WILD RIDE (Rafe Cameron x OC) *COMPLETE*

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Alana

TEN YEARS LATER

JJ Maybank once told me that I would regret everything in my life if I chose Rafe Cameron over him. He said that being with Rafe Cameron would be the biggest mistake of my entire life. For a short period of time I believed that to have been true.

Rafe Cameron and I have been through everything together. We've both lost our fathers and our mothers. We've lost friends and gained new friends. We've had our eyes opened to how easily a person can betray you even if you've given them all the reasons in the world never to betray you. We became parents to a beautiful little girl and lost the chance of another child together.

More than once.

Rafe and I have tried for years since then to have another. We've tried and tried but it either ends with a negative pregnancy test or the loss of another pregnancy. Most people would let this affect their relationship negatively.

Rafe and I haven't. If anything it's bonded us further in our relationship. Especially since now we have a daughter who has grown into a beautiful young girl. She's still a baby in my eyes and even more so in Rafe's.

I look at everything I have with Rafe. I look at how we've built Cameron Development into more than it ever was and how we have changed the way everyone in Kildare looks at the Cameron name. Our daughter is brilliant and has such a good head on her shoulders. Her beauty? Beyond words.

And yet there in all these years since that small point in time that I look at my husband and regret Rafe Cameron. Not a single time. And especially not today of all days.

Today is a day that had been long awaited for us. A day we never thought we'd see again. A day that never in my wildest dreams would happen for us.

Rafe comes outside to the backyard where I'm setting up tables and chairs. Covering the tables with throw away table clothes and the number 1 is displayed everywhere on balloons and napkins. Paper plates and the candle on the cake that is made of cupcakes and in the shape of the number 1.

Leah's texting on her phone but quickly shoves it into the back pocket of her jeans when she sees me giving her a raise brow glare. Rafe teases her and grabs the phone and holds it up high so she can't reach it.

"Never should have gotten you one of these. You're fourteen, you don't need to be glued to this damn thing." Rafe complains with a smile. "I miss when you played with dolls and watched the same movie over and over."

Leah jumps to try to reach the phone but fails. "Daddy! Come on! I'm waiting for Auntie Sarah to text me back!"

"Auntie Sarah has her hands full with all those damn kids." Rafe says and then looks at me. "Go help your mom set up the tables."

"Why does it matter?" Leah groans. "It's not like he's going to remember a damn thing."

Rose walks out the sliding glass doors and walks over toward me. "Someone woke up early from his nap and he's ready to party. Literally. He yanked his diaper off and threw it across the nursery... Thank God it was empty."

My son... My beautiful son reaches his arms out to me and I grab him with the biggest smile on his face. I hold him tightly and walk over to Leah who's grumpily arranging center pieces that I'd already placed down onto the tables.

Rose and Rafe are talking so I bring Leah to somewhere a little more quiet. "Leah, it matters because your Dad and I didn't have it easy when we had you. We tried our hardest to do everything in our power to make your first birthday special and you may not remember it but we do. We remember that it wasn't an enjoyable day. Nothing about my pregnancy with you was enjoyable. I almost died a few times... Your Dad and I... We didn't plan any of it out. It just happened. And a whole hell of a lot happened during that time. You know that... We told you everything."

She nods. "I know... I know that a lot of bad stuff happened and I'm glad Daddy got the help he needed and I'm glad you're okay but seriously, Mom... There's no need to go this big for a baby who will fall asleep halfway through."

"First birthday parties don't matter for the kid." I tell her. "It's to celebrate the parents surviving their first year of parenthood. I don't know even to this day how your Dad and I survived. We had every odd betting against us. Teen parents who got pregnant from a random supply closet hookup at Midsummers? First of all, this is why we don't take you to Midsummers-"

"You try to raise me like a Pogue." Leah shrugs. "I don't mind though. I like spending most of my time with Uncle Johnny and Auntie Sarah."

"Their job as your aunt and uncle has been to teach you that there's more to life than just the cell phone being glued to your hand and sitting at a computer all day watching stupid videos online. I get it, I was a teenager too but... I didn't have that."

"Then what did you do all day?"

I adjust the baby on my hip and smile at her. "Come on," I hand the baby to Rafe as we pass by.

"Hi Jakey," Rafe says as he holds our son up in the air. "Happy Birthday to my sweet boy." He kisses his face and Jake laughs and giggles.

Leah had been the perfect mix of the two of us but Jake Booker Cameron is the exact replica of Rafe. I don't think there is a single drop of my DNA in that child. He's all Rafe. Even his baby giggle is Rafe.

Rose found old family videos that Ward had stashed away and watching the videos of Rafe as a baby and little boy had made me so emotional. I had watched a few when I was pregnant with Jake but watching them afterward? I don't ever remember being so emotional.

Leah and I into the old library in the house. The one that had once only had a small bookcase dedicated to me from Rafe when I first moved to Tannyhill all those years ago had now become filled with every book I could have ever wanted and imagined.

I grabbed a book off the shelf and handed it to Leah. "When I was fourteen like you are, I read this one. I didn't know my mom at the time and this was all I had of hers. A box of her old books that she wrote in. One was destroyed long ago but I held onto the rest tightly. This one is brother's best friend but let me just say.. It doesn't always work out like the books."

Leah laughed and flipped through the old and worn pages. Seeing Julia's handwriting and realizing she was never the same person who wrote in those books. I had a warped perspective for so long of who my mother would be and what she'd be like.

JJ had said I'd regret Rafe Cameron but truly? I regret ever meeting my mother. I regret going to Charleston to meet Julia Routledge. I wish I had never heard her out. I wish I only kept the imaginative version of her in my head that I'd created from the margins of these pages.

"You're right," Leah smirked at me. "Best friend's brother was more your thing."

I took another book from the shelf and placed it in her hands. "Do me a favor and don't let the words on these pages give you any ideas. You have a whole life ahead of you. Do better than what your Dad and I did. Be everything in this world that you dream of being. Please..."

A smile curls onto her lips as she clutches the books close to her chest. "So you don't want me to do a shit ton of coke, lose my virginity in a supply closet, murder a few people, steal gold, and get knocked up? Got it."

"You know you open your mouth and your uncle JJ comes out."

"I still can't believe you named my brother Jake for him." She rolls her eyes. "I liked the idea of naming him something like Rhys or Xaden."

"Absolutely not." I retort as we make our way out of the library and back down the hall toward the back doors. "People shouldn't name their kids after a character that they want to bang."

"So you name him after your ex-boyfriend?" Leah teases.

I shook my head as we reached the door. I could see JJ in the yard already with Sofia at his side, her wedding ring glistening bright as Rafe passed Jake to JJ.

"I named him after the boy who not only saved my life but changed my life."