Epilogue

"M om! Mom, look at me!"

I shielded my eyes from the sun and watched my youngest son dive down into the water, beneath the gentle waves. A moment later, his two round legs stuck up above the surface and he kicked his feet in the air before he wobbled and tumbled backwards.

"Did you see?" Oliver sputtered as he stood again. He wiped his eyes and coughed. "Did you see me wiggle my toes?"

"That was amazing!" I told him, and applauded. His older brother looked at me, and his expression clearly asked if I was kidding with that. I smiled at him and shrugged, letting him in on the game. We could humor this little guy, the one who tried so hard to follow in his bigger footsteps.

"Do you want to go for a ride on my shoulders?" Nicolas asked him, and Oliver's eyes widened with happiness. Soon, they were splashing and playing together and I took pictures and videos for my own sibling group chat. My sisters and brother liked to keep up with my boys and needed a lot of updates, even though we weren't very far away, only up north at the Forsman "cottage" on Lake Michigan. In fact, several of them would be driving up this weekend to visit us, and so would Camille and her family. We were all looking forward to it.

Somehow, Oliver managed to stand on his brother's shoulders. He held the pose for just a second before he slipped, yelling and laughing at the top of his voice. Both of them had so much fun here, just like Beckett had as a child when he had played in the lake with his little brother.

I sighed, because I wished their father could have seen them today. Beckett. I looked up at the clouds and thought about him. We'd had many wonderful years. Some had been in health, and some in sickness, but every one of them had been good because we'd been together.

I saw so much of him in our boys. Nicolas was serious but very kind, and Oliver was full of the hidden goofiness that his dad only allowed out around his family. Our younger son had my hair but besides that, both of them were little physical replicas of their father, and I loved to see it. I loved them all so much that I felt tears come to my eyes, and I missed Beckett. I missed him.

"Juliet."

I jumped to my feet, the sand sliding off my legs, and I threw my arms around my husband's neck. "What are you doing here?" I asked him. "You weren't going to come until the weekend! I was just looking at the sky and thinking about your plane flying over."

"Daddy! Daddy!" the boys yelled, and ran up onto the beach to hug him, too.

"I missed all of you," Beckett told us. "I wanted to see my family." He smiled at us and kissed me first, then bent to kiss both of our sons. "That house is too quiet without the three of you in it."

"I should have known you'd be here early," I said, snuggling under his arm. "We can't ever stay apart for too long."

"No, we can't," he agreed.

"Daddy, watch what I can do!" Oliver said excitedly, and broke away to race back to the lake. Beckett did watch him, very carefully, because that was the deal when any of us were in the water: someone was always lifeguarding. My husband had gotten certified, actually, so that he felt more comfortable.

"It's not a very good trick, but he's trying," Nicholas whispered, and then hurried off to join his little brother as we hid our laughter. "Oliver, try to straighten your legs when you're upside down!" he ordered.

"That's an exceptional handstand!" Beckett approved when Oliver emerged again, and we both clapped. "How was swim team practice this morning?" he asked me.

"They're both doing great," I answered. "The coach wants them to move up here and swim year-round with the Sharks. I told him that unfortunately, we're summer only."

"Maybe some day."

"Maybe," I agreed, and I leaned against him again. Obligingly, he wrapped his arms around me. Maybe someday we'd move permanently to northern Michigan. Maybe someday, we'd start our own water polo team, as Beckett kept talking about. Maybe we'd even have another baby.

Someday. But things were also wonderful as they were.

"I love you," I told him.

"Do you? I wasn't sure," he said, but he laughed. He knew very well that he was everything to me and to our boys. "I love you, too. I missed you so much that I think I may have to move up here for the summer. Coming on weekends isn't enough."

"It's never enough. We should try to stay awake for at least twenty hours a day to be together more," I suggested.

"Because Oliver isn't cranky when he lacks sleep."

"No, not at all," I concurred, laughing.

"And neither is his mother."

"I'm never cranky. I'm an angel in all ways," I informed him.

"You're my angel. You are my beautiful, sweet, loyal, cranky angel," he said, and then kissed me before I could object. "You and I will need to stay up late tonight. After our sons are asleep, there are several things we will need to accomplish."

"You're all about productivity."

As I watched the swimmers, he murmured his plans into my ear until I was flushed and breathing harder. Those were very good ideas.

"We'll stay up late," I promised.

"If I know those two, we will also rise early," Beckett said, smiling at the boys. "Tomorrow may be a long day."

"I want all the days. I want us to be together every second." I had glimpsed a world without him, and it wasn't one that I could really bear.

"We will be together," he promised. "Every day will be for us."

Every day of mine would be for him and for our sons. Every moment, every breath. I filled my lungs with the fresh Lake Michigan air, my chest expanding easily. Every day was the best day, because we had each other.