“Daddy, you said another bad word!” Knight calls from his room, ecstatic. It’s ten o’clock at night. What is he doing up? “This is the best bet ever. Vaughn is going to owe me a lot of candy.”
Sometimes I feel like Dean doesn’t even try not to cuss in front of Knight. I don’t resent him for it. That’s who he is, and if people have a problem…well, fuck them.
He doesn’t say that—he probably wouldn’t admit it, either—but I know that one of the reasons he agreed to sell all those shares to Jordan Van Der Zee is because he wanted to spend more time with us. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Neither do I. But I do know that both my boys are going to be in very good hands. This is the man who impregnated me after I was told that there was only a 0.0001% chance I will be able to conceive. He took that slim chance and made it happen. Since he doesn’t carry the CF gene, my son will be healthy and strong. Just like him.
“Put a dollar in the jar for me,” Dean yells to Knight, smirking at me and opening his towel before knotting it back. “I’ll pay you tomorrow.”
“There’s a twelve percent interest on that,” Knight yells back. Dean chuckles.
“Are you sure he is not biologically mine?” He gives me that look. You know, that look, that still makes me damp and begging for his dusky side to spank me.
I shrug, downplaying his effect on me. “He is the closest thing to the real you.” Other than the one that’s in my stomach.
Dean walks over, flattens his palm against my huge belly, and sits down beside me.
“Hey, Sirius?”
“Yes, Earth?”
“Why do you shine so fucking bright? You make it hard for me to sleep next to you.”
“Mmmm.” I take his hand and kiss his palm, smiling. “Thanks for the cheese, but it gives me heartburn.”
“Okay, what I’m really trying to say is that you started snoring about two months ago and fuck, I’m tired.”
“This too shall pass,” I say, teasing. “Soon, my snoring will be replaced with a baby who cries all night for the next two years.”
He kisses my temple, then my belly, then between my heavy tits, making a suckling sound. I love him. I love him so much I don’t know why I didn’t do what I should have done all those years ago. Push my sister aside when she came running into his arms and claimed him as mine.
Because he always was.
Every part of him.
The good and the bad, the happy and the sad.
Mine.
Just like I was his.
Nina died weeks after I left the hospital three years ago. Drug overdose, back on the farm she lived on in Alabama. Her husband by her side. I was there to pick up the pieces of Dean’s broken heart. To see him finally break, finally admit that he cared. That he loved her and wanted nothing but to be her son. That his heart was never going to be the same again.
Lev means a heart in Hebrew. Lev is also going to be the name of our son.
I count my blessings. Every single day.
I count them when I kiss Knight good night, when I watch Dean from the window trying to turn on the sprinklers, kicking blades of grass before remembering that the sprinklers are automatic, and when Millie and I do brunches and watch the kids play and fight and shout.
“You know what I just realized?” Dean leans down, and now he is kissing my lips and I get all dizzy, knowing that we can’t take it any farther. Not just because of the pregnancy. Knight has been known to burst into our room and negotiate his bedtime. He is getting pretty good at it. By six, he will start giving his dad a run for his money as far as trading goes.
“What?” I smile.
“Baby LeBlanc is having a baby. And it’s mine. I fucking love you. Love your face.” He kisses my nose. “Your tits.” He kisses my nipple through my tank top, biting it softly. “The kid you’re making for us.” He kisses my belly and mouths into it, “And you, too, buddy.”
“The fucking spectacular sex that we have—I’m saving all my sperm for our reunion, so be warned, I might knock you up again in no time.” He kisses between my legs. “And down to your feet, that I worship every day.” He kisses my toes.
I take a deep breath. I don’t need my inhaler. I have him.
“And I figured out one more thing.” He raises his body back up and boxes me underneath him. His arms are flexed, his bulging muscles are making it hard for me to concentrate on what he is saying, and suddenly, the room just got a little too hot for my liking.
“What?” I whisper as our lips brush together.
“Jacob got his fucking Rachel. And she gave him a baby. They will live happily-ever-after. Grow old together. It’s in the Bible, Baby LeBlanc. You can’t dispute it.”
“I love you.” I laugh.
“I love you,” he says back.
“I love you’s!” Knight bolts into the room, throwing the door open, jumping onto the bed between us, hugging my belly.
“We love you.” Dean puts his hand on my stomach, and now we all touch Lev.
And what does Lev do? What HotHoles do. Ruin.
“God, oh,” I moan.
“Yes, baby, I’m a god, but our son is here. This will have to wait.”
“No, Dean. My water just broke.”
“Oh,” we all say in unison. “God.”
And I now have my happily-ever-after. At least in this moment.
Now is forever, at least for me.
For I am not a wilting Rose, I’m in full bloom.
Thanks to him.
THE END
First, I would like to thank my editing team. Angela Marshall Smith, Elaine York, Bex Harper, Ellie McLove and Paige Smith. Each of you gave a piece of yourself to this book, and it shows. Thank you for that piece (you’re never getting it back, by the way.)
To Letitia Hasser for the gorgeous cover—thank you for always knowing exactly what I need and making it happen, you’re fifty shades of awesome. Stacey Blake for the lovely and artistic formatting. You ladies make my books look so pretty.
To Sunny Borek. I’m not even sure what to list her as. Beta reader? Manager? Sister-from-another-mister? Probably all of the above. I owe this girl so much, and yet she never expects anything back.
To my beta readers: Paige Jennifer, Ilanit Adani, Ava Harrison, Ella Fox and Amy Halter. I don’t know what I would have done without your guidance.
My street team – Kristina Lindsey, Julia Lis, Becca Szurken, Lin Tahel Cohen, Sher Mason, Ilor Tsabar, Ofa T Booklover, Sonal Dutt, Vanessa Serrano, Josephine McDonnell, Tanaka Kangara, Sabrina Shalalashvilli, Brittany Danielle Christina, Avivit Egev, Shiri Karni, Jessica Meade, Galit Hadar Shmaryaoo, Sheena Taylor and Bernadett Lankovits and Amanda Suderland. You girls are such a huge part of my life and success. I love you to bits.
To my agent, Kimberly Brower, who took the Sinners of Saint series and made sure everybody knew about it—you are a star and I am so lucky to have you.