A/N This is it before the epilogue! I can't even… Thank you so much everyone. Hold me HollettLA…

Off Piste

- 49 -

"Spunky, I'm leaving for the photo shoot," I said, walking through the house.

I came into the lounge and stopped myself when I realized he hadn't heard me. The sounds of his guitar were filling the room, the mess of bronze hair sticking up behind the couch. I walked quietly around so I could see him better. Edward had his legs up on our big deep couch, guitar in lap. On either thigh, a tiny little head was lying; their little bodies spread out on either side of him and fast asleep.

I literally clutched at my heart, and I'm sure my ovaries started twitching.

The daddy moments like this were killer. I couldn't deal; I spent so much time swooning.

I thought about just slipping out, but I couldn't resist and moved behind the couch. I popped my head on his shoulder.

"You're delicious, and I adore you," I whispered, looking down at his fingers working the strings and the rise and fall of little toddler chests.

I kissed his cheek as he smiled.

"I'm going to do bad things to you tonight to show you how delicious you are and how much I adore you," I continued. "See you in a few hours."

I went back to doing a bit of work again almost by accident. I did a local reporting piece on the build-up to the World Cup events coming up in the area for ESPN, and then they asked if I would come back on board to cover any racing in the Tahoe and Colorado areas. It was close enough to home to be manageable with the kids and not regular enough to be too disruptive. I certainly wouldn't take on the international work again at this point.

Amongst that happening, Skier magazine asked me to do a piece on the local ski industry. Not long after I submitted it, the editor called to say they were definitely going to publish it and would arrange for a photographer to meet with me to get some accompanying shots. He also asked if I'd like to contribute a few more pieces over the next year, including interviewing some of the athletes based in the area and reporting after any big events that the region may host.

We took Jack and Molly to the Queenstown house for a month over Christmas. We made sure to go for a decent length of time, any less and the long flight with toddlers wouldn't have been worth it. It was so good to be back in that house which meant so much to me, and it was nice to bring the troops to Renee for a change, rather than her coming to us. Jasper and Alice made the trip a week after us, my two-month-old nephew and godson, Oscar, travelling easily when he could nurse and sleep the whole way. They were staying on a little longer than we were to allow Renee plenty of catch up time with Oscar, seeing as she'd missed the birth. There was plenty of room at our house for all of us, and they'd stay on there after we left.

Edward had become best mates with Phil's dog, George, when we were visiting them. He made a few comments about how he'd always wanted dogs, which I stayed quiet on. Sure enough, back in Tahoe, he came home with what he called an "anniversary present": two Labrador puppies. He'd of course named them before they were even through the door. Couve was the black boy – named after Vancouver, and Queenie was the golden girl – named for Queenstown. He was mighty proud of himself for that one. Jack and Molly thought it was fantastic. I'd always loved dogs, but it took a bit of getting used to, having toddlers getting bowled down by puppies and kids toys turning into chew toys. I put the responsibility back on Edward to deal with that. I'd only just toilet-trained the kids, he'd have to toilet-train the puppies.

I don't think he'd factored in our recent increase in unprotected fucking when he added to our household. Two weeks later, we found out I was pregnant again.

-x-x-x-