Page 37 of One Week With My Dad's Best Friend

I shake my head and grin. “No. Let’s do it.” I’m taking charge of my life for a change. I’m not allowing my father to decide anything for me ever again.

I wrap my arms around Anton’s neck, and he kisses me, our lips clashing, tongues dancing, and I never want it to end.

It was always him for me and it always will be. Only Anton makes all of my dreams come true. I feel light and happy for the first time in my life.

I feel like I’ve finally found my home.

Epilogue - Anton

Three years later…

I carry my wife over the threshold of our home.

I do this on every anniversary. It’s become a tradition of sorts. Today is extra special. Not only because Scarlett graduated with flying colors but also because we found out she’s six weeks pregnant with our first child.

It took us a long time. But we never wavered from trying. Never cried when she got her period. We kept on with our lives, loving each other as though it would never happen.

We made a plan to start IVF once she reached twenty-five years old, and also when we were going to put in a request for adoption.

And then it happened without warning.

We’ve already prepared the baby’s room. Opting for a neutral gray color on the walls, and we’ve commissioned an artist to paint a mural on one wall. All colors, because we don’t want to find out the sex of the baby before he or she is born.

Her father is desperate for a boy in the family.

It took him some time to get used to us being together. He was angry at first, but not because his daughter was with his friend, but that we married in Vegas.

He still hates that he didn't get to walk her down the aisle as he had with her sister. Now, I even thought that was strange considering how he treated her.

Scarlett has no regrets.

“I’m going to take time off with you once the baby arrives,” I say, emptying the many bags of baby clothes we bought today.

Scarlett smiles. “Really? You’ll do that?”

“Yes, and if you want to go back to work after your maternity leave. I’ll cut my days down.”

“My brilliant lawyer husband is going to look after a baby?” she says.

“I want to be there for him or her. My father never was. He was always too busy. He always had a business meeting, or a flight to catch...”

My father left my brother and me a massive inheritance when he died. But I don’t want to be that person dying young because his life is hectic and stressful. That person who hardly knew his children.

“And my future brilliant lawyer wife can do the same.”

I know she wants to work. Scarlett loves being married to me, but strives for her independence and I will always give her that, regardless of how much I want to be with her.

She takes hold of my hand and smiles at me. Her face and eyes light up and the look goes straight to my heart. I pull her into my arms and she melts into me. How I got so lucky to have found this sweetness, I’ll never know.

Her father taking me under his wing when I started as a fresh graduate at the hockey team helped. For someone who had ahard heart when it came to his daughter, he was always good to me.

Taking me to his home for dinner when my father died and my mother moved permanently to The Algarve in Portugal.

Sometimes I thank my lucky stars. Scarlett was fated to me by the gods—that I know. Knowing everything happens for a reason.

Everything has a purpose.

She is my purpose.

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