Shielding Lily(37)

I turn my head to look at him. He’s so happy thinking about us having a family. His parents are going to be over the freaking moon. Our parents, I correct myself. I call them Mom and Dad, and they are just as much my parents now. I haven’t heard from my dad since the day I left his house. This is my family now.

Janet has been dropping hints about babies for a while. Okay, maybe not hints but flat-out saying she needs some grandbabies. And I'm ready for them, too. I have the time. We both do. Ren has a lot of off-time with the NFL.

Work for me is easy. I’ve been doing children’s books and my own projects, too. With Ren, though, I don’t really have to think about my art making money. I can do what I want, whatever makes me happy, and I love that. Not only because of the freedom, but when I’m happy, Ren is happy. And there’s nothing else in the world that I want other than to make Ren feel what I feel.

“What do you want? Boy or girl?” I ask.

“Doesn't matter. We’ll be having many, so I’m sure we’ll have both over time.” He keeps rubbing my belly.

“Ren.” I say his name softly, making him look at me in the eye.

“I should probably tell you.” I pause for a second, hesitant. I still want to laugh about his moves to try and knock me up. “There’s already a baby in there.”

He closes his eyes tightly and drops his head a little. He’s quiet for a moment before he finally opens his eyes again, looking at me.

“I’ve always thought I was brought into this world to find and protect you. To shield you from the ugly things out there. To not let any more darkness touch you. And I do still believe that. But I also think you were brought into this world to light up my life, Lily. The moment you walked into it, I came alive.”

“We both need each other. We could never be whole without our love,” I tell him, reaching up and touching his face.

“I love you so damn much, babe. I’m going to be the best damn dad to all the babies you give me.”

“I know you will.” I lean up to kiss him. “I love you, too.”





Epilogue





Ren





Six years after that….




“Are you sure you don’t miss it?” Lily asks me.

I look over to her breastfeeding our youngest, and smile at her. “Not for a second.”

I lean forward, kissing her, and then move down to the floor to watch the game with our two oldest. My mom and dad have our other two upstairs playing, so it’s quiet. For now.

Some people thought we were crazy to have five kids. But I can’t seem to let Lily go long without knocking her up again. I love putting babies inside her, almost as much as I love raising our family. Our first two, Gavin and Austin, are watching the Vikings take the field, while our twins, Eva and Victoria, are making my dad play dress-up. Our fifth, Brandon, is only a few weeks old, but we’re professionals when it comes to babies and he’s chilling with his mama on the couch.

I retired from the NFL last season, and haven’t regretted it for a second. It was getting harder and harder to be away from the family, and I decided I didn’t have to do that anymore. We had enough money saved up that my grandkids would never want for anything, and that seems like more than enough. What I wanted more than fame and money was time with my wife and kids, and I was tired of missing out.

Lily knew it was coming even before I told her. She’s always the one to see my next move way before I do. When I told her, she smiled and said to do what made me happy. I was lucky I didn’t have any injuries and I got out while I was at the top of my career. Football was never my true passion. That was always my Lily. And now our babies.

Leaning over, I kiss Gavin and then scoop up Austin, doing the same to him. The boys start laughing, and then it turns into a wrestling match on the floor.

Life is good. Life is so damn good.





Epilogue





Lily





Five years after that…




“What in the hell do you have on, Lily?”

I turn, hearing Ren’s stern voice from behind me, and I have to hide my smile. We dropped all five kids off this morning at Rick and Janet’s to have a little anniversary weekend together. Ren said he wanted to stop by the cabana table and get more towels, so I decided to take off my cover-up while he was away. He didn’t see my new bathing suit and I wanted to surprise him. Looks like it worked.

He stomps over to me, quickly pinning me back on the sun chair and draping a towel over my body. He looks around like someone could possibly be watching us, and I start to giggle.

“Stop laughing. This isn’t funny.”

He’s still looking around like there are men just waiting to see a mother of five in a bikini. I may not have the body I did when Ren and I first got together, but I don’t care. Ren loves all my imperfections, and he lets me know it. So I decided to wear something a little skimpy to make myself feel sexy, and I’ll be damned if he’s going to stop me.