Waves of Hope
Chapter Twenty-nine
Edward
"So, let me get this straight…"
Bella smirks, zipping Asher into his sleep sack and sticking his binky between his lips.
"She's pregnant, but she doesn't know how far along, and she doesn't know who the father is?"
My mind is...blown.
"That about sums it up, yeah. Come on."
Stepping out of our bedroom, Bella takes my hand and leads me downstairs. The babies are all zipped up and content in their bassinets, worn out after their incredibly busy, first ever Christmas. Soon, they'll be too big to share the bassinets and we'll have to transition them into their bigger cribs overnight, but honestly, I don't think either of us are ready for that yet.
They're already six months old. Before I know it they'll be taking their drivers tests and heading off to college.
Flopping on the couch surrounded by the kids' toys, empty bottles, and a heap of laundry I accidentally knocked off the table when I carried Mackenzie and River upstairs, we both breathe big sighs of relief.
It's been a crazy day. Amazing, but insanely tiring.
I can only imagine how much crazier it'll be next Christmas when the sixers are fully mobile. Yep, not going there yet.
"Okay, explain this mess with Rose. I'm lost."
Bella laughs, pressing a kiss against my jaw as she snuggles in, a bare, short-clad leg tossed over both of mine and an arm draped over my overstuffed stomach. "There are two potential fathers. She's got to speak to them both, but she's terrified."
"Wait, one of them is Clarke, right?"
"Yes, one of them is Clarke."
"Who's the other one?"
"She wouldn't tell me." I don't need to see her face to know that bothers Bella. "She said she thought he should be the first to know, other than Clarke, obviously."
"Christ. What a mess."
"You're not kidding."
We fall silent, happy and calm in the quiet of what was once a relaxing room to sit in. Now it's permanent chaos and always feels as though it's closing in on me. My mind wanders to Rosalie and her tricky situation.
Two potential fathers to one unborn baby. I can't even imagine dealing with that scenario.
"Does your mom know?"
"Not yet. Rose is avoiding everyone like the plague."
A thought pops into my head. "Wait, was she pregnant when we were bringing the sixers home? Is that why she was distant?"
"She isn't sure if she was pregnant yet then, but that wasn't the reason for her avoiding everyone, at least not then. She's not showing or anything so she probably wasn't pregnant yet, but the tests she took a few days ago were very positive, she showed me pictures. She and Clarke had a big fight and broke up over how much time she spends working, so she was laying low and trying to get over him around the time we brought the babies home. They worked it out and got back together for a little while after that, though."
"But they broke up again a few weeks ago, right?'
"Right." Tipping her face up to mine, Bella smiles, mischief in her eyes. "Are we going to sit here talking about my sister all night, or can we do something a little more fun?"
Fire licks my veins, the look in her eyes and the feel of her wandering hands far more interesting than Rosalie's predicament. Sorry, Rose.
"Well, that depends what you have in mind."
Walking her fingertips up and over my chest, she hooks them into the neck of my sweater and tugs until I'm close enough to catch her lips with my own. "We can't go up to our room, but we can stay right here…"
And so, in the dim glow of the fairy lights wrapped around the Christmas tree, we stay right there and celebrate the holidays with feverish kisses, roaming hands, and sated "I love you's."
~ oOo ~
As December bleeds into January, February, then March, we hit our stride.
Slowly but surely, the babies adjust to sleeping in their new room. We're grateful for the advice we were given to get the babies used to napping in their cribs because it means they're used to sleeping there, but it's still tough on them—and us—and we spend a few weeks going back and forth between our room and theirs. We finally have to admit defeat and put up the other two cribs when it becomes obvious the babies are getting too big to share. Plus, there's the fact that Rylee is a fiend and forever stealing her brothers' binkies, and Caben still wakes up more than the others for feedings because he's too distracted to eat as much as he should during the day.
Despite how cramped it makes the room, a sliver of space between a few of them and others wedged into the gaps, it's just necessary if we don't want them waking each other up a hundred times a night.
Finding a routine that works for all of us is difficult, but we bumble along until our days don't feel quite so long and our nights are interrupted less and less. We become human again, albeit tired ones.
By the time the babies are nine months old, it's perfectly clear that each baby has their own distinct personality, most still reminiscent of how they were in the NICU.
River is still obsessed with his big brothers. If they're home, he wants to be with them. He'll army shuffle around and scream bloody murder if they go up the stairs where he can't follow them—though he gives it a good shot and has started trying to pull himself up onto the bottom step.
I'm thinking we're going to need to haul the safety gates in from the garage sooner rather than later.
Next up is Oakley, our chunky monkey, our little-big dude. He's forever smiling, always chill, and still eats like a damn horse—or his big brothers, who eat enough to rival grown men. Oakley is our easiest baby, our most content to just roll with whatever.
As I rock him in my arms, my thoughts shift to Caben and how far he's come in the last ten months. Our miracle boy. The smallest of the sixers but the biggest momma's boy I've ever met. He lights up when she walks into a room and is never happier than when he's in her arms.
Asher and Mackenzie are our goofballs. They always want to be moving but their absolute favorite thing to do is laugh—at each other, at the other babies, at their big brothers or Uncle Sully or Papa Charlie...anybody who'll flash them a smile or tickle their chubby bellies, basically. The video I caught of them belly-laughing at each other in the mirror, tumbling onto their backs only to sit back up and start all over, is the most liked video on their Instagram page.
A page that is just a few thousand followers shy of one million, which is just...it's incomprehensible to me.
Then there's Rylee.
"Dad, look!" I grin, running my fingers through Caben's soft curls as he drifts off to sleep against my chest, my eyes finding Arlo. It's warm out, so we brought the huge playpen outside and set it up in the shade. The boys are all sleeping in their swings, except Caben in my arms, so it's just Arlo and Rylee in what the big boys have dubbed 'the baby jail.' It's really two playpens that we've attached together to make one big area, and then we've lined it with foam mats so the babies don't hurt themselves.
"I'm looking," I tell him, watching as Rylee shifts up onto her hands and knees. She's been doing it for a few weeks now and is becoming increasingly frustrated with how slow army crawling is. So far, the boys are all content shuffling around on their bellies, but not our girl.
"Here, try this." Tossing Arlo Bella's old cell, the dead one we let the babies play with, I pull mine from my pocket, just in case.
Arlo shuffles a few feet back, Rylee frowning at him until he puts the cell down in front of his crossed legs. Her face lights up and familiar determination draws her brows in. She gets this adorable little crease between her eyebrows when she's concentrating, her button nose scrunched as she rocks on her hands and knees.
"C'mon, Sis," Arlo coaxes. "You can do it, come get it. Come on, come on."
Chuckling, I hit record and remind Arlo that Bella hates it when we call the babies like they're puppies. Shooting a smirk over his shoulder, he reminds me that Bella isn't here right now.
"Touché, buddy."
I've almost given up on today being the day that Rylee does it when she babbles a bunch of nonsense and lifts one hand off the rubber mat.
My breath catches in my throat as I step closer.
Intensely focused on the phone in front of her brother, Rylee squawks and grunts, still rocking, until she suddenly puts her hand down and just...does it. Like it's no big deal, she puts one hand and one knee in front of the other and crawls all the way across the baby jail—ah, play pen.
The lump in my throat almost chokes me as I watch her snatch up her prize, sitting back on her diaper-clad butt with a proud, two-toothy grin. Her silver eyes catch mine, drool running down her chin as she babbles and chews on the phone. To her, it's no biggie. To me, it's incredible.
"Good job, baby girl," I breathe as Arlo whoops, hurdling the side of the pen to get Jaxson and Finley. After quickly strapping Caben into one of the two unoccupied swings lined up against the wall, I swoop Rylee into my arms and kiss all over her chubby cheeks as she squeals and giggles with delight.
She was the first baby to get off CPAP, to move to an open crib, and to be released from the hospital. Since then, she's been the first to laugh and now the first to crawl. She's the boss of all the babies and has every guy she knows wrapped around her tiny pinky. No longer the smallest, even if only by a few ounces, she's storming the castle and showing everyone what she can do.
"You're taking no prisoners, huh?" I murmur, grinning at my beautiful little girl as she loses interest in her toy, dropping it—thankfully into the playpen—to smash my cheeks together. "You're gonna keep us on our toes, aren't you? My little ballbuster."
Tenacious, confident, and loud, our lone little girl is definitely the leader of the pack. There's not a single doubt in my mind that she's going to be ruling her eight big brothers for a long time to come.
~ oOo ~
"Have a good evening, handsome," Bella says distractedly as I lean down to kiss her cheek.
"I'm gonna miss y'all," I murmur, chuckling when Asher waves his spoon in the air and flicks mashed avocado onto his twin's face. "You're supposed to eat it, buddy, not throw it."
Baby led weaning wasn't something I knew much about when Willow was a baby. Conversely, I now feel like I've read every book on the subject. Still, nothing prepares you for seeing six infants sitting in a custom built table with avocados mashed into their hair and dotting everything around them.
It's definitely something.
"Here, like this, baby." Bella gently shows him the right way to hold the specially designed spoon, her patience beyond admirable. I don't know how she does it.
As much as I'd love to stick around and help, a quick glance at the clock tells me I need to get going. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Twisting in her seat, Bella motions for me to duck down again. Pressing a lingering kiss on my lips that does nothing to motivate me to leave, she pulls back and smiles. "We'll be fine, I promise. Carlie and Jane are coming over to have some girl time and they'll stay to help me put the babies to bed."
Jaxson strolls in from outside, rubbing his wet hair with a towel. "We're here, too. We'll help."
"See? We'll manage, handsome, don't worry. Now, go, before Garrett calls wondering if you're standing him up."
The downside to having a business that usually runs itself pretty well is that when it doesn't, it's a massive pain in the ass.
Two of our servers have called in sick today and Jones is on vacation with Kelly and Maggie, which means the kitchen can't even toss a body or two out to cover the floor. For the first time in months, I'm going into work. As I kiss each of my babies' faces, lay one on Bella, and yell goodbye to the boys out in the pool, I try to work out if I'm excited or nervous.
All the way to the restaurant, a warm breeze rushes through the Jeep, my arm resting on the window ledge. I don't get out by myself all that much these days. It's too quiet without a baby or two babbling in the backseat, or the boys asking where we're going and if we can get a shake or Burger Co. while we're out. My thoughts shift to Bella handling the babies by herself until her friends head over. We try not to leave each other that outnumbered, but tonight we didn't really have another option, so I'm glad reinforcements will be on the way soon.
Pushing my worry from my mind, I crank up the stereo and promise myself that I'll try to just enjoy the evening without spit-up on my shirt, a baby attached to my foot, and another drooling on my chest.
~ oOo ~
Creeping into the house shortly after midnight, I grin at Max as he appears at the top of the stairs. "It's just me, Max."
With a soft huff, he turns and heads back to wherever he came from—probably right outside the babies' room. He's taken to sleeping sprawled out in front of their door, which is a freaking nightmare when we have to stumble in there, bleary-eyed, in the dead of night.
Hanging my jacket on the hook and dumping my keys in the bowl, I have a sudden, random flashback of the same thing several years ago. That night, I dropped Bella home at her parents' and returned to an empty, lifeless house. I tried to tell myself I wasn't lonely even though I knew it was a lie.
I had so much fun at Burger Co. tonight, reminiscing with my crew about the 'old days' when I used to sink a bottle of whiskey before crashing in the studio apartment upstairs. It sits empty now, my nights spent wrapped around my beautiful Bella with our kids down the hall.
I loved goofing around with Garrett through the serving hatch, teasing New Kid with a nickname he'll never shuck, and chatting with some of the regular customers when there was a lull long enough for me to wander around the floor and check in with everybody. I miss it. The old me, the guy who preferred solitude over company and quiet over noise, was nowhere to be found.
That's all on Bella and our kids.
At the end of the night, when muscle memory would have once had me behind the bar reaching for the numbness alcohol could give me, I was rushing out of the door to get home to my family.
Moving quietly through the house, I check that the doors are all locked before heading upstairs. As expected, Max is acting as a giant, fluffy sentry outside the babies' room. I give his head a scratch as I walk by. The boys' door is ajar, so I peek in and smile at their soft snores. They never wake each other up, but I couldn't sleep through that racket.
Moving back down the hall, I step over Max and can't resist checking on the babies. There's only a small amount of accessible space in here, a three by three foot square just inside the doorway, so I peer over the end of each crib, all of them containing a sleeping baby except one, and I know exactly where to find him.
Bella obviously fell asleep without closing the drapes, because when I step into our bedroom, she and our sleeping son are propped up by the headboard with moonlight bathing their faces.
Oakley is fast asleep on his momma's chest, his little head tucked under her chin and his chubby fist wrapped around the initial charms on her necklace. Instead of prying him away from her, I wedge a few pillows around them and strip, ducking into the bathroom to shower the burgers and fries scent off of me.
Stepping back into the room a little while later as I towel my hair dry, I can't resist fishing my cell out of my shorts on the floor to snap a photo of Bella and our chunky guy. The click of the camera wakes Bella. Her eyes slowly peel open, sleepy, adorable blinks making my heart pump faster.
"You're home," she whispers, stroking Oakley's back and stretching out a little.
"Here, let me take him," I whisper back, reaching for our son, only he starts fussing as soon as I pull him away from Bella. Smirking at her as she sighs and aims her tired smile my way, I give up. "Okay, new plan."
A few minutes later, I drop my towel, pull on some sleep shorts, and slip into bed. With Oakley fast asleep in his baby nest between us, I drape my arm around the cushion and twist my fingers around Bella's as we face each other on the pillows.
"How were the babies? Did they behave?"
"They were great, and the boys helped out loads. Carlie and Jane stayed for a glass of wine after they were all in bed and then they left, too. Did you have fun?"
"It was great," I admit, feeling a little guilty until she laughs under her breath and squeezes my hand.
"You should do it more often. You miss it, I know you do."
"But you and the babies—"
"Will be fine. I have the boys here to help out, and most of the time it's not even just us. Mom, Little Grandma, Jude, Everly...they're on rotation."
I snort, because she's not wrong. Not a day goes by that we're alone with our kids without someone else coming over. It's appreciated, obviously, but I can't deny that I'm excited by the babies' growing independence. Now that they're holding their own bottles, feeding them isn't such an ordeal. That was the hardest part of having six infants and only four hands between Bella and I.
Remembering how great it felt to get out and have some me time, even if it was at work, I purse my lips. Hope slips into my bloodstream. "You wouldn't mind?"
"Of course not. Handsome, I know how much Burger Co. means to you, and I want you to be happy."
"I am happy, here with you and the kids."
Her smile is radiant here in the low light of the moon, gray eyes shining like stars. "I know, but I see the way you light up when you're there. Even if you just go a couple times a week, it gets you out of the house and gives you a chance to see your friends without babies attached to you. We were away for so long, then we came back and had to go to Tampa, and now we're spending a lot of time cooped up in the house. I know you've missed the fast pace and the rush of working. Talk to Garrett, see what's feasible for you and the crew. We'll talk about it more once you've done that."
"You're the best, you know that, right?"
Even in the moonlight, her blush is visible. If we didn't have a baby grunting and snuffling like a piglet between us, I'd be all over her. The twinkle in her eyes tells me she knows it, too.
"Yeah, I know. But you're pretty awesome too, that's why I want you happy."
Squeezing her hand, I grin. "You make me happy."
~ oOo ~
Tightening my arm around Bella, I gently rock the wagon containing the babies with the other. They're protected by the fabric canopy and buckled in, three either side so they can pull faces at each other—and steal each other's binkies, in Rylee's case. We're on the sidewalk looking at the progress that's already been made on our new home.
Honestly? I'm amazed.
Taylor The Architect, as he's known in our circle, came and saw us in the new year to show us some preliminary plans. Throughout January, we tweaked things and made suggestions that might not necessarily be important for most people, but will be critical for our big family. The tiny laundry room on his initial plans, for example, had to be extended to almost three times its original size. We also extended the great room and asked for more windows pretty much everywhere, but mostly in the common living areas. Finally, after agreeing on all the structural stuff and general layout, we were told to sit tight and wait. 'The paperwork stage can be longer than the build,' Taylor's brother Tony warned us.
By some miracle, the woman who ended up with all our papers and applications is a follower of our babies and our story. She called us up just a few days after we sent in the plans for approval to say that she would do her absolute best to get our documents rushed through so we could start building as soon as possible.
Somehow, someway, she made it happen.
April 19th.
Exactly one year ago, we were sitting in Dr. Biers' office in Tampa being given the heartbreaking news that Caben's amniotic sac had broken at just twenty-one weeks.
"Mama!"
Bella purses her lips in a piss poor attempt to stifle her grin. "Yeah, baby, Mama's here." Slipping out from under my arm, she pulls our boy from his seat before tucking herself back into my side.
"Hey, buddy." Reaching up, I stroke River's rosy cheek. "You could say 'Dada,' you know? I'm feelin' a little left out."
River fixes his big green eyes on me and grins, flashing his teeth. "Mama!"
Bella loses her fight, shaking as she laughs loud enough to draw the attention of Taylor and Tony. They stroll over, smiles on their faces that only widen when the babies spot them and start babbling.
"Looks good, huh?" Taylor says, clapping his brother on the shoulder and raising his eyebrows at Bella and me. "So far, we're keeping to the schedule. We haven't had any hiccups or anythin'."
Nodding, my eyes wander over the foundation and the first parts of the framing starting to go up. If everything goes off without a hitch and we don't dawdle deciding on fittings, flooring, all those sorts of things, we should be in by Christmas—maybe October or November, if we're really lucky. Tony has promised to put his best crew on it, but weather will play a big part, as will any unseen issues that might crop up. "It looks great."
Until now, I hadn't been able to picture just how big the house would be, but with the foundation in and the bare bones structure starting to rise from the concrete, it's getting easier to picture.
It's going to be huge, easily twice the size of our current home.
"Want me to walk you around?" Tony offers, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
Eyeing the babies, who are getting increasingly cranky trapped in the wagon, then at Bella, who shakes her head slightly, I offer him a grin. "Sorry, the troops are getting restless. I'll come by tomorrow though, if that works?"
It does, so we part ways—Taylor and Tony to continue supervising the construction of our home, Bella, the babies and I to continue our walk.
It's a glorious spring day. The boys are at school and the babies were going nuts in the baby jail, so we figured a walk would do us all some good.
"This feels weird without Max," Bella says for around the seventh time since we left home thirty minutes ago.
I chuckle, nodding. "That it does. I bet he's having a riot with Stuart, Ben, and Freya, though."
"Causing a riot, more like."
When Benjamin called yesterday, asking if we wanted to go to a St. Bernard meet up with him, we were bummed to have to say 'no,' but hauling six ten-month-olds around a park while also trying to supervise Max just didn't sound like something we wanted to do with our Wednesday, so we let him take our beast instead. It does feel strange walking with the babies and not having him trotting along beside us, occasionally shoving his big head in to slobber over the babies, though.
"I can't believe how much they've done already," Bella murmurs a few minutes later.
"We haven't been out for a couple of weeks," I point out. "But you're right, they have done a lot. It's nice to hear that they're sticking to their schedule, huh?"
"For sure." Switching River to her other hip, she shakes her head when I offer to stop for a second so she can put him back in the wagon. "He's fine. It's just kind of crazy to see it all coming together. When Taylor showed us the plans, it still didn't seem real."
Smirking, I toss her a wink. "Feelin' real now, huh?"
"Definitely," she agrees, smiling as she shakes her head at me. "I forgot to tell you...I got a call from Laurie this morning. It was while you were dropping the boys off."
My eyebrows lift of their own accord. It's been a while since we last heard from Laurie Taylor of People. "What did she want?"
"People want to do a follow-up feature on the babies for their first birthday. She asked what our plans are and if we would let her and a photographer come out."
Humming, I let the idea roll around my head for a bit. We stroll down a sun-soaked street, waving to my favorite regulars who still come to the restaurant every Thursday and order the exact same things. "I don't hate the idea," I admit slowly. "Is it weird, though? To document their birthday like that?"
Bella is frowning when I glance down at her, but then she shrugs. "I don't think so. I mean, no weirder than their newborn picture being in the magazine, or the shoot we did when they came home."
"That's true," I concede. When Lexi, the unofficial chief photographer of Jackson Bay, took the babies' pictures a few weeks after they came home, we sent a few of them to Laurie. She had them printed in the Christmas edition of the magazine along with a picture we took as a family, all of us wearing fluffy red sweaters and Santa hats. We had to take the picture in October so it would be ready to print and it was hot as fuck in thick sweaters and jeans. "And she said it'll just be her and a photographer?"
"Uh-huh. I told her we didn't want it turning into a circus, and she promised she'd make sure they'd blend into the background."
"Then I guess there's no reason to say 'no.' It's not like we're not gonna post a bunch of pictures on their Instragram—"
"It's Instagram," Bella sighs, but I just grin and continue.
"—Page anyway."
"Exactly. Okay, so I'll call her back when we get home and confirm."
"Mama, Mama!" River suddenly shrieks, falling into fits of giggles when she gasps theatrically and buries her face in his neck to blow raspberries against his skin.
"Sorry, little guy, were we not paying you any attention?" I laugh, reaching over to tickle his chubby foot. Somewhere along the way, he lost his sock; Caben has lost both of his and Rylee had both of hers off and tossed over the side of the stroller before we even got off the front path outside our house.
"Mama," he mumbles, taking the binky Bella fishes out of the blue pouch on the handlebar of the stroller. Resting his head against her shoulder, he stares at me with my eyes.
"Do you know what I still can't believe? That we're planning their first birthday party already. What the fuck?"
Bella snorts. "It's gone by so fast."
The last year has flown by.
A year ago, we were told to expect to leave the hospital with our babies in boxes.
Now we're planning a birthday party for our six healthy, happy, don't-ever-like-to-sleep babies.
"We're still going with the boat theme?"
Rolling her eyes, Bella shoots me a look that screams 'duh.'
"Okay, and we've gotten most of the RSVPs back from the out-of-towners?"
"Yep. Most of Dad's side of the family is coming except a few cousins, and Dr. Biers called last weekend to accept our invitation. He's coming out a couple of days early to visit with us a little bit." Her eyes flash with humor as she admits, "He's expecting five-star treatment at Burger Co. while he's here, as he didn't have time to go at Christmas."
"Done. Whatever he wants, he's got it." Leaning over the back of the stroller, I call Rylee's name and grin when she tips her head back to babble absolute nonsense at me. This girl has a language all her own, I swear. "You ready to see your namesake, Sis?"
"Oo-roo-rah-gaga!"
Yep, there it is. Absolute nonsense.
"May's coming too, right?"
"Right," Bella confirms, her smile widening. "I'm so excited to see her. It's been too long."
Like Dr. Biers, May was planning to come out a couple of days before Christmas to see the babies, but they were both busy because something crazy happened.
A set of quadruplets needed their help.
In the same way that we packed up and moved to the hospital to be near specialists, the couple expecting quadruplets loaded themselves into their car and drove from Arizona to Tampa to be under the care of Dr. Biers. The babies were born a few days before Christmas, so he managed to make it out for a day, but May is a sought after NICU nurse and well-versed in taking care of premature high-order multiples, so she was needed back in Tampa. It was a shame, but it only makes us more excited to see her in June to celebrate the babies turning one.
We've since been in contact with the new parents who are now back in Arizona with their four girls, all fraternal. It's been a trip giving them advice like we're old pros when we still feel like we're stumbling through life learning how to do this parenting thing times nine.
~ oOo ~
Hours later, I sit on the back porch steps and just...watch.
I watch as the babies crawl around in the baby jail, all of them up on all fours consistently now except Caben, who much prefers to screech until one of us gets him where he wants to go. Just in the few minutes my eyes are on them, Rylee steals Oakley's binky, River pulls himself up to stand and flashes me a proud, toothy grin, and Asher and Mackenzie fall over themselves laughing as they take it in turns stealing each other's toys.
Arlo's whoop pulls my attention over to the pool where he's celebrating what I'm sure was a great spike. He's getting good at water volleyball, thanks to all the time Everly's been spending over here since Rosalie's situation has evolved from stressful to downright awkward—for Everly, anyway. The rest of us find it kind of hilarious.
Finley and Jaxson take their defeat like the good sports they can be, when they want to. Pride rushes through me as I watch them start a fresh game. Now eleven and just a month shy of nine, they're one of my proudest achievements.
Willow, Burger Co., the babies, and persuading Bella to marry me are the other main ones.
Speaking of Bella…
Dropping down to sit on the step beside me, she tucks herself under my arm and snuggles in good. Pressing a kiss against her temple, I breathe her in along with the smell of charcoal and Charlie's baby back ribs cooking on the grill. I can smell the sunscreen she slathered on the babies even though they're in the shade and the salt that rides the breeze from the ocean just a hundred feet away.
I can feel the hard thumping of my heart, the steady breaths that leave my lungs, and the whisper of Bella's hair tickling my bare back as the breeze plays with the ends.
We're content, sitting there watching as the sun starts its slow descent toward the horizon, our family happy and our lives fuller than we could ever have imagined they would be.
I look around at the grinning faces of our children, at my Bella's serene smile, and at Max splashing around in the pool, and yeah, I'm pretty confident that we're doing a good job of keeping our heads above water while sailing through these uncharted waters.
Last regular chapter before the epilogue...how'd I do?
Epilogue will go up over the weekend and then I have some fun news for y'all that I'm pretty sure you'll like ;)
Big hugs to annaharding and maplestyle for all their hard work, and to all of you for taking the time to read and review. It really does mean the world xo