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Ender nods, his eyes on the baby, and then me. “Hudson Lanier?”
My lips quirk into a smile. His middle name is the lake we met at. “That’s perfect.” And the tears come harder. I look up at Ender and he smiles.
Leaning in, he presses his lips to my forehead. “I love you,” he says easily, as if expressing himself to me is no longer a problem.
“I love you too,” I tell him.
He hands Hudson over to me and wraps his arms around the both of us.
I cry harder knowing Ender’s doing exactly what he wished he could have done with Eddie.
Hold both of us.
* * *
Hours later,when the rush of our family has mellowed out, Ender and I are left in the room alone with Eddie and Hudson. Eddie is sitting on Ender’s lap, the baby in her arms and her daddy’s arms wrapped around the two of them.
“Will he cry all the time like Bailey does?”
I smile at them, shifting in the bed to watch.
Ender presses his lips to the side of Eddie’s head and tucks her long dark hair from her face. “He’ll cry enough, but I think we can handle it.”
Eddie turns her head to look at Ender, searching his eyes. “Are you happy, Daddy?”
The question catches both of us off guard I think. She’s six. I wonder what would make her ask someone if they’re happy. “Yes, why?” he asks, staring at her.
“Your eyes look sad and happy.”
He smiles. “I guess I’m a little of both. I wish I would have been able to hold you like this.”
She lays her head against his chest. “You are now.”
And he is. The past is a past for a reason. A chapter, a paragraph, a sentence in your novel that gave you a villain, a hero, and it hurts to flip the page onto the next one. But you have to keep going, because sometimes the ending is the best part.