EPILOGUE – TWO YEARS LATER
"Hello, wife." Bennet whispers along my neck as he wraps his arms around my waist from behind. "Something smells delicious. Food smells amazing too."
"Hello, husband." I lean back into him. "I'm making your favorite."
I lift the lid off the pot, and he looks over my shoulder, and I feel the exact moment he registers what it is.
"Birria." He groans like he's been personally blessed. "God, I love you. I'm going to have to call in tomorrow."
I laugh because he's absolutely right. Every time I make this, he gorges himself on birria tacos and consomme until he can barely move, and then does it again. It's his favorite thing I cook, and today is a day worth celebrating. He just doesn't know that yet.
“I've invited everyone.”
"Babyyyyy." He groans, hopping up onto the counter and helping himself to a handful of freshly made tortilla chips, dipping one into the warm salsa like he wasn't raised with any patience whatsoever. "I really needed to fuck you. When are they getting here?"
God, this man. Still so insatiable after all this time and not even slightly apologetic about it.
"Less than thirty minutes." I point the wooden spoon at him. "You worked late. We would have had plenty of time, mister."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry, Blaire." He steals another chip. "Ribbon cutting ran over, and traffic back was a nightmare." He presses a kiss to my temple. "I'll make it up to you when they leave. They get two tacos each, and then they go home."
Something tells me he is completely serious.
I set the fire under the meat to low and move to stand between his open legs.
"How was your day?" He pops a chip into my mouth.
"Eventful," I say between chewing. My nerves are already starting to fray at the edges. I lean my head against his chest and take a slow breath. "Are you sure you're okay with not being a dad?"
He pulls me back immediately and cups my face. My tears are already falling, and I hadn't even decided to let them.
"Hey. Where did that come from?" His thumbs move across my cheeks. "Of course you're all I want, Blaire. What's upsetting you? Is it because Jenn's pregnant?"
"No. No, I'm really happy for her and Joseph, I swear.
I just know you wanted children, and if you changed your mind, or you do want them, or you don't — ugh.
" I throw my hands up, frustrated, because I had exactly what I needed to say perfectly planned out, and then the stupid hormones showed up and dismantled all of it. "This is coming out completely wrong."
Bennet gets down from the counter and stands in front of me, taking my face in both hands.
"I would have loved a little one who looks like you running around.
Of course I would have. But I'm not disappointed, Blaire.
I promise you. My life is perfect. Anything or anyone else is just the icing. " He holds my gaze. "You're perfect."
"Yeah?" God, I love this man.
"Yeah. Now talk to me. Why are you upset?"
"I'm not upset." I reach into my dress pocket and pull out the sonogram from my appointment this morning. "I'm actually really happy." I hand it to him.
"Aww, did Jenn drop this off?" He looks at it with that softness he always gets around babies. "How's the little one doing?"
I watch in real time as his eyes find the name at the top of the paper. Today's date.
"Not Jenn," I say quietly.
His mouth opens. Then closes.
He stares at the paper and doesn't move, and I think for a moment he might actually be in shock, so I keep talking.
"I was feeling horrible this morning. Lower back pain, bloating.
You know my periods have never been regular, so I had an appointment to figure out why it still hadn't come — it was the longest I'd ever gone.
I had no idea, Bennet. I promise you. When Dr. Shephard told me, I laughed.
I actually laughed out loud in her office because I genuinely didn't believe her. "
He's still staring at the sonogram.
"I thought I was just gaining weight. I mean, I am, but Bennet—" I take a breath. "I'm six months along."
His eyes flick to mine, and the tears are there, right at the edge.
"She said the injury from all those years ago made a pregnancy unlikely, but not impossible. My old doctor told me I'd never have children, and I just believed it. I never got a second opinion. I never let myself hope for one."
"Blaire." He sobs my name, and it breaks the dam on my own tears completely.
"It's a girl." I whisper with my trembling fingers against my lips.
He drops the paper and picks me up, wrapping me around him.
Buries his face in my neck and his whole body shakes with the force of his tears, and I hold him just as hard, both of us crying in the kitchen over a pot of birria while the chips go cold and the salsa sits forgotten and none of it matters even a little.
"I love you, Blaire." He kisses my neck, my jaw, my lips. Our tears falling together.
"I love you, Bennet." I pull back just enough to see his face — eyes red rimmed, face flushed red, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. "Are you happy?"
"You have no idea." He laughs through the tears. "God, you're so fucking perfect."
"I need you inside me. Now, please." I reach between us and unbuckle his pants, line him up, and he fills me with one deep thrust.
"Fuck, oh god, Bennet!"
He thrusts hard twice, filling me so deep I see stars, then pauses.
"You can do better than that, baby." His voice drops into a growl against my ear. "Call me daddy..."