“You.”
EPILOGUE
Emma
“Oh my god,they actually did it,” Sabrina whispers as she pokes her head into the freshly-built building at the back of my new fixer-upper home. She comes the rest of the way in with a little bundle in her arms, and I squeal just as loudly as I did when Laney arrived five minutes ago with her own little bundle.
“Can you believe this is real?” Laney’s turning in a circle, taking in the pine board walls, the ceiling that looks like it’s made of pine branches but is actually very sturdy above it, the plush Turkish rug under our feet, the windows overlooking the house and the yard, and the three easy chairs that take up two walls.
“It’s a little posher than our first clubhouse,” Sabrina replies.
I’m holding Laney and Theo’s baby girl while Bash jumps on the middle of the three easy chairs and Yolko Ono wanders around inspecting the treehouse.
Which is really a very large room supported on three sides by stilts, and reached by using the curved staircase that Jonas, Theo, and Grey built around the big pine tree that was chosen forus, leaving enough room for the tree to keep growing for years to come.
Forourkids to use as a clubhouse.
“It’s also big enough for even Grey to stand up in,” I tell Sabrina.
She grins, and her little one makes a noise that has both me and Laney cooing as we cross the room to lean in and look.
Henry’s only two weeks old, though he might as well be a month, considering he was a full two weeks overdue.
And almost nine pounds when he was born.
“Welcome to your best life ever,” she whispers to him. “You’re gonna love it here.”
“I wuv it here!” Bash says.
He’s made the leap to the next chair and looks like he’s gearing up to jump to the third too.
“Are you getting any sleep?” Laney asks Sabrina, who nods.
“A surprising amount, actually. And when I don’t, there’s coffee.Allof the coffee. All of the time. You?”
“We’re up to four-hour stretches. Fred keeps sneaking into her crib and waking her up, and wecannotfigure out how. I love that cat, and he’s about to find himself with a temporary home with my parents if he doesn’t get his act together.”
Yolko Ono bagocks.
Possibly she’s indignant on Fred’s behalf, or possibly she hates him on principle.
Could go either way.
“Jonas showed me the kitchen plans,” Sabrina says to me. “I thought it would be weird that you’re fixing up my grandparents’ house, but I love it.”
“I used to feel funny about the idea of moving into Chandler’s grandparents’ house—anytime I’d think about it as his grandparents’ house and notyourgrandparents’ house—but I’ve realized I actually felt funny about the idea of living herewithhim. Because he wasn’t right, and he would’ve ruined it for me eventually.” I shrug. “That probably sounds weird.”
“That’s exactly how I felt about all of my ex-boyfriends,” Laney says. “I’d think about them moving into my house, and it would be like,this doesn’t fit, we’ll have to get a new house, when really, it was them.”
“All of your hundreds of ex-boyfriends,” Sabrina teases.
“The hundreds,” Laney agrees with a grin.
She was definitelynotahundreds of boyfriendsperson.
Henry makes another noise, and Sabrina looks at Bash. “Hey, little dude, I’m gonna need one of those seats to feed a baby. That okay with you?”
“You sitdere,” he says, pointing to the chair next to him. “I hewp feed da baby.”
