Never the Right Time

Epilogue Mark's POV

5 years later

We just celebrated the 7th anniversary of Soph's shop being open. Per usual Vinny and our now four year old, Cecelia, stole the show. They were both very proud of themselves. It was hilarious to see. Soph tried to talk Cecelia out of trying to perform, but Nick and I colluded with Cecelia and she ended up doing her little performance with dad and grandpa Nick as back up. Soph said she almost peed herself laughing at us.

The shop was going strong. I loved her little shop and continued to work out of it daily. I had eventually started my own web design company that had immediately taken off. Part of the wonderfulness of this town was how supportive everyone was of each other once they had counted you as their own. They all helped me grow my business by hiring me and then reaching out to everyone they knew. It took off so quickly I had to hire someone to help out. This place was everything I had ever dreamed of and more.

Cecelia also immediately became the town's golden child. She had my green eyes, long brown hair and Soph's perpetual glowy tan. She was my beautiful little girl who had the biggest heart imaginable. She had a million adopted grandparents, aunts and uncles that she was spoiled beyond belief, but in a good way. She was always wanting to help everyone even if it was just to cheer them up. There were countless times that she convinced us to bake cookies for someone randomly just to make them feel better. She had a huge heart and it was easy to see why everyone loved her so quickly.

My parents had eventually moved to a town, not too far from us. They loved being out here and being close to Cecelia. A few years ago they had mentioned that Rebecca had gotten married and was expecting another baby. I wasn't angry about any of that anymore. I was happy with how my life turned out. I will always harbor regret with Emma and thought about how I could explain it if she ever sought me out. I had hoped that that day would never come. Nothing I could ever say could be a good explanation if she ended up harboring some resentment towards me.

Soph had heard that Joel was still struggling. He apparently had gotten fired from his job and had been struggling to keep a job for longer than a year for the past seven years. Soph was so thankful that he had shown his true colors before she ended up marrying him or pregnant. I was thankful because of him, I finally had a chance at the love of my life.

We had struggled that first year of being parents, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just a blip that never amounted to anything more than sleep deprived parents yelling nonsense. We were still very much in love and that hasn't changed at all. Now I was hoping that we would have more to love because Soph had called me earlier asking me to pick up a pregnancy test on my way home.

When I walked in the door, she all but tackled me to get the bag I was carrying before running off to the nearest bathroom. I followed behind and laughed as I opened the door to find her awkwardly squatting over the little plastic stick.

"Its not funny!" She whined, "I'm trying really hard to not pee on myself!"

This only made me laugh harder. She finished and put it face down on the counter. Telling me to set a timer. Those three minutes went by stupidly slow. I would rather listen to Cecelia tell me about Frozen for the day instead of wait those three minutes.

When the timer went off, I looked up at Soph ringer her hands.

"You check it!" She demanded.

"Are you sure?" I asked as I reached to pick it up.

"Yes come on pick it up!"

"Ok ok!" I couldn't help but grin as I turned it over and saw the little screen, "looks like Cecelia's going to finally get that baby she has been asking for!" I laughed before sweeping Soph into my arms as she started to do that laugh sob she was good at.

A few years ago I didn't think anything of this was in the cards for me and I was so thankful I was so wrong. This was everything I had wanted and more.