A tear slips down Skyler’s cheek, and her voice is but a whisper when she says, “I never thought I could love another human being as much as I love you, Parker. Until now. How is it possible that I’ve known him an hour and have so much love for him bursting inside of me I don’t know how to contain it?” She glances at me, tears running down her face unchecked.
I set the coffee cup down on the nightstand and shift my body so I can wrap her and our son in my arms as he feeds. She sighs against me when I press my lips to her temple.
“I think that’s the way the big guy intended it. When you’re given such a precious gift, you cherish it. He’s a product of you and me, the best thing we’ll ever do until we give him a brother or sister down the road.” My voice cracks as I reach my hand out and cradle my son’s head to my wife’s breast. After a minute or two, his puckered lips falter while his breathing relaxes.
“No, my love bug, the nurse says you need to stay awake to eat,” Skyler admonishes lightly, so I tickle his cheek, and he picks up the suckling once more.
He’s amazing. Just like his mother.
Together we watch our son feed for the first time until keeping him awake is impossible. Skyler slips him off her breast and hands him to me so that she can adjust and get up to use the bathroom.
I take my boy for a little walk around the small hospital room and pat his back until a small burp leaves his mouth, but he doesn’t wake.
While she does her business, I share a moment with my son, taking in his dark hair and long lashes. I dip my face to his neck and chest area and inhale deeply. I close my eyes as his baby scent imprints on my soul for eternity. I’ll never, ever forget the scent of my son. Sweet, a little powdery, with a hint of his mother’s peaches and cream wafting at the edges like a protective coating.
My son.
Montgomery Sterling Ellis.
Named after the two extraordinary men we’ve chosen to share our lives with as family.
“You are loved, son. More than I can ever say, but I will spend my entire life showing you just how much.”
Five years in the future . . .
“Monty, your mother and I have someone we want you to meet!” I hold on to the small bundle in my arms and watch as my ma stands from where she was playing blocks with our son. My father is holding down the fort at the couch, looking on at his wife and grandson playing. He too gets to his feet when we enter.
“Momma! Da-Da!” Monty dashes his little toddler legs over to where Skyler crouches.
“Mommy missed you, love bug. So, so, much . . .” Skyler kisses our son’s face anywhere she can reach. He tries to cling to her so that she’ll pick him up, but after having just had a baby, it’s impossible for her to lift his weight right now. “Let’s go over to the couch. We want to introduce you to someone, sweetheart,” Sky instructs.
My mother helps Skyler up and ushers her over to the couch. My father leans on his cane, resting some of his weight on it but otherwise standing strong. “You look happy, son,” he says with pride in his tone.
I grin wide. “Every time I think it can’t get any better, life hands us another blessing.”
“Absolutely. Felt the same when your mom and I brought you and Paul home. Though I gotta say, there’s nothing like seeing my son bring home his own children, my grandchildren. Proud of you. So damn proud.” My father wipes at his eyes quickly, dashing away the flood of emotion as fast as he shared it.
“Da-Da!” Monty squeals, sitting next to his mother.
“Okay, little man, you ready to meet your baby sister?” I bring my precious load over to Skyler and hand off my sweet girl.
Skyler takes our daughter and lifts her own chin. I dip down and kiss her softly. Monty leans over and kisses us both messily on our cheeks and pats our faces. He never misses an opportunity to share in the love.
I cup the back of my son’s neck. “Now be careful, Monty. She’s delicate. Remember how Mommy taught you with your baby?”
Monty’s eyes widen, and he scrambles off the couch and rushes over to his toy area, where there’s a baby doll in a basket. He grabs the doll’s hand and brings it over. “Baby!” He shows me the doll and then hugs it to his chest.
Maybe the doll wasn’t a great idea. He’s not supergentle with it now, and I don’t want him thinking he can pick up his newborn sister that way.
“Cuddle baby,” Skyler urges.
Montgomery gets up on the couch next to his mother and cuddles the doll in his arms as softly as a two-year-old can manage.
“Good, love bug. Now look . . .” She maneuvers our daughter so he can see her face.
His little lips open wide, and he claps his hands together. “Sissy!”
Skyler beams. “Yes, it’s your sissy, my love. Your baby sister, Jillian Catherine.”
Behind us my ma makes a choking, sobbing sound. It’s the first time she heard the middle name. We wanted it to be a surprise for when she could meet her granddaughter. We had my folks stay home with Monty since he’s so small, and we thought introducing him at home where he’s comfortable would be better than amid the busy nature and strange antiseptic smells of a hospital.
My mom is just barely holding back from barging in with grabby hands for her newest grandchild, but so far, my father’s arm is around her waist, and they’re enjoying watching the show.
I glance up at them and smile at my mother. “We named her after your grandmas, little man. Jillian, after your grandma Jill in heaven, and your grandma Cathy.”
Monty looks at his grandmother and points. “Memaw Cay!”
“That’s right, little man. Memaw Cay.”
“Sissy!” he squeals, and leans down and kisses his sister on the top of her head. “Wuv sissy.” He kisses her again.
I clear the emotion in my throat and wipe at the tears building in my eyes. “Yeah, bud, we love your sissy. And we love you.”
Monty reaches out his arms toward me, and I pull him off the couch and rest his precious weight against my chest. He squeezes my cheeks. “Wuv Da-Da.”
“I love you, son. So much.”
He kisses me sloppily on the mouth and then kicks his feet to get down.
I look over at Skyler, and the joy on her face is unmistakable.
“You’ve done well, Peaches. One of each. We’ve finally got it all.” I inhale full and deep, feeling completely relaxed now that my entire family is home.
She grins and looks up at me. “Oh no, we’re not stopping at two.”
The floor falls away from beneath my feet, and I have to catch the arm of the chair to sit my ass down. “Uh, I thought . . .”
She shakes her head. “No way. I want more.” She purses her lips. “I’m thinking two more.”
My mother raises her arms in the air and looks at the ceiling. “Praise the Lord!”
“Peaches . . . ,” I attempt, but she leans her face down toward our daughter and kisses her cheeks.
Her chocolate gaze lifts away from our girl and meets mine, stealing my heart all over again with just a glance. “We’ll talk about this again in six weeks.” She winks.
“Fuck me,” I groan.
She’s going to use sex to get what she wants. The beast stirs in my pants just thinking about how it’s going to be a stellar reunion. In the meantime, I’ll become familiar with Lefty over the coming weeks.
“Tuck me, tuck me, tuck me.” Monty stomps around, cursing in baby speak.
Skyler’s head shoots up. “Honey . . . ,” she says in warning, her brown eyes now blazing with frustration.
I move over to my little man and scoop him up. “How’s about we go play with Midnight and Sunny? Wanna go throw the ball?”
“Ball, ball, ball, ball!” He pounds on my back as I hold him on my hip.
I point at Skyler. “We planned on two,” I remind her with a stern tone, not that my woman ever listens to my serious voice.
She shrugs and lifts our daughter, pressing her nose to her little forehead. “Jilly Bean and Monty need a
nother playmate or two.” She kisses our girl again, and my heart implodes.
“You’re lucky I love you, woman,” I say while Monty tries to grab my face.
Skyler smiles wide. “I know. I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
Ten years in the future . . .
The sun is high and warm as I watch the horde of children play in our large pool, their uncles and grandparents making sure everyone is safe. Monty is long and lean at seven years old, diving into the pool like a mini-Olympian in the making. His dark hair is curly on top like mine was as a kid. My sweet baby girl, Jillian, is on her uncle Paul’s shoulders hitting the ball back and forth with her cousin, Paul and Denny’s daughter, Paula, who’s just a year older. The two are inseparable when together.
After we had Monty, Denny got the baby bug, and bad. He would not leave Paul alone about having a child. And as the Ellis men are prone to do, Paul set about giving his man what his heart desired.
Paul found a woman who was widowed and needed the money in order to take care of the three young children she already had. Denny wanted a child with his husband’s characteristics, so they determined that Paul would be the biological father. She got pregnant through in vitro and gave them a little girl they named Paula. The situation worked so well with the birth mother that she agreed to have another child for them two years later, using Dennis as the biological father this time, giving them their son, Luca. Since the children are related by blood to Paul and Dennis, as well as to their birth mother’s three children, they have added Sheila and her three kids into their lives. They share birthdays and holidays together, and Paul takes care of the handyman duties in her home while Dennis is her best friend, but as a job, she runs a day care center and watches Paula and Luca. The three adults make it work smashingly, and in the Ellis clan, the more, the merrier.
Off to the side, Rachel and Skyler sit on a sun lounger playing a game with our three-year-old twins. We named Randi Lynn after my father, Randall, and Wendy’s middle name, Lynn, then our son Pritchard Steven after Mick, and Skyler’s father.
Man, the twins were a whopper of a surprise. When the doctor told us we were having fraternal twins, I laid down the law with my wife. No more. Four children were more than enough. Twins with a four-year-old and a two-year-old in tow had me seeing stars, as in I got dizzy in the doctor’s office and almost passed out. Skyler has taken it all like a champ. She exudes motherhood from every ounce of her being. Me, I got a vasectomy after the twins turned one to ensure my wife’s charms couldn’t win me over again. Don’t get me wrong, my kids are my life, but four are more than enough for anyone.
Once Monty was born, Skyler quit the big-screen jobs and focused her attention on building an activity center in Boston for the less fortunate. She’s since hired a program director and some staff to run the place so she can focus on her four children. She says she might go back to acting one day, but for now, her life is with her family.
I still run the day-to-day operations at International Guy, but we have a new team of men and women running the jobs while Royce handles the finances and Bo trains the travel teams.
Off to the side I see Nate manning the grill, cooking up burgers and dogs, his sons by his side. They are exact duplicates of Rachel and Nate. Nine-year-old Theodore, who we all call “Thor,” is a towheaded mini–macho man with a kind voice and his mother’s easy smile. Their seven-year-old rascal, Jack, who they call “Joker,” is just like his namesake from the Batman movies. He’s wild, charismatic, and a true charmer.
Standing at the deck of our veranda, watching my family, makes me wonder where the guys are. Royce and Bo and their families should be here soon. As I think that, off in the distance I can see Wendy and Mick making it over the hill down the path we built between our two properties. They’re carrying their swim gear and holding the hands of their two children.
I head inside to grab a few extra towels, a fresh bottle of IPA, and a chick beer for my wife. She’s been into the Angry Orchard apple ciders lately. On my way to the linen closet I pass through our master bedroom and glance at the red lipstick streaked across Skyler’s vanity mirror. It’s a message we wrote together the night I asked her to marry me, ten years ago. She refuses to wash it off even ten years later. Thinks it will bring bad luck if she does.
Today and every day, I wake up and see that message we wrote to one another, and it still fills me to the brim with peace and serenity. The words mean as much today as they did the day we wrote them, and they remind me to never take my beautiful life for granted.
To my Dream Girl . . .
To my Dream Maker . . .
HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE . . .
Love,
US
The real end.
Though this is the end of this particular International Guy’s adventure, stay tuned for more sometime in the future. Bo, Royce, and Wendy have their own stories that need to be told, and I don’t imagine their voices will let my muse rest for long.
Until next time in the International Guy universe, I hope Parker and Skyler’s love story ended the way you needed it to. Thank you for following along as they found their happily ever after.
In love and friendship,
Audrey
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I saved this part for the very end. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because there are so many people who helped me get to this point. So many editors, betas, friends, family . . . even places that moved me to finish. I never dreamed how this world would take over my life.
First, I want to thank you, the reader, for sharing in this experience. Parker and Skyler’s adventure has been with me a full year, and leaving them is so hard, but knowing that you’ve fallen in love with them, their story, and their clan lifts me up with such extreme joy it makes it easier to leave them in your capable hands. I can’t promise this is the end for Park and Sky. I’m sure I’ll revisit them when the muse moves me to, and of course you’ll hear more about them in the spin-offs for Bo, Royce, and Wendy that I intend to write in the future. For now, I think we can all just be happy that they are happy and finally got their beautiful ending.
This wouldn’t be an acknowledgment if I didn’t thank my husband, Eric, and his commitment to letting me do my thing even when I hole myself up in my office, forgoing family time, events, paying bills on time (grin), and everything in between. You are my rock, babe. Always and forever. Thank you.
Huge, ginormous thanks to Jeananna Goodall, my extremely patient and compassionate personal assistant and friend. I dedicated this installment to you because we did it. We made it to the end, lady. An entire year of ups, downs, plot issues, and character drama, not to mention unending travel and events in between all the rounds of editing, marketing, and freak-out sessions where I didn’t believe I could figure out the end. You were there for it all, and I’m so grateful. I love you, lady. Tell Jasen I’ll try not to be so needy for your time in the future . . . but I make no promises.
Amy Tannenbaum, my badass agent. You waited a full year to work with me on this series. Providing me feedback, guidance, and support when you didn’t have to. You found my babies a beautiful home in Montlake Romance, making sure that the publisher and author fit one another beyond anything else. You understand that it’s not about money, it’s not about status—it’s about the story. About people. About living our truths and creating beautiful things with those we care about. Thank you for being you. I think you’re beautiful in every way and am very happy to have you on my team. Also, thank you to your partner in crime, Danielle Sickles, and entire team at the Jane Rotrosen Agency for sharing the International Guy love all over the world. Every day I feel as though I’m living a dream come true.
Ekatarina Sayanova, my longtime editor and friend. Can you believe we just finished another twelve-installment serial? This is the thirty-fifth title of mine you’ve edited out of thirty-nine. It’s almost like we’re married now with thirty-five children between us. (Wink.) How we made it this far is a miracle. Every
story is unique and special in its own way, and you’ve become so instrumental in my process that I can’t imagine it any other way. So I think it’s best if we just don’t ever stop working together, and you never retire. How do you feel about making another baby? Thirty-six sounds like an awfully good number! LOL. Looking forward to many more stories (babies) in the future.
Lauren Plude, my publishing editor and crazy new girlie BFF. You are a one-in-a-million-type personality to work with. Your mind is acute, brilliant, and startingly accurate in how you evaluate an overarching storyline and multiple character developments. You’ve taught me so much, I feel blessed to be able to take those gifts with me throughout my writing career. Not everyone gets assigned an incredible editor by their publisher. I’m so thrilled you were mine. I have never in my career had an easier process than working with you and Montlake on this twelve-book serial. Thank you for everything.
Irene Billings, the most incredibly accurate copyeditor in the business, you blow me away. Your attention to detail is quite magical. I’m in awe of your talent. Thank you for your commitment and contribution to making this series the best it can be!
Ceej Chargualaf and Tracey Wilson-Vuolo, my superfans, my superbetas extraordinaire. You keep me honest. You love the characters as if they were your best friends. You show me what it’s like from the reader’s perspective. There aren’t words to express the feeling I get every time I send a chapter and get feedback within mere hours of sending it. I adore the way you both play off the characters’ adventures and have your own intriguing take on what happens moment by moment. This process helped me to move the story forward during times when I felt overwhelmed and under too much pressure. Because of you, I was able to keep moving forward. I counted on you ladies, and you never failed to deliver. Thanks isn’t enough. Mad love.
Thank you to the real Wendy Bannerman, Rachel and Nate Van Dyken, Dennis Romoaldo, Amy Tannenbaum, and Christina Kaarsberg for allowing me to use your full names, and for some, your likenesses in this serial. It made the story far more special to me, the readers, and hopefully to you as well. I love you all.
International Guy: Volume 4 Page 41