She lifts her head and kisses me. “Baby, I’m yours.”
Epilogue
Lennon
“Lennon, quick! Hurry!” Hunter shouts from the living room. I stumble in my high heel, one on my foot and the other in my hand. “Lennon!”
His urgent screaming has me scrambling, which makes me stub my toe on the dresser and mutter a slew of curse words.
Oh my God. This man. His face better be on fire.
“Are you coming?”
“Hold on!” I kick off my shoe, drop the other one, then run down the hallway to where he and Alison are waiting for me.
“Look! She rolled over!” Hunter’s on the floor next to her lying on a blanket. “She did back to belly, then belly to back! All by herself!” The way he’s gushing about her makes me beam.
“You nearly made me pee myself!” I scold, but I’m smiling because I can’t be mad at him for being so excited about Alison’s milestone. At only six months old, she’s changing so fast.
“Sorry, babe! I didn’t want you to miss it.” Hunter watches her with so much love it’s hard to even be mad about my throbbing toe. “Allie Kat, you’re a genius!”
I snort at the nickname Maddie gave her, the one I tell her to stop saying, but it caught on anyway. Hunter loves her as his own, and as soon as we’re married, we’re going to make it official so he’ll legally be her father. She’ll keep Brandon’s last name and hyphenate it with Hunter’s. Alison Kay Locke-Manning. We talk about him any chance we can, making sure she grows up knowing that she has a daddy in heaven who watches over her every day and that Hunter is her daddy here on Earth who loves her more than anything.
At times, the sadness hits me harder than others, but then I look at Alison and think of the amazing gift Brandon gave me. I know he’d be so damn happy to know he has a little girl. I can only hope he’d be just as happy to know Hunter is the one who stepped up to be here for us.
Hunter looks too damn happy as he encourages and cheers her on that I don’t have the heart to tell him she did this yesterday. She’s been able to roll from her belly to her back for a while now but not back to belly. I was so tired by the time he got home from a late meeting that I completely forgot to mention it. He already feels like he misses too much with his crazy work schedule that I let him believe this is the first time.
“Are you almost ready, sweetheart?” Hunter stands and presses a sweet kiss to my forehead. “You look incredible, by the way.” His eyes sweep down my body, stares at my chest longer than necessary, then back at my face. “You can’t look this damn good when I can’t do something about it…” He wraps his arms around me, and I blush.
“Don’t you even dare,” I warn him. “We can’t be late. Plus, I have to show you something first.”
Hunter releases an animalistic groan, throwing his head back. He’s being so dramatic, considering he was all over me last night, which causes me to laugh.
I have butterflies in my stomach as I pick up Alison and tell him it’s a surprise from both of us. Quickly, I go to the nursery and set her in the crib, then put the bib on her I picked up at the store yesterday. I wanted to plan something special for this moment, but considering it’s already going to be a busy weekend, I can’t wait any longer.
“Babe?” Hunter calls.
“Coming! Just grabbing Alison’s diaper bag.”
“Ready?” I whisper as I put her on my hip and tickle her chunky little belly.
“Let’s go show Daddy.”
My entire body is shaking as I walk to the living room and grab her car seat. I give her a wink as I set her in but don’t buckle her just yet. “Hey, what do you think of Alison’s new bib?” I casually ask over my shoulder, hoping it’s enough to lure him to come over and look.
Hunter grabs his keys and wallet from the coffee table, then steps over and stands behind me. “Butterflies, cute.”
I sigh, shaking my head. He glanced at it without reading the damn thing. “Yeah, I thought it was appropriate.”
“For what?”
“Read. It.” I adjust it, making sure it’s straight and legible. Holding it between my hands, I clear my throat.
“Being promoted to big sister…” He blinks, then mutters the words again. “Wait, what? Are we getting a pet?”
Oh my God. I swallow, releasing a breath. “You’re lucky you’re handsome,” I tease, but as soon as the words come out, his eyes widen as if a light bulb went off.
“Are you pregnant?” he asks, kneeling beside me. When I suck in my lower lip and nod, he grabs me and pulls me into him. “Really? Like you’re really pregnant?” he frantically asks, pushing us apart and nearly giving me whiplash in the process.