My family looked at me expectantly, except Logan, who was staring at the baby again. I smiled. “We’d like you guys to meet Logan Gabriel Ward McAllister.”
Paige covered her mouth, sniffing noisily. “Welp, here I go again.”
Logan’s eyes flew to mine. “What?” he whispered gruffly. “You named him after me?”
I nodded. “We’ll call him Gabriel.” I slid my hand into Jude’s and smiled up at him.
Logan’s jaw clenched, and he feathered a hand over Gabriel’s fluffy black hair. “Thank you. Both of you.”
Isabel rested her head on Logan’s shoulder, Molly held Isabel’s hand, the diamond of her newly acquired engagement ring winking on her finger, and Claire was next to Molly, an arm around our eldest sister’s waist.
Logan cleared his throat. “All right, I need someone to take him before I start ugly crying.”
“My turn,” the sisters said in perfect unison.
I laughed as they argued over who got him next.
With Jude at my side, his hand curled around mine, I felt almost impossibly happy and impossibly overwhelmed.
It was amazing, I thought, where you could end up when life gave you something you didn’t choose for yourself.
Maybe that was how it was supposed to work. We could make all the plans we wanted, but ultimately, the exact right path for us was the one we’d end up on.
And this was mine.
Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Lia
8 weeks later
“H
ush little baby, don’t say a word,” I sang, rocking Gabriel in his nursery, “Momma’s gonna go have private time with Daddy, and I’ll buy you a freaking pony if you stay asleep for the next hour.”
The words didn’t fit with the melody, but I was so deprived of sexy times with Jude and sleep, in general, I could not have cared less what came out of my mouth as long as it got Gabriel to go down for his nap.
My darling little angel stared up at me, but his blinks got slower and heavier, and when he finally, finally conked out, I breathed out a sigh of relief.
Honestly, I loved him so much it was terrifying, but he was the worst sleeper in the entire world. As I laid him down in his crib, I smiled. His hair, still as dark as when he was born, stuck straight out from his head like he’d stuck one of his fingers into a light socket.
Just like when Emmett was born, my son was continually fought over by every single member of my family, and the horrible side effect was a child who only got to sleep when someone was rocking him. I blamed Paige because she’d been known to knock people over in order to reach Gabriel first.
I turned on the white noise maker on the dresser in the nursery, and tiptoed out of the room with my newly acquired ninja sneaking skills, something I was told you inherited upon birthing a light sleeper.
Jude had the day off, and since it had been hard to find time for a little “Mom and Dad alone” time once I cleared the six-week mark, we’d blocked out an hour on our calendars so no one could schedule any meetings and no one could infringe on something we both craved.
With the nursery door closed, I exhaled loudly. “Hallelujah.”
I whipped off my top and grimaced at the sight of my super sexy nursing bra. Then I shrugged because I knew one person who wouldn’t care in the slightest, and that was Jude. He loved the curves I still hadn’t quite lost since Gabriel had been born, something he reminded me of every time he slid his hands around my hips or ducked his head to kiss the tops of my gloriously huge boobs.
The door to our bedroom was cracked open, and soft music played from inside. It had taken me a bit longer to get Gabriel asleep than I planned, but I told Jude to keep the bed warmed up and ready for me.
Slowly pushing the door open with one hand, I peeked in and grinned.
Sprawled in the middle of bed with no shirt on and one hand on his beautiful, beautiful chest was Jude. And he was fast asleep. I wasn’t even too surprised. He’d been working himself hard since he started with Seattle. In the team, he’d found a supportive group of guys. Some, like him, used to play in England. Some were young Americans, and some from other parts of the world who just wanted to play, and were fine with a little less pay and not quite as many people in the stands.
Even though the stakes might not have been as high, Jude found a team that he was starting to love, even if it wasn’t Shepperton, a place that was home for so long. It probably always would be, given he decided to keep his house so we always had a place to stay when we visited.
Ninja-skills activated, I tiptoed into our bedroom and crawled onto the bed. He made a low sound, but his eyelids never opened. Even as I tucked myself up against his half-naked body, he didn’t stir. Lifting my head before I laid it down on his chest, I glanced at the clock on the wall of our bedroom. Our hour-long block was almost half gone, and I had plans that night to go wedding dress shopping with Molly, Isabel, Claire, and Paige. Big sister was finally getting hitched, and I couldn’t exactly bail on those plans because I wanted to bang my hot British baby daddy.
I sighed, laying my head against his shoulder and my arm over his waist. Even though my movements were gentle, it was enough to … rouse him, as it were.
“Oh, bollocks,” he murmured, turning to me, his muscular arms wrapping around me tightly. “I’m sorry I fell asleep.”
“It’s okay.” I lifted my mouth to his for a soft kiss. He went back in for one more, longer and a little deeper, humming when I pulled away. “You’ve been working yourself pretty hard.”
“I’m still not used to having a giant, crazy family and their giant, crazy plans keeping me busy outside of work.”
With a laugh, I slid my hands up his chest. “Oh, come on, building that treehouse for Emmett wasn’t your idea of fun?”
He gave me a look. “I’m quite sure whoever puts together those assembly instructions is sent straight from hell, and Bauer agrees with me. He almost lit the thing on fire when we realized we’d done the first half wrong.”
I cupped the side of his face, and he turned to kiss my palm. “Thank you for doing that. Emmett will love it. And some day,” I said softly, nibbling along the edge of his hard jaw, “Gabriel will play in there too.”
Jude hummed. “Maybe he’ll have a brother or sister by that time.”
His hand slid into the back of my shorts and started pushing them down my restless hips. I laughed into his mouth. “You looking to knock me up again, McAllister?”
“Someday,” he answered ruefully. “But not quite yet. I’d like to marry you first, I think.”
My head snapped back, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. “Are you proposing to me right now? I did not imagine this happening while I was wearing a nursing bra and granny panties.”
He grinned. “No. But make no mistake, future Mrs. Lia Ward McAllister, it will happen. And you won’t see it coming.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I bet I will.”
Jude slid down, placing sucking kisses along my neck, then the tops of my breasts. “No, you won’t. But it will be so fun to watch you try to figure it out.”
With a shove to his shoulders, I rolled us until he was on his back. My leg swung over his hips, and I held him down. His big hands slid up my thighs.
“I don’t think you’ll last another six months, mister.” I leaned down to kiss him deeply. He groaned into my mouth.
“I love you,” he said between kisses. “But I cannot wait to watch you squirm while you wait.”
“I love you too,” I returned, digging my hand down into his shorts, biting onto my bottom lip when his eyes rolled back in his head. “But I think you’re mistaken about who’s going to do the watching right now.”
He laughed, and it was perfect. Everything about the life we were building was. It was exhausting and busy and sweet and perfect. Just how I liked it.
* * *
Second Epilogue
Isabel
The gym was dark when I walked in, which suited me just fine. I’d memorized every inch of the place years earlier, so the weak light of the sunrise was more than enough for me to navigate back to my office. As it was my day off, I wasn’t actually supposed to be there, but my boss, Amy, was never too surprised when I came in. I took a sip of my coffee and stretched my free arm over my head with a wince. Went a little too hard in class the day before, and I groaned loudly when my muscles screamed in protest at the movement.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.