Page 78 of Under Control
“Nope. Julia and Isaac will be fine no matter what, and the baby or babies will love having a big brother and sister to do stuff with.”
Olivia smiled and the crinkling of her eyes made a couple of tears spill over onto her cheeks. “I love you.”
“That’s the only thing that really matters. As long as you love me, we can do anything.” He let go of her hand to wipe the tears away with his thumb. “And I love you. I love you so much and I’m sorry it scared the crap out of me.”
“Well, it scared the crap out of me, too. Thank you for not giving up without a fight.”
“Thank you for giving me another chance.” He tugged on her hand until she slid across the couch and into his arms. “From now until forever, you and me are a team. If we’re happy, everybody in our lives will be happy.”
“You know what would make me happy right now?” she asked, almost giddy with relief and love for this man.
“Great sex followed by a pepperoni-and-sausage pizza?”
“Oh.” She considered that for a few seconds. “I was going to say a kiss, but sex and pizza does sound good.”
He was laughing when he flipped her around so she was straddling his lap. Then he buried his hands in her hair and kissed her until she forgot about pizza and everything else but the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
Epilogue
January
“Snow day!”
Olivia was pretty sure the bed slid a couple of inches across the floor as Isaac launched himself onto it. He landed next to his dad, catching him with a sharp knee or elbow, judging by the grunt.
“Snow day!”
“You’ve only been back to school from Christmas break for a week,” Derek muttered. “It’s mostly downhill to school. Just get on your sled.”
“There won’t be anybody there, Dad,” Julia said from the doorway. “He’d be alone.”
“I was kidding, pumpkin.”
Olivia peeked at the clock and groaned. “We had ten more minutes until the alarm went off. How come you don’t get up like this when it’snota snow day?”
“I don’t want to waste a snow day. And Dad, you said we wouldn’t have a snow day today.” Isaac jumped off the bed, but paused in the doorway to look back. “You werewrong.”
When they were gone—probably heading to the kitchen to start getting their energy levels up for the unexpected day off—Derek rolled to face her. She loved the early mornings, when his face was still soft with sleep.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled after giving her a kiss good morning. “I really didn’t think they’d cancel school for what was in the forecast. I can try to get somebody to cover my shift.”
“If it’s bad enough to cancel school, it’ll probably be a busy day for you and it’s late notice to call somebody in. We’ll be fine.”
“Maybe I can call Amber and see how she’s feeling.”
“No. Regardless of how she’s feeling right now, having two kids with snow-day energy levels isn’t going to help.”
Amber still had a month or so before her due date, but she’d had some issues and they were worried about her blood pressure. While they hadn’t directly confined her to bed, she was supposed to be taking itveryeasy. Sleep was an issue and she’d been struggling with mornings, so after the holiday vacation, they’d offered to take Isaac and Julia until she was back on her feet.
Derek and Olivia got them up and off to school in the morning. After school, they went to their mom’s for a few hours, and then Derek would pick them up or Olivia would on her way back from the office or a meeting. Since Jason was home on the weekends, they’d probably stay with their mom, but they were all still feeling it out.
“What’s your schedule today?” he asked. “We might be able to find a sitter.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, visualizing the planner that was downstairs on the counter. “I can work from home today. I have a video conference with my team scheduled, so it doesn’t matter where I am and if the kids interrupt a couple of times, it’s no big deal. I do have one phone call with a client, so I’ll bribe them with something.”
He chuckled and snuggled closer to her. “You’ve really got this parenting thing down.”
The alarm went off and they both groaned when he had to let her go to roll over and shut it off. “I want a snow day, too. You kept me up too late last night.”
