After I’d lost Callum, it felt like my world had been narrowed down to a tiny bubble. That’s all I’d had left, and now, it was the complete opposite.
The first visit had gone perfectly, and it’d been hard to leave both of them. We’d met up a few more times since and spoke almost daily on the phone or FaceTimed each other. Regardless of the miles between Piersville and where they lived in Kansas, we were inseparable, and I loved it.
Looking at us, you’d never guess we hadn’t been in each other’s lives from the very beginning. It was like finding a groove carved out just for you or wrapping yourself up in a silk cocoon—and that I could say with certainty, given that me and the girls now did Aerial Silks, gravity-defying gymnastics with a silk sheet, on top of our pole dancing.
The only bit that I’d struggled with was when I’d decided to take Jeremy to Daphne to meet Callum. I hadn’t been back to his grave since he’d died, and the route we’d taken had taken us past the place his car had crashed.
Pointing it out, then going to the grave, had left me a wreck, but kneeling down next to his headstone and changing out the flowers in the holder on it, I introduced him to our brother. Walking to his grave had torn my heart into pieces but walking away from it was the hardest part.
They needed to get to know each other, though, so I left my brothers to it, begging Callum not to think I was betraying him the whole way by accepting Jeremy into my life.
I’m choosing to think that what happened on the way back to Piersville was a sign, even though it could just be a coincidence. I was in the middle of explaining to Jeremy about the life soundtrack theory Carter’s dad had when Not Alone Any More by the Traveling Wilburys started playing.
Not saying a word, Jeremy squeezed my hand and went back to concentrating on the road, leaving me with the music.
Carter’s dad had been right, life did have a soundtrack, and it changed every day. This one would be a main feature in my life, though.
EPILOGUE
Naomi
“Do I have anything in my teeth?”
All of us looked down at Shanti, who was baring her teeth—well, what was left of them, since she was missing her front and bottom ones—at Nemi. Both girls were dressed in their bridesmaid dresses and hadn’t dropped anything on them so far. There was still time for that to happen before the ceremony started, though.
“You don’t have any teeth to get stuff stuck in them,” Nemi giggled.
Jeremy turned away, facing me as he burst out laughing.
Yeah, his niece had decided after she lost the first tooth that she liked the money so much from the tooth fairy that she’d found inventive ways to lose the other teeth, leaving her with a massive gap at the front. So far today, she’d shoved gum and candy in the opening to try and close it, but eventually, she’d given in and started chewing them, totally defeating the purpose.
Jeremiah, as always, was quick to make his granddaughter feel better.
“Both of you look prettier than any bridesmaid I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe you chose those dresses yourselves.”
“It was easy.” Shanti waved her hand through the air, deliberately not making eye contact with Heidi or me.
“That little liar,” Heidi hissed in my ear. “She hated it up until Jeremiah said how pretty she looked in it.”
This was likely true. She adored him and hung on every word he said. Then again, she was equally in love with her other grandpa, Jack. The two men spoiled her rotten and were always scheming together about stuff to get Shanti.
The sound of an angry baby screaming got our attention onto Bond, who was bringing his and Heidi’s furious baby boy, Kingston, into the room.
Looking guilty, he held him out to his wife. “Sorry, he’s hungry.”
Scowling at him, she bit out, “I smell shit.”
“No, I tried him with the formula, but he wasn’t having it.”
“No, dear husband, I can literally smell shit. You’re not passing your stinky baby to me to get his diaper changed. Look at what I’m wearing. Can you imagine the wedding photos with poop smeared on this dress?”
Heidi’s dress was a strapless gown that looked simple in the front but had a corseted back and drapes of fabric that made the bottom of it flow beautifully with every step. It was also pale blue, so I could understand her unwillingness to change her son’s diaper. Then again, I was the last person who’d cry if that happened to her wedding photos—it’d just make the day even more memorable for me.
Sighing, Bond walked over to an area of the room with nothing in it and went about changing Kingston’s diaper, gagging now and then.