A Previous Selection

Epilogue

"Mom! Dad! Come on! We're supposed to be there already!" Astrid exclaims. 

Cameron and I both look up at our oldest daughter as she comes bounding into our room and immediately runs up to Cameron and starts pulling on his arm. 

"Your mom and I were just about to leave, sweetie," he says as she continues to pull him towards the door. 

"Well, can we hurry it up a little? I don't want to be late." 

"Honey, it's YOUR piano recital. You can't exactly be late for it," I tell her, and she crosses her arms. 

"Yeah, but I don't want to keep people waiting for forever." 

I can't help but smile at her. 

"You got me there." She perks up some at those words, loving that she's proved her mother wrong in some way. "But can I at least finish feeding your brother before we go down?" 

She huffs out a little sigh. 

"Of course you can. But as soon as he's done with the bottle, you two are going to come down, right?" she asks, and Cameron leans down to kiss the top of her head. 

"Yes. I promise." 

"Pinky promise?" 

She holds up her pinky to him, and he quickly wraps his own pinky around hers. 

"Pinky promise." 

That satisfies her, and just like that, she goes bounding back out of the room. With a shake of his head and a smile, Cameron walks across the room to the chair where I'm feeding Arlo the last of his bottle. 

"She's something, huh?" he says, and I chuckle. 

"She's little miss independent, that's what she is." 

"I know. How is she already so grown up? It felt like just yesterday when I first held her in my arms. She was just a tiny little thing then, and now look at her. Organizing her own piano recital for the whole family to come see." 

"And let's not even talk about her piano skills," I say. "At only 8, she's already better than me." 

"I think you're selling yourself short, dear." 

"And I think that you think too highly of me." 

"I could never." He kisses the top of my head before looking down at Arlo with a smile. "This little guy is growing up too fast too." 

"They all are. Astrid's 8. Ivy's 5 now. And little Arlo here is turning 1 in just a couple of days. Where did all the time go?" 

"It's flown by, that's for sure. So we better get downstairs and savor this moment with our daughter before she grows up even more." 

"He just has one last sip. Come on, buddy. Finish it up for Mommy." 

Once Arlo's done with his bottle, and I've burped him, we make our way down to the music room where Astrid has gathered the whole family to watch her play. 

Since Arlo's first birthday is right around the corner, my entire family was already staying in the palace for the week, and Astrid decided to take advantage of that to have her first bigger piano recital that consisted of more than just me and Cameron and her little sister that could barely sit through the whole thing. 

When we enter the room, the noise of both mine and Cameron's family talking fills my ears, and I can't help but smile. I don't think I'll ever get tired of the noise. At least not this kind. Because this kind of noise just lets you know that you're surrounded by the people you love. And what more could I ask for?