Page 31 of Rhett (The Swift Brothers #3)

Ten years later

“H ey, Dad. Hey, Pop,” Meadow greets Tripp and me as she walks into the house with her girlfriend, Lily. She started calling me Pop about a year after Tripp and I got together. It’s amazing how those three letters can be one of my favorite things, that this incredible girl can see me like a father to her.

“Hey, you.” I give her a hug and kiss her cheek before she heads to her dad, and I greet Lily with a hug too. She and Meadow have been together for two years now. They’ve both moved from smaller towns to New York City for more diversity. Lily is still in college, studying international humanitarian law. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an amateur photographer, but most importantly, she treats our girl like she hung the moon.

“How was your trip?” I ask Lily.

“Good. It’s nice to finally be here, though.”

“Everyone is out back. Come on.”

It’s Tripp’s birthday, and our family and friends are all here celebrating. I officially put my house on the market and moved in with Tripp and Meadow about six months after we told Meadow about us, and we’ve been living here together ever since. After our first anniversary of working together, Tripp surprised me with a name change for the business. Cassidy’s Carpentry became Tripp and Rhett’s Carpentry Service .

“I can’t wait to see them,” Meadow says.

It was an adjustment when she left at eighteen. Not that we didn’t enjoy having the house to ourselves, but Meadow is such a bright light, and we miss her. Especially Tripp. He hadn’t known what life was like without her for eighteen years. Tripp and I go to the city a lot to see her, though. She’s living the life we always hoped for her.

And we’re enjoying having each other. Working together, sitting on the porch swing in the evenings—just like the one my mom used to have—and making sure we go ice-skating every winter. The first year, I pretended I didn’t like it but Tripp knew I did—that I do. It reminds me of that first birthday party of Meadow’s. In a lot of ways, that’s when Tripp and I really began.

“Hey, old man. Where were you hiding?” Archer asks Tripp when we get outside. He’s been working as an EMT for years now and loves it.

Tripp moves aside, and Archer sees Meadow behind him.

“You’re here!” He opens his arms, and Meadow steps into them for a hug.

“Hey, Uncle Archer.”

He motions toward the other side of the yard, and East starts walking toward us with Eloise on his shoulders. Her brother, Arthur, is holding East’s hand.

“Poppy!” Arthur says, letting go of East and running toward Archer. The twins are six and East and Archer’s world. Simone, Archer’s sister-in-law, carried the babies for them. They used sperm from each of them and someone else’s egg.

“What’s up, little man?” Archer scoops Arthur into his arms.

“Don’t I get a hello?” Meadow smiles, and the moment the kids see her, they scramble away from their dads to greet their cousin. They adore Meadow like everyone who knows her does.

“Will you play with us?” Eloise asks.

“Sure thing, El,” Meadow replies.

“You too, Lily,” Arthur says, and then the four of them go off to explore imaginary worlds in our backyard.

Music’s playing around us, everyone talking and joking. Tripp’s family is here, as well as Archer’s and Dusty’s. There are a lot of us now, this found family we’ve built, and a lot of love between us. Tripp’s parents have loved and accepted me from the first moment Tripp told them about us, and his brother teases me the same way he does Tripp. I’d never imagined I could have all this.

“Did we miss anything?” Morgan asks as he and Dusty approach. They’ve been married the longest out of the group of us, followed by East and Archer, then me and Tripp.

“No. Just glad everyone is here,” Tripp says.

The six of us stand together and talk about everything…about nothing. The subject doesn’t matter, just that we’re all together. Things have changed a lot over the last ten years—the twins being born, Meadow leaving, career changes, marriages—but what hasn’t changed is the love between us. My brothers are my best friends. We’ve found our way to the place we were always meant to be.

I’ve always wanted to be the brother they deserve, to make our family what my mom always dreamed for us, and now we’re that.

I wish Mom could be here to see it.

I wish Ella could too.

Four months after he last came to see me, Gregory Swift died in his office at the Swift house, completely alone. The nurse had found his body about twenty-four hours later, when she’d come to check on him. It makes me sad when I think about it, not because I miss him or forgive him, because I don’t, but I do grieve for what could have been if he’d been a different kind of man.

The party continues, Tripp at the grill even though it’s his day—he really likes to cook out—and eventually, we all settle down to eat together.

“Can I sit by you, Daddy?” Eloise asks East.

“Of course you can,” he replies, pulling her to his lap, with Archer and Arthur beside them.

After dinner, Tripp’s mom, Debra, brings out the cake. I watch Tripp while we all sing to him, his smile making me find one of my own. With every year that passes, hell, with every day that passes, I love him even more. He changed my life, and not a day goes by that I don’t acknowledge that fact. And, well, the truth is, over the years I’ve learned that I changed my life too, and that’s something Tripp is always willing to remind me of if I forget.

Dusty’s parents leave first, followed by Archer’s, and then Tripp’s parents are hugging us goodbye too.

The twins are playing with Meadow and Lily again, and I look around to find them, my breath catching in my throat. “Look,” I say.

Eloise and Arthur are holding hands, Eloise with her blond hair and Arthur’s brown like Archer’s. It’s uncanny how much like East and Ella they are—best friends, always together, always in on secrets they don’t share with the rest of the world. I can’t wait to see what they grow into, how they spend their lives having more time together than East and Ella had.

“Holy shit,” Morgan whispers, and I know he’s looking, seeing what I am.

A kaleidoscope of butterflies surrounds them, the twins dancing in the middle, laughing and twirling while wings flutter around them, much like that day all those years ago, with East’s paper butterflies. I can’t pull my gaze away from them, head spinning, heart pounding, but feeling like the damn thing is growing at the same time.

Tripp wraps his arms around me from behind. His lips press to my neck.

“Ella’s watching over them,” East says. “Making sure they always know she’s here.”

There’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s right.

We stare at them for a moment, Lily snapping photos, and then as if they’re called back somewhere, the butterflies fly away.

Maybe home to Ella.

“I love you,” Tripp tells me, and I’m so fucking thankful I get to share this moment with him, that I have ten years’ worth of moments behind us and a lifetime ahead of us. That our family is here too, together, the way we always will be.

“I love you too.”