Epilogue

Sawyer

Three months later

Ash, Reece and I drive to the Chillicothe Correctional Center early to avoid the long lines. Ezra isn't feeling well, so Pippin had to skip our visit to Faye.

I thought Reece would be more nervous than this, but he's not the same man who walked into our home two years ago looking like he might cry if he broke his nail. Brennan still teases him about it. His eyes no longer have that shy hesitancy he came to Iowa with. I fell in love with those eyes, but I don't miss them. Reece's happiness is a magnificent thing to observe.

I, too, am different. It's taken a year to gather up the courage to bring him to meet Faye. The tightness in my chest over what he might think is no longer present. He won't judge me. We're all the same, in different ways.

Between the three of us there is a kind of consideration for each other that churns out love and acceptance. I care about Reece's feelings, how things affect him, and what he needs. Asher too. And they are the same with me.

Now, I'm desperate for Reece to know all of me. All my secret shame and the things about my life I hated. But I want him to know the good things too, and, despite it all, Faye is one of the good things.

When she comes through the door, Reece rushes forward and grabs the phone.

"Me first, so you don't change your mind about wanting to meet me."

Ash and I hang back, my hand captured tightly inside Ash's. She looks up, her eyes bouncing between me and Asher. All we can offer her are stupid grins because our boyfriend has just ambushed her, and we don't mind.

"You can't even fool me and say I got the wrong person, cos, you know, you look like Pippin."

Faye puts her hand to her mouth to cover her smile. He tells her his name is Reece Carter and he's waited almost two years to meet her, and that they're family now, and he heard how stubborn she is, but he doesn't care.

He makes her cry before she's even said one word and that's how I know that Faye will love Reece forever.

He asks her a dozen questions about her sentence and how old she'll be when she comes home. She's taken aback at first by his directness, but in the end, she tells him everything.

Finally, Ash has to coerce him away so he and I can have a chance to talk to her. "He's absolutely beautiful," Faye tells me when I finally get a chance.

"I told you." I grin, my chest filling with pride. "He's rich folk, but he's not like them."

"Keep him. I want to see him when I get out of here."

***

Three days after we went to see Faye, Asher arranged for an estate planning attorney to meet at our house. Pippin will come over too.

I arrive home after work with Reece, and he heads straight for Ezra. He squeals and giggles when he sees Reece, yelling, "Yeeeece."

"Hey, Ezzie," Reece says, scooping baby Ezra up. "I'm so glad you're here. Did you miss me?"

Ezra shrieks and nods his head, and Reece gives him a thousand kisses. I can barely get one in.

"Hey," Asher says.

I greet him with a kiss. Reece does too, but not with as many as he gave Ezra. Pippin throws her arms around Reece and kisses his neck. They are like our kid siblings when they're together.

Asher introduces Norman Gayle. "It's nice to meet you," he says. "I'm looking forward to working with all of you."

"He'll be handling all our insurance," Asher tells Reece.

"And our estate planning, power of attorney and drafting of our wills. If anything happens to any of us, we need to know that the remaining two will be taken care of," I add.

Reece looks shocked. The only reason I don't tease him about it is because the attorney is sitting right there.

This level of commitment is as committed as we can get. The fact that we will now be connected in the normal everyday things like life and health insurance makes our relationship more real than even the physical intimacy between us.

"Also, Reece—" Pippin says. She looks at Asher and me.

"Go on," I tell her.

"Sawyer and Asher are Ezra's godparents. They have all the legal rights to raise him as their own if anything were to happen to me. I would like you to be Ezra's third godfather. Would that be okay?"

Reece stares at her for a long moment. "You want that?" he asks quietly. "You really want me to be a part of his life like that?"

She nods, smiling broadly.

"Yes," he whispers. "Yes."

Reece hogs Ezra the entire evening while all the paperwork binding me, Asher and him together in as legal a way as possible is completed. Ezra doesn't seem to mind. He likes Reece the most, it's obvious.

Later, after Norman has left, we eat dinner, the five of us. Reece refills my plate with mashed potatoes and chicken wings as I eat, and I catch Asher watching him with profound affection.

Ezra sits on Reece's lap, and they share a plate, and I think Pippin and Reece are going to have many fights about how much he spoils Ezra, and that might be the best part of our family.