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“What?”
“All thetrying.”
I don’t disagree with her there. And as I bring my mouth back down to hers, I hope that whether or not we’re successful in our trying, we’ll not only enjoy the process, but each other.
Always, every moment—each other.
Almost the end! Keep reading for a super epilogue…
SUPER EPILOGUE
THREE YEARS AFTER THE EPILOGUE
Eloise
“Leelee!Don’t drag your towel in the—never mind.”
I shake my head, giving up on the idea that my three-year-old cares even a little bit about how much sand she’s collecting as she drags her pink, flowered towel right over the dunes.
To be clear: she won’t care. At least, not until later tonight when she’s fighting me off as I try to rinse off all the sand in the bathtub. She willabsolutelycare then and be sure to let me know all about it with her very strong lungs.
“I got it, Mama.” Genny brushes past me, scooping her little sister up in her arms, making Leelee squeal, her two blond ponytails bobbing as they spin.
I take this opportunity to grab Leelee’s towel from her chubby hands and shake it off. As I do, an arm snakes around my waist, and I smile, immediately leaning into the touch.
I drop my head back onto Jake’s shoulder. “Hey, handsome.”
His lips find my ear. “What if I’d been a stranger?” he murmurs, his warm breath sending a shiver through me.
This man has never stopped affecting me this way. Not even twelve years after our encounter on this very beach when I had a wardrobe malfunction and he rescued me.
“I could smell you,” I tell him with a laugh.
Not true. But now that he’s practically wrapped around me, I definitelycansmell him, and he smellsamazing. Almost amazing enough to send the girls on up ahead while we duck back into the house and?—
Jake growls and gives my earlobe a little nip, interrupting my derailed train of thought. I laugh, hearing Genny mutter, “Gross,” from up ahead.
Nothing like a tweenager to keep you humble. Genny reminds mesomuch of Merritt. Which, in most ways, is a good thing. She is eleven going on thirty-five. She’s absolutely wonderful with her little sisters, though she’s far too bossy for Natalie, who at seven, has decided she doesn’t want to be babied. Nat ran ahead of us all, carrying her skimboard. It’s the latest in a series of athletic pursuits she has more than enough ability to handle—ability that she absolutely did not inherit from me.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Leelee chants, the very opposite of her oldest sister, who makes a gagging noise.
I grin, tilting my face back to Jake’s, letting him plant a kiss on my lips. A little too quick of a kiss if you ask me.
“No more PDA,” Sadie calls, sounding almost as disgusted as Genny.
She’s walking over from the carriage house, a baby on one hip. We haven’t had people actually living in the carriage house in years, but we sometimes use it for overflow guests when the inn is full. It’s a great place for everyone to change and get ready when the family gathers for beach days at the bed and breakfast.
I should knowwhichbaby Sadie is carrying, but I still can’t tell the twins apart. And Sadie doesn’t like it when I put amarker dot on their hands or feet, so I’m flying blind with the six-month-old boys.
“You’re one to talk,” I fire back, and Jake chuckles. “Speaking of, where’sBenjy?”
Sadie smirks. “David had a diaper blowout. Straight up his back.”
So that makes the baby on her hip Daniel. His tuft of blond hair atop his head is like duck fuzz, blowing a little in the ocean breeze. I want to snatch him out of her hands and snuggle him up, smelling that new baby smell I miss so much. It feels like just yesterday, not three years ago, when Leelee was that small, with a similar downy head of blond hair.
I really, really hate the phrasetime flies. So cliché! And yet so very true.
But if it’s flying, at least I can say I’m enjoying every moment. Okay—noteverymoment. Anyone who tells you to enjoy every moment deserves a nice smack. While in the throes of post-baby blues, I started to understand you can’t enjoy every moment, but each day, it’s possible to intentionally enjoysome. On the hardest days, maybe just one moment. But I always strive to at least have that.
