Page 55 of Me and My Hot Professor

Epilogue

Naomi

Maddie gave me a wet, open-mouthed kiss on the cheek as I rinsed her binkie. Josh came tearing into the kitchen with Kaden hot on his heels. All I saw around the kitchen island was a head of brown curls chasing my incredibly hot husband into the living room.

“Guys, please don’t chip any teeth!” I called.

“Ma-ma-ma-ma,” Maddie said, reaching for her cousin and dad who were circling the couch in a game of TAG.

“You want to play too, huh? Go ahead, go get ‘em,” I said and set her down. My heart squeezed as I watched her wobble to the living room. Already, she was one year old and Kaden, who’d just turned four the week before, was smart enough that people thought he was six. Maddie held onto the couch cushion while watching Kaden and Josh run around, laughing hard enough that her freshly washed binkie fell to the floor. Maddie’s shock of orange hair was darkening by the day now, her big blue eyes she’d gotten from her father—and his good looks too. Though Josh, of course, thinks she’s my spitting image.

“Where’d Amy go?” I asked Josh while straightening the appetizer counter and cake stand. Of course, Maddie wouldn’t remember this party at all but our family was a force to be reckoned with and they wanted a party for a one-year-old.

“She went to go get the balloons from her car,” Josh said. He turned the tables on Kaden, stopped midstride and scooped Kaden into his arms to tickle him. Kaden laugh-screamed just as I heard the doorbell. I hurried to get it and about two-dozen balloons preceded Amy into the house.

“I think your brother and sister just got here,” she said. Sure enough, Jess and Casey were getting out of Casey’s car.

“Hey!” I waved and stepped outside to meet them. Jess had recently cut her hair short, shoulder length, and she’d curled it. The look was nice on her, though she could pull off any look and still be chic and graceful. Casey opened the trunk of his car and pulled out a huge wrapped box. I balked.

“What is that?” I said.

“It’s a playhouse,” Casey said, “and before you start protesting, I got her a play workbench too. That way she can DIY the house and grow up to have a show on HGTV,” he added in all seriousness.

I laughed, “You’ve really planned this out, haven’t you?” I chuckled. Casey took out the second huge box, I was honestly surprised there was that much room in his trunk.

“He did, he was going back and forth over what to get her for weeks, Nao,” Jess said in exasperation. “I, however, got her something simple, a bracelet,” Jess said happily. “You’ll both love it. It’s the kind you can adjust as she gets older too.”

“Jess can you grab the second present?” Casey asked, his arms full with the first, huge box. She rolled her eyes but helped him out. I grabbed her purse and the gift bag then followed them into the house. Amy and Josh were laughing at something in the living room, in the background was Kaden’s voice and Maddie’s happy baby chatter.

“Now she’s sayin’, ‘I want cake!’” Kaden exclaimed. Maddie babbled in a tone that sounded like she was backing him up. It was the cutest thing. Kaden saw the huge presents Casey and Jess were bringing in and his blue eyes widened with wonder. “Whoa Maddie look at your birthday presents!”

“Sheesh, what’s in those things Casey, a Bentley?” Amy asked.

Jess laughed, “He almost got her one of those toy Bentley’s actually,” she said. Casey set the gift down in front of the entertainment center then put the other gift beside it.

“Next year I’ll get her a race car to drive around in,” he said.

“Help!” Veronika shouted from the front door. She’d gone on a food run to pick up our orders. The only people we were missing were my parents. No doubt they were both trying to come late in order to dodge each other. I couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they ultimately had to walk in side by side. Time had softened their childishness towards one another but it was definitely still there. Though, lately it was more playful than malicious and that was entirely for the benefit of being in me and Maddie’s lives.

“I got it,” Amy hurried to the rescue. I never thought she and V would hit it off so well when they met. Though, it made sense, they were both into the arts and had similar jobs. Because they got along so well, it made becoming close with Amy a breeze. Yet another reason why Veronika was my best friend, she could get along with a brick wall if it would make someone she cared about happy.

“So Josh, how’s married life?” Casey asked him while bouncing Maddie in his arms.

“It’s everything,” he said. Josh and I looked at each other for a moment, he smirked and his eyes glittered with what was no doubt a dirty thought. Early this morning, before Maddie woke up, had been…eventful…for us. I walked into the front room to help Amy and V with the takeout bags.

“Is everyone here?” V asked. She handed me another paper bag and then closed the door.

“My parents aren’t here yet,” I said. We brought the food to the kitchen table and started to take the containers out of the bags. Then the doorbell rang.

“Speak of the devil,” V murmured. Amy chuckled.

“I got it,” I said eagerly and hurried to answer the door. Dad and Mom stood side by side…smiling at each other as if they’d been laughing about something.

“Look who’s fashionably late,” I said. Mom hugged me tight and Dad kissed me on the cheek.

“We were ‘operating on the same level of petty’ again, as V so eloquently put it that one time,” Mom said. “Anyways, where my granddaughter? I’ve been waiting all week to give her a squeeze.” She breezed by me in search of Maddie and Dad put his arm around my shoulders.

“Where’s my son-in-law? I want to give the both of you something for Maddie,” he said.

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