. He already has a blanket looped over his shoulder. The old man looks like a kid on Christmas morning as he rubs the gel on his hands and then negates it by wiping the excess on his jeans.
“Okay, I’m ready, hand me a baby.”
Unbuckling Sofi, I lift her out of her carrier and she does the newborn scrunch that makes Marley giggle each time she sees it.
She’s so tiny, her whole body nearly fits in one hand.
Mr. Harlow holds his hands out and gently takes her from me, his eyes glassing over as he looks over her face cradled in his arm.
“Me. Me.” Kinley says, taking the hand sanitizer from Marley to lather it on her hands.
I do the same with Niki, who also does the scrunch, but she also makes that weird baby grunting sound of displeasure at being taken out of her warm blanket. Her face twists and she threatens to wail until Kinley wraps her back up and holds her against her chest.
“She’s just perfect.” Kinley says as she fingers Niki’s tiny hand.
Mr. Harlow looks over her shoulder to get a good look at Niki. “I can already tell them apart.” He grunts.
They’re fraternal, so it will be interesting to see how different they will be. They both have thick blond hair already, but the nurses told us they will probably lose most of that.
The back door slams in the kitchen and Lainey Rai runs down the hall into the room we’re in. “Oh! They’re so little.”
Gray walks in behind her and goes right to Marley. He hugs her and plants a kiss on her head. “Good job, sis.”
Marley hugs him back and smiles into his shirt.
“What’re their names?” Lainey Rai asks, her eyes focused on the bundle in Mr. Harlow’s arms. She extends one finger like she might break her and slides the tip over the top of Sofi’s head and whispers, “Her hair is so soft.”
Marley steps away from Gray and points at Niki. “That is Nikifora Loise.” Then she points at Sofi. “That is Sofija Laine.”
Stepping behind my wife, I wrap my arms around her shoulders and chest and set my chin on her head. We decided against a wedding, Marley didn’t want all the attention, so we just went to City Hall with the family and exchanged vows.
Whatever makes her happy makes me happy.
The room is full of people I now call family. The last time I was part of something like this was when I was a kid. That feels like such a long fucking time ago. There are a lot of happy memories from that time in my life.
Now I’m looking forward to making happy memories with my girls.
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Thank you for reading Marley & Jax’s Story!