Page 90 of Secret Baby Next Door
Mick, seeming to sense what was going on, came over and put his head on Maddie’s leg.
“Wait, does this mean Mick is family too?”
“It sure does, Maddie,” I said.
Her eyes lit up wider than I've ever seen.
“This is the best birthday ever!”
The excitement carried on into the evening, and when it was time for the big fireworks display, we headed up to the third-floor balcony to watch the city’s firework show in the distance, brilliant colors exploding above the mountains.
We were a family. It was perfect. Maddie sat on her daddy’s lap, her head against his chest, the smile that had started when she'd learned the news still on her precious little face.
“I love you, Piper,” Valentino said. “I love you like crazy.”
“And you know I feel the same way. I love you, baby.”
We kissed. And as we did, I couldn’t get over my life, how a meeting that had started with a late trip to the airport had ended up like this.
And I had a feeling it was only going to get better.
Epilogue I
VALENTINO
Seven months later...
I’d always prided myself on being a man who kept my cool, no matter what. But there in the courthouse, signing the documents that made it official that Gage was my son and Maddie was my daughter... it was hard not to feel a little something well up in my eyes.
“One signature and it’s all done,” David, my lawyer said.
I held the pen over the paper, ready to make it official. It all seemed so surreal. The last several months with Gage and Maddie and Piper had been the happiest of my life. More than that, it was reality—I was the father to those wonderful kids, regardless of any legal piece of paper.
It’d been so amazing, in fact, that Piper and I had let the little matter of me having official, legal fatherhood slip to the backburner. David, being the good lawyer that he was, made sure to pester me until I set a date to get it taken care of—the day being today.
“You alright over there, Doc?” Piper asked, a smirk on her face. “This doesn’t happen until you sign.”
I smiled, shaking my head and coming back into the moment. “Yeah, I'm alright. Just got a little lost in my own thoughts.”
Maddie was next to her mom, her huge eyes big with anticipation. Gage was in his stroller, the little guy looking so big that I could hardly wrap my head around how fast he was growing. More than that, today was his first birthday. I couldn’t imagine him getting a better gift than officially being my son.
I smiled, taking one last deep breath before writing my name down on the certificate. Once that was done, I turned the paper and pushed it over to the judge.
“And there you have it,” he said. “Congrats.”
“Yeah, congrats, Dad,” Piper said, throwing her arms around me and planting a big kiss on my cheek.
“Daddy!” Maddie rushed over and hugged my legs in the way she always did. Gage babbled happily from his stroller.
Together, we left the room and made our way through the big rotunda of the Denver courthouse. I hung back a little, catching David’s attention with a nod.
“Any news from Ashley?” I asked.
“Just an email this morning making sure that you were still doing this. I know I'm supposed to be impartial about these sorts of things, but dammit if I’m not a little struck by how eager she is to give up custody of that boy.”
I felt the same way. Months after she’d flown the coop, Ashley had finally dropped me a line. She’d taken the money I'd given her and run off to California, shacking up with some guy there. She’d only asked the most basic questions about Gage—her interest in getting in touch had only been to find out how she could sever the final, legal thread of parenthood that existed between her and Gage.
“Yeah. Same here. But he’s around a hell of a lot of love now.”
