Epilogue
JACKSON
SIX MONTHS LATER
It’s a crisp Wednesday morning, mid-March, and the sun is breaking over the horizon, casting glittering rays across the lake. It’s Edward’s spring break, and while Rosalie has to work, I took the day off to spend with my favorite kid.
“I got it!”
Edward beams, showing me the end of his line. He baited the hook himself, something he couldn’t even stomach last summer. I assess his work and clasp him on the shoulder.
“Good job.”
“I wasn’t even scared at all.”
I bite back the urge to laugh. I’m sure he was, or he wouldn’t have mentioned it.
“That’s great. But even if you still get weirded out by the worms, you’re facing your fears and that makes me proud.”
“Thanks.” His brow furrows as he casts his line out into the water. It lands with a thunk.
The lake is peaceful and calm, the gentle lapping of water as it hits the shoreline the only sound on this early morning.
There’s no one else in sight, though that won’t last. With the schools on break across the state, I imagine in a few hours this national park will be filled with families. I’m glad we beat the rush.
I bait my hook and step a few yards away to cast my line and settle in to fish.
Edward brings his line in slowly, tempting our finned friends to bite, but after a good thirty minutes, neither of us has had any luck.
“Fish aren’t bitin’ today,” Edward observes. He’s taken to shortening certain words the way I do, and it’s the cutest fucking thing.
“They don’t seem to be, do they?” I concur. “How ’bout we give this spot another thirty minutes or so? If we still don’t have any luck, we can move down to the cove.”
“Okay.” Edward nods. He has an incredible amount of focus for a child his age.
Most of my nieces and nephews would be bored at this point, ditching their poles to play in the water or ask for a snack.
He really has become one of my favorite fishing buddies, even if our birthdays are separated by over two decades.
It helps that I’m madly in love with his mom.
“Um, Jackson?” Edward asks as he recasts his line. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
Silence stretches a long moment. A bird calls out in the distance, and for a second, alarm puts me on edge as I wait for him to continue.
“Would it be okay if I call you Dad?” His question comes out of the blue, and I’m so shocked, so honored, so touched . . .
Moisture instantly gathers in my eyes.
“You want to call me Dad?” I turn to face him and blink back my tears.
“Yeah, well. I don’t have one, and everyone else at school does, and since you love my mom and you love me, it just kinda makes sense.” He shrugs, as if it’s that simple. And maybe it is. Fuck, I love this kid.
“I guess it does, doesn’t it?” I clear the emotion from my throat. “I would be honored to be your dad.”
“Cool.” He nods.
“Cool,” I repeat.
I think of all the moments we’ve shared over the past months, and how I truly believe Rosalie and Edward are meant to be my family. I am so damn lucky. I don’t feel worthy of them, but I am forever grateful this life brought us together.
“Does that make you sad?” Edward asks, noticing as I wipe beneath my eyes. “That I asked you that? I don’t have to call you Dad if you don’t want me to.”
“No, buddy. It makes me incredibly happy.”
“Then, why are you crying?”
“Sometimes adults feel something so deeply, because they’re so happy, that the emotion has to come out.”
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “That’s what my mom says, too.”
“Your mama’s pretty smart.”
He grins. He always does when I compliment her, or point out the ways she makes our lives better. I think it’s so damn cute, and I love that there’s someone I can gush over her with who won’t give me shit for it.
Another ten minutes pass, and neither of us gets any bites.
“Hey, Dad?”
I about melt when he calls me his dad. “Yeah?”
“I was thinkin’. Now that I’m calling you my dad and all, maybe you could marry my mom?”
“Oh, yeah?” I almost bust up laughing, but I contain my surprise to a smile. This kid. “You think she’d say yes if I asked her?”
“Of course she would,” he answers without hesitation.
“Yeah?” I probably shouldn’t take advice from a newly turned eight-year-old, but he does know her better than anyone else. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”
“She loves you,” he says plainly.
“Well, I love her, too.”
“You should ask her.”
“Yeah?” I want to. I’ve wanted to since the moment I decided I’m never letting her go. It’s still soon, though. I might have to wait a few more months, at least until we’ve been together a full year, but it doesn’t hurt to plan. “I think I should. Maybe you can help me?”
“Can I?” There’s so much excitement in his eyes, there’s no way I can refuse.
“Of course. How should I ask her? It needs to be extra special.”
“And romantic,” Edward adds.
“Oh, yeah,” I agree. These damn book boyfriends and their epic proposals have raised the bar. I’m gonna have to think this over, and re-read her favorite books. “Let’s keep this a secret for now. I want to surprise her. But this is the only secret we’ll ever keep from your mom, okay?”
“Okay, Dad.”
I can’t help but smile. My chest is so full of love and pride, I might just burst. Who would have thought that one night of wild kisses with the uptight town librarian would completely change my world? I never could have imagined this reality, but now that I have it, I’m never letting it go.
Rosalie and Edward have become my reason, my everything, the light of my fucking world. The road to getting here has been paved in an unconventional way, but that doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, we’re a family in all the ways that matter—and no one can take that away.