Epilogue
Christian
Seven Years Later
Watching Piper come down the stairs with our little girl perched on her hip, her black hair a beautiful mess, while the twins barrel through the house like they’ve had straight sugar for breakfast—God, it just about wrecks me.
This is my everything.
It’s Christmas Day, and they woke us up just after dawn.
Not that I mind.
I’m still up before the sun every day, even at forty-eight years old. It’s just part of who I am. Hell, it’s the only way I get at least an hour every morning to go down on my wife before the chaos starts.
An hour to worship her body the way she deserves. To take my time with her while whispering against her skin how much I love her, love our life, and love the way she clenches so tight around me when I make her come.
An hour to owning her and loving her every goddamn day. And looking at her now, happy and laughing, and carrying our world in her arms? Yeah, there’s not a single thing I’d change.
Later today, we’re heading over to Callan’s bar. It’s been a tradition for us for as long as I can remember, a piece of our lives that’s stayed constant no matter how much everything else has changed. But now, it feels different because it’s not just the same familiar faces.
Now, it’s both of my brothers.
It’s Piper’s sister.
It’s my closest friends—the ones who’ve become more like family over the years, and somehow, having all of them there, under the same roof, makes the day feel even more special.
“You ready to do presents, cowboy?” Piper asks, smirking at me over Presley’s head, her emerald eyes sparkling.
I lean down and press a kiss to our little girl’s soft hair. She’s three years old now and the spitting image of her beautiful mama.
“Absolutely,” I say, smiling widely.
“Are you ready for the mayhem?” she asks, arching a brow as she shifts Presley against her hip.
“I fuc—” I stop myself just in time when Piper’s eyes widen. “I love the mayhem.”
“Daddy nearly said a bad word,” Cooper pipes up, his face full of smug satisfaction as he points a finger at me. Chase, his twin brother, bursts into a fit of giggles, clutching his stomach like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard.
“Looks like Daddy didn’t get on the good list because he’s got a filthy mouth,” Piper teases, lowering Presley to the ground.
The boys each grab one of their little sister’s hands, tugging her eagerly toward the living room, where presents wait under the tree wrapped in red and gold paper and topped with bows.
I haul my wife into my arms, pulling her close, and kiss her slowly, my lips brushing over hers.
“You didn’t have a single complaint about my filthy mouth this morning,” I whisper against her lips as my hand slides down to squeeze her ass. “Not when I was calling you my good girl while you were riding me.”
Piper leans in, her breath warm against my neck as she whispers back, “Don’t act like you didn’t love every filthy word I said either, cowboy.”
Spontaneous sex isn’t always doable when you’ve got three kids under nine running wild through the house, but once they’re asleep and I’ve got her all to myself again, I’m going to make her forget the whole world exists.
“They’re kissing again!” Chase announces with a dramatic sigh, and Presley lets out a sweet little giggle. “Can we do presents now, pleeease?”
“Go ahead,” I say, watching Piper as she heads toward the tree ahead of me, barefoot and beautiful as ever, the very picture of everything I’ll never stop wanting.
I sink onto the couch, tucking my wife against my side, with my arm around her as we watch our three kids tear into their gifts with all the joy in the world.
They’re good kids—grateful and kind, the way we’ve raised them to be—but what they really love isn’t the shiny boxes or the new toys.
It’s being out there on the farm. It’s early mornings and feeding the horses with sleepy smiles and muddy boots.
It’s climbing onto the old tractor, feet dangling because they can’t reach the pedals yet, and pretending they’re running the whole place anyway.
It’s chasing each other barefoot through the fields until their laughter echoes off the mountains.
They’re living the kind of life most people only ever get to dream about, and every time I watch them, I realize they don’t just live here; they belong here.
And watching them now, laughing and shouting as they pass presents around, I know deep down, without a shadow of a doubt, that despite everything—despite Travis’s resentment, despite the way he’s still got a chip on his shoulder after all these years—I’m doing something right with these three.
And so much of that is owed to the woman curled under my arm.
I hold Piper closer, close my eyes for just a second, and breathe it all in—this home, this love, and this beautiful life I never even knew how to dream about until she walked into it.
THE END