Epilogue
Luke
Four years later…
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Mikey. Happy birthday to you.” Friends and family erupt into cheers at the end of the song, and the two-year-old in the high chair claps his tiny hands in excitement.
“Happy birthday, my baby boy,” Nat says, kissing his cheek. She places a mini homemade chocolate cake in front of our son, and his eyes grow at the sight, promising that a massacre of yellow cake will follow.
His chubby little hands grab for it instantly. The chocolate meets his tongue in a flurry of messy fingers and falling crumbs, while Nat’s parents and mine, along with all her siblings and nephews laugh and clap at the cuteness.
But I can’t help beaming at my son, with his bright blue eyes and blond hair. He’s the spitting image of me at two years old, but his eyes are the shade of blue that comes from Natalie.
As the group of our closest people gathers around us, I smile at my wife, who stands beside Mikey’s high chair, one hand reaching for his wavy blond curls while the other rests on her growing stomach.
We’re due with our second child in only a few weeks. A girl this time.
Natalie and I stayed in therapy following my accident.
We had separate therapists, and sometimes joined one another in our sessions to talk through things together.
Both of our therapists taught us how to connect before things got too big to handle, how to listen to one another’s quiet needs, and how to live a life of balance.
Nat doesn’t have nightmares anymore, and I think reconnecting with her family is a big part of that.
The darkness that filled her nights no longer follows her, and she smiles more than ever, filled with light from the inside out.
My leg healed perfectly within eight months, just like the doctor said it would.
Physical therapy was hard, sometimes painful, and at times I wanted to give up.
But I never did, because my family needed me to be one hundred percent whole.
I wanted Natalie and myself to move forward, to grow the life we have now, but we never would have if I’d let the accident hold me back.
Everything we’ve done for each other—and for ourselves over the last four years—has made our marriage bloom in amazing ways.
Cam claps a strong hand on my shoulder. “Congratulations, man. I’m really happy for you guys.” He extends a bottle of beer toward me, and I take it.
“Thanks. We’re the happiest we’ve ever been.” And it’s true. We’ve never laughed or smiled or cried tears of joy as much as we have in these past few years.
I follow his gaze as it lands on Jules and Nat, both wiping up the mess left by the birthday boy.
Mikey’s bubbling laughter fills the room, and a smile spreads over my face, stretching from ear to ear.
Emma’s here, too, with Ceecee. Ceecee’s not a baby anymore, having just turned six, and she dotes on Mikey like she’s a big sister.
Emma’s dating someone new, and I hope with all my heart it works out for her and her daughter. She deserves to be happy, like we are.
Natalie lifts Mikey from his high chair, wiping his face with a towel. She approaches me, and I put my arms out to take Mikey from her arms.
“He’s getting a little restless,” she says.
“Probably from all the sugar.” I rest Mikey on my hip and lean down to kiss my wife.
“Want to take the party down to the lake?” she asks. “The fireworks are about to start.”
Cam’s lake house has become one of my favorite places, along with the cabin.
We visit Maple Lake at least twice a year, staying in the cabin for a few weeks each summer.
And when we come for Christmas, we stay in Juliet’s house with the rest of the family.
Of course, everyone has come to Florida a few times as well, and Natalie enjoyed having her mom and dad visit when Mikey was born.
The cabin’s been booked every season since the summer we updated Cam’s listing.
Natalie came back alone to take photos around town at the beginning of winter after my accident, while I stayed home and continued physical therapy.
She added magical snowy images to the website, and she hung a few framed ones for the cabin’s interior during the winter months.
It’s brought in more business than they imagined, and we all couldn’t be happier about the success.
We didn’t buy a house in Maple Lake, but I have my eye on a special one across the lake. It’s a fixer upper, but that’s never deterred me before.
The Bat Cavity became our best property yet.
We finished the renovations in two years, and then we sold it.
Now, with the money we made from that project, I want to give Natalie her own lake house, somewhere she can come whenever she wants.
A place where she can be close to her family, a place where we can bring our kids for summer hikes and winter sledding.
I plan to tell her about it tonight, after the fireworks.
Jules and her mom join us as we stand at the side of the room.
“Before the fireworks, I can take a family photo of the three of you,” says Jules. “Well, the four of you.” She puts her arm around Nat’s shoulders, looking down at her baby belly, and their mom tugs them both into a three-person hug.
“My two beautiful girls, both amazing mothers.” When she pulls away, she beams at them like she’s the proudest mother.
“Hey, what about me?” Ty says, appearing beside them and bumping his mom with his shoulder. “I’m not a mom, but I’m gonna be a dad soon.”
She cups his cheek in her hand. “All my wonderful kids in one place again. I couldn’t be happier.”
Ty motions to Sandra from across the room, and she leaves her conversation with my mom and Emma to stand beside him.
“What are we all doing?” she asks. Her flowing pink dress pulls snuggly around her middle, showing her own growing baby bump.
Ty and Sandra got married three years ago. And now that Ty is going to be a dad, he’s been texting me nonstop about childbirth and sending me videos of all the things he’s learning.
It’s entertaining for the most part, but I still have to push away the invasive thoughts that creep across my mind.
Nat’s first pregnancy was a dream, but her labor wasn’t what we hoped.
She had a C-section after two days of labor, and I have to force myself to think of all the blessings that came from it rather than the fears it put us through.
Her next delivery will be a planned C-section, so at least we don’t have to worry about hours of hard labor and worrying about the unknown.
Her doctor says this is the safest route, so I know we’re going to be fine.
And so far, we’ve had healthy pregnancies, and Nat’s been positive through it all, which eases my mind more than anything could.
Tyler grips onto Sandra’s hand. “We’re taking photos by the lake before the fireworks start. Nat, can you get a shot of me and my bride?”
He hasn’t stopped calling her his bride since the day they got engaged. He’s like a lovesick puppy, but I don’t hold it against him. I fall more in love with my wife every day, so I understand the feeling.
“Oh, Nat,” says Sandra on a sigh, her hand drifting to her pregnant belly. “That would be amazing. Could you?”
Natalie smiles, her pink cheeks lifting. “Of course, I’d love to. I’ve been dying to get my camera out for months. Having kids doesn’t give me much time to use it anymore, but I always jump at the chance to.”
Tyler’s lopsided grin widens. “Perfect. Last one to the lake is a rotten egg.” He heads for the back door with Sandra in tow, and the crowd of family members and friends follows.
“It’s not fair to those of us who have to waddle,” Natalie grumbles, her eyes narrowing at her brother’s back. “Sandra and I are definitely the rotten eggs.”
“You’re the cutest rotten egg I’ve ever seen,” I reply.
She rolls her eyes at me and grabs her camera from the kitchen counter. “Don’t let Mikey get too close to the water.”
“You act like this is my first day on dad duty,” I tease.
She lifts on her toes with her lips pursed toward me, but Mikey leans in for the kiss, pressing his drool-covered mouth to hers. Nat laughs.
“Hey, son, that was my kiss.” I pull him back, and he looks up at me with giant eyes, bright and blue like the ocean.
I kiss his nose and he babbles, “Dada.” My heart stops and restarts. I’ll never get used to that.
“Come on,” Natalie says, reaching for the sliding door. “Everyone’s waiting.”
I stand back with Mikey as Natalie takes photos of Ty and Sandra by the water, then of our parents, a few photos of Emma with Ceecee, and, lastly, of Jules, Cam, and the boys.
The sky is a cotton candy mixture of pink and purple, with splotches of orange sherbet thrown in for good measure.
The backdrop is breathtaking, the perfect summer sunset.
Natalie hands her camera to Jules and positions me beside her with Mikey on my hip between us and the lapping of the lake behind.
“Okay, smile,” says Jules. “One, two, thr—”
Her countdown is cut short by the sound of Fourth of July fireworks exploding over the trees behind us.
We turn toward the scene, and Mikey’s eyes light up, gazing in awe at the colors raining from the sky.
Red, white, and blue sparkles fall like confetti before another firework shoots into the sky with a whistle, exploding once more and bursting into colorful constellations.
Natalie rests her hands over Mikey’s ears to protect them from the deafening noise, and she meets my gaze. The colors flashing in the sky reflect in her eyes like stars. I bend down to kiss her, and she gladly meets me in the middle.
In this moment we’re surrounded by family, blessed with the new life growing inside of her, and tied together in this messy, twisted thread called love. Only now, our thread is stronger than ever.