Page 48

EPILOGUE 4

MIRIAM

15 years later

“Mama! It’s time to gooooooo! ”

Grinning as I close the dishwasher after hitting start, I turn to my raven-haired daughter as she comes skidding to a stop in the kitchen. Oleander’s tenth birthday is today, and it’s the day I made a huge promise, much to the chagrin of her all her dads.

She bounces on her toes, dancing in place with excitement. This girl is high energy and can never stand still, the same as her biological father.

Kevin laughs at her antics, dropping the dishtowel on the counter. He was helping me clean up after her birthday lunch. Amelia and Harold, along with my entire family, all joined us. Susanna’s family unfortunately weren’t able to stick around today, having to head home yesterday for a tournament their son was signed up for today.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you two there?” Tatum asks, walking into the room behind Oleander.

Our girl stands up straight and immediately starts shaking her head. “Nope. It’s a girls’ trip. Just Ollie and mom.”

I roll my eyes at her third person declaration, then give an apologetic smile to Tatum. “Sorry. You heard the lady.” Kevin kisses me on the cheek before I leave his side to get our girl on the road.

Today is the day she’s getting her ears pierced. She’s been wanting it done for a few years now, but I told her I wanted her to make sure she’s sure and it’d be something we do when she hits double digits. The wait has been absolute agony for her. Grabbing my hand, she tugs me to the door where our shoes are lined up.

“Did you set out our shoes?” I ask with a raised brow.

Ezra is waiting nervously by the front door, eyes darting from his daughter to me with anxiety. “She’s been arranging them for the last ten minutes waiting on you.” His words are grumbled and I know he’s disappointed to not come along with us. Just last night, he admitted he doesn’t like the idea of her getting her ears pierced. Not because he’s against it, but because he doesn’t want her to hurt.

“It’ll be quicker to put them on,” she says from the side of her mouth, then rushes forward to do exactly that. “Here, put yours on.” Pushing mine toward me, she sits on her butt and ties her laces.

Placing my hand on Ezra’s cheek, I stroke his jaw with my thumb. “It’ll be fine, mi soldado . I found a great place. We’re going to do it right and it’ll be a breeze.”

“I just don’t want her to cry,” he murmurs.

I hear Oleander’s huff, but she doesn’t argue with him. It’s obvious she’s also nervous, but her desire to get it done is bigger than her fear.

Richard joins us in the entryway and picks Oleander up to lay kisses over her face until she’s laughing and fighting him off. “She’ll be brave. Send pictures as soon as it’s done!”

“You guys leaving now?” my oldest son, Gabriel, asks from the living room doorway. He and his brothers and uncles have been heavily involved in some sort of video game tournament. I hear the younger two shouting from the room as they battle each other to the cheers of my brothers.

I hold out a hand, and he comes over to hug me. “Yeah, we’re about to head out.” He’s well over six feet now and it makes my heart hurt a bit that he’s not my little boy anymore. Wrapping me up, I sigh into his hug before he’s rushing back to the living room when Liam yells for him. I can hear Thane’s disgruntled complaining at his apparent loss.

“Okay,” I say, clapping my hands together. “Let’s get going.” Before anyone can ask, I quickly add, “Yes, I will take photos. Yes, I will take a video. I will also let you know when we get there. Alright, let’s go!”

Everyone gives another round of hugs, Ezra holding on to our daughter a little longer than necessary, but she endures it.

The drive to Anarchy and Vice Ink is a little over half an hour, and it’s not much of a wait before we’re shuffled into a room sporting an entire wall of jewelry and tattoo equipment.

Oleander looks around, her eyes wide, then turns to me with a hopeful look. “Can I get a tattoo too?”

A snort comes from behind us and we turn to see a gorgeous woman practically covered from head to toe in tattoos. Surprisingly no piercings aside from a few in her ears. “Maybe when you’re eighteen, but nobody said you can’t think about what you’d like before then.”

As she walks to us, she holds out her hand to Oleander first, who takes it a little nervously.

“I’m Grey. You must be Ollie?”

She nods her head slowly, eyes wide. “You’re so pretty.”

Grinning sweetly at my little girl, she thanks her, then turns to me and offers her hand. “Nice to meet you,” I say. “I’m mom.”

“Miriam,” Oleander adds, apparently getting over her shock and hurries over to the chair in the center of the room. “Let’s do this!”

Grey directs me where to sit after she marks the spots where she’ll pierce. I’m surprised at how long it takes because she does a lot of measuring and comparing, then wipes away the spots and marks them again. Eventually, they’re exactly where she wants them and she turns to me with a raised brow.

“What do you think? Good placement?”

Oleander was holding a mirror to watch as she worked, but her eyes keep straying to the side of the room, distracted by something.

“What do you think, Ollie?” I ask, and when she doesn’t answer, I call her name again. “Ollie? What are you looking at?”

Instead of answering me, she grins wide and holds her finger up to her a mouth like she’s shushing me. I tilt my head in confusion, but she doesn’t explain. To Grey, she smiles from ear to ear. “I like it. Are we going to pierce them now?”

Chuckling, Grey nods once and pulls over her tray with everything laid out, all of it sanitized including the earrings we picked out before starting the process.

“Okay, I’m going to use a little clamp to flatten your ear lobe. Honestly, you probably won’t feel much of it and it’s very fast. Are you ready?”

I hear a little bump, maybe from outside the room, but Oleander’s eyes dart back to that spot she was staring at before. This time when she speaks, I can hear her nerves. “Y-yes.”

Sucking in a breath, she shoots her hand out to hold mine when Grey picks up the needle.

“Listen to me. I wouldn’t do this if I thought I’d hurt you. Will you trust me?”

My little girl nods her head quickly, then closes her eyes tightly, gripping the fuck out of my hand. Grey murmurs that she’s going to do it now, then immediately pushes the needle through the dot she marked.

The only reaction Oleander has is one eyebrow ticking up slightly, but she stays frozen in her seat. “There,” Grey says, working around the needle and slipping in a fresh earring. “All done.”

Oleander blinks her eyes open, then she looks at Grey with her mouth hanging open. “I barely felt it.”

We both laugh at her, then Grey moves to the other side, repeating the process. The whole thing only took a couple of minutes when we got to the piercing part. “Wow. This is so much better than going to the mall,” I admit, remembering when my dad took me to get mine pierced.

Grey’s face twists in disapproval. “I hate that they use those air guns like that. Doing it that way damages the tissue and increases the risk of infection. Using a needle like this, you don’t need to turn the earrings. Just keep them clean and wash with scent free soap a couple times a day. I’ll give you a printout that gives you instructions on how to care for it. On the off chance you think she might have an infection, let me know right away, but I doubt it’ll happen.”

I get all the instructions and catch sight of her hand when she sets them in my open palm. “Your tattoo is gorgeous,” I tell her, nodding at her ring finger.

Grey holds her hand out to study it with a smile. “Thank you. It’s for my husband. I have a ring, but I like this better. It’s more permanent.”

Holding it out to us when Oleander tries to take a peek, we look more closely. It’s a delicate band with a cross designed over the top.

“Wow. It’s a lot more detailed than I first thought.”

“I like to touch it up in some way every year. Anyway, you ladies are all set. Call if you have any questions, otherwise you should be able to change those out in a few months. Just follow the instructions.”

Oleander gives her a big hug and a quick, “Bye!” Then she’s running out of the room, her head swinging from left to right as if she’s looking for something.

Laughing, I pick up my bag to follow, a smile at Grey. “Thank you so much again. That was amazing for her.”

“I’m sure I’ll see you girls around,” Grey says, waving away my appreciation. I nod and leave her as she puts things away and cleans up the room.

Finding my daughter by the front door, she seems a touch disappointed. “What’s got you frowning like that?” I ask as I take her hand.

As we leave the shop, she says, “Nothing. I just wanted to say goodbye.”

“You did say goodbye,” I remind her. “ Oh! Pictures! Stand over there by the sign.” I point and she hurries over, still not really smiling.

Holding up my phone, I zoom in just as her mouth parts and a huge grin overtakes her face. She looks absolutely breathtaking, so I quickly snap the photo, then ask her to look at me because she keeps staring off to the side.

Once I get the perfect photo, I send it off to everyone and tuck it away. As we head to the car, I catch her waving shyly. Turning to see, I notice a boy around the same height as Gabriel strolling away at a brisk pace.

“There,” she says happily.

“There what?”

Turning her face up to mine, she chews on her lip and says, “I got to say goodbye.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I pull her against me and wrap her in my arms. She hugs me back tightly. “I’m so proud of you, my little love. So, so proud.”

“Thanks mama. Even though it poked a bit, I’m going to tell my dads it didn’t hurt at all.”

I can’t wait to get us to get on the road, back to the rest of my heart waiting for us with open arms.

We laugh as we hurry to the car, Oleander running in front of me, spinning around with happiness. She has so much energy building inside her, waiting to explode in a whirlwind. I just know as soon as she decides she’s ready to conquer the world, she’ll take it by storm.

The same way the men I love conquered me.