He’d had plastic surgery done on his head about eight weeks into his hospital stay. Then four more reconstructions after that.
And they’d done a wonderful job. Such a wonderful job, in fact, that you could only see that something had happened when he frowned or cried.
Wolf got up, drawing my attention to him.
He really was a big man.
Today he was in his leather jacket that I never saw him without.
He had some extensive damage to the back of his head and neck, which made him grow his hair longer than I’d ever seen on any police officer before.
He wore the leather jacket to cover up the scarring on his back and neck.
Another thing I’d heard from Michael.
I’d never seen it myself, but it broke my heart that he wore it.
“I gotta go,” he rumbled. “I just wanted to come see y’all and make sure you were okay.”
So he’d heard.
“Don’t do anything, Wolf,” I reprimanded him.
His eyes looked up to mine, and I could see the determination here.
“We’ll see.” He placed Carolina into my arms and reached for Nathan. “I can’t promise anything, though.”
I looked into the sweet face of my little girl once he left the room, and came to a decision.
I’d do everything in my power to help make that man happy. Even if I had to throw one of my sisters at him.
They were tenacious.
“You and me will get him there, little girl,” I said, running my finger down the bridge of her nose.
She stirred, and my heart filled with just a little bit more joy.
I was so happy I could scream.
I had the man I loved with all my heart.
A baby with that man.
And a life that I loved.
And in a few months, when Carolina’s surgery was behind her, I would be complete.
I couldn’t ask for a thing more.
Epilogue
I missed you. Let’s have sex. A lot.
-Michael’s secret thoughts.
Michael
“You left the toilet seat up again,” Nikki grumbled from her bent over position.
She was loading the dishwasher and I winced. I was supposed to do that last night. She’d asked a million times, and I just plain forgot.
Fuck.
“And you forgot to take out the trash again,” she continued.
I sighed.
The woman was a freakin’ mess.
I didn’t complain about her inability to put things away.
Like the pitcher of tea. I hated drinking hot tea. And I didn’t like the way ice watered it down.
Yet did she make more of an effort to put it away?
No.
So I drank my tea with ice now because it was inevitable that she’d forget to put it away.
And don’t even get me started on her makeup, hair products, curling irons, and God knows what else.
The first thing on our remodeling agenda, if it ever came to it, was a duel sink for him and her, because I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d wished I didn’t have to put away shit on the counter to shave my face or brush my teeth.
I didn’t tell her any of that, though.
We’d learned, over the last four years, how to pick our battles.
“I can’t fix the plumbing because you bought a male end, and I need a female end.” I said.
“What do you mean? What’s the difference?” Nikki asked, turning to study me.
I was a fucking mess.
I’d been under the house, fixing the plumbing that’d decided to fucking combust last night.
And she’d been bothering the fuck out of me for the entire morning to fix it so she could have running water for the party we were throwing for Madden.
Madden hadn’t had an easy life.
He’d had a lot of struggles, but in those struggles, he’d come out on top.
After Madden’s children had been released from the hospital, the three of them had gone to a foster home with Dean and Joslin, of all people.
After the whole asking for sperm from his brother debacle, Joslin finally gave up on ever having a baby with Dean. She actually gave up a lot of things, in fact.
Mainly other men’s dicks.
And with that new attitude on life, Joslin turned into a half decent person.