Andy, who could see Kendra was caving, quietly left the kitchen and joined his nephew in the den and told him he thinks his parents are getting married.
Shane grinned. “I know, Uncle Andy. Dad gave me this to hold.”
Andy looked over and saw Shane holding a ring box. Andy opened it and smiled when he saw a huge diamond ring, just waiting to be placed on Kendra’s left hand.
“Your father can’t do any better than your mom, Shane,” Andy smiled. “He’s a lucky man.”
“Mom’s lucky, too,” Shane sighed as he picked up his controller. “You not so much, Uncle.”
“Dammit, Shane! TKO!” Andy shouted as he gave Shane another twenty as he ranted on and on.
“Don’t hurt me,” Kendra cried softly. “Ever.”
“I won’t,” Les said softly. “Ever. I love you and I always have. Please, marry me.”
Kendra looked up and watching his eyes, she sighed. Closing her eyes, she whispered. “Yes.”
Les grabbed her and hugged her tightly to his body. Suddenly, he pulled away, laughing as he shouted. “SHANE!”
EPILOGUE
From the diary of Kendra Atkins-Ford
August 12, 2025
Dear Diary,
I love my husband.
I REALLY do, and I think I have since the day I laid eyes on him that first time in Daytona on July 24, 2007. But sometimes… sometimes I just wanna… just… ooh! I wanna strangle him for two seconds. Granted, it’s usually a certain time of the month or when I’m in labor that I feel that way but still, it’s undoubtedly there.
Like when we had our daughter. She came on the tail end of three boys. After each pregnancy, I say to him, ‘no more, Les. This is it.’ He always replies, ‘we’ll see, honey, we’ll see.’
See? Strangle city!
I mean, seriously, what does he have to do? Drop a deposit and go about his merry fucking way, right? Meanwhile, I have to have nausea, vomiting, headaches, frequent bathroom trips and still chase after these boisterous, rowdy boys. Not cool at all.
I love my husband… I love my husband… I love my husband… and even though it’s not that time of the month and I am not in labor, I want to strangle him.
Let’s start with… well, we’ll go back to our daughter’s birth. Here’s the tail end of it:
“Come on, honey… push!”
“You… fucking… push!
“I’m going to tell Shane you said that!”
“Stop laughing and telling on me, Charles Christian Ford!”
“Okay, Kendra Nichelle Ford!”
“God, I hate you!”
“Then why do you keep giving me the best kids on the planet?”
“Cause I hate you! AHHHHHH! Didn’t I make that clear?”
“And push, Kendra,” the doctor decides to chime in. Yeah, I had words for him, too. Chipper bastard.
“You push, doctor! Shit! Kick rocks!”
“Kendra, be nice and don’t fight. Come on, honey, one more big push!”
“AHHHHHHHH!” I screamed. “Les! Do us all a favor and shut the fuck up!”
Of course Les laughed, as he always does when I browbeat him during my labor. I still have no clue why it’s so funny to him.
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Ford! It’s a girl!”
I smirked then waved my tired fists in the air in a lethargic cheer. “Good! Finally! Three boys and finally a girl! No more, Les, I mean it!”
“We’ll see, honey. We’ll see.”
Yep. I was going to be arrested for murder that damn day.
So, later, when I calmed down some, I smiled as my mother-in-law held our daughter then passed her to my mother.
“She’s beautiful, Kendra! What’s her name?”
“Andrea Melina Ford,” I smile.
“I love it.”
“I thought you might, Melina. Look at your mother’s grin, Les!”
“I just cannot believe I have four grandchildren!”
“Neither can I,” my own mother beams.
“What I can’t believe is that Mom’s happy to have grandchildren,” Les laughs. “Millie, I can believe, but so not my own mother.”
Okay, that Millie name was cute, I admit. Les started calling my mother that the day they met and she loves it. Mother-in-law, he said was a mouthful. It started as Mil then by dessert, it was Millie and it’s stuck. My own father calls her that now.
“Dad has nine,” Andy smirked. “Think you’ll catch up to Randa, Les?”
I’m sure Les would just love that but I am so done. Four is enough. I have any more then I may not be able to stand without bladder leakage. And my breasts don’t shrink as much as they used to anymore after the breast feeding is over. And that Les will not agree on surgery to help that out at all. He loves that I’m a damn DD cup now. In fact, he said if I ever got my breasts reduced, he was going to manually shove whatever the doctor took out back in there.
Getting why I want to strangle him now? Wait, there’s more. It’s coming up.
“This is not a competition, Andrew. What are you waiting for to give me more?”
“Nothing, Mom,” Andy snorts. “I’m not having any.”
“Yes, you are, son. Can’t let Les have all the fun.”
“Dad, I can have fun spoiling my nieces and nephews. Right, Shane?”
“Right, Uncle Andy!”
“Right, CJ?”
“Right, Unca Anny!”
“And if Jonathan could talk more than mumbles he’d agree, too. Just wait until Nicola, LS, Brady, Sean and Cayla get here. They’ll tell you, too.”
“Nothing like your own, Andy,” Les smiled. “So much more fun.”
“That’s such a lie,” Andy laughed. “Nope, I enjoy the quietness and being able to drop them off when I’ve had my fix of kids.”
“That’ll change,” Melina smiled. “You’ll have one and will want more soon after that. Your brother and sister are proof of that.”
“Listen to your mother, Andy. She and I should have had more together. Go on and make a couple of kids like your brother and sister.”
“God, please change the station,” Andy whined. “Don’t the two of you have somewhere to be? Spouses to divorce or something?”
“You know full well both of our divorces are final. Emma and I had an amicable parting.”
“Amicable?” Andy snorted. “Come on, Dad. When did that start?”
My mother laughed. “Right after Emma caught your Mom and Dad in his office at work, Andy. Remember?”
“Oh, right. I remember. In the throws, Emma called it. She was so stupid not to know it sooner. Blatant to everyone but her.”
“So when are you two getting remarried?” I ask.
“Already done.”
Everyone looked at my parents-in-law like they had turned green.
“What?” I screeched.
“Close your mouth, Kendra,” Melina smirked. “David and I were married a year ago.”
I couldn’t believe it. They shrank off and eloped after lecturing me on how important weddings are to families and making me wear this big-ass gown down the aisle of a church on my father’s arm two months after CJ was born, with my parents in their corner. Yeah, at that point, I wanted to strangle all four of them, too.
“With no family there?”
“There was family there, Charles.”
“That’s right,” David nodded. “And right after, Mel moved in with me. How didn’t either of you notice she sold her house?”
“Because she always comes to us,” Andy frowned. “Now that I think of it, she does always call when she’s ‘in the neighborhood’.”
“Yeah,” Les frowned. “Always five minutes out when she wants to ‘gobble a baby cheek’. “
“And she’s always already in the car when we want a sitter for date nights,” I nod.
“Very clever, you two,” Andy nods. “Who was at this wedding?”
“Me,” my oldest son chuckles.
“Shane? You saw you
r grandparents get married?”
“I did, Mom, and I’m getting a car for keeping my mouth shut the day I get my license in April.”
“That’s right. Any car he wants, I’m buying for my grandson.”
“Looking forward to it, Grandpa. I have it narrowed down to two.”
“That’s great, Shane,” David laughed. “And, he’s going to my alma mater.”
“He’s going to Yale? What’s that costing you?”
“Stop laughing, Andy. I was going to foot every college bill he had regardless of where he went.”
I just rolled my eyes. My baby was not going to Yale; that was too far away. I hear Stanford, USC, UCLA or Berkeley calling Shane’s name.
A few hours later, another person I want to strangle entered my room. My parents had just left, going to my and Les’ home to finish the nursery and get my bedroom ready for me. They took my boys with them. I have the best parents ever.
“Hi, everyone! Oh, God, Kendra! I cannot believe you have four kids and I don’t even have one!”
I hugged my cousin just as tight as she hugged me, more than thrilled to have her there.
“You can get to work on that now that you’re retiring, Keely. You are still retiring, aren’t you?”
“I already have. I have an honorable discharge and I start the job hunt soon, maybe next week,” my best cousin, my rock and honorary sister beamed.
She and I were the closest of the cousins because we were girls, were the only children of our respective parents and I only had two years over her. She truly felt like my sister.
“Everyone this is my cousin, Keely Atkins. Keely, you remember my husband, Les, don’t you?”
“I do. Hello, again, Les.”
“Keely, it’s good to see you again. Congrats on your discharge.”
“Thanks, Les. Congrats on your beautiful children.”
“Thank you, Keely. These are my parents, Melina and David, my sister Randa, her husband Sebastian and this drooling idiot is my twin, Andy.”
Andy held out his hand and beamed. “David Andrew Ford II, Keely.”
“Keely Renee Atkins,” Keely beamed. “Andy, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you all finally. Sorry it took so long, but I’ve been stationed overseas for the past ten years and I haven’t been home since… I think… when was it, Kenni?”
“That drive by visit you did when CJ was about five months old. You were only here a day and fit us in for about an hour.”
“Damn, you’re right. No worries, that life is over now and I’m here to stay.”
“Hello, Keely,” Randa smiled and hugged Keely. “It’s good to finally meet you as well. Are you sad to have you career end?”
“Not at all. I’ve given the army years of my life now it’s time to find Mr. Right and give him the rest of it.”
“You better hurry up and find him, Keely. You have to catch up to me and Les. Were you mad Uncle Ray sold the hotel?” I ask quietly.
“Not at all,” Keely answers fast. “I didn’t want it anyway. In fact, I’m thinking about skipping looking for a job and go back to school. And as far as catching up goes, I will give it good try, Kenni.”
“Good for you on both,” I beam. “Where and what are you pursuing?”
“UCLA,” Keely nods. “Perhaps education or law. Mom is telling me to choose law because after 40 years of teaching, she’s convinced criminals are easier to handle.”
Keely grinned at our loud laugh then looked at the new bundle in my arms. “Hello, pretty girl. God, she’s gorgeous and making my uterus do flip-flops.”
We laughed at her again as she took my baby and cradled her.
“And she smells so good!”
Les snorted. “Give her a minute, Keely. That will change.”
“Les!” I scolded. “You’re going to make her smell better when that happens.”
“No problem,” Les grinned.
Keely giggled then smiled at me. “I saw your boys outside leaving with Aunt Ann and Uncle Sed. How old are they now?”
“15, 5 and 3,” I smile. “Can you believe how tall Shane is now? His baby fat is all gone.”
“I cannot believe that is the same little fat thing you had, Kenni. Where did he go? He looks like those two but really, they are all Les and Andy, aren’t they? No you anywhere.”
I rolled my eyes. “They so are them. They got nothing from me but my dimples. It’s ridiculous and so unfair.”
“I agree,” Keely nods and passes me my fussing baby girl. She quiets as soon as she’s back in my arms.
“What’s unfair?” Les frowned.
“It’s unfair that I did the work in getting them here and they look nothing like me! Not one brown eye in the bunch.”
“At least CJ has black hair and it looks like Andrea will, too.”
“And they are all adorable with the dimples,” Randa smiles.
“Still,” I pout. “There could be something more on them from me that says they came from me, too.”
My husband grins at me. “You’re too cute, you know that, Kendra?”
“Leave her alone, Charles!” Melina scowls and smacks Les’ shoulder. “She just gave birth eight hours ago and you’re already salivating.”
“I sure am, Mom.”
“Geez,” Randa groans. “You are such a horn-dog, Les.”
“And?” Les smirks at his sister. “I’ll be back. I’m going to make an appointment for this suite in nine months.”
I gasped. “I will kill you, Les. We have our daughter so no more!”
“Like I said, we’ll see, honey. We’ll see.”
“Holster it, Les,” Andy laughed. “Keely?”
“Yes, Andy?”
“Will you marry me?”
“Geez, Andy,” Keely said with an eye roll. “What the hell took you so long to ask me? I’m rooting over here. Ready to go now?”
“Absolutely. Just need to stop and get rings and a license.”
“Kenni, I’ll see you after my honeymoon.”
“Right,” I smirked then laughed. “Have fun.”
“Stop laughing. I’m serious. Weren’t you, Andy?”
“I sure fucking was!”
“I heard that!”
“Sorry, Shane! You’re supposed to be gone already!”
“I came back for my iPad! That’s a dollar!”
“Hang on, Shane! I’ll give it to you now. Bye, everyone,” Andy grinned as he grabbed Keely’s hand then led her out of my room. “See you after we elope.”
Yep, they left and after Sebastian peeked in the hall to see if they were just standing there. Shaking his head, he said they were actually gone. I started to boil. Why does she get to slink away and have sex when my husband couldn’t touch me for a whole six weeks, at least? Now they were both on my strangle list.
Three weeks and two days later, I finally got my chance when that… that… heifer walked into my bedroom with Andy, looking at one another like they couldn’t wait to get naked and back in each other’s arms.
“Kenni, Les,” Keely beamed. “How’s little Andrea? Has she gotten any bigger? Does she have a nickname yet?”
“What the hell? You’ve been gone three weeks, Keely Renee Atkins! Where have you two been?”
“First, it’s Keely Renee Ford now. Second, we went to Vegas and married. Then we had a honeymoon. Aruba was awesome. I think,” Keely giggled.
“The bed in our room was,” Andy grinned.
“Hold it! You two really married? After knowing each other for seven seconds?”
Andy kissed my temple and took Andrea out of my arms. I glared at the platinum band on his left hand then I grabbed Kendra’s hand and gasped when I saw the rings on her left hand. She pulled out a piece of paper and passed it to Les.
“It was a whole seven minutes, Kendra! At least.”
Les’ eyes bulged as he read the paper then turned it to me. It was a marriage license and there were their names: David Andrew Ford II and Keely Renee Atkins, dated September 5, two d
ays after Andrea’s birth.
Les frowned as he looked at his brother. “What? Is this for real? You married her, Andy?”
Andy kissed baby Andrea’s cheek then grinned. “I did, Les.”
“Without us?”
“I so did,” Andy said with an even bigger grin. “And with the same prenup you had with Kendra.”
“How is it everyone else can get married on the sly but I had to have a big splashy to-do?” I scowl. “Not fair, again!”
“Right?” Les frowned. “Did Mom and Dad disinherit you?”
“Nope. They’re hosting a reception for us in a month. By the way: we bought the house next door to you two.”
“Which?” Les chuckled.
“The old Kingston Estate. Keely loves everything about it and doesn’t want to reconstruct a thing. All she needs to do is decorate it.”
“Don’t look at me,” I snorted. “I’m going to be so busy with Crown’s Christmas displays again. I know someone who’s based in Calabasas. Mandy Cannon. She’s beyond good and quick. She’s who you want, trust me.”
“I do,” Keely nodded. “Give me her number.”
I gestured for my purse and got the number from my phone. “I cannot believe we’re going to be neighbors.”
“We are, Kendra. It should be fun since we’re planning to start having kids right away.”
“Kids?” My husband blinked. “Andy?” he screeched.
“Close your mouth, Les. You can’t have all the fun.”
I could have strangled all of those fools that day.
Now back to my husband and why his life may be ending soon.
I went with Keely and Andy to the doctor for her weekly checkup. She’s very pregnant and so ready to pop, being two days past her due date. It’s a boy and is already named after his father and grandfather. Andy and Keely have a little girl that’s exactly eleven months younger than my daughter named Ericka Renee, after Keely’s mother. Everyone jokes that at this rate, Andy and Keely will catch up with Les and me far sooner than originally thought. Ericka also has the blue eyes but her hair is black, just like my Annie. Andy is addicted to his daughter. He loves her more than anything in the world.
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