I threw my arms around Dylan’s neck and giggled into his skin. I wiggled around with happiness, causing the guys to chuckle at me. I couldn’t believe it. After all we’d been through. After years of loving them from afar and convincing myself I’d never have the likes of them, it was happening.
I was getting the ending I deserved.
“I take it that’s a ‘yes,’ doll?” Dylan asked.
“Yes,” I said. “A thousand times over, yes.”
EPILOGUE
KATIE
In the three years that the Lee brothers and I had been together, a lot had happened. Once I’d moved into their house with them, things in my life really took off. I’d found a job with a well-funded non-profit organization that offered legal services to single mothers from all walks of life. I wasn’t making a typical lawyer’s salary, but I didn’t care. I was doing the work that I loved, and I was happy.
At home, things were just about perfect as well. There were six bedrooms in the house, one for each of the brothers and two guest rooms. When I’d come to live there, they had turned one of the rooms into mine. I could sleep alone if I wanted to – I never wanted to – or I could take one, or all, of the brothers to bed with me.
The sex was beyond amazing, both one on one and all of us together. But the love we shared was our real story. It grew day by day and, though we weren’t a conventional family by any means, we were a family nonetheless.
Hunter had not spoken to any of us for almost a year after that day in my apartment. I’d reached out several times, but he’d rebuffed me. It had hurt like hell and the guys comforted me and told me just to hang on. They were also mourning the loss of their best friend, but we all just had to wait and love him until he came around.
One of the horses had been hurt while out on a ride and, one night while he was trying to help the vet tend to the wounded animal, Wyatt had received a vicious kick to the head. He was rushed to the hospital, unconscious, with his brain swelling dangerously in his skull. I called Hunter, hysterical and screaming and, by the grace of God, he’d actually answered the phone.
He had come to the hospital, a look of panic on his face. When he saw me, he had grabbed me and pulled me against him, holding me as if he was afraid I’d disappear. It was a long and scary few days, but the swelling finally went down, and Wyatt woke up. The doctors said it was a miracle that he had no deficits from the event.
Almost losing one of his best friends permanently brought Hunter back into the fold. Though it still took him a while to get used to the idea of us all together, he was at least trying now. It had been a couple of years and even though it wasn’t completely the way it used to be, it was one hundred times better than it had been that first year.
“Hey there, pretty lady,” Andrew said, dropping low to kiss me on the top of my head. “How ya feelin’?”
I groaned as I tried to shift my weight on the couch. “Like a beached whale,” I said, rubbing my hand over my swollen belly.
“Hey, no one talks about my woman like that,” Dylan said, coming into the room.
I smiled up at him and puckered my lips for the kiss he offered.
“Seriously,” Caleb said, from across the room. “You get more and more beautiful every day Katie.”
I shook my head and laughed. “Y’all need some glasses. If I get any bigger, they’re gonna give me my own zip code.”
“What about a zip code?” Wyatt said, striding through the front door.
“Katie thinks she looks fat,” Caleb said.
“No way, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid my lucky eyes on,” Wyatt said.
The brothers came over and took turns rubbing my belly. The little ones inside kicked in response.
“Soccer players,” Andrew said. “They’re gonna be soccer players.”
“God, I hope not,” Dylan interjected. “Soccer bores me to death. They’re gonna be field goal kickers.”
I laughed as the guys continued to guess at what our little boys would grow up to be. Though none of us knew which brother was the biological father of the twin boys growing inside me, it never really mattered. All four men considered themselves a father and was determined to raise the babies as their own.
Caleb helped me up from the couch and walked me into the kitchen where Dylan had begun preparing dinner. He sat me at the table and fetched me a tall glass of sweet tea. Andrew pulled over a footstool so I could rest my swollen feet, and Wyatt switched on the ceiling fan to circulate cool air around the room.
We sat and ate and talked about our days and, as I looked around the table, my heart swelled with love. In the beginning, I hadn’t been sure how this would all work, but it did. It worked perfectly.
That night, while I lay in my king-sized bed with Wyatt next to me, I thanked my lucky stars. For insurance and legal purposes, Wyatt and I had married. It gave me the boys’ last name and a legal right to their money for anything the babies or I needed. When the brothers had approached me the with idea, it had been a no-brainer that Wyatt would be the one I would choose to marry.
I rolled onto my side and felt a sharp twinge in my belly seconds before a warm sensation ran down my legs.