Her smile softens and she stares at me a while longer.
“I certainly hope so, because I damn sure love you too, Giuseppe.”
Epilogue
I wake up with one tiny foot planted firmly in my face.
My brow furrows as I pull away and rise up in bed, resting on an elbow. I stare down at the small form in the dark wondering how the hell she, one, managed to get turned around so her head is facing the foot of the bed and, two, how she managed to take up so much of the bed in the first place.
Even at almost four years old, Caroline—Honey and I agreed that our children would all grow up with perfectly “normal” names—is as much of a diva as her mother is.
I grin in the dark, remembering how she managed to talk us into sharing the bed tonight. I think it’s the huge pink headboard she loves more than anything, the same one under which I first spent the night with Honey.
But now that the “boogeyman” seems to have been cast away in favor of sleep, it’s time for Daddy to swoop in and fly Princess Caroline back to her own perfectly safe bed.
I gently pick her up and quietly walk her out of our bedroom.
The house is blessedly silent this time of night. Come morning the chaos will set in as usual.
Of course, today will be even more crazy.
I walk Caroline past the first bedroom, taking a quick peek at Steven and Michael, ages nine and five in their bunk beds. Baby Chris, almost a year old, is in his crib on the other side of the room.
Danielle and Jennifer, seven and two-and-a-half, are in the next bedroom shared with Caroline. I walk her in and pull back the covers on her pink unicorn bedspread. She thankfully stays asleep until I tuck her in, pushing that mass of Shirley Temple curls away from her angelic face.
Even in the dark, and without my glasses on, I feel my heart swell as I look down at her, then feel it grow even more as I turn to watch her sisters as they sleep.
The house isn’t a mansion, but it’s home. I feel blessed knowing that my kids are going to have the same adventures, the same fights and squabbles, the same tight bonds, the same ties to family that both Honey and I had growing up.
I work as an entertainment attorney these days with my own firm. Frankie Peck was indeed a great help once I left ABC. I put my very generous severance package into the one-man firm—now with three associates and two paralegals—and we have more work than I can handle. I’m still opposed to growing any larger, for fear of becoming too corporate.
Still, it’s certainly enough to support a stay-at-home mom and six kids and still help out the rest of my family and Honey’s. Not hard to do when you live in New Jersey rather than the Upper West Side.
I walk back to the bedroom I share with my wife of ten years—official as of almost an hour ago based on the bedside clock.
Honey shifts as I settle in the bed next to her. I take it as a sign that she’s awake and curl into her back, pulling her in as my little spoon now that we finally have the bed to ourselves.
“Monsters and dragons officially slayed?” she asks with a smile in her voice.
“Never to be seen again, at least until tomorrow when she works her charms on us yet again.”
Honey laughs softly and twists around so she’s facing me. “Daddy the hero.”
“Daddy the sucker.”
She laughs again. “She is good, isn’t she?”
“She gets it from her mother,” I say in a wry voice.
“Mmm,” she says, snuggling in closer. “But you make it so easy to pour on the sugah.”
“I prefer honey.”
She laughs. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, and we do have the bed to ourselves yet again.”
“And we mustn’t forget the date.”
“Date? What day is it?” I tease.
She reaches around to pinch my ass.
“Ay!” I growl against her forehead.
“Keep teasing me and you’ll get plenty more of those, Mister.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I say, pressing my body in closer so she knows I’m already fired up.
“Mmm, I think this is a fine way to start our anniversary,” she says, her hand coming back around to stroke my cock.
“Enough to make up for Valentine’s Day?” I say.
It was exactly a week ago. As per tradition, we ordered ethnic food with the kids—this year it was Ethiopian—with beers for Mommy and Daddy.
We save the good stuff for our special day one week later, this year sharing it with everyone we know, considering the milestone. Today is the big 1-o. As such we’ve invited all our friends and family. My parents, brothers, sisters, and all their kids. We’ve flown in Honey’s parents, brothers and sisters, and kids as well. The Girls are coming with their families. Jerome will be here, along with his new troupe of singers—whom the kids all love.
It should make for a circus of a day.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“So, neighbor, are we getting down or what?” Honey asks in a sultry voice.
Yeah, she’s still got it. Her days performing on stage may be long gone, in favor of a role that she’s ten times as talented at, but she still makes my blood go hot with desire.
“For you, Honey? Always.”
