Epilogue
Beckett
“I can’t believe your little guy is finally coming next month!” Selah chirps excitedly, rubbing Evy’s protruding belly.
“Ohh I can definitely believe it,” Evy sighs, leaning against the front counter at Reece’s. “I asked the doctor again at my last appointment if he was sure there was only one boy in there. I feel like I’m carrying at least two.”
Selah rubs her back sympathetically as Evy shakes her head. Even though she is tired and is due next month, she still has insisted on working until she goes into labor, much to her fiancé Rocky’s annoyance. They finally compromised and agreed that she would only work a very part-time morning schedule, and sit on a stool to check out customers up front.
Thankfully, today is the day after Thanksgiving, so Reece’s is very slow. Selah, Edison, and I popped in to get a few things to make dinner together tonight.
We celebrated “Friendsgiving” at Piper and Oakland’s house yesterday with everyone, and it was a great time. I even made peace with Joey, who is happier now that he has found someone to date, a nice lady who is opening a new, much appreciated, Mexican restaurant in town.
It was the first time ever that I didn’t spend the holiday in New York, but more and more, Upwood is feeling like home.
We all stop talking as Ms. Grace shuffles up to the counter carrying a basket with a few items inside. She’s an older woman that is always wearing a mischievous smile. Dragana made friends with her at the Senior Center, and soon Edison was having playdates at her home whenever her grandkids came up from Charlestown to visit.
Her familiar smile greets us now as Evy moves around the counter to check her out. “Well hello, everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving,” Ms. Grace chuckles, patting Edison on the head.
“We did!” Edison exclaims proudly. “I ate so much apple pie I almost exploded!” He rubs his stomach and we all laugh.
The front bell dings and another familiar face joins us.
“Hello Pastor Murphy. How are you?” I ask, shaking his hand.
“Oh I’m wonderful Mr. Kade, thank you! Yesterday went especially well thanks to your generous donation for all of our families in need. We served more people than we ever have before! We even delivered to some families in Hershton which has been a goal of ours for years now,” Pastor Murphy explains proudly.
I let go of his hand and wrap my arm around Selah. “Selah and I were more than happy to help, Pastor. We would be honored to make another donation for Christmas as well. I’d love to donate some kids tablets from Kade Technology, and help with a toy drive if you’d like,” I offer.
“You..wow! That would be so incredible, Mr. and Mrs. Kade. Thank you!” he stammers, shaking both of our hands enthusiastically. “I will call you next week so we can set something up.”
Selah and I agree and we wrap things up with everyone, totting our bags of groceries outside and getting into our SUV.
There is plenty of snow on the ground from the snowfall we had yesterday, but thankfully we’ve had a reprieve from it falling down on us today. I thought I would navigate the snow and cold weather here easily considering Manhattan is no stranger to snow and cold temperatures. But Fall in Upwood has been a humbling experience.
The snow started before Edison even put on his Halloween costume, and there were mornings driving him to school that I wondered if it was really Fall, or if I had experienced a lapse of memory and somehow winded up in mid-January.
But we still have plenty of days when the sun shines just perfectly, and the view of the snow-topped mountains are enough to make you deal with any bitter cold you experience. It really is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
And I get to experience with the most beautiful woman on earth.
It’s a win-win.
We drive home, heading towards Brimstone Walk and listening to Christmas music. I hold Selah’s hand as she chatters with Edison in the backseat while he holds his stuffed dog Ruffy tightly on his lap.
The two of them were close before I even met them, but now there is a deeper bond that is so beautiful to witness. Selah is such a naturally nurturing, and kind woman that she slipped into her role as another caretaker for Edison seamlessly. We are in the process of legally adopting Edison now, and he is beyond excited.
Charlie is serving his sentence in the state prison in Redland, and even though he still has asked for no one to visit him, he surprisingly wrote me a letter last week. In it he did something I never thought I would hear him do.
Admit he could have made better choices with his life.
He said losing Maria and then Edison made him see what a mess he had made of his life. Being on his own now without the drugs, without the bad influences whispering in his ear, and worst of all without his freedom, has him realizing that he chose a path that had an inevitable ending.
He admitted that this is the longest he has been sober since Edison was a newborn, and he and Maria briefly tried to turn their lives around.
I felt cautiously optimistic reading the words that I thought I would never hear him say, and have him finally taking responsibility, and being open about his feelings. He even wrote Edison a separate letter that was shorter, and a bit detached, but at least he made an effort.
Edison is still seeing his therapist every other Friday afternoon, and we are slowly unpacking his memories of his parents, and how he is processing everything. He is, incredibly, a mostly happy boy, but he understandably has times when he is upset about what happened with his parents, or has a nightmare about being left alone at home like we found out Charlie did too often with him.
Selah, Dragana, and I support him through those times in different ways we have all learned from his therapist. I make sure that I don’t just listen when he opens up to me, but try to hear all of the things that he doesn’t say as well.
Despite the fact that he no longer has his favorite teacher leading him in class, he is doing really well in first grade, and has made even more friends this year. I’m excited to see how he will grow and learn in the years to come.
I pull our SUV into the driveway of our new house, and glance over to see the giddy expression that Selah always wears when we drive on to our property.
I purchased this house as a surprise for her in September after we were all ready to move on from the rental home we were living in for months. I started working with a local real estate agent named Ivan McCoy in August before I even proposed to her.
I put Charlie's house on the market for sale at his request, and started looking for a new home for the rest of us to live in. Unfortunately, there weren’t any properties available that I felt were suitable enough for the four of us at that time.
Then right after Labor Day, Ivan called me with excitement filling his voice, gushing over some inside information on a property that was about to come on the market. I knew from the first time I pulled onto the gravel driveway that everyone would love it.
It is an older home that was owned by a couple that lived in it for almost 40 years, and put it on the market when they decided to retire and move further south.
It has tons of yard space like Edison wanted, and the big kitchen with double ovens that Selah desired. It has an amazing space in the backyard to plant the garden Dragana has always dreamed of, and there is an old greenhouse there for her too that I am going to bring back to life. I also have a good space for a home office, so I don’t have to work at the dining room table anymore.
Oakland and his workers have been helping us fix it up while keeping a lot of the old charm that Dragana and Selah love about it. Selah rented her other home out, and we settled into our new life here.
Seeing how happy everyone is every time we come back home makes me so proud, and thankful that we are here.
◆◆◆
That evening, Selah and I are getting ready to go to the Black Friday party at Chip’s bar. Every Upwooder swears it’s the best get together of the holiday season, so we finally relented and decided to check it out.
Dragana is staying home to have a Lego and ice cream sundae night with Edison, so I help him pick out some pajamas and get ready for their night in. I finish up with him, and he gives me a big hug before running off to the kitchen to get his promised sundae.
I walk around and pick up a few things, trying to help get our house back together. This week was very busy wrapping up things for work and school before Thanksgiving, and everyone is now ready to get into Christmas mode.
We’ve agreed to spend Christmas at our new Brownstone in Brooklyn that we purchased last month. I didn’t expect to find a place there so soon, but luck was on our side. We all traveled there so I could introduce Selah and Edison to my business, and the city I grew up in.
I finalized the sale on my penthouse while I was there, and my real estate agent told us about a brownstone he believed we would really love. Seeing the looks on Edison, Dragana, and Selah’s faces while we toured it had me putting in an offer faster than the agent could ask what we thought about it.
If my family loves something then it’s a no-brainer to me to get it for them ASAP. We are all excited to fly back next month and spend Christmas there with Bobby and Natalie.
I finish cleaning up everything, and make my way to the primary bedroom. I find Selah in our walk-in closet, quickly sorting through her clothes. I look down at her left hand, my nerves settling when I see her wedding ring still there.
We decided almost immediately after we got engaged that we didn’t desire a big wedding, or to even wait to be married. So we went right down to Upwood City Hall and got married at the end of summer. Her mother and stepfather came, along with Bobby, Natalie, Dragana, and Edison.
We rented out Stoney Lodge that evening to have a private reception with the rest of our friends, and family. It was by far the most simplistic wedding I had ever attended, but by far the most full of love. Selah said the entire day was better than she had ever dreamed of, and that alone made it a million-dollar wedding to me.
Selah hears me coming and turns around, placing her hands on her curvy hips as I approach her.
“What’s going on, angel?” I ask, taking her face in my hands.
She pouts, her sweet face melting into my hands as she glares over at her clothes hanging beside us. “I’m so stressed,” she mutters.
I furrow my eyebrows. “That’s impossible. How can you be stressed when you’re my girl?” I ask, genuinely confused.
She sighs, the corner of her mouth lifting, “I’m just so tired, and trying to find something nice to wear feels impossible tonight,” she responds.
I kiss her on the forehead and move over to her clothes, pulling out a beautiful pink sweater dress I had delivered for her last week. “You’re tired because you keep staying up too late playing those nonsense games on your phone,” I respond, handing her the dress and going to find some nice boots.
She scoffs behind me, “Well you created the new game for me with Global Games! So I guess it’s your fault that I’m addicted to it,” she huffs.
I pause at her shoe rack, turning around and narrowing my eyes at her. She has been very brazen lately, and I’m wondering if it’s because she’s not getting enough sleep, or if there’s something else wrong she’s not telling me.
“Are you getting sassy with me, sweetheart?” I question, walking back over to her.
She twists her mouth, doubling down with her attitude. “So what if I am?” she responds, folding her arms over her chest.
I step in front of her, and glare down at her. She drops her arms, and her bravado quickly melts away.
“Whoops,” she whispers timidly.
I nod my head, “Yeah. Big whoops, little girl.”
I back her up against the drawers in our closet, and she stumbles, her hands fumbling around behind her to steady herself. I know exactly what she is pushing for, and she is about to get it.
“W-we don’t have time for this Beck. We will be late to the party,” she stammers, trying to half-heartedly reason her way out of the wicked rolodex of punishments I’m flipping through in my mind.
I wrap my fingers around her throat and her brown eyes stare up at me full of heat. “You’re playing games with me, angel.”
She whimpers as I flex my fingers around her soft skin, then release her throat, moving my hand to her face. I rub my thumb over her full lips, before sneaking it into her mouth. I groan as she eagerly sucks on it, then rolls her tongue around it seductively.
“Hmm, is that what you want to do, sweetheart?” I ask quietly.
“Mmhmm,” she mumbles around my thumb as I slowly pull it out of her hot mouth. “Please? I’ve been a good girl today.”
I suppress a laugh, tilting my head at her, “Have you really ?”
She gives me a sheepish smile, “Mostly,” she responds, lifting up on her toes and wrapping her arms around my neck. I bend down to accommodate her and she whispers in my ear, “Please daddy? I need your cum in my mouth.”
I growl deep in my throat, moving my hands down to swat her on the ass. “ After , the party. Since you want to be such a brat today. I’m going to make you wait for it,” I grunt, pulling away from her.
She gapes at me as I turn to head out of the closet.
“Next time mind your manners. Get dressed and let’s go.”
◆◆◆
I walk over to the crowded bar in Chip’s and wait for a bartender to be free. We’ve been here for only an hour with our friends, and though the atmosphere is fun and jovial, and everyone is having a good time, I’m ready to get back home.
Selah is tempting me to the point of madness watching her prance around in this new pink dress of hers. I stare at her now from across the bar as she laughs with Mary about something, and I’m tempted to march back over there and come through on my promise to finish what we started in our closet.
She sent me over here to the bar to get her a sprite, because for some reason she doesn’t want to partake in any of the holiday drinks the bar is offering tonight. That’s fine with me, because she will need to have all of her senses working at their best abilities when we get home.
I finally get the attention of a bartender and he heads over to get Selah’s soda. I feel someone tap me on my shoulder, and when I turn around a tall woman with long dark hair is smiling at me as if we know each other.
I can’t quite place her face, but she gets into my space and I narrow my eyes at her while taking a step back.
She ignores the obvious signals I’m giving her and continues to smile enthusiastically, “Hey! I’m Lyndsey! Aren’t you-“
I hold up my hand to stop the inevitable question that I know is about to fall out of her mouth. “Let me save you the trouble,” I interject. “You’re not my type. I only have one type, and it’s the incredibly gorgeous woman I’m married to that I’m here with. So whatever you want is not going to happen. No matter how high you push up that Victoria’s Secret bra. Move on .”
I motion for her to take off towards her next victim, and her eyebrows shoot up so high I think they may eject off of her face.
“I-I! How rude!” she sputters, spinning on her heels and thankfully leaving me alone.
The bartender hands me the soda and I pay him, deciding that Selah can take her drink to-go.
It’s time for us to get back home.