EPILOGUE
“Okay, it’s been a week, stop being a big baby,” Nathan says, glaring at Chase who’s curled up on their sofa. His arm is in a sling to keep him from moving it too much and straining the muscles around the stab wound. It doesn’t stop him from hogging the TV though as he smirks at Nathan.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lies.
He’s been out of the hospital for a couple of days now and to say that the man is basking in being pampered and spoiled is an understatement. Even though he originally stated that he was okay and that everyone was fussing over him for no reason, it didn’t last long.
The smell of fresh enchiladas coming from the kitchen is evidence enough as Sophia, Chase’s mother, takes over Nathan’s kitchen. The rest of Chase’s family trickled in slowly but surely over the last week and I’ve gotten a chance to meet his siblings. I’d also been introduced to his father, Gabriel, a nice man with the same mischievous grin as his son. However, everyone eventually returned home after finding out that Chase was going to be okay. Sophia, on the other hand, said she wouldn’t be leaving until the cast comes off of Chase. She’s been staying in the guy’s guest room and the kitchen is now her domain. A part of me thinks that’s part of Nathan’s bitterness as he glares at his friend since he’s been kicked out of his own kitchen for days now.
Sofia had told him that her son needed some good old-fashioned Mexican food cooked by his mother to recover without an ounce of guilt in her voice as she’s pushed Nathan out of the kitchen.
The woman has already grown on me and the kids. Tanner is always going on about how much better her cooking is than mine, which isn’t a surprise. Lilly loves for the woman to sing to her and like her son, she’s always sneaking her treats. I turn to my head to look at the kid in question who’s stretched out on the carpet playing with a teddy bear that Emmet bought for her. Tanner is petting Charlie who’s soaking up the attention.
The kitchen door swings open and the woman I’d met at the hospital comes through with two cans of soda in her hand. I should have instantly recognized her as Christie, Nathan’s sister, the moment I met her with their scarily similar features, but my mind was all over the place, not drawing the conclusion.
She’s been making the hour drive from her home a couple of towns over every day to spend time with Chase as he recovers. The friendship that I’d heard a lot about quickly came to fruition before my eyes as the bond between the two became evident.
It also became clear that she doesn’t like me. At first, I’d thought that she was keeping her distance to give the guys and I time together, but then I realized it was me who she was trying to stay away from. Any time I’d walk into a room, she’d walk out, or she’d stop her conversation with the guys.
Emmet seems to be the only one who has noticed and has tried to reassure me that she’ll warm up to me and that he got the same reception when they first met.
I’m not so sure he’s correct, and a part of me wishes that she’d just go back to home and not come back anytime soon. It’s illogical though since she’s Nathan’s sister and she’s close with Chase.
I watch as she passes Chase one of the sodas and he smiles at her. My shoulders tense slightly as the woman turns to look at me, her eyes hardening slightly before she turns away and moves back through the kitchen door.
Bitch.
The only person ahead of Chase’s sister on my shit list is my mother. The woman hadn’t taken our last conversation well after I’d told her the guys were going to be in our life and there was nothing she could do about it. I’d made it clear that she could try to call any judge or lawyer, but I wasn’t scared of her and her money. It quickly became clear that all her talk had been just that as she’d spluttered over the phone before hanging up on me.
I’d be happy if I never hear from her again, but I know how much Chase loves his bat of a grandmother and it’d hurt him to have her cut out of our lives. The ball is in her court though now, she either starts acting like a human being or she stays away from us.
I relax slightly when I feel someone sink into the seat next to me and I find Emmet’s gaze on me. He raises a brow and I roll my eyes, making him grin. He leans down and places a soft kiss on my lips but pulls back quickly.
His gaze wanders over to Chase briefly and I feel him tense slightly. We haven’t talked about the threesome or the implications, but there’s been a slight tension between the two men.
I’ve decided that I’m going to give them until Chase is fully recovered before I bring it up, but afterwards we’re going to talk about it. It’s more than obvious that they each feel something but they’re both hesitant for their own reasons. I’d briefly talked to Nathan about it and he’d told me to let them work it out in time, but they’ve had years if this all started when Chase helped Emmet get sober.
So, I’m only giving them a couple of more months to tiptoe around the issue.
“Mama.” My gaze rises to Lilly at the words and my chest expands slightly when I find her gaze on me.
I’d been hesitant to not correct her after she’d started calling me that, but Patricia had told me that it was okay. I’d raised my issues about feeling like it was disrespectful to Kylie’s memory to let her daughter call me mother. It’s not disrespectful, because I know as she gets older, you’ll tell her about her biological mother.
And Patricia’s right, I don’t want the kids to ever forget about their biological parents. I know that with Tanner it won’t be a problem, but with Lilly I’ll have to make sure that I sit down and tell her about all the trouble her mother saved me from when we younger, and I’ll tell her about the joy in her mother’s eyes the night she was born.
I won’t let her forget.
But it’s time that I start accepting our new family without feeling any guilt. I look at the satisfaction on Chase’s face as he smirks at Nathan who’s glaring at him, and I lean into the warmth of Emmet. My eyes stop on Lilly before moving to Tanner who lets out a laugh as Charlie licks his face.
It’s unconventional and we still have a lot to work through and talk about, but this is my family now and I couldn’t be any happier.
The End… For now.