There’s a closeness between Ava and Dad that still surprises me when I see them huddled over a stove cooking or talking about Sith Lords and Yoda, and gah, who knew he was such a nerd about a galaxy far, far away. But then, I didn’t really know that about him because with my mom, Dad suffered too, distancing himself and locking things away. Now, though, things have changed. That year I spent with him and Dane—I don’t regret one moment of it. We took a broken family and learned to heal.
Dane picks me up, no easy feat, and attempts to twirl me around, but he can barely lift me.
“Bro, you have zero upper-body strength,” I murmur.
“Because I’m a serious college student.” He waggles clear, focused eyes. He’s been clean for years, attending NYU. Dad sees him a lot, flying between New York and Nashville.
“This is my future grandfather and uncle. Knox is going to be my dad,” Tyler tells the reporter, who gives him a wide look, laughs, and then bends down to him.
“Is that right? Tell me more.”
I guess she’s going for the personal interest angle here.
Tyler lets out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s a really, really long story—and I should know it because my future dad likes to tell it, but it started with a love letter he put in my sister’s locker…”
I smile. Technically, it started the moment my eyes met hers freshman year in high school, but I let him begin his way.
Ava meets my gaze, bites her lip, and clasps my hand.
Tyler puts his small hand in my other one.
Dane takes Ava’s free hand, and Dad takes Tyler’s.
We’re a family.
Epilogue 2
The sun is high in the sky as a breeze blows in from the Atlantic. Palm trees rustle in the wind. A sailboat drifts by on the horizon. I take it all in, leaning my elbows on the railing as I inhale the smell of the beach and crashing waves. I soak it up then turn around to check the burgers on the grill.
Lou lounges on a chair and lets out a long whistle. “Damn, I could retire here. What kind of square footage is this place?”
“A gabillion,” Wyatt murmurs. “You should see my bedroom—plush, man, and it’s just a guestroom. I love how Ava’s decorated. Girl’s got great taste.”
I smile unabashedly. Yeah, she does. I loved watching her pore over magazines and meet with designers after we bought it last year.
Lou sees my expression and laughs. “God, you two.”
Dane hands Lou a beer. “Six thousand square feet. Five bedrooms, five baths. Jacuzzi tubs, stainless steel everything, and five hundred feet of beachfront. Primo property and a mile from our family beach house.” He leans in and stares at the burgers. “Knox had to get one bigger than Dad’s. Showoff.”
That is not true and my eyebrow tells him so.
Since I graduated four years ago and took over some of Dad’s investments in the Nashville area, I’ve worked my way up from a desk job to executive vice president, and it has little to do with impressing my father. It’s about me and Ava.
“The one next door is for sale,” I tell him slyly. “Maybe your fiancée would like it?”
Ari, the girl in question, lights up and turns to Dane. “Oh, yes, let’s go check it out tomorrow!”
Dane rolls his eyes. “Great. We aren’t even married yet and here you are, putting the pressure on.”
“He’s just a happy sonofabitch and wants us all to be,” Wyatt says, settling in on a chair next to Jagger and handing him a beer. The two of them have been inseparable since Vandy days. Ava has already told them our beach house is theirs if they want to get married here. She and I were married at my dad’s place down the road right after I graduated.
Piper sticks her head out the French doors. “Okay, okay, Knox, I know you’re busy with the guys and all, but do you have a moment?” She gives me a wide-eyed look. “Ava—”
I toss the spatula on the countertop and dash inside.
“Why don’t you run that fast when I need something?” I hear Ari ask Dane.
I walk into an empty kitchen. Piper points down the hall to the master bedroom, and I head there.
Ava sits on the big bed, a crying baby on each leg. Leland Knox and Persephone Tulip are officially two years old this weekend. My eyes search her. She looks okay, maybe a little scattered, and her hair needs brushing, but hey, when you’ve got two toddlers—
“Ugh, I told Piper I was fine, told her they cry in tandem all the time. Doesn’t matter who’s mad or happy, the other wants to be part of it.” She huffs out a laugh when Leland burps, his face un-wrinkling at the relief then focusing on me. His pudgy hands reach for me. “Dada!”
Ava shakes her head as I take him in my arms. “I thought the walk on the beach might have worn them out, but nope, not a single eye shut. You might as well get ready—”
“My dada!” Persephone cries until I pick her up too, managing to bounce them on my hips.
“They’re sleepy and here we are trying to have a birthday party.” Ava stands next to me, her fingers curling under their chins as she hums a song. “Beautiful babies.”
Leland reaches back for her, like he usually does, and I know he only picked me to rescue him from sleeping. Ava’s an incredible mom, soft and easy and patient, everything she always wanted from her own. Having a baby was part of the plan; twins, not so much, and while it’s slowed her down some during her medical training, she’ll be completely done soon and wants to work in research.
Leland wipes his nose. “Nap bad,” he tells his mom sternly as he pulls on her hair.
“Tyler!” Persephone chimes in.
“Domestic bliss?” Tyler says on a laugh as he comes in the open door. My dad is with him. They left earlier for a movie while the rest of us chilled out this morning.
Persephone wiggles her fingers for Tyler, and he takes her and settles her on his hip.
“Guess what, little P? Grandpa let me drive today!” he says.
I start and sputter as I glance at Dad. “You let him drive? He’s not even fifteen yet!”
Dad looks a little pale, and I stop and chuckle. I recall well him teaching Dane and me to drive, featuring lots of yelling and cursing every time we braked too hard.
Dad blows out a breath. “He asked and I thought, Why not? Not sure my car will ever be the same—”
Tyler coos at the baby on his hip. “He’s not telling you about the pedestrian I nearly mowed down—”
Ava’s eyes flare.
Dad exhales. “They have bike lanes here and she was very pretty, and I saw exactly where your eyes were—”
“She wasn’t. I just got distracted—” Tyler huffs.
“Did he cuss at you?” Dane says, walking in and immediately swiping Leland from Ava. My son smiles, giggling at his uncle’s long hair.
“Pretty,” he gurgles then spits up on Dane’s shirt.
He blanches, his eyes widening. “Gross! Gah, I hate the smell of milk.” But he doesn’t let him go, even when Wyatt and Piper come in, each of them holding out their hands and vying for his attention.
Lou pops his head in. “Food’s up!”
Ava laughs, and I guess it’s because Lou has taken over the grill for me.
Persephone wiggles her way down from Tyler and throws a look around at Leland, still content in Dane’s arms.
“Leeeeeeee, eat! No nap!” she wails out in a demanding voice, and then he’s straining to get to her—as a good brother should—and does his duck walk in his diaper to where she’s waiting at the door. He hangs on to her shirt, muttering, then dashes ahead, laughing as she tries to catch him.
“P, P, P, I win!”
“No!” she cries and runs faster, and dang, they can’t even really run that fast, but we all watch, entranced.
It’s such a simple thing, really, seeing them and thinking how lucky I am, and the emotion wraps around me, amazement that I hold happiness in my hands, the knowledge that family is everything.
Everyone files into the kitchen, and I turn to Ava, finding her eyes as misty as mine.
She jumps at me and I clutch her close. It’s the little things. God, the little things.
I kiss her long and slow, my tongue tangling with hers, and she melts into me.
Our lines got a little blurry along the way, through broken hearts and time lost, but in the end, we made a full, complete, beautiful circle.