Our Broken Pieces

Epilogue

Mystic – (One Year Later)~

As always, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew.

Gage was here.

I smiled, and without turning around, I asked, "What are you doing here?"

His deep voice reached my ears at the same time as his arms wrapped around my waist. "Was hoping to take you to lunch," he replied as he peppered kisses along the curve of my neck.

I turned around in his arms, and my arms were already securing their place around his shoulders. "And of course, I'm starving," I joked.

Gage's eyes darted towards the obstruction that made it hard to hold each other close these days. "You're eating for two," he remarked. "I'd be worried if you weren't hungry all the time."

I untangled myself from my husband, so that he could love on my stomach. He did it every time we met up. Dropping on his haunches, he kissed my belly before standing back up. "Mom's going to be in Chicago next week," he said. "She asked if she could stay with us a couple of days." He grinned. "I think the farther along you get, the more frantic she becomes."

Gage and I had gotten married the same week that we had professed our love for one another. Four months later, I became pregnant, and I was eight months along. His mother had been thrilled, and Alaric had been over the moon. When I'd told him that I was pregnant, he only mentioned mending fences with my parents and sister once before I shut that idea down. While I no longer held the level of resentment that I'd had for them before, nothing was more important to me than my family with Gage. I couldn't or wouldn't risk the chance that they would intentionally or unintentionally badmouthed Gage in front of our child. Alaric still thought that they deserved a chance, but I just wasn't ready. Maybe I would be one day. Maybe not.

"Do you think she's going to eventually move to Chicago?"

"I think as soon as the divorce is finalized, she might," he answered.

The same week that Gage and I had gotten married, Maureen Evans had gone back home to California, had confronted Quinten, then had moved out of their house. Quinten had begged and pleaded, and had even offered to go to counseling for his sex addiction issues, but Maureen hadn't been swayed. She'd said that there might have been enough love left in her to forgive and help him, but there hadn't been enough love in her to forgive the damage that he'd done to Gage. She had promised him an amicable parting if he didn't fight her on it, and it had taken Quinten three months before he'd finally given up, and we'd all been kind of surprised by his resistance. After all, how could a man that loved his wife the way that he'd claimed cheat on her like that? Still, in his own weird way, I supposed that he did. Nevertheless, even with the mutual dissolution of their marriage, they'd had a lot of assets and years of marriage under their belts, so there was a lot to sort out.

"I can't see her leaving her patients," I replied.

Gage shrugged a shoulder. "I think once the baby comes, she might not be able to help herself."

"And your dad?"

"Will have nothing to do with my child," he insisted, his voice firm and absolute. "If Mom wants to share pictures or whatever, I won't deny her that. But he'll never be welcomed around my family." He hated talking about his dad, so he changed subjects. "So, what about lunch?"

"Let me text Rowan," I told him, reaching across my desk to grab my phone. "She was supposed to meet me for lunch in about half hour."

I had decided to continue to work for CI, and I'd been honest with Lorcan about not being completely certain if I was going to come back after maternity leave. However, until the decision was made, I worked my ass off for the man.

"I can ask Lorcan to join us, if you want," he offered.

My teeth started nibbling my lower lip. "I don't know, Gage," I hedged. "Last week, I caught them in the hallway hissing at each other."

Gage laughed. "Hissing?"

"Text her, and I'll text him," Gage grinned. "We could use the entertainment."

As I texted Rowan, and Gage texted Lorcan, I realized that I really did have it all. When I once believed that I'd never find a man that was going to love me for me, I found a man whose love transcended everything that I ever imagined that it could be.

I was in love with the man of my dreams.

More importantly, I was in love with the man of my nightmares.

The End.