“Don’t we do everything together?”
I nodded. “Are you ready for us to have a baby?”
He cupped my cheek, staring at me with so much love, I thought I might drown in it. “I’m ready. I’m so ready.”
“Then, let’s do it. Let’s try for a baby.”
“Oh, Princess, we are going to have so much fun making a baby or four.”
Fern - 10 years later
“Tell me where we’re going.” Charlie had been up since the crack of dawn, bouncing around like a kid at Christmas.
“Jesus, how did we ever put up with you like this for so long?” Archer sighed as he poured us all coffee.
Alchemy Myth had just finished a three month tour, and we’d hired a house in Miami while we celebrated… well, a lot of things. Archer and Nee’s wedding anniversary, Kinley’s upcoming birthday, the band’s successful sell out tour, and the year off they were taking… that we were all taking.
I smiled over at my excitable husband, loving the man he’d grown into as much as I loved the version of him who saved me and protected me in our lighthouse. Walking over, I pressed my lips to his ear so only he could hear. “Go put your cage on before you explode.”
He pulled back, his eyes darkening as he nodded before he vanished from the room.
“God, I hope you told him to lock his cock up,” Marshall groaned. “Otherwise it’s going to be a very long day.”
I loved how much Charlie used his cage and how normalized it had become among our friends. The pegging, the cockwarming, our insatiable sex life that hadn’t waned, despite having three babies in three years, that stuff we kept to ourselves, but the cage had calmed Charlie so much that everyone we knew talked about it and Charlie didn’t care in the slightest.
After Charlie’s interview went live, three other young men came forward to give evidence against Jennifer. They also found a boy she’d been grooming who was fourteen. Jennifer was found guilty of rape, grooming, and child molestation and sentenced to life in prison.
Charlie’s dad had a massive heart attack a couple of years later and passed away without ever having spoken a word to his son after Jennifer was arrested. Charlie went to the funeral, but didn’t shed a tear; he did move to twice weekly therapy appointments for a year though, so I knew he was dealing with the loss in his own way.
“Right, I’m back. Someone tell me what the big surprise is.”
I nodded at Kinley, and she appeared in front of Charlie.
“When I was born, you were supposed to go somewhere, right Uncle C?”
“Disneyland, but you being born was so much better, Kins.”
“Right, because I’m awesome.” Charlie nodded his agreement. “But you made me a promise that day. I remember.”
“You remember something I said to you on the day you were born?” She twisted her face in a way that so much like Dawson, I had to hide my laugh. “The question is, do you remember?”
He shook his head and, like we’d planned, we all put on the Mickey Mouse ears we had hidden.
Charlie’s eyes widened before he let out such a high pitched squeal that I was sure only dogs could hear it. “Disneyland?”He turned to look at me. “Princess, you’re taking me to Disneyland?”
“It was Nee and Archer’s idea, but yes, we’re going. Today. Wheels up in an hour, so you best get ready.”
“And the kids are coming?” Charlie looked between Aston, West, and Phoebe, who always looked at their dad like he hung the moon and who filled my heart with so much joy.
“Do you want to come to Disneyland, kids?”
Aston pulled a face. “Na, it sucks.”
Charlie cried out, pulling his hands to his heart. “How can you say that?”
Unable to keep up the pretense, our oldest boy burst into fits of laughter. “I tried Mummy. I really did, but Disneyland rules.” He turned to his dad. “I can’t wait.”
As everyone else in the room started talking among themselves, the kids all running around like tiny tornadoes, Charlie stalked toward me, biting down on his bottom lip as he looked me up and down like he wanted to devour me. When he was close enough, he wrapped his arms around my waist, and ran his nose along the column of my neck, breathing me in. “Losing that recording contract was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
