Page 161 of Blossoms of the Heart
Epilogue
Four years later…
Tai
* * *
“Daddy, can I be a princess too like mom?” Rukia said running into my arms.
I looked at her and smiled loving her sweet smile and the way that her little arms circled around my neck.
“Sweet girl, you are a princess. All girls are.”
“Good answer.” Akito said with a laugh.
We sat out on the beach together watching the babies play with Phoebe and Mitsuke down by the seashore.
It reminded me of summers of old when we played on the beach as children.
I’d reached that mental pause in my life again. But this time I wasn’t anxious about it.
I looked forward to what the future would bring. I was a man with everything.
I married Princess Phoebe properly six months after our temporary wedding at Akito’s that night.
We had a year together of just us going on one adventure after another. Then it happened. The adoption agency contacted us letting us know of about twins whose parents died in a car accident in Tokyo. They didn’t want to split them up.
Neither did we. So we got our Rukia, named after my beloved aunt, and Kawei. A girl and a boy. Perfect.
They were six months old at the time and would be three in a few months.
Phoebe connected their situation with hers. An accident took their parents away from them, and an accident made her unable to have children.
So we would be their parents and they would be our children.
We would belong to each other.
I remembered when I first saw them. I took one look at them and they felt like mine. Blood couldn’t have created a stronger bond than what I felt for my babies.
Only love.
We kept the names their parents had given them as middle names and gave them our own.
Phoebe was the same as me. She loved them at first sight too.
Although I solemnly declared my love for her and the host of children we were going to adopt I knew she still worried that I’d changed my mind.
She got confirmation the day we met the twins that I was serious as hell. The look she gave me as I held them was another magical look I would never forget.
She looked at peace and I could almost see the mental sigh of relief. It was good for her even though there was never ever a problem.
What she never realized, probably because it was something that had to be shown, was that I loved her for all that she was. My heart had broken for her when I heard what happened to her, but it didn’t change anything. It never changed that deep love I had for the woman who’d lived in my dreams for so many years.
Her happiness was my mission in life.
Make sure your woman knows she comes first. Words from my father I would teach my son, and be sure that my daughter had someone who always put her first no matter what.
Kawei started running away from Mitsuke and Dante’s two little girls. Osaka and Hideo.
