Rowdy walks over to me and kisses me on the lips. JoEllen smacks her lips for her kisses too, and he leans in to give her exactly what she wants. He pulls her from my arms.

“Ready for date night, baby?” Rowdy asks.

“Grandma,” the boys both yell and get JoEllen crying for her grandma. She might have her daddy wrapped around her little finger, but her favorite person is Grandma. She is always wanting to be with her.

I laugh and turn toward our bedroom. We are outgrowing our home, and Rowdy is trying to talk me into upgrading. He wants to either add onto this place or build a new house. I don’t want him to get in his trust more, but he says he doesn’t care. If he could have his way, we’d have a large six-bedroom house with every room filled. He says he can’t wait to have more kids, but I need to wait a bit longer. He wants four kids. I can’t work if we have any more kids because I want to give all my kids the attention they deserve. Archer started kindergarten this year, and Marco is going to start preschool in the spring.

The kids have plenty of cousins to play with from Rowdy’s family. The family gets together on a monthly basis so the kids can play and the adults can all spend time going over the winery. JoAnna retired from her position at the bank and is now helping run the winery and vineyard. She says it gives her more time with her grandbabies.

My parents have never seen the kids and never call me. I’ve invested the rest of my inheritance for the kids so they have money for college just like I did. I want my children to know that their great-grandmother wanted the best for them. I never pursued legal action against my mother for what she did. I can’t say her interfering with my inheritance was a surprise. She never thought I deserved that money. It worked out to my benefit in the end. I was able to claim the donations she made to the church on my taxes.

Epilogue Two

10 YEARS LATER

ROWDY

I got my wish. I have a large family and a wife who tells me every day she loves me. Our youngest two are nine years old and fraternal twins. My sweet girl JoEllen is eleven and giving me every gray hair on my head. MJ is fourteen and causes my sweet wife to stress. He pushes every envelope he can. He says he wants to be a firefighter like me, but he also wants to be a helicopter pilot like Ryker. He and my youngest son Jake are wrestling in their chairs. I Gibbs smack them both in the back of the head.

But my son Archer is the one I’m most proud of today. He’s fifteen and working his way through high school. He’s already a sophomore and interested in colleges all over the nation. He’s smart as a whip and wants to be a doctor. We are standing in the gymnasium at his school as he gets recognized again and honored as part of the National Honor Society. He currently has a 3.9 GPA and is pushing for a 4.0. He wants to be valedictorian. My wife is standing next to me in jeans and her ever-present cowboy boots. I’ve had to buy her a couple of pairs since that first pair died. But she doesn’t disappoint, she wears each pair out until they are falling apart. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail. I pull her under my arm as she holds hands with Elenora, our youngest daughter named after Coral’s grandmother.

It took years for Coral to get over everything. She struggled for a long time, and I still sometimes catch her locking herself in and startling easily. Davis was serving a life sentence when he died. Little does my wife know that his death was a direct result of me. I kept my word. I made sure everyone in that prison knew he tried to kill an infant. He served only a year before he was found dead in his cell. I sleep like a baby every night knowing he can’t hurt my family anymore.

We ended up adding onto our house to make room for each kid to have their own room. We also travel to New York every other summer to spend time with Marco and his family. His and Calysta’s story wasn’t over as we all thought, and I’m glad I have both my friends back. They come here in the summers we don’t travel there. Family means just as much to me today as it did all those years ago when I slipped that ring on Coral’s finger. And she still tells me every day over and over how much she loves me.

We don’t miss her family, but they’re missing out on getting to know these wonderful children. I’m up to become a chief at the fire department, and Coral is now home full-time with the kids. I know soon enough she’ll be asking me if she can go back to work, but she volunteers at a rape crisis center and is an on-call SART nurse when they need her.

I hold her close to me, tightening my grip on her as I feel her body lock up. Someone shoved us from behind. She sometimes still struggles when we are in crowds. I swore I’d protect her all those years ago, and I still will today.

* * *

Source: www.seynovel.com