Page 109 of Chasing Blue
EPILOGUE
Scarlett.
The doorof my hospital room swings open, and Finn stands there with Jazmin, our eighteen-month-old on his hip. Ava appears behind him carrying Aisha, Jazzy’s twin.
“Mumma,” Aisha squeals as soon as she sees me.
“Daddy, bubby,” Jazzy calls, holding out her chubby hands.
Finn bends and sets Jazzy on the floor, Aisha’s happy to stay in Ava’s arms. While Jazzy runs—at toddler speed—towards us, Finn follows slowly behind, his eyes slicing from me to Jack, to the baby Jack’s holding in his arms. I watch as his hand goes to his mouth before reaching out to point a finger first at me, then Jack, and then the baby.
“Blue?” he questions as Ava moves in to stand beside him.
My brows raise but quickly pull together in a frown as I turn my narrowed eyes to Jack, who shrugs.
“The hat,” Finn continues as he moves slowly towards us. “The hat, it’s blue. You had a boy?”
“We did,” me and Jack reply in unison. I then watch as Jack stands. “Meet your little brother,” he says to Finn who’s washing his hands.
“Me see. Me see,” Jazzy jumps around at the side of the bed before climbing into the chair Jack just stood from.
After passing Aisha off to me, Ava moves to help Jazzy into the chair. I then watch Jack pass his youngest son to his eldest. Ava’s eyes meet mine, and I’m done holding back the tears.
After the need for fertility intervention in our struggle to fall pregnant with the girls, we’d managed to do it again, all by ourselves before they were even a year old, but we’d decided this time around not to find out what we were having.
Already having eighteen-month-old twins, everyone thought we were insane for not wanting to be prepared, but there was so much science involved with the girls’ pregnancy. I felt we’d had so few choices that this time around, I wanted it to be a surprise. Jack was happy to go along with whatever I wanted because he was convinced we were having another girl. And at the end of the day, a baby’s a baby, right? We already had everything we needed and anything we didn’t have, I bought in a neutral colour.
I pull my daughter against my chest, bury my nose in her hair and breathe her in. She instantly wriggles free and holds my face in her hands, squishing my cheeks together, her blue eyes shining as she laughs.
“Does he have a name yet?” Ava asks as she smiles down at my son in Jack’s son’s arms.
Jack’s eyes meet mine, and I give him a chin lift for him to tell them.
“Yep,” he smiles at me and says, the tears in my eyes instantly spilling over again. “Meet Blue Finley Cole,” Jack says, his smile growing.
“Shit,” Finn whisper hisses as he pulls my son against him. “Way to go to kill me here, you two. Thought I was bad when these two were born, but you got me handing over my man card again,” he says with tears in his eyes. “He’s perfect, absolutely perfect.”
“Do I get a hold?” Ava asks. “There’s not two of them this time remember, you need to share.”
Jack picks Jazzy up from the chair and sits with her in his lap on the bed next to me and Aisha. I lean into him as he slides his arm around my shoulder, kisses my temple, and pulls me closer.
“You doing okay?” he asks against my ear.
“Tired, sore, emotional,” I tell him.
“Yeah, but look what you did. Just look at what we’ve made,” he says quietly as the girls press the button that moves my bed up and down, and Finn and Ava—who’s now in his lap—fuss over Blue.
“Can you believe it?” I ask.
“My one, Sha Sha, mine,” Jazzy whines to Aisha as they fight over the bed remote. Jack hands Jazzy the TV remote instead, and being the little genius she is, Jazz has it turned on and a music channel blasting within seconds.
“Nope. Pinch myself every day,” Jack’s eyes find mine as he talks. “Waited a long time for you, for us, for this, but we got there, Blue.”
My nose tingles, but I manage not to cry. “You’re gonna have to stop calling me that now. It’s gonna cause confusion as he gets older.”
“He,” Jack says with a grin. I frown and shake my head in confusion.
“He?” I question.
