Because of You

Catherine watched me, this small smile on her face. Shit, she had stuck by me through everything, waited for me for that year I’d been gone. She’d been the only girl for me. She was the only girl for me. And now we had a family.

A perfect, happy, full family.

I was complete.

Who would’ve thought a delinquent like myself, one who had run in the wrong circles during his adolescent life, would fall in love with his stepsister, would become a father before he even knew it? God, I was so lucky to have a wife and three gorgeous children.

Because I certainly never thought I’d have any of this, never even dreamed of it.

But I did have it, and dammit if I’d let anything change it.

Several days later

I pulled Catherine in close to me and buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deeply. We were home from the hospital, little Sutherland sleeping soundly in the bassinet by the bed, my girls in their rooms fast asleep, and my wife tucked in close to me.

I pushed the fall of her hair away from her neck and kissed the slender arch of her throat. She stirred softly before shifting on the bed so she was facing me now. She rested her head on my chest, breathing out contently. With everything calm and still in this moment, the girls asleep, the baby full and content, and my woman in my arms, I knew that there was nothing else in this world that would be this perfect.

I was the happiest man on the fucking planet.

“Three kids,” she said softly.

I kissed her forehead and pulled her in impossibly closer.

“I wish we had a whole house full,” I teased, but in reality, I was being truthful. I wouldn’t mind a bunch of kids in the house, little Catherines and Suttons, the sound of their laughter, the noise of them tromping through the house. God, I’d love it all.

I’d missed so much time in the beginning with Maddie, months I’d never get back because I’d fucked up my life. But that would never happen again.

I’d always be here for them, no matter what.

I thought back to when I first came home, when I saw Catherine again, saw little Maddie by her side.

I’d known right then and there she was mine, the same blue eyes I saw every day in the mirror looking up at me.

But that was in the past. We had all the time in the world now, a lifetime, a future together.

I looked forward to sitting on the porch with Catherine when we were old, our grandchildren running around, my life fulfilled because of what I’d accomplished, what I had.

God, that sounded like heaven all in itself.

I kissed her head again. She was mine. I would never allow anyone to have her but me. Catherine was stuck with me forever, and I looked forward to every single day more than the last.