Page 105 of Vaquero
Epilogue
Children were messy. Noisy. Carefree. Sometimes smelly. And if lucky, they were rambunctious, maybe a little naughty, too. And healthy. At least, well on their way to being healthy. Simple things children everywhere deserved to be.
Dominic, the resident boy wonder, had finally achieved the age in his short life where he dared Julio and Meg at every turn. Did the expertly designed baby gate at the bottom of the staircase stop him from visiting his Mum while she worked in her upstairs office? Not on your life. He simply took hold of the railing while standing on the bottom step, then climbed the open staircase from the outside. Sometimes, he even chortled with every step he climbed, as if he were getting away with something. Which he was.
On the twelfth step, when his hard, little head bumped the front room ceiling, he ducked and scrambled between the uprights, then scampered into Meg’s office, where he was not supposed to be. Dominic knew that, but he did it anyway.
Meg was the real culprit. Because not once had she refused this charming three-year-old when he appeared mischievously at her side. If anything, that warm motherly snuggle, hug, and kiss rewarded that headstrong boy.
Julio couldn’t blame her, as once again, he unfastened the gate and climbed the staircase to retrieve his son for his much-needed afternoon nap. Dom was a good boy, and he was finally healthy enough to behave like a normal three-year-old. His daily FDC, his fixed dose of the four strongest TB drugs on the market, had recently been readjusted due to his increased weight and energy. The boy Julio had once thought was dying, smiled all the time now. He loved to climb, and he giggled like a little kid should. What’s more, he was smart and rapidly learning English, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese Julio kept teaching him.
It was important a child remember his ethnicity. His heritage. Well, except for his father. Julio hoped Dom would forget that bastard and all that had happened in Brazil. He didn’t plan to ever tell his son who his real father or mother were. Ever. Dom didn’t need the curse of that foul parentage hovering over him the rest of his life, and Domingo and Bianca didn’t deserve one second of this little guy’s remembrance. They didn’t deserve him at all. They had what they’d wanted most out of life—each other. In Hell. Good riddance.
It was now four months since Julio and Meg had adopted Dominic and brought him out of Brazil. Together, they’d bought a starter home on the outskirts of Big Springs, Texas, where her parents still lived. It was small, nothing like the grand house Bianca had insisted on in California. But this place was the one Meg wanted. It was home. Three bedrooms, a two-car garage, and a thirty-year mortgage.
While Meg managed her new business, a Texas state program to feed hungry school children, Julio managed Senator Sullivan’sDia de Muertos Teamlong distance, with an occasional hands-on visit to New Mexico. He’d hired two more special operators, Tripp Mendez and Mateo Navarro, to replace the men he’d lost. The former warrior was an Army Ranger, the latter a SEAL. Both were capable, steady operators and actively engaged back in Brazil at the moment. Julio had them checking on Mayor Rafael Velasquez and Pepe, as well as the other villagers who’d been enslaved. Tripp and Mateo’s mission was more humanitarian than lethal, this time.
Rick Santiago had stayed on as advisor after Julio hit Senator Sullivan up about changing his Rules of Engagement. Sullivan agreed. Said one was, after all, a lonely number. That two was better, especially in the dark world of covert ops. Which meant Julio would still be part of a twosome when required. And that was okay. There was still evil in the world. As long as God needed him, he would go.
The moment Dom caught sight of Julio at Meg’s office door, he scrambled onto her lap, grinning like the little charmer he’d become. “No, Daddy, no,” he said adamantly, shaking his head back and forth while he ducked under Meg’s chin, still keeping an eye on Julio. “Mum. I stay with Mum. Not you. No, no, no.” Those big brown eyes of his sparkled. He knew which parent was the softie.
“Yes, yes, yes, son,” Julio answered, his heart warmed by the tender scene. “You’ve had your medicine. You know it makes you sleepy. Mum can’t work and hold you while you sleep, can she?” They’d had this discussion before.
Dom nodded just as adamantly as he’d shaken his head before. “Ah huh, she can. Mum can do anything.”
There was that. But it’d sure help if Meg stopped grinning. Sitting there in her office chair with her laptop opened on her right, and her arms around the boy she adored, she positively glowed. There was no other word for it. Her hair had grown long enough she was finally able to curl it. The sun filtering through the blinds behind her cast a golden light on her, turning those chestnut curls into a halo. Motherhood looked good on Meg.
The doorbell rang. Julio cocked his head at her. “Why do I get the feeling you and the universe are working against me?”
She tipped her head back and laughed. “I would never! Go. See who wants to sell us solar panels this time. I’ll put this tiny tyrant down for his nap. Then…” Her brows arched. “Maybe we can take a nap, too.”
Julio winked. He loved afternoon naps with Meg.
“Aww,” Dom whined. “Me wanna help.”
Meg dropped a kiss into his head of dark curls. “Daddy’s right. Nap now. Play later, kiddo.”
Another “Aww.” Another whine. Then a big wide yawn. Once his head finally hit his pillow, Dom would be out for the count. One just had to get him to that pillow.
Meg lifted to her feet, her hands on his tiny butt while he sagged against her. That damned obnoxious doorbell rang again. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she teased.
Julio honestly couldn’t imagine where that might be. There was nowhere better than where he was now, standing here in the light of a good woman’s—his woman’s—grace. Loving her with every beat of his battered warrior’s heart. Wanting to cup her smiling face between his palms and kiss her until she moaned.
“You are beautiful to me,” he murmured like the sap he’d become these last few months.
Her smile widened as she came to a stop at the doorway he blocked. “And you are the best Daddy a little boy could ever ask for. Now give your father a kiss, young man.”
Without hesitation, Dom tipped out of Meg’s hands, puckered his lips, and leaned his shoulder into Julio’s chest. “Wub you, Daddy,” he murmured as he planted a kiss on Julio’s jaw.
Julio gave his son a quick hug and a kiss to his curly head. “And I love you, troublemaker. Now go to sleep. If you’re good, we’ll make milkshakes after dinner.” Nutritionally fortified milkshakes, but Dom didn’t need to know that.
“Okay,” he sighed. “Night, night.”
That crazy doorbell rang a third time!
“Wow, someone really wants to make a sale,” Meg chuckled. “You, go. Tell whoever it is we’re not buying, while I put this guy to bed.”
Still complaining and yawning, Dom babbled a grumpy mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Meg was laughing from his bedroom when Julio headed back downstairs.
