Page 99 of Anything for You
“It’s funny because I never knew I wanted such a thing, but now that you say it, I can’t think of anything better than that.”
His eyes glittered back at me, a smile pulling his lips on that handsome face. “I can’t imagine anything better than you.”
I shook my head once, knowing the truth. “Than us.”
And turned out, I was right.
Thank you for reading Anything For You. I hope you loved it! Read on for a bonus epilogue to wrap up the whole series!
BONUS EPILOGUE
A few years later
Bruce
Leo snuck up to me, dark curls springing from his head since he’d been refusing a haircut, and peered into my arms.
“You see your little sister, buddy?” I asked my strapping little toddler. He was three and a half, and so gigantic, people sometimes mistook him for older. Almost a preschooler, but they often thought he was kindergarten or more.
Well, unless he was standing next to Will Rawlins, in which case he looked normal-sized since Will already looked about seven at nearly five years old. No one was surprised Beast’s child had turned out to be a giant just like his dad.
“She’s nappin’,” Leo said, his personal lilt making him sound a bit like a tiny Southern gentleman, and it killed me every time.
“She is. You can play with her later, after school, okay?”I hooked an arm around his waist and hauled him in for a hug. He pressed a kiss to my cheek, then blew one to “RoRo,” as we’d all ended up calling Kiley Rose, and ruffled her auburn wisps of hair. I released him, and he bolted across the space back to the little child gate where Nikki waited.
My heart leapt and my stomach clutched low. It’d been a busy few weeks and we hadn’t had nearly enough time together. But soon. I had some time off coming up, and she was taking it, too, so we could all just relax. Kiley would come home for the break between semesters, and I’d breathe easy with all my people under my roof.
Though times like these—visiting the daycare for “Afternoon Snuggle Time”—felt pretty damn perfect, too.
Nik winked and gave a little nod. She mouthed “I love you,” and I just grinned at her, the ridiculous reality of my love for her causing her cheeks to flame.
“Oh, for crap’s sake, will you guys never get over each other?”
My head snapped in the other direction to see Kenny snuggling his twins, one in each arm, in a rocking chair in the corner. Their IVF had finally worked and there’d never been a happier human being than Kenny Carmichael the day those babies were born. Except maybe every day after, since that was just him.
“Like you’ve gotten over Elizabeth?” Adam asked, changing his youngest’s diaper on the other side of the room.
Tristan peeked in where Nikki had just been standing. “Is he really hassling you? This from the man who tears up anytime he so much aslooksat his wife these days?”
Kenny scowled back at Tristan. “You’re one to talk.”
Tristan remained unmoved. “I’ll cry as much as I wantto when I look at the woman who just carried my child for nine months.” Then he dropped to one knee, his boy Tommy just behind him with energy absolutely vibrating off his little frame. “You want to say hi to the Uncs before we go?”
Tristan stepped out of the way so Tommy, the same age as Leo, could say hi to the men he affectionately called “the Uncs.”
We’d all done it, this natural thing that when any of us had kids, we called each other aunts and uncles instead of Mr. or Mrs. It just fit in the context of being people who had chosen to function as family, and as our kids grew, we saw the value more and more.
“Hi! Unc Barbie, tell the babies I love them, and Unc Doc, you’re doing great. And Unc Jaws, she’s really cute and I’m gonna marry her when we’re both big, and now I’m going to Unc Beast’s to play with Will, bye!”
He darted away down the hall, and Tristan shook his head. “He was recently devastated to learn he can’t marry Winnie.”
We all chuckled, familiar with Tommy’s lover boy nature.
“She doing okay?” I asked, glad to see my friend after he’d been out for the first part of his parental leave.
He beamed. “Amazing. She’s in the car—wanted to get out of the house, so we’re taking Ally for a drive after we drop Tommy with Jess and Will.” A screech and then a cackle had my calm, steady friend’s head snapping to look down the hall, then he hollered, “Gotta go!” and jogged after his son.
We all shared a look, enjoying the chaos for our friend. One wild part of parenting alongside friends was our different methods for caring for our kids, but also thevaried personalities. Since Tommy and Leo were nearly the same age, we often saw the intense divergence between them.
