Page 157 of A Little Crush
Fuck. Henry and Mia were right. I really am the luckiest guy in the world.
And I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure Rory knows it, too.
The End
EPILOGUE
RORY
A few years later
It’s funny. How Jaxon constantly accommodating Iris’s unreasonable schedule slowly transitioned the fifty-fifty split to be closer to ninety-ten. And after a few years of unsteady schedules and a little girl who looks more and more like her daddy every day, Jaxon finally took Iris to court for full custody.
We won.
We. Freaking. Won.
The memory alone is enough to bring tears to my eyes. Or maybe it’s the hormones.
Resting one hand on my swollen belly, I shield my eyes from the sun and call out, “Hey, you two! Lunch is ready!”
“Just a sec!” Jaxon’s head pops out from behind a thick branch, and he grins. “I think the black’s gonna look awesome.”
“Look, Mom! Black!” Poppy chimes in. Black paint is smeared across her shirt and part of her cheek as she stands on the large platform ten feet off the ground. Thankfully,there are railings, and she isn’t allowed in the treehouse unaccompanied, but the girl’s obsessed. And I meanobsessed. She raises a paint brush into the air, wielding it like a sword. “Argh! I’m a pirate!”
“You are definitely a pirate,” I agree with a breath of amusement. But seriously. How is she so cute? “And pirates eat grilled cheese sandwiches. Tell your daddy it’s time to eat, will ya?”
Her eyes light up, and she turns to Jax. “Grilled cheese, Daddy! Grilled cheese!”
“All right, all right. We’re coming. Let me go first, okay?” Once he’s down a few rungs, she joins him on the ladder and slowly, they climb down together before Jax moves out of the way so she can land on the grass with a quiet thump.
As she rushes inside, he approaches me with his usual sexy swagger. “Hey, Beautiful.”
“Hi.”
Invading my space, he brushes his lips against mine in a toe-curling kiss. “Thanks for making lunch.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I reply. “I left your sandwich on the burner while I was changing Declan’s bum, and it got a little burned. Speaking of…” I grimace. “I left Declan inside with some apple sauce. How much do you want to bet it’s smeared all over the wall?”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure Hades will lick it up.” Wrapping his arm around my waist, he kisses my cheek and guides me inside.
Sure enough, Hades is on his hind legs, leveraging himself against the wall and licking what’s left of the smeared apple sauce from the window next to the high chair.
“Hades, off,” I scold, and I swear, if it was possible to roll his eyes, he would. Tail swishing, he pushes away from the wall, collapsing onto all four legs before sitting next to Poppy at the kitchen table. With a smile, she drops him thecrust of her sandwich, and he gobbles it up like he hasn’t been fed in days. “Why do we even buy dog food?” I ask Jax.
He shrugs. “It’s the thought that counts.”
“Of course, it is.” Slipping his sandwich from the warm pan and onto a plate, I offer it to him. “Eat up.”
He bounces his eyebrows up and down. “Don’t tempt me.”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I shake my head and try not to blush. But, seriously?
“I forgot to ask, how was therapy?” Jax adds.
“It was good. The usual.”
“Anything I can do?”
