“Hey.”
I stood up and went over to where Devyn was walking into the room. Pulling her into my arms, I kissed her. “How you feeling?”
“Good,” she said with a bright smile. She’d been such a damn trooper through all this. Our son had been nothing short of a warrior, but so had she. “I just got released. Mom’s dropping my stuff off at home, but I thought I’d come sit with my boys for a bit.”
I walked her over to the recliner and had her sit. She was walking around a lot sooner than most women did after a C-section, or so the nurses had mentioned, but I didn’t want her standing for too long. “Glad you got sprung,” I told her. “Do you need me to go pick up any medications from the pharmacy?”
“Mom went to grab them, but thanks.”
“How are all your levels?”
“Everything’s looking really good, according to Dr. Natalie. I have an appointment with her in a week to make sure everything keeps going down toward normal.”
“Good.” I squatted down in front of her. “I know you want to say hi to our boy, but I have a question first.”
She frowned, but nodded, staring into my eyes.
I pulled out a box from my pocket. I’d been carrying it around since yesterday when I’d gotten it from home. Now, here, with our son sleeping nearby, seemed like the perfect time. I flipped it open and watched as her eyes widened. “Marry me, Dev. I want us to be a family.”
“We already are a family,” she teased.
“I want it to be official. We already are in my world. I want us to be in every damn world.”
She looped her arms around my neck and kissed me. With our lips pressed together, she whispered the only thing I wanted to hear. “Yes.”
This was just the beginning for us. I knew that. But for now it seemed like I wasn’t ever going to be this happy. I would be. When I married the woman I loved. When we were able to bring Collin home. Watching him grow and seeing all his firsts. Having more kids. It was all going to add up to a perfect fucking life. All because of her. And I couldn’t wait to get started.
EPILOGUE
Bolo
Iput a hand on Devyn’s shoulder as she tapped softly on the hospital door. She gave me a bright smile as we waited.
“Come in.”
We stepped into the room and Devyn immediately went over to the hospital bed and hugged the woman lying there. “How are you feeling?” she asked, sitting in the chair next to Ava.
“Tired, but wonderful,” Ava responded, smiling over at me and her husband.
I walked across the room and pulled Collin into a hug. “Congrats, Son.” He was twenty-eight years old and this was his first baby. He and Ava had gotten married last year and neither had wanted to wait to start having kids.
Ava didn’t have much family, and those she had, she mostly avoided. As soon as she’d joined our family we’d taken over fullyas parents to her. We were thrilled to have her as a daughter-in-law. She and Collin were perfect together.
Collin had always said he wanted a large family. He’d been the best big brother to his siblings. He was the oldest of four boys. Life had been nothing less than feral as we raised our kids, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We honestly would’ve had more, but we’d both been forty-three having our last and for Dev’s sake we stopped there.
“Want to hold her, Grandpa?”
I took in my son’s wide grin as he teased me and swore my heart was ready to burst. I had the most amazing wife, incredible sons, and now a precious granddaughter. Collin and Ava didn’t know it yet, but I was going to spoil her rotten.
I’d done my due diligence and made sure that my sons were productive members of society—mostly—and now it was my turn to give my grandkids everything they could ever want. All of our sons had gone into the military and then joined MCs. Dev always said, like father, like sons. And they really were.
Collin placed his brand new daughter into my arms and I cuddled her close. Collin’s birth had been a bit traumatic for everyone, but you’d never know by looking at him now that he’d been born a preemie. He was a monster. He was even bigger than I was.
I looked down at the baby in my arms and then smiled over at Ava. “You sure you want to have more of his kids?” Their daughter, Molly, had been born at ten pounds and four ounces. I doubted any subsequent babies would be much smaller. Then again, we’d learned that you couldn’t predict what was going to happen.
“Ask me again after I’ve forgotten all this,” Ava replied with a tired grin.
Dev came over and smiled at the baby in my arms. “She’s beautiful.”
