Page 24 of Merry Christmas To Me
Epilogue
Archer (Five Years Later)~
The house was quiet, suspiciously so, because the house should never be quiet.
Like,never.
After our first Christmas together, Sia had moved into my apartment six months later, and then she married me that following September. When we got pregnant in December, we finally made the move to buy a house. We still had the apartment over the shop, but we’d turned it more into a safe haven for anyone who needed it. If one of the guys was fighting with his wife, he was more than welcome to stay in the apartment if he needed space. If one of them fell on hard times, he and his family were welcome to stay in the apartment until they could get back on their feet.
But back to the house being too quiet for my liking, Sia had surprised us both when she had given me twins our first go-round. Since I still had nothing to do with my worthless parents, we surmised that the twins must have come from my side of the family somewhere. I’ve never been close enough to my parents to ever research the rest of my family. There’d never been a need. My friends and employees had become my family, and I’d been okay with that. I was still okay with that. Especially, now that I had Sia and the kids.
Our second go-round had resulted in only one child, but with three kids, all under the age of five, in the house, it should not have been this quiet.
“Sia?”
With no answer, I headed upstairs, and when I walked into our bedroom, Sia was in the middle of the bed, Tyler snuggled underneath her right arm, Taylor snuggled underneath her left, and Faith curled up on her lap. And they were all sleeping.
The only problem?
My baby didn’t look comfortable at all.
I quietly made my way over, and doing my best not to topple over, I reached for one-year-old Faith, and left my sons where they were. Faith could sleep through a tornado, so moving her back to her room was no problem.
But the second I lifted her, Sia’s mother’s instincts were on point, and she snapped her eyes open. The second she realized it was me, she gave me a tired smile. “You might want to put her back,” she whispered. “We all caught that cold she had coming on last night.” She glanced at both three-year-old boys before looking at me again. “As a matter of fact, you might want to just leave us locked up in here, so you don’t get sick, too.”
I kept Faith in my arms, but I sat down on the edge of the bed. “You look uncomfortable as hell,” I whispered back.
Sia grinned. “I am.”
“Let me get these kids back to their rooms, so you can take a hot bath,” I told her. “I can’t have you guys sick on Christmas.” Christmas was only three days away, and we were traveling up north to spend it with Sia’s parents. There’s no way we’d be able to make the drive with three sick kids and a sick momma.
“Archer, if you get sick-”
“It’s still better than you being sick,” I quickly interrupted her. “This family can function if I’m on my ass. It can’t if you are.” And that was the honest-to-God truth.
Her eyes closed, and it hurt my heart how tired she looked. “You’re too good to me,” she mumbled.
I looked at my wife, and she looked a tired mess. Her hair was a cross between a bun and a sad, sad ponytail. Her face was bare of makeup, though she didn’t need it, but there were circles under her eyes. And the tip of her nose looked a little raw.
And she was still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
And she was all mine, and I took care of what was mine.
“Baby, that’s because you’re too goodforme,” I told her honestly.
One eye popped open. “Working hard on that romance again?”
“Just telling the truth, baby.”
And I was.
The End.
