Dance With Me, Baby(22)

His eyes widened with surprise. “I’ve never actually said it, have I?” His arms tightened around me. “Fuck, how is that possible when I love you so damn much? From the moment I saw you on stage that first night, I’ve known you were meant to be mine, Juliette. I’m the luckiest bastard alive because here you are, expecting my baby and with my ring on your finger. I can’t wait for our wedding day, for you to become my wife. It’s all I’ve wanted from the beginning, as crazy as it sounds.”

“Oh, Declan,” I sighed, tears streaming down my face.

“I love you, Juliette Moureaux soon-to-be-McGowan.”

His speech was beautiful, but he’d gotten one thing wrong—I was the lucky one.





Epilogue


Declan


I jumped to my feet and clapped my hands so hard they started to sting and turn red. I didn’t care, I barely felt it any more than I felt the smile practically breaking my face. A beautiful ballerina glided to the front of the stage and curtsied, holding tight to her pink, fluffy tutu. She grinned brightly, showing off her dimples and sparkling violet eyes. Then she turned to step back into the line of other dancers, but not before waving her chubby little hand at me first.

She was so damn adorable, just like her mother. On the heels of that thought, I was distracted by my gorgeous wife as she stepped onto the stage to deafening applause. I laughed when Cassie darted out of line and ran over to throw her four-year-old arms around Juliette’s legs.

Juliette bent down and whispered something in her ear and Cassie giggled before scampering back into place. The crowd died down and the director of the dance school stepped out onto the stage with a microphone.

“We’d like to thank Juliette McGowan for taking the time out of her busy schedule to choreograph a piece for our recital. It was truly an honor to work with such a renowned choreographer and we are grateful New York City Ballet let us steal a bit of her time.” She wrapped up the performance with a few other remarks and then dismissed the dancers to find their families.

“Dadadadada! Gah!” I turned my attention to the little boy squirming in Nancy’s arms. My son reached for me and I lifted him high, nuzzling his round little tummy. Warmth filled my chest at the sound of Henry’s delighted little squeals and the twinkle in his warm brown eyes. Nancy patted his rump and then leaned up on tip toes to kiss my cheek.

“We’ve got to collect our little monsters and get them home to bed. I’ll say goodbye to the girls on the way out, but we’ll see you on Thursday, right?”

“Great. My parents will be here on Saturday to pick the kids up from your house. Thanks again for watching them until they could get here.”

“Are you kidding? Our kids ignore us when yours are over for a visit. It’s like a vacation,” Kevin joked.

I snuggled Henry to my chest and followed them out of the auditorium. They took off to find their kids, while Henry and I hung out, waiting for our girls. After a handful of minutes, a bundle of puffy, sparkly pink came barreling into the lobby and over to me.

“Daddy!” she screamed happily as she ran. I shifted my son to one arm and bent down to scoop Cassie up into the other. “Did you see me?”

I smacked a kiss on her cheek before answering, “I sure did, twinkle toes. How could I miss the prettiest ballerina on the stage?” I winked at her and she giggled.

I looked just beyond her and watched Juliette approach. Damn, she was amazing. Her eyes were soft as she looked at the treasures I held in my arms. When she reached us, she wrapped her arms around us and squeezed.

“She did great, didn’t she?” Juliette murmured proudly.

“Just like her mommy,” I agreed, then kissed her lips softly. “Let’s go home.”

***

“I miss my babies,” Juliette mumbled tearfully, and I hugged her close into my side. She’d been weepy on and off since we dropped the kids off at Nancy and Kevin’s last night. We’d said our goodbyes then because we had an early flight to Hawaii for our anniversary. In fact, she’d been in a state over leaving them on and off for over a week. I was familiar with these mood swings, plus she’d been feeling sick, and I wondered when she would catch on to the fact that she was pregnant again.

Her head rested on my chest and I dropped a kiss on her crown. “They are going to have so much fun, Jules. They won’t even know we’re gone.”

She sniffed and nodded. Clearly, she needed a distraction. With one long finger, I lifted her chin and covered her mouth with mine, lazily sweeping my tongue into her mouth and groaning at her delicious taste. A little moan escaped her mouth and I felt a shiver run through her. Before things could get out of hand, I pulled back and simply gazed at her. She was fucking gorgeous with her flushed skin and lust glazed, violet eyes.