Page 34 of Teased By My Roommate

EPILOGUE TWO

LILA ~ EIGHT YEARS LATER

Flattening myself against the wall of the hallway, I barely inched my face around the corner to peek into the living room. I knew better than to interrupt daddy-daughter time.

The girls seemed to have three different personalities. They were creative and smart and communicative with me. When Hawk and I were together, they were pretty well balanced. But when Hawk had them alone, my sweet little girls became fearless, and tried to prove to him how tough they were.

"You can do it, Cara," our four-year-old Gemma encouraged. "Do it like this."

She demonstrated for her eleven-month old sister by sitting in front of her, then using the couch cushions to pull herself up to standing. Then Gemma showed how to grip the edges of the couch to stay balanced as she walked over to her dad.

"Good idea, Gemma," Hawk said, ruffling her hair.

Cara loved having her hair played with, so that was the last straw. She shimmied her little diapered butt closer to the couch, then I stared in disbelief as her tiny fingers gripped the cushions.

She had only learned to crawl properly last month, having discovered that Hawk would wait on her hand and foot if she gave him a certain smile.

He caught my eye, giving me an excited nod as we stared at our baby pulling herself up to standing. Cara took a moment to get her balance, then sidestepped to the right, holding the cushions for dear life.

"You're doing it!" Gemma squealed, clapping her hands in glee. She stepped back so that Cara could make her way over to Daddy, then grip the knees of his jeans as she continued on.

He ruffled her hair, which made her giggle. I thought that she'd stop there, but instead she used first the coffee table, then the easy chair, and lastly the bookcase to keep on going.

Hawk looked over again and blew me a kiss. It was yet another perfect moment in our wonderful, amazing lives.

My sweet husband had been the perfect man for me from the very beginning.

Even when he surprised me by having our parents hiding across from the restaurant when he proposed. Even when he shocked me by stretching our week-long honeymoon in Europe to a month. Our mothers arranged it all, after planning our wedding.

He was able to leverage their strengths and channel their pushy mother energy while keeping them at enough of a distance that I didn't feel smothered. Somehow he was always able to find the perfect balance.

Tearing my eyes away from my handsome man, I looked down to see Cara precariously balanced on her toes, looking in all directions, wondering where to go next. There was nothing else for her to grab onto.

Stepping out of the hallway, I dropped to my knees and held out my arms. "Come here, sweetie," I said gently, hoping not to startle her.

Somehow the surprise made her forget that she didn't have any support, and she awkwardly toddled three feet across the carpet and into my embrace.

Gemma was beside herself, jumping and clapping. Hawk scooped her up in his arms as I picked up Cara, and we met in the middle of the room for a big family hug.

"Cara wants pizza for dinner," Gemma announced, employing her usual trick to try to get anything she wanted.

Hawk raised an eyebrow, looking at her sternly. "Pizza is only for nice girls who show their sister how to tidy up the play corner."

"Okay!"

We set the kids down so that Gemma could run to the corner to start pitching toys into baskets, while Cara crawled after her to watch.

Hawk slipped an arm around my waist and whispered, "I ordered the pizza ten minutes ago." He nuzzled my ear, as his hands gripped my hip suggestively. "And tonight for dessert, we can have another slice of what we started after my shower this morning."

"Maybe," I said, stretching up to kiss him. "Or maybe two."

Not only was he the perfect husband, my sexy man was still the perfect roommate…who still loved coming out of the shower buck naked just to tease me.

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