Never Met a Girl Like Her | ✔️

Epilogue

L E O N I E

10 Years Later.

The  aroma of fresh bread filled the kitchen as Jess pulled out a batch of steaming hot rolls. Ones that she'd just whipped up. Some times I needed to find the oven manual just to know which setting to cook nuggets on.

Covering the marble countertop were salads and fillings, spreads and cheeses. It was another birthday that she was catering but this birthday was the first one in years that I was going to have the entire original six at. Including Amy. We'd reconnected a few months ago when our rescue pup needed her vaccinations done.

We could have a dog now that we weren't in an apartment. Heath and I were recent homeowners. It was a modern build with a big back garden and lots of windows. I couldn't live without lots of windows. White and wood scheme. Minimal decor and open spaces. It was serene. And that was what I needed in a home.

We adopted Jaxi, our black lab about six months ago when she was just three months old. She'd been abandoned with the rest of her litter and she was the last one at the shelter when we went searching. She sort of chose us to be honest. Heath adored her and she had an enormous kennel outside despite the fact that she hung around inside, in front of the windows most of the time. She liked to chase the sun around the house. She moved as it moved. I couldn't blame her.

"This smells so good," I squeezed Jess from behind and tiptoed so that I could whisper in her ear. "I knew that I should have married you."

"You should have," she laughed and started placing the rolls onto a cooling rack. "But you married Heath."

"And you married, Bray," I pretended to gag as I let her go and leaned on the countertop. "No stress though. There's still time to leave them and get hitched."

She giggled and looked as if she was going to agree when a little person came tearing in from outside with Jaxi hot on her heels. "Frankie," Jess shouted. The four year old came to a skidding halt, her big alarmed gaze locked on her mom's, her dimpled cheeks were lifted in a grin.

"No running in Aunt Lee's house. If you want to play with Jaxi, you stay outside."

Meanwhile, Jaxi was busy being almost as tall as Frankie and threatened to knock her over while she licked her face. It didn't bother me a whole lot. If they wanted to run around the house, meh. There wasn't a lot that could get broken. But I'd had to learn that when Jess said something, it was safer not to counter her. Or Frankie used it to her advantage and thought that I'd be the one to go to when her mom was being lame. Which I totally was. But that was a secret and not to be exposed in front of my best friend.

"Where is Bray," Jess mumbled as Frankie ushered Jaxi back outside. Frankie's wild black hair caught the wind and I watched her ringlets wrap around her face while she ran across the deck and jumped off into the grass. That kid had no fear and I loved it. But it also concerned me. Especially when I'd caught her leaning over the staircase banister one night when I babysat.

"I think he's upstairs," I said and pulled on her apron. "Come on. I want to go and look at Alelia again."

Jess smiled and made no argument. The aroma of lunch had drifted upstairs and I was surprised to find Bray in my bedroom, rather than downstairs attempting to eat the entire meal as he so often did. But he was a sucker for a brand new bubba. Which is why he was leaning over the crib beside my bed, watching the little bundle wrapped in her pink swaddle while the mobile above her sung a soft song.