by Amber Malloy
“Publisher’s been breathing down my neck for the final draft.”
“I’m guessing you’re not close?” Levi steered her in the direction of restaurant.
“Oh! Here they are.” Lydia beamed. Sparklingly bright with her best jewelry, Levi’s mother paraded her quilting group in front of the cameras.
“Play along,” he whispered in her ear. “We’ve decided to hold off on the book release and move the honeymoon up… And we’re going to give some years on the kid thing, maybe not even have any.”
“What?” The supportive mom act slipped away in a flash. Levi cleared his throat and squeezed Cayden’s arm to keep her quiet
“You two have put me through hell, and this is the thanks I get?” Lydia hissed at them. Her sweet face twisted in rage before she realized people were present. Glancing back at her friends, she changed her expression. “Whatever makes you two happy.” She chuckled with a grim smile in place. “Come along, ladies. The publisher has a Q&A scheduled about the murders, and we want front-row seats.” She waved for her friends to follow her as she grumbled her way past them.
“Fifty bucks says she stays mad at you for over a week once she finds out I’m pregnant.”
“I’ll see that bet, and raise you a hundred,” Trent said, joining them.
“You know?” Levi asked, shocked by his admission.
“Sure, the day we went fishing, Cayden slept the whole time.”
“That’s not unusual, the water puts her to sleep,” Levi countered.
“Yeah, but she didn’t catch anything and then she lost her lunch when she had to clean the fish,” Trent admitted.
“And you made her clean it anyway!”
“A deal’s a deal,” Dad grumbled. “Besides, it’s going to take Lydia damn near a month to get over it … especially when she finds out I knew before she did. Are you going to take the bet or what?”
Four months pregnant, Cayden had morning sickness for what seemed like forever. She should’ve known if anyone figured it out, it would be Trent.
“Traitor,” Levi muttered under his breath, but they shook hands on it. Happier than a peacock in June, his dad strutted down the hall. “That didn’t go the way I’d hope.”
As Levi turned her around his arms, she laughed at Trent.
“I did manage to tell the truth about one thing … I moved up our honeymoon,” he admitted.
“What about my deadline?” she asked, semi-relieved he took the decision out of her hands.
“Push it back.” He placed his lips on her forehead. “What are they going to do, sue someone whose net worth far exceeds theirs? Besides, once we get back, you’ll have your first meeting.”
“Huh?”
“Dad mentioned we fight dirty.” He gestured between their bodies with his hand.
“That’s an understatement,” Cayden murmured.
“And the last disagreement—”
“Fight,” she corrected.
“We didn’t see eye-to-eye.” Levi seemed to settle upon an even better bullshit term. “About your little bestselling hobby.”
“Little!” she repeated, not sure she enjoyed the turn in conversation.
“I put a team together, and we’re going to work on your next case.”
“No way.” She pushed up on the tip of her toes to reach his mouth. Cayden kissed him with the right amount of PDA.
“Way,” he muttered, leading them out of the main resort.
Epilogue
Five years later
They decked out the whole field with a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One huge carousel gave the resort a majestic setting for their weekend celebration.
“We’ve had this talk before … you can’t go around calling others kids stupid, sweetheart.”
“But he thinks Easy Bake ovens are really ovens, Daddy.” Levi cradled his precious four-year-old baby girl in his arms. Beyond beautiful and smart, the kid seemed to be securing her spot as a curly-headed tyrant in the hall of fame.
“Maybe in his world they are real ovens,” he suggested.
“Daddy.” Nyla slapped her palms on the side of his face and spoke to him slowly. “Is that a different way to say stupid?”
They were seriously considering homeschool.
“Go play.” He put her down, looked around, and spotted his wife. Beyond hot, Cayden’s dress flowed around her while her flower halo made the perfect crown. Everyone had dressed in white for her birthday.
She made her way across the field, laughing at something Britney said. The girl came back every year to help with the camp kids. Due to an influx of donations, they made Goose Camp a yearlong excursion. Since they needed a director, they figured Britney would be the perfect fit.
He waited for Cayden to make her way over to him. As his two-year-old boy dive-bombed off the fence, she caught him in midflight, without breaking her stride, and carried him upside-down to meet him in the middle of the field.
“I want more kids.”
“Seriously?” She huffed while Kyle fought to get up.
“Nyla needs another girl, she’s outnumbered.” While his dad tossed a kid-sized football to their oldest son, Ace, the three-year-old boy intercepted it like a pro.
“Mom, Mom, Mom!” the two-year-old chanted.
Without a doubt, he knew he wanted more children.
“Honey, I hate to break it to you,” Cayden said, completely nonplussed that a toddler fought to snake around her body. “Nyla is the worst of both of us.” Dad caught the ball Ace tossed back and jogged over to them. “Levi wants another girl,” Cayden told him.
“And give that one an accomplice?” Dad nodded toward Nyla, who had her hands smooshed against Lydia’s face. “What the hell, Jughead?”
“Hell, hell, hell,” Kyle repeated before Cayden flipped him around and tossed him to Dad. He greeted his grandfather with a melody of kiddie giggles.
“She wouldn’t be this bad if we had another girl.” Levi tried to convince them.
“Yeah, bearing her a coconspirator from flesh and blood sounds like a good plan. Look, I didn’t want to say this, but the longer you hold out on crafting a will, you might make it to … what? Forty or forty-five if you’re lucky?”
“Maximum.” Cayden laughed.
“You’re biased.” Levi pointed at his wife. “And you, too.” He turned to his old man. “The boys are your soft spot.”
While he climbed all over Dad, Kyle giggled like crazy.
“Why the hell would I show the next villain of Gotham City my weakness?” Dad snorted. “That bad seed has got you and your mother wrapped around her little finger. Besides, I’ve got to teach these two survivor instincts or they won’t stand a chance against that one.” Dad limped off with their third child clinging to his waist.
“Et tu, Brutus?” Levi pulled Cayden closer to him. “Come on, honey, we make cute kids.”
They took in the festive medieval scene. In an hour, the Murder Club would gather for their fourth anniversary meeting. Deny, Wes, a couple of doctors, and two investigators made up the group. “Shop’s closed, Levi.”
“One more,” he begged, hoping to wear her down.
“Deny called our children bad influences.”
“Ha, she would know,” he muttered about Cayden’s friend, while they waved at Wes and their two kids. “Hey! Quick question.” He pulled her around to face him. “You said my mom’s known we’ve been screwing forever, how?” he inquired as Mom took Nyla’s hand and paraded her in front of her friends.
“No, I said she knew we’ve been fu—”
Kissing her glossy pink lips, he cut off her words. Her cussing had become ten times worse since they had kids. “How did she know?” he asked.
“Valentine’s Day, she caught you sneaking out of my cabin and confronted me about it later that day.”
Surprised he had never heard this before, he raised his eyebrow, encouraging her to go on.
“Lydia said if I broke your heart she
would end me.”
“My mom?”
“Yep.” They glanced over at her with the kids. Nowhere near a warm and fuzzy parent, Mom hands-down won world’s sweetest grandma. “Lydia’s savage.”
“Mom’s a softy. If that were true, she would have killed you a long time ago.” Taking her lips into his, he considered knocking her up one more time in the barn’s office. “Happy Birthday, Mrs. Scott,” he told his beautiful wife. Busy for weeks with the plans for the new resort, he itched to get her alone.
“We’re not having more kids, Mr. Scott.”
Planting one more kiss on her, Levi knew life couldn’t get any better than this.
The End
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