Page 184 of The Plan

“Wow. Who would have thought you’d be the one to have twins?” August looks between his twin and me. I take Mariana back from Sage and kiss her cheek.

“Did you know Mami had two babies in her belly?” She nods with the biggest smile on her face.This was the secret she wished to tell earlier.

“Supreme!” I laugh at her word for surprise and hug her. Vid is staring at us in awe, and I pull her in on the hug. I bury my face between my daughter and pregnant wife, and that feeling is there again, like always.

Extend Epilogue

Vidia

Three Years Later

No mine!”

“Hey!” The boys turn to look at me, guilt written all over their identical faces. “Are we supposed to snatch things?” They both shake their heads and drop the toy car before running out of the room. I let out a sigh and turn back around.

“Your brothers don’t listen very well,” I whisper to Mariana, and she covers her mouth as she giggles.

“They’re babies, Mom. They’re not big like me.” I laugh at how grown up she thinks she is. The minute we brought Zamir and Agustín home, she was in this big sister mode. It was adorable to watch, but I wish they'd stay this small. I lean over and kiss her cheek.

“Okay, piggy or bunnies?” I start detangling her curls, and she taps her chin as she thinks. She does this every time and always picks the same hairstyle.

“Piggies.”

“Really?” I’m surprised she switched it up today. I finish doing her hair and add a bow to each pigtail before lifting her from the counter.

She takes off running for the door the minute her feet land. “Daddy!” She runs into Sire’s arms, and he lifts her. A warm smile creeps on my face as I watch him close his eyes and hug her incredibly close.

“How was your day, princess?” He kisses her forehead, and she goes on about her day with her grandma Kat, as she watched the kids for us today, then the rest of her day with me once I was home from work.

“But then Zamir threw the mac and cheese at Agustín and then—”

“Agustín threw it, mi vida,” I correct her as she rats out her brother to their dad. She mixes up the twins sometimes, but she can tell them apart quite often. It’s impressive for a five-year-old.

She finishes off her story, and Sire listens to the whole thing, intrigued, as if she's saying the most interesting thing ever. I’ve grown to love that most about him since the kids started talking. The way he listens to them.

He puts her down, and she walks out of the room, leaving my husband and I. He pulls me into a hug, and we both sigh in each other's embrace.

“What’s wrong?” we both ask at the same time. We laugh softly, and I look up at him, my arms still wrapped around his neck. “You first.”

He shakes his head no. “You first, beautiful.” I smile up at him and get on my tippy toes to kiss him.

“Your sons have been a pain in my ass today.” He throws his head back, laughing, but I’m being serious. They’re usually very well-behaved—well, no.Zamiris usually well-behaved; Agustín, on the other hand, isn’t, but we’re two for three with how good Mariana is, so I can’t complain too much.

“Oh, now they’remysons?”

“Yes, you know I always let them be yours when they aren’t my usual angels.” He laughs again, and I smile up at him. “No, seriously, Agustín is in a menace phase. He behaves badly on purpose, amor. Today, I told him not to pick off the petals from my flowers, and he looked me right in the eyes as he picked off a handful!” My jaw actually dropped when he did it, and I had to turn around so he wouldn’t see me laugh.

Sire laughs at his son's behavior and kisses my forehead. “I’ll talk to him.”

I sigh again and rest my head on his chest. “Your turn.”

“It’s not nearly as bad as your horrible day,” he teases, and I look up at him.

“I didn’t say my day was horrible! I said your son was behaving horribly. The rest of the day was great.” I shrug, and he laughs. My day was great; work was good as always, and I got to hang out with Sire’s mom for a bit before she left. It was great until his kid was tearing my poor sunflowers apart, along with the rest of the house.

“The press conference went too damn long,” he grumbles, and I laugh at how it’s been years, and he still hates them. You’d think he’d get used to it by now. “No, seriously, now it’s too late for us to go.” His shoulder slouch, and I lean up to kiss him.

“I called and told them we’ll be late. We can still go if you want.” His eyes light up as he smiles down at me.

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