A Kiss Stolen

“You know this is forever. I’ll never let you go,” I say.

“Forever and ever,” she whispers back.

Epilogue

Jake

Three years later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtuVP8Mj4o

I stand at the window and look out at snow. It’s what everybody wanted. A white Christmas. In the glass I can see the reflection of my family. Everyone is here. My mother, my brothers and their families, my wife, my children, Brand, Lindy, and my first grandchild. There is something special about him.

From the first moment I saw him in the hospital I knew he was destined for great things. They named him Hunter. He’s two years old now and, he has the gift of the gab. I mean, Liliana was a handful, but this little fellow. He takes the cake.

“Remember our first Christmas together?” my wife asks next to me.

I drain my glass and turn to watch her profile. Yes, I remember. Just like I remember every Christmas since then. “What? When you took off all your clothes and enticed me into the hot tub?”

“Hmm … that’s not how I remember it. Didn’t you take off all my clothes and we never made it to the hot tub?”

Yeah, that is always how it is when I am with her. Before I can answer, Liliana comes running up to us. “Uncle Shane and Uncle Dom are going to set off the fireworks. You guys coming or what?”

“Yeah, we’re coming,” my wife says.

“You go on first. I’ll be along in a minute. I just want to get a refill.” I lift my glass to show her it is empty.

As I walk to the bar I see Brand getting his son into his jacket. I stop to watch. Once I was doing that. How fast the time has gone. My children are all adults now. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those innocent days. Brand zips Hunter in and stands. He has no idea how he will miss these days. Even if I told him he wouldn’t understand. You only realize how precious it is when it is gone. The boy runs off at the speed of a trapped rat.

Brand glances in my direction and smiles at me. I nod at him. I kept him at a distance for a long time because I wanted to make sure he did right by Liliana. She was so young when she made her choice of a mate, but they are perfect for each other. He’s a good lad. He just had an unlucky start. I’m glad he’s under my protection now.

He starts walking towards me. Sometimes when I see Brand I see a little of me in him. A gypsy through and through. Loyal and fiercely protective of those he loves. The way it should be. I put out two glasses on the counter and start pouring the whisky. As he approaches me I hand him the glass.

“Merry Christmas, Brand.”

“Merry Christmas to you too, Jake.”

We knock our drinks back. “Sometimes I think of that night. Do you think you would have pulled the trigger if Liliana had not come into the room? I know I wouldn’t have. I was too much in awe of you.”

Yes, I would have shot him in the heart no question, but there’s no need for me to tell him anything, he’ll understand when he has a daughter. “Well, we’ll never know the answer to that one, will we? But it all worked out fine. Liliana got to keep her father and gained a husband.”

He nods. “I’m glad you didn’t too.”

Outside the fireworks have already started. The sky is filled with orange sparks. I can hear Hunter screaming his head off. Life is good. Damn good.

THE END