Epilogue

epilogue

Nix

Five years later

She stepped onto the bus, and after a couple other people got on, I did the same, heading straight to the back. The bus driver made eye contact with me, and when I flashed him my badge, he nodded and went on to ignore me. I sat down on the second to last row and watched her like I always did.

I hated that she still took the bus. She had a perfectly, almost new SUV in the garage, but she liked to move about the city on the bus. She asked me what's the difference if I followed her everywhere.

And she wasn't wrong.

Five years had passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye. The best five years of my fucking life.

Her hair was shorter now. Cut at her shoulders. It was a little wavy, but that was the only thing that changed. It was pulled half up and pinned with a buttery yellow bow that made my hand itch to tug it off and watch those pretty, silky tresses fall before I ran my fingers through them.

She pulled the tote bag she liked to take to the farmers market off and set it on her lap as her hand rested on her belly. That slight bump under her white sundress with sunflowers drove me crazy. The sun caught the diamond of my ring on her finger, and I could feel my lips pull upward.

Best five years of my life.

My pretty wife smiled as she stared out the window while the city slowly started to pass us by in a soft blur. She loved looking out. I asked her once what made her smile that way, and she shrugged saying it would sound silly. When I insisted on knowing, she shared that she liked to look out at all the people walking about, moving around, living their lives while she imagined what their stories were.

She was a people watcher, and once I'd even sat with her and asked her to tell me. The stories she came up with about the strangers on the street always made me smile because everyone had good things happening.

But then again, that was my wife.

A living, breathing ray of sunshine. And she was all mine.

For a moment, the reflection of her eyes in the window caught mine, and she winked. She knew I was watching her, following her. And she didn't mind it. She never did. She got off on it like I did.

I had a feeling ten, twenty years down the road, I would still be watching and following her like a madman obsessed. We weren't normal. The way I was with my kitten was wrong. As a cop, I knew it. I crossed lines, but she didn't care. She loved how much and how hard I loved her.

We weren't normal, but who the hell wanted to be that? Normal could be boring. Something she'd learned easily with me. With me, she had learned that she could have reliable and stable sprinkled with excitement. She said I taught her how to live in color. I always thought it was funny because to me, she was the light that shined through to my soul.

The bus stopped and she got up, adjusting her bag and walking off the bus. I waited a moment until I exited through the back and looked for her. The pretty bow in her hair was my very own lighthouse as she made her way down the street and toward the area in downtown that was closed off for today's farmers market.

I followed behind her, adjusting my cap over my brow to blend in, until I saw some asshole smiling and laughing with her. That's when I marched up to them, coming up behind her and placing a kiss on her neck while I glared at the asshole smirking at me.

"Thanks again, Remy!" She smiled and turned her head to look at me. "Took you long enough." She grinned, and before I could say a word, she turned fully, lifted her body up on the tips of her toes, and her lips touched mine. "You're getting easy to spot," she teased, and I frowned .

"You didn't see me when I followed you into that baby store and picked up that little stuffed lamb two days ago." She blinked, and instead of being shocked, she laughed.

And fuck me, my wife had an incredible laugh.

One I was more than happy to listen to for the rest of my life. She leaned into me, and I hugged her, taking the bag of apples she'd bought in my hand.

"I wanted to surprise you with it." She looked up at me. My lips twitched.

We said we wouldn't buy any more things for the baby until we found out what it was.

"What if I told you I already know?" My brows bunched, and I called her bluff.

"You don't know." She sighed, and I chuckled as we started to walk, hand in hand.

"Okay, fine. You're right. I don't." She sighed. "But it was just so cute."

"It was. I like that new hiding spot you found."

"One day, Mr. Hayes, I am going to surprise you." She poked my chest, and I pretended it hurt before lifting her hand and kissing the top of her palm.

"I look forward to you trying, kitten."

And it wasn't just a line. I was looking forward to everything with my wife. Parenthood and the stress that came with it. Growing old and watching our family grow. The curveballs life was known for throwing. All of it. Because no matter how wrong or right, good or bad, it was a life I had never expected to live, one so full and full of sunshine, I couldn't have imagined it before meeting Vivi.

And I was a lucky SOB for it. An obsessed one but lucky, nonetheless.