Epilogue
FARRAH
Soft lips press against my neck, sending shivers through me. “It’s time to shut it down, Princess.”
“I’m almost done, I swear.” I continue typing, but it’s much slower with the sexy distraction behind me.
Once I turn in this paper, I’ll be finished with the first semester of my master’s program.
It’s been much harder to balance my classes, work, and being with my family than I expected, but it’s been worth every minute of stress.
“You said that an hour ago.”
“Oh, oops.” I finally stop what I’m doing to look at Knox. The indulgent smile on his face makes me want to kiss him.
So I do.
He chuckles, kissing me back just as enthusiastically. We’ve been together for six months, and I have yet to get enough of him. I think I’m more obsessed with him now than I was in the summer.
Knox pulls me from my desk to go downstairs. He transformed the guest bedroom into a hybrid office for me once I started my master’s program.
After Leona’s attack, I basically never went back home.
We needed time together to process and heal from what happened, and by the end of the week, I couldn’t imagine going back to my house to live alone.
Knox told me he’d love to have me move in, but ultimately left the decision up to me.
It was a no-brainer. I packed up the few belongings I owned and moved them into Knox and Finn’s house the next day.
I asked the girls if I was making a stupid decision, especially after how hard I worked to buy my house. They pointed out that there was no reason I needed to sell it, so Knox and I finished the last few renovations and have been renting it out ever since.
I haven’t regretted my decision once. Getting to be with the two people I love most in the world every day has been incredible.
“Mom! Look what we did!” Finn jumps up and down, pointing at the piles of boxes in the living room. He’s been calling me Mom since we got out of the hospital, and it still makes me gooey on the inside.
Knox and I thought we should start seeing a family therapist to help us navigate our shared trauma.
Finn struggled with nightmares for weeks, and Knox and I hadn’t been faring a whole lot better.
Most nights, we kept Finn in our bed because it helped us all sleep through the night.
The therapy has given us the tools to find a new normal, and now Finn is able to sleep in his own bed with only an occasional nightmare.
My and Knox’s anxieties have also calmed down to the point we’re able to spend significant time alone at the house without either of us worrying. We have to check in with each other frequently when we’re gone, but we make sure it’s not disruptive to our respective tasks.
“What is all of this?” I ask Finn when we get to the bottom of the stairs. Whiskey’s poking his nose into the few open boxes.
“We’re decorating for Christmas.”
I raise my eyebrows at Knox. I know for a fact that the only thing they normally put up at Christmas is a tree and stockings over the fireplace. The number of boxes in this living room is way more than that.
“I thought it might be nice to go all out this year. It’s our first Christmas together.” He looks around the room, adorably embarrassed by his idea.
Wrapping my arms around his waist, I lift onto my toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “I think that sounds wonderful. Where should we start?”
Finn jumps into the wide array of boxes, cataloging everything Knox bought.
We decide to put the tree up first before we tackle the rest of the house.
As I’m digging through everything, I realize with a start that he went with a Candy Land theme for the decorations.
There are multicolored gumdrops and pink candy canes, several ceramic gingerbread houses, and to top it all off, I find a box for a blow-up gingerbread family to put out in the yard.
I blink back the tears in my eyes. He bought all of this specifically with me in mind. Every time I think I can’t love him any more than I already do, he pulls a stunt like this.
Walking over to where he’s fussing with the lights for the tree, I pull him down for a long kiss of gratitude. He wraps an arm around my waist to pull me into his chest and deepen the kiss.
“How hard was it for you to buy pink gumdrop decorations?” I ask when we finally pull apart.
“Excruciating.” He grins. “But incredibly worth it.”
I smirk up at him. “It definitely will be later.”
He groans, dropping his face into my neck. “That was mean.”
“I’m just trying to say thank you.”
He lifts his head with a laugh. “I love you, Princess.”
“I love you more.”
“Can you two quit kissin’ for five minutes and help me with this?” Finn grouses. He straightens from trying to open the tote of ornaments, putting his hands on his hips while he looks at us with mild annoyance.
It cracks us both up, and much to his frustration, Finn starts to laugh too. I let go of Knox to help Finn open the ornament box.
The three of us get the tree put up and the living room decorated. Whiskey is more of a hindrance than a help. He’s quite infatuated with the ornaments and lights. The three of us resign ourselves to the very likely outcome of Whiskey knocking the tree over soon.
We decide to finish the rest of the house tomorrow because we’re too hungry to keep going.
Knox makes us dinner like he does most nights, and we end the evening piled on the couch with hot chocolate as we watch a Christmas movie.
Knox grumbled about our choice, but I’ve caught him chuckling no less than three times throughout the movie.
“Do you think Santa would bring me a baby sister for Christmas if I put it on my list?” Finn asks out of nowhere.
Knox chokes on an inhale. I start to laugh, and Finn looks at the two of us like we’re crazy.
“Sorry, baby. That surprised us,” I say once I get myself under control. “Santa mainly brings toys for Christmas. Having babies is a decision grown-ups make when they’re ready.”
“It’s a big responsibility,” Knox adds.
Finn frowns. “My friend Willow got a puppy last year. Isn’t that the same?”
I roll my lips between my teeth as I raise my eyebrows at Knox. Neither of us was prepared for the where do babies come from discussion tonight.
Knox takes over. “It is not the same thing. When grown-ups decide they’re ready to have a baby, they have to make that baby. There are a lot of ways they can do that, but babies are created, not bought from the pet store.”
“Oh, well, can you guys decide to have a baby now, then? I really want a baby sister.”
I pull Finn onto my lap. He’s getting too big to cuddle with me, but that doesn’t stop him from settling in to snuggle. “It takes months for a baby to grow big enough to join the world, so even if Dad and I did decide to have one, they wouldn’t arrive by Christmas.”
He sighs. “Okay.”
I kiss him on the forehead, and he falls asleep before the movie ends. Knox carries him to bed while I clean up our hot chocolate mess. When he comes back downstairs, I’m putting away our clean dinner dishes.
Knox handles the last couple on the drying mat before he leads me back to the couch. He pulls me onto his lap the same way I did to Finn.
“I was not prepared to have that conversation with him tonight,” Knox says.
“You handled it well. Thank god he didn’t ask more questions about how babies are made.” I giggle.
“No fucking joke. I am so not prepared to have the sex talk with my seven-year-old.”
“I’m not sure anyone is ever truly ready to have that discussion.”
“Is that…something you might want someday?”
“A baby or having the sex talk with Finn?” I tease.
He tickles me in the ribs. “Brat. You know exactly what I meant.”
“Someday, yes. I’d like to have a baby.”
“You’d look really fucking hot, and I’ll be honest, imagining it being my baby in your belly does something to me.”
I bark out a surprised laugh. “You’re ridiculous. Do you actually want another baby?”
Knox looks at me with heat in his eyes. “I’d happily put a baby in you tonight if that’s what you wanted, Princess.”
My eyes widen. “Are you serious?”
“I want everything with you, Farrah. Babies, life, retirement, bickering when we’re eighty, the works.”
“Should we get married first?”
He shrugs. “If you’re dreaming of a wedding, I’ll make it happen. If not, I couldn’t care less. A piece of paper doesn’t determine our life together.”
I hum in thought. “I think I want to get married. I don’t particularly care if a baby comes before or after, but I want to be selfish and have both.”
“Then we’ve got some planning to do.” Knox grins, kissing the hell out of me.
Our future stretches out in front of us like a dream come true. Everything I’ve ever wanted is just waiting for me to take hold of it and never let go. Not a single thing is standing in the way of our happily ever after, and I can’t wait to live it every single day.
THE END