I nod over my tears, because I felt the exact same way.
“And then I lost you.” He shakes his head and wipes my cheek. “I had everything I ever dreamed of, but I still had nothing, because I didn’t have you.” He shrugs. “The wins, the money…none of it matters without you.” He holds my face and I wrap my hand around his wrist. “I give it all to you, Lucy. Everything I was, everything I am, and everything I want to be. It belongs to you…I belong to you. And you belong to me.”
I wrap my hand behind his neck, blinking back tears that spill onto my cheeks. “I want it all. The good parts and the bad. I want you, Sam, forever.”
He pulls my face to his and kisses me hard.
“By the power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife,” the chaplain says exuberantly, and everyone cheers and claps loudly.
The baby cries and I look up at Sebastian, who’s sniffing and wiping his face. Sam gets up and takes her from him, then Sam sits back down on the bed beside me. He holds her against his chest and she quiets down. “We’re a family now,” he says softly to her, and I bite my smiling lip.
I reach for his face and kiss him again. Then I drop my forehead to his and whisper, “The Cole family.”
He puts Joey in my arms and holds her tiny hand in his. “I have two lambs to protect now.”
I rub her soft cheek. “She’s the luckiest little girl in the world.”
He exhales an emotional breath and whispers, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For taking a risk on me.”
“Oh, Sam, you were never the risk. You were the reward.”
He smiles softly over the emotion he can’t hide and shows me the dimples in his flushed cheeks. “I love you, Lamb.”
“I love you too. Now and always.”
Epilogue
Lucy, Four Years Later
Can I have four?” Joey asks, standing beside me in the kitchen, holding her plate up.
“Four?” I laugh. “You can’t eat four pancakes.”
“But I’m four,” she says, smiling up at me with her caramel-colored curls hanging around her face. Her light blue eyes crinkle as she smiles, and her dimples go straight to my heart.
“Okay,” I say, scooping the pancakes out of the pan and sliding them onto her plate.
“Thank you,” she says, carrying her plate over to the table.
“Don’t forget the bacon,” I say, taking her a piece.
“Mommy?” she asks, lowering her milk, leaving behind a milk mustache.
I wipe it with a napkin. “What, baby?”
“Do I have a grandma?”
“Um.” I pull the chair out next to her and sit down.
“Because Maddie said that everyone has a grandma.”
“Well, no, not everyone. You don’t have a grandma or a grandpa.”
“But why?”
“Well,”—I tuck her soft curls behind her ear—“because my mommy, who would have been your grandma, died a long time ago.”
“She did?”
“Yeah.” I sigh. “She would have loved you though.”
“Well, what about your daddy? Did he die too?”
“No, but I didn’t really know my daddy.”
She gives me a concerned look. “That’s sad.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Who took care of you?”
“Well, when I was little, like you, I had foster parents that took care of me. But when I got older, I met your daddy and then he took care of me.”
She smiles over a mouthful of pancakes. “Just like he takes care of me?”
“Yep,” I say, touching the end of her nose.
“There are my girls,” Sam says, walking into the kitchen. He makes his way around the table and kisses the top of Joey’s head. Then he leans over my shoulder and kisses my cheek.
“Mmm, you smell good,” I say, letting him pull me up out of the chair and into his arms. I run my hands over the lapel of his dark suit jacket. “You look good too.”
“Big day today.” He widens his excited eyes and leans down to kiss my round belly. “Morning, baby.” He gives my stomach a little rub and I follow him over to the coffee.
“Daddy?” Joey calls across the kitchen.
“What, baby?
“Did you live with your mommy and daddy?”
He gives me a curious look and I quietly explain, “She’s very curious about her grandparents. Or lack thereof.”
“Oh.” He makes a cup of coffee and carries it over to the table, and sits down beside her. “Well, baby girl, no. I didn’t live with my parents.”
She gives him a worried look. “Am I going to get to stay with you?”
“Of course.” He puts his hand on her cheek and smiles softly. “We’re a family. Families stay together. And when your little brother gets here, he’ll be part of our family too.”
She smiles and puts her hand on his face. “Good. I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, little lamb.”
“I just wish I had a grandma, like Maddie.”
He sips his coffee and sits back in his chair. “Did I ever tell you about your grandpa Joe?” he asks her, and she widens her blue eyes.
“That’s my name.”
He smiles. “Yeah, that’s who you’re named after.”
“But Josephine’s a girl’s name,” she says, shaking her head.
“Yeah, but Joseph was your grandpa’s name. Joseph Patrick Maloney. We called him Joe. He was kind of like my daddy.”
“Did you live with him?”
“No, but he took care of me for a really long time.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. He’s the one who taught me how to box.” He makes two fists and holds them up in front of Joey, and she hits them with hers.
“When you wear the funny red gloves on your hands?” She giggles.
“They’re called boxing gloves,” he says seriously, and I laugh. “He really wanted to meet you,” he says, leaning in close to her. “But he’s not here anymore.”
“Where did he go?” she asks innocently, and it tugs at my heart.
“He went to heaven, baby,” Sam says, and I swallow the unexpected lump in my throat.
“Oh.” She looks down at her plate and nods, but when the doorbell rings, she looks up and says excitedly, “Uncle Miles is here!”
I look at Sam. “It’s about time you took his key away,” I say, smiling over the sadness that quietly echoes inside me.
“I didn’t,” he says, getting up from the table. “That’s probably Tristan.”
“Joey, you might not have a grandma, but you have way too many uncles,” I say to her. She follows Sam to the front door, and I clean up her plate.
“Something smells good in here,” Tristan says, following Sam back into the kitchen.
“Hey, Tris.” I give him a hug. “I made pancakes and bacon. Make a plate.” I smile over his shoulder at Molly. “Oh, my gosh,” I say to her when he releases me. “Look at you!”
She gives me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. “Six months today.” She puts her hand on her stomach. “Just a couple of months behind you.”