Can You Keep A Secret?

Epilouge

Ten years later

-Liv's POV-

The faint notes of "Isn't She Lovely" floated out from the nursery and I grinned, peeking my head into the room. A couple of months ago, after weeks of renovating, it had been transformed from a messy spare room into the baby's bedroom. My husband had been a great help during the process, despite the fact that he didn't have a great track record with such things. He'd carried out most of the heavy things, and insisted on handling most of the light ones, too – He'd rest his hand on my stomach and say that he wanted to be super extra sure that our baby would be safe. While I was sure that was part of it, I think he also didn't want me to see where he was storing everything – I had a feeling that one day, I'd open a closet and have the unhappy surprise of a room's contents falling out on me.

In the end, though, it didn't really matter – The room had turned out beautifully. The walls were light pastel shades of yellow and green, and it'd been taken over by the baby's items – In fact, our whole house had. You couldn't walk 10 meters without running into a teething toy, or a stuffed animal, or, once, oddly, a stray diaper – My husband had never filled me in on the story behind that one.

Still, it didn't bother me much, because I had been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, and I loved her more than anything in the entire world. I'd never truly known what love was until I'd held her in my arms for the first time, although I'd come close in what I shared with my husband. Now, I watched as she squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a small deflated breath of air as she gave up her constant struggle to stay awake and drifted off to the soft words of Stevie Wonder.

"Thank you for looking after her," I whispered, and Mikey stopped singing to look up at me.

"It's no problem," He said, just as quietly, knowing the delicate balance between a sleeping baby and a wide awake one. "She really is lovely."

"My beautiful Ashley Grace," I said lovingly, leaning over the crib to kiss her on the forehead before leading the way out of the room.

He waited until we were a safe distance away before speaking again – "It's weird to think that ten years ago, we thought that we'd be having a baby together," He remarked, just a hint of sadness still lingering in his voice. I rested my hand on his arm.

"I know. But it all worked out in the end, don't you think? What we had was special, but it wasn't meant to last. And now we've both found partners to spend the rest of our lives with, and you're going to be a father soon, as well. Are you ready?" I teased him.

"Three months," He said, and I could tell that he was nervous.

"You're going to be a great dad," I said confidently, and he smiled.

"I hope so. I should probably be heading home to Julia, huh?" He said, and I nodded, escorting him out the door.

"See you soon!" I called out as he walked to his house, which was across the street from ours, and he turned and waved. I watched to make sure that he got there safely, and no bittersweet taste aroused as he walked away. I was happy, the happiest that I had ever been, and grateful for the mysterious ways in which the world worked.

"Not having any second thoughts, are you?" My husband asked playfully, and I realized that I was still standing in the doorway.

"Not at all," I said honestly as I closed the door and turned to him.

"I'm glad," Andy said, scooping me up and kissing me. "I've waited a long time for this moment."

"Me too," I smiled. "But I never even knew that I was." He grabbed my hand and led me to the couch. A baby monitor rested nearby, but we'd gotten lucky with Ashley – She was a fairly peaceful baby.

"Hey, babe, can I ask you a question?" Andy asked suddenly.

"Of course."

"What made you end up choosing me?"

"I don't think it was really a choice. You were just where my heart led me. And even though I wasn't ready then, I'm glad you wrote me that letter all of those years ago. I never would've guessed how you felt."

"You really had no idea?" He asked, even though it was a story that we loved to tell, and he already knew the answer to it – "Not a clue."

"What about now?" He switched up the ending a bit.

"Hmmm...I don't know..." I teased him, pretending that it was a question. He reached over and began to tickle me, and I bit back a screech, slapping his hands away.

"Stop it! The baby's asleep!" I protested fervently, and he did as I wished and kissed me instead, slowly lowering himself beside me. When we were younger, that probably would've le to something more, but now that we had a few more years and a restless child tacked on, exhaustion caught up to us, and we fell asleep instead, still wrapped up in each other's arms.

A single thought flitted through my head right before I dozed off – I was glad that I could keep a secret, but even more so that he had told me one.