Page 39 of No One Else Can Have Her

“I thought I just asked you that question.” She giggled.

“No, you only hinted that you wanted me to be your husband, now I know you won’t shoot me down.”

She cupped his face and kissed him, hard. She loved him more than anything in the world, and those feelings had never faded.

“Answer me, Carly.”

“I already answered.”

“I need to know. I need to hear you say those words.”

She broke the kiss and smiled at him. “Yes, Nate, I would love to marry you, the father of my child.”

Epilogue

Five Years Later

Nate stared at his son and daughter as they played with Reese and Misha’s twins, both of which were girls. He could remember the day Reese got the news she was carrying twins. Reese had been terrified. One baby he could handle but a second, and to have them look identical, freaked him out.

It didn’t matter. Reese knew he had people he could freak out in front of, and when he went home to his wife, he was more than ready to handle whatever life threw at him.

Sarah was on the floor, playing with all four children.

In the past five years, he married Carly, moved her into his home, and Sarah had gotten the apartment. That lasted for all of five months, before Carly insisted on moving her in with them.

He watched Sarah and knew he and Carly were like the parents she never had. Carly packed her lunches, took care of dinner, and he’d even seen her braiding her hair. Sarah wanted to be taken care of, and she didn’t cause any trouble.

It was kind of freaky, but she was like their third child, and it worked. Sarah was also happy to babysit whenever necessary, and Carly wouldn’t trust anyone other than their gang.

Mitch was sitting on the couch, he had a hot chocolate in one hand, and curled up beside him was his girlfriend of three years. Nate knew he’d met Patrice at a bar, and she was an accountant. His friend was happy, so to Nate, he was happy. Also, he’d done a background check on Patrice and nothing flagged up, and as long as she made their Mitch happy, Nate didn’t give a shit.

Then there was Dalton, and much to everyone’s surprise, he was married with a child, and all of his partying and sexually transmitted diseases had disappeared. His wife was Dawn, a baker, who was the first woman to reject Dalton. In fact, the man before him had no choice but to change, to wise up, to stop getting drunk, and only then did Dawn even consider dating him. Nate didn’t think he was going to like her, but she was a sweet woman, and refused to be used.

They made a good couple, as Dalton had pulled a heavily pregnant Dawn into his arms and kissed her neck. Their son was asleep on the sofa, after consuming way too much sugar, and then to complete their group, Carly entered the room.

Again, she was heavily pregnant with their third child, and she carried a large tray of cookies. Nate immediately went to her side and took them from her. The tray barely weighed anything.

“You’ve got to stop panicking,” Carly said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “We have cookies, everyone. Dawn decorated them.”

Everyone dived in to grab a cookie or two to have with their hot chocolate.

This was their fifth Christmas get-together, tomorrow was Christmas day, and he knew Carly already made dinner plans with the other women, and Mitch as well.

This has been their life since he and Carly had gotten married. Life had finally fit into place.

Nate didn’t know why he waited so long, but now that he had his woman, he knew he was never letting her go. Three kids, five years together, and he knew he had a lifetime with her, and he was going to take full advantage of it. After all, he had already wasted twelve years by not taking what he wanted.

He was not going to be that fool again.

The End

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