Page 69 of Mr. Principal

Epilogue

“Mom, take a picture of me. Come on, Mom,” Meredith said pulling at my shoulder.

“Give me one sec. I just need to get this diaper—” I didn’t get another word out as the diaper came flying up and hit me squarely in the face.

Meredith immediately burst into laughter, holding on to her side. “Oh my God, you should have seen your face. Hilarious.”

Meredith sighed. “Next time duck, Mom. Move on over, let me help. You go sit down. You need a break. And I’m an expert. I can change a diaper in thirty seconds flat.”

She did exactly that. I barely had time to collapse on the bed before she was done.

“Oh, my amazing girl, what did I ever do right in life to deserve you?” I said, closing my eyes as I sank down into the pillows. I just needed a nap. Just one minute, that was all I needed.

“Umph” I groaned as something that felt like a sack of potatoes landed on my back and knocked the wind out of me.

Meredith laughed. “Gabby, you’re too funny.”

“All my children are trying to kill me,” I said with my eyes still closed, determined to get just a few seconds of a nap.

“Just Gabby. CJ just wanted you to change his diaper faster.”

I opened my eyes and the three of them stood there looking at me with goofy faces. My twins had just turned a year old. I had a girl, Gabrielle, and a son, Carter Jr. We called him CJ for short. CJ was pretty tame and pretty much slept and played quietly by himself. Gabrielle, or better known as Gabby, was bold, adventurous and always getting into trouble.

They all looked at me with goofy looks on their faces and I couldn’t help but smile back. “Come here, you guys,”

I held my arms out and they jumped into them. And that’s how Carter found me when he walked into our room.

“Another group hug without me?” he asked.

He didn’t need to say another word as they switched gears and piled on him instead, almost knocking him on his butt.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Carter said, falling over as he tried to steady himself. “I guess you guys missed me?”

They all nodded in unison and held him tighter. I pulled myself up on my elbows and looked at them. Who would have thought that three years ago, my life would end up here?

Carter and I had married less than a week after he’d proposed. It had just felt right. We figured, why wait? We’d already loved each other for what felt like a lifetime.

He’d reapplied for his old job and was reinstated as principal at the International School. Meredith loved having two dads. And for the sake of Meredith, Tom was always on his best behavior. Mostly, he was afraid of Carter’s stepmom taking him to court.

Tom was also on his third divorce, but already had a new girlfriend. Even Meredith was starting to mix their names up. Becca was still a constant figure in our lives. In fact, we were on our way to her college graduation.

She had earned her bachelor’s degree in record time and was thinking of continuing on to law school to study family law. Becca spent the weekends with us sometimes and she was more like the little sister I’d never had. We’d become such good friends and it was hard to think that I could have ever thought to dislike her. She was funny, caring, a little ditzy, but a great person. She had even become a doula so that she could help me when I went into labor with the twins. I thought she would pass out at the first sign of labor, but she had held up even better than Carter. In fact, she’d had to give Carter a pep talk.

And she’d taken care of Meredith during the time when I was in the hospital after having the twins.

I had to give a lot of credit to Meredith. She was a champ and it seemed the bigger our family got, the happier she was.

She immediately accepted Carter and was terribly excited about the twins. She wasn’t excited about the additional chores, but she was a champion diaper changer and she frequently got up before I did to get the babies a bottle in the middle of the night. She was the best big sister, but I knew she would be.

Carter pulled the twins off him, gave them a kiss on the forehead and then turned to Meredith and said, “Why don’t you go ahead and get ready? I’ll take care of these two troublemakers.”

“Thanks, Carter,” she said, before skipping away.

At first, she had tried to call Carter “Dad” but it had gotten awkward, so they had both agreed that Carter was just fine. He respected the fact that Tom was her father and he didn’t try to interfere with their relationship.

I moved to get up but Carter stopped me. “Take a nap. You look tired. I’ll get the kids ready and then wake you up.”

He kissed me softly on the lips and my eyes closed and I fell asleep. I don’t know how long I was out, but I felt him shaking my shoulder gently.