Epilogue

- One Year Later

"Man, I fucking hate you," Owen says, lying flat on the gym floor.

"Yeah, yeah." I set his son down to terrorize him into getting back up. "You hired me to be your personal trainer, you're supposed to hate me."

When little Griffin makes it to his dad, he jumps on his stomach. "Fuck, little man."

"Phuk!" Griffin copies Owen, and that gets him to shoot up.

"No, no, no. Don't say that, buddy."

"Phuk!" Griffin repeats, and Owen hangs his head.

I chuckle. Griff has been talking more and more, and much to Waverley's dismay, their son copies his dad constantly. "Dude, you got to stop. Wav's going to kill you."

Owen stands up with little Griff. "Well, we're not going to say it in front of Mommy are we, little man? "

"Phuk!" Griffin repeats then giggles.

Owen sighs. "Any way she'd believe me if I said you taught him that?"

I laugh and toss him a towel. "Not a fucking chance."

"Daddy!" Stevie bursts through the door into the weight room, and Waverley follows behind her.

"Hey, Little Bee. How was your first day?" It hurts my heart a lot to think about her being six and starting kindergarten.

"It was great! My teacher was really nice, and I got to play on the playground with Georgie." Stevie's smile nearly does me in. She lost her first tooth the other day and I don't know why but it almost makes her smile even more adorable.

Griffin races his way over to Wav and she scoops him up. "Hey, baby. Did you help Uncle J kick your daddy's butt?"

"Yesth," he says, and follows it with, "Phuk!"

Waverley's head whips to her husband. "Owen!"

I take Stevie's hand. "Ope, time to go, kiddo. Uncle O is about to get in trouble."

"Traitors!" he yells as we make our way back to my office to grab my stuff.

I sling my bag over my shoulder, and as we load in the car, Stevie asks the question she's asked multiple times a day for the past nine months. "Daddy, when's mommy going to have my little sister? Georgie has two sisters now and I don't."

"Soon. We have to be patient, Stevie."

A few months after Wyla and I eloped in Nashville, those double pink lines showed up again and this time I got to be there for them.

"It's not fair," she grumbles. "I'm tired of waiting."

"We all are, kiddo. Mom especially."

My beautiful, strong, amazing wife has carried our second daughter so well, but she is absolutely miserable. She tries to hide it, but hiding her emotions isn't her strong suit. She's officially thirty-nine weeks today, and I had to force her to start her maternity leave a couple days ago.

We walk in, and Poppy greets us at the door.

"Poppy!" Stevie's arms go wide, trying to hug her but she turns back to the kitchen. Stevie pouts. "Why didn't she let me hug her?"

That was kind of weird, Poppy always attacks Stevie with licks when she walks in the door. "Wy?"

When she doesn't answer, I panic and head straight for the kitchen. I round the corner and Wyla's standing at the oven making some grilled cheese sandwiches. "Oh, hey, babe."

I let out that breath I was 100 percent holding. "Wyla, you scared me. "

She laughs. "I scared you? Jett, you ran in here?"

"Well, yeah. Poppy didn't lick Stevie to death when we walked in and just ran back here to my nine-month pregnant wife who didn't answer when I called."

Wyla turns off the stove as Stevie walks in. "Hi, Mommy."

"Hi, sweetie. I made you a grilled cheese." Wyla plops a sandwich on a plate, and suddenly something in her face changes. "Here you go. Why don't you eat it in the living room? Auntie Anna will be here soon," Wyla says quickly and her voice is strained but Stevie doesn't think anything of it.

She takes her plate and the moment she walks out of view Wyla puts her hands on her knees breathing heavily.

"Fuck, Wy. Are you okay?" I go to her immediately.

She breathes through her pain for another minute before standing back up. "Phew, yeah, I'm good. I'm gonna eat this grilled cheese then we can go to the hospital."

Did she… "Wyla, baby, are you in labor?"

"Yeah, contractions started a couple hours ago, and they're starting to get a little closer so we can leave after I eat." She takes her plate to the table like nothing else is going on .

I know I wasn't here the first time but I feel like I'm the only one panicking here. I try to stay calm as I walk to the table and take the seat next to her.

"Wyla."

"Hmm?" She doesn't even look my way as she starts eating.

"You know I love you, right?"

"Mm-hmm," is her only reply because she's inhaling this sandwich.

I hear Stevie squeal Anna's name as she walks in. Okay, Stevie's covered now, and I know our bags have been set by the front door all week.

"Wy, I know I'm new to this part of the process but can we possibly eat the sandwich on the way to the hospital before I have a heart attack, and you have our daughter in the kitchen?"

Wyla smiles. "Jett, my water hasn't even… Oh."

"Did your water just break?"

She nods.

"Okay, baby, I don't think I can throw you over my shoulder right now, but I'll carry you to the car if I have to."

That smile stays on her beautiful face. "Let's go have a baby. "

After another two hours laboring at the hospital and twenty minutes of pushing, our little Andie Sage was born. Wyla was absolutely incredible.

I stare at my wife holding our second baby, tears trickle down her face. I catch some with my thumb. "You did amazing, Wy."

She lets out a chuckle as more tears fall. "Damn, hormones." She wipes her cheeks and sniffles. "I'm just so happy."

I kiss her temple. "Me too, baby."

"Want to hold her?" Wyla hands Andie out knowing my answer wasn't going to be no.

I take our littlest Ellison and hold her close. Wyla said her eyes will change colors as she grows but for now they match Wyla's hazel ones and her hair is dark too.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Wyla asks.

Staring at my daughter, I feel like my heart is going to burst. "One of the three most beautiful girls I've ever seen."

Wyla gives me that smile that started it all. "I love you, Jett."

"I love you so much more, Wy."

I lean over to kiss her forehead. There's been so many times that I think I couldn't possibly love her more… I can't wait for her to prove me wrong again.

Wyla - One Month Later

Well, we're no longer a family of three. My heart has never felt more complete than it did when I saw Jett with Stevie on one side of his lap and holding Andie on the other.

Watching him during this newborn stage has been everything I thought it would be and more. I don't think I've ever seen him more content than when he's feeding Andie a bottle with Stevie cuddled up next to him while they watch Tangled for the millionth time.

I lay our milk-drunk newborn down in the bassinet next to our bed as Jett walks in. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my temple. "Both kids out like a light. You know what that means?"

I chuckle. "It means sleep."

"Fuck yeah, it does." He pulls me into his arms on our bed and draws lazy circles on my back.

"Oh, hey, I got you something," Jett says quietly before reaching over in the nightstand and pulling out a leather bound notebook. "I thought we could do a new journal, ya know like you did with Stevie?"

I glance up at him. "You want to write our days down?"

Jett read all of my memory notebooks within a month of us moving in together in Seattle, but on days where we are feeling a bit overwhelmed or even when we're just curious, we'll pull out one of the notebooks to see what I had written on the same day years past.

Jett places a kiss on my forehead. "Best damn love story anyone could ever read."

I chuckle, this man.

I sit up and take the notebook from him. "You got a pen?"

Jett smiles handing one over.

We sit together going over our day quietly not to wake Andie in the bassinet. When I finish writing I can't help the tug of emotions. If you told me seven years ago that this was going to be my life, I probably would have laughed. Finding Jett may have seemed like a fantasy to me, but not to him.

Jett puts the notebook back in the drawer, then reaches for me to lay back down with him.

"Hey," I whisper. "I wanted to tell you thank you."

"What for, baby? "

"For waiting on me. Jett, I hate those years we missed, but had I known we'd end up here… I can't say I regret it."

Jett places a long kiss to the top of my head. "I thought I fell in love with you seven years ago, Wyla… but with how much I love you and our daughters now? It doesn't even compare."

I squeeze him tightly. "Me and you, right?"

"Me, and you, Wy."

THE END