by Lucy Score
Phoebe and Franklin shared a sweet kiss and a laugh about something. “Isn’t it amazing that your mom found a love like that twice in a lifetime?” Joey asked, nodding at them.
“I think it’s amazing that we did,” Jax said, as he lowered his mouth tenderly to hers. She responded by biting his lip.
Epilogue
Father’s Day
Beckett tore into the paper wrapping of Evan’s gift.
“Geez, destroy my impeccable wrap job, why don’t ya?” Evan grumbled from the picnic table. With as many events as they’d been hosting on the ridge where John Pierce’s ashes had been spread, the Pierces finally decided to put up a small pavilion with picnic tables and a fireplace and grill. They christened it with a Father’s Day picnic.
“Next time wrap it with duct tape,” Jax suggested, as he stole a bite of Joey’s hot dog. “He hates that.”
“Noted,” Evan said with the amused smirk of an official teenager.
Beckett tossed the paper to the ground. He held a coffee mug that he couldn’t stop staring at.
He turned it around so everyone could see it.
World’s #1 Dad.
Evan paused, his brown eyes serious for a moment. “You’re a really good dad. Aurora and me, we’re pretty lucky.”
Jax could see his brother’s throat working furiously, knew it must be one hell of a lump in there.
Beckett pulled Evan to his feet, ruffled his hair, and then yanked the kid in for a hug.
“Oh, man. You’re gonna cry, aren’t you?” Evan’s voice was muffled against Beckett’s polo shirt.
“I’m not gonna cry. You’re gonna cry,” Beckett croaked, making a valiant effort to not choke on emotion.
“Happy Faver’s Day, Bucket. I made you dis.” Aurora scampered up behind him holding up a crayon drawing. “Dat’s you an dat’s me,” she said, pointing to one stick figure and then the other.
“Shit.” Beckett swore brokenly.
From a glance at the paper, Jax assumed the one with the giant head was Beckett and the one with the big foot was Aurora. The art must have moved his brother, because Beckett grabbed the little redhead and lifted both her and Evan off their feet in a bone-crushing hug.
“You’re suffocating me.” Evan sounded a little winded.
“Mama, Bucket said—”
“I know. I know,” Gia sighed. “Bucket said ‘shit.’” She laughed and launched herself into the hug, smashing the kids between her and Beckett.
Carter grinned up at them from his position on blanket, a twin in each arm and Meatball curled up against his side. Jax had seen his brother angry and brittle after battle. He’d seen him ecstatic at his wedding to Summer. But he’d never seen contentment smooth out all of Carter’s rough edges as it had now with his son and daughter in his arms.
Beckett finally released the kids and Gia in a pile on the ground. He furtively wiped a hand over his eyes. “It’s just allergies,” he muttered.
Evan swiped a hand under his nose. “Yeah. Allergies.”
Gia pulled her husband in for another hug and wrapped her arms around his waist. Beckett dropped a kiss on the top of her red hair.
“Great. Now Mom’s crying, too,” Evan said, rolling his eyes.
“Shut your face,” Gia ordered.
Summer rushed to Carter’s side holding two bottles like they were anti-venom Valentina gamboled on her heels.
“I’m so sorry it took me so long! I didn’t have any clean bottles,” she gasped, flopping down on the blanket. “I hope they didn’t cry too…Are they asleep?”
“About two minutes after you went back to the house,” Carter sighed. “Our kids are jerks.”
“Beautiful, amazing jerks,” Summer leaned in to place a soft kiss on each baby’s forehead.
Valentina shoved her giant spotted head into the happy family and Summer threw her arms around the dog’s neck. “Who could forget you, Valentina? You’re Mommy’s perfect angel.”
Joey tossed the last bite of hot dog to Waffles and laughed as Diesel the gangly teenage puppy sniffed the ground for leftovers. Jax pulled his wife in and dropped a quick kiss on her mouth. Forrest, to his credit, didn’t even bother rolling his eyes anymore. Their constant affection was slowly wearing the man down into a reasonable facsimile of tolerance toward their relationship.
“When are you going to hand out the b-o-o-k-ses?” Joey whispered, nodding conspicuously at the stack of brown paper packages on the end of the food table.
Jax laughed. “The only people who are getting them are the ones who can already spell,” he teased.
“Your brothers are going to freak out,” Joey predicted.
Jax had his father’s essays printed up and turned into paperbacks for his brothers and his mother.
“I hope so. Then I won’t have to get them anything for Christmas.”
“What are you getting me for Christmas?” Joey asked, sliding her hands around his waist.
“I moved my production trip to very early spring so you can come with me and we both can be here if there’s a baby Aplypso ready to be born.”
“A. We’re coming up with a better name than that and B. Thank you,” Joey wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek. “Did anyone give you any problems on moving up the schedule?”
“The studio seems even more excited about the project than I am,” Jax told her.
“Who are they going to get to play you?” Joey wondered.
“Probably someone really handsome and debonair. Maybe a James Bond-type?”
“I hope they pick Didi to play me.”
“I would hate to see her on a horse,” Jax said with a far-off look.
Joey smacked him good-naturedly. “Stop fantasizing about it, Ace.”
“Are you sure everyone here can manage without you for two weeks, Jojo?” he asked, drawing her hand up to kiss her wedding band as had become his habit.
“Are you kidding? With a new full-time manager and two more part-timers to split between the farm and the stables I don’t have anything to do. Hell, I might take up writing screenplays in my spare time.”
Jax grinned. Joey’s spare time was non-existent. With demand for Apollo through the roof, she was juggling breeding rights seasons in advance. Plus, she was working on putting together another proposal for the Pierces. This one for a therapeutic riding program. His Joey was never idle and she pushed him to be just as tireless.
“Let’s get a group picture,” Phoebe said, clapping her hands. Jax and his brothers grumbled good-naturedly, but lined up on the ridge where their wives directed them. Joey positioned Jax between her and her parents and when Forrest put his hand on Jax’s shoulder, he decided it wasn’t a bad feeling.
Phoebe set the camera on the picnic table and fiddled with it.
“Okay, it’s on timer and burst mode, so it’s going to take a bunch of pictures in ten seconds. Try to behave like human beings for a few of those pictures!” She scurried back to the group, ducking under Franklin’s arm and putting her hands on Evan’s shoulders.
“Everyone smile!”
On the first shutter click Jax heard Franklin and Gia gasp and his grin widened. His surprise happened right on schedule. Gia’s sister Emmaline strolled into the picture with a lemonade in one hand and a suitcase in the other.
“Well, aren’t you going to welcome me home?” she asked with a grin just before Franklin nearly tackled her to the ground in a bear hug.
“What are you doing here?” Gia asked, clinging to her sister’s shoulders.
“I heard there was a brewery that needed a manager.”
Joey drilled a finger into Jax’s shoulder. “Sneaky,” she said.
“I thought you wouldn’t mind having a little more time with your husband,” he said, kissing her on the temple.
“When did you have time to arrange that?”
“Right after the closing on my house when we were in L.A. You were visiting that riding academy and I met Emma at her
restaurant and planted the seeds.”
Joey watched Gia sob all over her sister. “It looks like you did good.”
“Why are you crying, G?” Emma asked Gia, patting her back.
“Because I’m pregnant!”
One look at Beckett’s stunned face told Jax this was the first he was hearing the news.
“What?” The question flew loud and fast from a dozen different directions at once.
“Speaking of growing families,” Joey whispered in his ear.
“Don’t even joke about that right now,” Jax warned her. They’d already talked. Kids were definitely in their future, probably a lot of them. Loud, messy ones. Just not in their immediate future. He was just getting used to waking up next to his beautiful wife every morning. He wasn’t ready to share quite yet.
“Get used to it because in ten to eleven months we’re going to be grandparents,” she said, handing him a grainy picture.
“Eleven months? Grandparents? What the hell is this?” He peered at the picture.
“That’s an ultrasound of Apollo and Calypso’s baby.”
“It took?” Jax grabbed Joey around the waist and lifted her up.
“Dr. Sammy was here yesterday and confirmed. The Pierce Stables breeding program has officially begun. We’ve got a very long list of parties interested in our Apollo’s breeding rights.”
Jax pulled his wife into his arms, and lowered his forehead to hers. “What did you get me into, Joey Greer?”
Joey’s brown eyes danced. “I have no idea. Probably the biggest mess of your life.”
“I like getting messy with you, Jojo.”
“Well, here’s to a lifetime of messiness together.”
Joey closed the gap and kissed him long and hard. When they broke apart and Joey put her head on his shoulder, Jax looked around them and saw circles within circles. Another baby for the new generation of family. Another venture for the farm that had sustained them all in one way or another. Marriages, promises, mended relationships. A love that just kept building on itself.
If home was where the heart is, Jax’s heart was right here in the middle of chaos.
They were all so busy celebrating that no one noticed when Clementine meandered over to the picnic table and helped herself to the bowl of macaroni salad.
About the Author
Lucy Score was born in rural Pennsylvania, land of chicken and waffles. Obsessed with books since kindergarten, Lucy began penning her own fiction in the second grade when the teacher assigned "My Life on the Mayflower" essays. She enjoys cooking, yoga, and napping. Lucy dedicates her days to crafting steamy romance stories so hot her family can't look her in the eye.
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