Robert grinned and kissed Charlotte once more, softer and more sweetly than either had ever experienced. “I just had to believe that I would see you again someday, and then all the waiting would be worth it.”
Charlotte smiled up at Robert, silently promising to give him the life they had both always wished for. She would see to it that their home was forever a place filled with laughter and warmth and above all else, love.
Epilogue
Five Years Later
“It’s your turn.”
Agitated gurgling noises echo from the baby monitor and are growing louder by the second.
“No way,” I answer. “Those two belong to you and you alone until midnight.”
“I’ll give you a million dollars if you go instead.” Ryan’s words are barely audible with his face pushed down into the pillow like it is.
I pull the covers more snugly around me and turn the other way. “You already owe me twelve million.”
His hands slip around my waist, pulling me back until I’m flush against him. He breathes in deep along the side of my neck and I’m somehow able to smile through my exhausted haze.
“They like you better than me,” he says.
I flip onto my back. “Yeah, right. Mia is a daddy’s girl through and through.”
“She smiles more for you, though.”
“That’s because I stare and sing and talk to her all day. She only smiles at me to throw me a bone and to keep me from fully descending into insanity.”
“No, she loves you.” Ryan twists away and grabs the baby monitor screen from off the nightstand. “Tim is still passed out like a champ, though. Maybe if we wish really hard, Mia will go back to sleep.”
Ryan and I both close our eyes and ten seconds later, we have two ten-month-old babies crying at full blast.
I open my eyes and look over at my husband, fully defeated. “My wish didn’t come true.”
Ryan looks back at me with a drowsy but content smile. “Mine did.” He rolls over and kisses me before dragging himself out of bed.
I rub my eyes with one hand as I pick up my phone with the other to check the time. It’s only 9:46 p.m. but it feels like 4:00 in the morning. Parent sleep deprivation is so very real. I drop my phone back onto the nightstand with a groan.
Motherhood has, without a doubt, been the most earth-shatteringly wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, but it has also been the most physically and emotionally draining. When I found out I was pregnant, it was one of the happiest days of my life. When I found out that I was pregnant with twins, I almost fainted in terror.
Ryan has been beyond incredible. He was able to take four months off work for paternity leave when the babies were born and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without him. When we first got home from the hospital and I was still sore from my C-section, he must have changed a hundred diapers with barely any help from me. He made sure that the fridge was stocked and my pump parts were clean, and minus the fact that he gets about three more hours of sleep a night than I do, I’d still give him a five-star dad review.
I hear his footsteps coming back down the hall and I already know what I’m about to see. I turn onto my side and smile as he enters our bedroom with both Tim and Mia in his arms.
“This,” I say as I sit up, “goes against everything we read about in the baby sleep books.”
“I know, but they told me they want you to tell them a story.”
“Really now?” I hold out my arms to take Mia as Ryan sits down on the bed with Tim already back to sleep and nuzzling into his shoulder. With my daughter safely in my arms, I pull her bunched-up pink onesie away from her chin.
“And what story do you want to hear tonight, little lady?”
She reaches her chubby hands up towards me and I lean down so she can touch my cheeks. Yes, she’s basically rubbing drool into my face but I’m grossly okay with it. I lay her down next to me on the bed as Ryan lays Tim beside her.
Now, I know I’m biased, but I do think my babies are the cutest things to have ever crawled this planet. They’re both blonds but have my brown eyes. Mia is slightly chunkier than her brother but that’s only because Tim is taller. I used to think they both looked just like Ryan, but I see more of me in them every day.
I lean over to give Tim a kiss and have to chuckle when I see his little cheek pulled back in a half smile. His name fits him so perfectly. My mom said Dad smiled in his sleep, too. Mia tugs on my hair a second later and I twist my head away, trying to untangle my ponytail from her crazy strong grip. I’ve lost more than enough hair post-babies, thank you very much.
Ryan rubs Tim’s stomach and looks over at me. “How about I do the story tonight?”
“This should be interesting.” I slide down the bed until I’m snuggled up next to Mia. I tickle her neck as Ryan lies down on his side next to Tim, propping himself up with one arm.
“Once upon a time, there was a strong and very handsome cowboy who met a princess when they went to college.” Ryan winks at me and I roll my eyes as he goes on, “The cowboy fell in love with the princess at first sight. He was so excited to meet her that he sat right next to her and do you know what? The princess was reading a book that was very inappropriate for a princess to be reading.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” I coo to Mia. “I think the book the princess was reading was
