Epilogue

EPILOGUE

EMMA

Four Years Later

" I paint Tylie ," my little Marissa says, looking up at me with paint on her hand, dabbing it against the paper. I laugh in delight. Tylie is what she calls Tyler , who's sort of my brother and hers simultaneously. Tyler is Dad and Angelica's son, so Tyler is my half-brother and her cousin.

Tyler laughs, sitting up as if posing for Marissa. I rest my hand on my belly, feeling a new life growing, more love swelling within. We sit in the large function room with the most light, letting it spill in as the kids play and paint. Angelica sits across from me, watching Tyler with devotion, painting every one of her features.

Behind her, Dad and Jacob laugh as they play table tennis. When Jacob wins, they wander over, Jacob sitting next to Dad and me next to Angelica. My man is wearing a casual T-shirt that clings to his muscular body. It has his company's logo, a reminder that, while he doesn't go into the field anymore, he still makes a difference. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't.

He wraps his arm around me, the feeling so natural now. It's wild we ever questioned it.

"Your brother's a poser," Dad says, grinning.

I smile down at Tyler. He looks so similar to Dad. Then I look up and see my man smiling down, too. That warm shape to his lips would've seemed unthinkable once. When I was immersed in the crush, obsessing about the future, wondering if he could ever want me, I couldn't have imagined that smile. It's so content. So pure.

"When I'm with you, with Marissa, I can forget about the other side of my life," he said last night, holding me so close to him that it was like he was taking me back to the blizzard, our private world. "I love you so much."

He catches me looking and tilts his head as if to say, What?

"Just you," I say, kissing my husband on the cheek.