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‘So, is that a yes?’
‘Yes!’
He planted a kiss at the edge of my mouth before stroking my hair away from my eyes and smiling his dimpled smile at me. A smile I’d not seen shining as brightly for a while.
‘Good girl.’
EPILOGUE
ALEC
Dark tresses whispered in the wind as I watched her, Jane balanced on her hip as she put the finishing touches to the table in the taverna. Esther fussed to get everything just right because Maeve was finally coming to visit. The past almost two years had been hard on Esther even as she flourished in Spain, surrounded by people who loved her.
It had only been the second time we’d seen Maeve having to wait until Harold had finally lost his grip on their family.
I loved watching Esther, seeing her sunny smile as she talked to our daughter, or the simple grace she had when moving between the tightly packed tables. Her freckles had deepened with time as her skin had turned a darker hue with the sunny days. My heart still skipped a beat when she set those emerald green eyes on me, calling me to her with a tilt of the head.
‘Stop staring at me and help,’ she said with a laugh, handing our daughter to me. I almost couldn’t believe her first birthday had arrived already. She smiled up at me through her toothy little grin as I held her, melting me every time I looked at her.
The luckiest man in the god-damned world.
‘I can’t help staring at you,’ I said, pulling Esther to me by the waist and kissing her neck. ‘I still can’t believe you’re mine.’
She flashed her wedding band at me and winked. ‘All yours, promise.’
Jane, named after Esther’s mother, whom I’d never had the pleasure of meeting, pushed a chubby little hand between us and tried to pull my face to hers, forever wanting to steal all of our kisses for herself.
‘You wee scamp,’ I said, planting kisses on her cheeks to a high-pitched giggle that stopped me in my tracks every time. I didn’t think it was possible to be happy, truly happy, but we’d found our blissful corner of the world and relished in it. We’d spoken about moving back once the coast was clear but found that the taverna with Eva, Jock, and Gladys had become home for us both. Not the family we might have imagined when we were both younger, but the one which made our souls content.
Esther still worked at the taverna, taking on more of the cooking and cleaning as it grew more difficult for Eva and Jock, while I worked as a handyman for whoever needed me around the town. The money wasn’t as hefty as my job as an enforcer, but I was greeted daily with smiles and thanks rather than hatred and fear. It was worth the change, plus we didn’t need too much in the way of material things. Esther hadn’t been lying when she’d said she didn’t care about all of that.
I left Esther to her fussing over every little detail of the party prep and took Jane to the tables outside where Gladys was soaking up the sun, decked out in the most colourful dress I’d ever seen.
‘Oh, give that baby over,’ she said, putting down her gin to reach out for Jane. Dutifully, I passed her over. ‘My wee Jane, och, you’re a star, aren’t you?’
I leaned against the wall of the building and tilted my face to the sun, basking in its warmth.
‘She’s the best,’ I said, smiling at the two of them. Gladys had become like a surrogate grandmother to Esther and I, regularly bursting into our home to fuss over the baby and to bundle her into the pram for a walk about the town, or to bring us mountains of biscuits, hell we were overrun by them while Esther was breastfeeding, Gladys insisting they’d help bring the milk in.
Glancing through the window, I saw Eva slip her arm around Esther’s shoulder, calming her with her casual affection and kissing the side of her head. A godsend. They’d all been a godsend.
‘I’m so glad you went back for her,’ Gladys said, playing peekaboo behind her napkin, to Jane’s delight.
‘Me too. Best decision I ever made.’
Jane’s giggles sounded out as multiple faces turned toward us with smiles.
‘I don’t miss sitting in that house rotting away in the rain one bit.’
‘Me either,’ I said, thinking back to the families I always envied out of the window, and now I had one of my very own. People who cared if I wasn’t there, and who wanted me to be around. People who smiled and welcomed me with open arms. My girls, with their dark hair and green eyes, brought peace to my soul. Parenthood had hit us like a tonne of bricks, as it did most people, but together we’d found our way to happiness. Having three people who adored our baby helped too.
‘Maeve!’ Came a scream to my left as Esther flew out of the door and practically ripped her sister off of her feet. Tears sprung from her eyes as they gripped onto one another, the past giving way to a happier future. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
‘Where’s that husband of yours?’ I asked, picking up Jane and walking over to meet them.
‘Urgh, delayed by a work thing, so he’ll be here tomorrow, but I absolutely wasn’t missing my niece’s birthday for work nonsense.’ Maeve handed her case to Esther and reached out to Jane. I hesitated, not knowing if she’d be weird with the practical stranger, but the video calls had clearly done their thing, and Jane happily went to her aunt, pulling at her hair and giggling.
‘We could have picked you up,’ I said as we made our way inside.
