Ethan replaces my hand with his. He moves faster and harder, just like our breaths. He’s working me up so hard with his hand and fucking me so deep that my toes are curling and my body shuddering. Everything inside me shatters. This time I don’t fall apart but fall with him and onto him. I cry out with him as he pushes himself deeper.
We’re nothing but two hearts melted by the fire that burned us while making love. We’re us. “I love you,” I say, because I won’t get tired of saying it out loud.
“I love you, Zeke, forever. Would you marry me?”
The words are so powerful I feel as if he just knocked me to my knees. Being loved is important, but being loved by him completes me. Him wanting me forever is our next chapter. Our destiny.
“You know I will in a heartbeat. I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Zeke
Life is a collection of tragedies and triumphs.
It’s almost like night and day; one can’t happen without the other.
Ethan and I believe that we lived through a big storm that opened up to only blue skies. Though his theory is ideal, we both know that life isn’t that perfect. Two weekends after he came back from Texas, we got married.
I wish I could say that it was a small ceremony with friends and family on the roof of our place. That was the plan, but Sadie insisted on hosting the wedding at her house.
We spend the summer traveling. In September, I go back to work. A week before my birthday, Alex calls us. He’s taking Hannah to the hospital. Baby Spearman is about to arrive. We’re all happy for them but apprehensive because the only two births we’ve witnessed have ended in tragedy.
When we arrive at the hospital, Alex sends a text. It’s a picture of Hannah with a wrinkly baby next to her. Meet Luca Hades Spearman. I sigh with relief when he sends a second message: Mom and baby are doing fine.
Having another baby around us makes us want to have our own.
We wait a couple of years before we apply to adopt a baby. Simultaneously, we partner with a surrogacy company that helps us find the perfect eggs and surrogate to carry our baby.
“What do you think is going to happen if the four babies come to full term?” Ethan asks as we stare at the frozen embryos. We have four more just in case these don’t set. It’s all a gamble.
“Then I’ll be happy that we have six bedrooms in the house,” I answer. “I just don’t know how we’re going to handle them.”
Ethan kisses me lightly on the lips. “Whatever happens, we will handle it, as long as we’re together.”
At that moment, Ethan’s phone rings. It’s the adoption agency. My heart stops. He slides his finger along the screen and answers, “Ethan Killion here.”
I hold his hand as he nods and shakes his head and smiles. “We can be there in thirty minutes. Yes, thank you.”
The light illuminating his face almost blinds me. “What happened?”
“A mother-to-be would like to interview us. She’s having a little boy in a couple of months. Are you interested?”
I look at the dish holding our embryos and then back at him. “If she’ll take us. I’m sure we can handle one, or five kids. Don’t you think?”
He places a hand on the back of my neck and pulls me to him. I don’t know what’s going to happen next but I’m glad that it’ll be with this man. When I’m with him I feel like we can take on the world—and maybe a few babies to call our own.
Excerpt
I hope you enjoyed Pieces of Us & Somehow Finding Us, keep reading for an extended excerpt of Hannah & Alex, Almost Perfect. Along with an excerpt of Tucker & Sage’s story, Us After You.
Almost Perfect
Let’s talk about firsts for just a minute.
There’s a first time for everything. Not all first-time experiences are as life-changing as people assume. You’ve heard it all, right? You can’t forget your first kiss. Your first love is unique. Losing your virginity is special and sometimes magical.
For the most part, first kisses are sloppy. There’s nothing swoony about them. Your first time with a new partner or hookup is awkward. Losing your virginity...that’s debatable. If you’re with an experienced partner, it can be great. If not…well.
The first time I went out with a guy, I was a mess. I remember pacing around the foyer, waiting for him to pick me up. At seventeen, it was a big deal. I had been living in a cocoon for years. Lots of theory and zero practice. The tightness in my chest and the butterflies fluttering in my body were suffocating me.
Needless to say, one of my best friends gave me my first kiss, so I’d stop freaking out. It was like kissing my brother.
Listen, first experiences might be great for many, but they can also suck.
It’s not like I hate firsts; they’re just not my favorite. But I’m going to let you in on a secret. Those are nothing compared to the first day of school.
It’s the worst, am I right?
Before anyone focuses on those pre-school, elementary school years, let me stop you and send you forward, all the way to high school and college. Being fourteen and sent to a big place where the basic rule is ‘eat or be eaten’ sucks.
College is just as bad, if not worse. You’re far away from home and your parents dropped you off in some dorm room that’s smaller than a closet with a strange kid who is now your roommate for the next nine months. And who knows ahead of time how hard or strange that’ll be?
Poor kids, they have it rough.
I feel for them, but I feel sorrier for the teachers.
Trying to control a bunch of spooked, freshmen is...heinous.
But it’s not as bad as, seniors. They think they know everything. They should’ve graduated a year before because they’re that good and they’re ready to show the adult world how things are done. From their perspective, teachers are a waste of space to them. It takes time to round the students back into reality.
Imagine living your first-time experience over and over again. Well, at least twice a year. As a college professor, I have to deal with it every single semester. Forgive my lazy Forrest Gump analogy, but first days of school are like a box of chocolates stored in your grandma’s closet since last century: you never know what you’re going to get, but you’re going to regret eating it.
Needless to say, the first day back to school is declared a national day of observance. All my friends and family call to check on me because they know how much I loathe it.
Maybe I should find a new job, not that I don’t like this one, but...there are other things I could do with my time.
Open a flower shop, buy a farm and start a co-op, or just work full-time for my magazine.
But then again…teaching is invigorating and fulfilling. I like shaping young minds, molding them well enough that, by the end of the year, my students are thinking for themselves and questioning what their parents taught them. I want them to enjoy Pride & Prejudice, while understanding the satire. I want them to understand Asimov’s vision and not be afraid of technological advancement. I’m a dreamer, and I like to share my dreams with my students.