Be My Shelter (Book II)

Chapter 48 ~ Epilogue

Five years later

There was a shriek and a crash.  I sighed, got out of bed and walked downstairs to find Brayden sitting on his sister, who was screaming in protest.

“Brayden!” I snapped. “Get off of Juliet.”

“But…she’s so squishy!”  He said, bouncing on her.

“I said get off of her.  You are six and she’s four, you’re much bigger than she is.”  I said, walking over to him and picking him up.  “Go see what your brothers are doing.”

“Fine.” He grumbled.

“Jules, get off the floor.” I sighed.

“It’s Brayden’s fault!” She said angrily, crossing her arms and pouting. 

“Let’s go see what your sister is up to.” I sighed, holding my hand out for her to take.  She put her tiny hand in mine and brushed her hair out of her face with the other.  Where she got such a dark hair color will always be a mystery; the other four have light brown hair and brown eyes, while Juliet has a much darker shade of brown and green eyes.

“Can we go to the park, momma?”

“Not today, sweetie.  The weatherman said it was going to snow.”

Her tiny chin quivered. “But…but I wanna go to the park!”

“We can’t go to the park.” I said, trying not to snap at her. “Besides, you have preschool today.”

“GIVE IT BACK, TRENT!” Zach yelled.

I sighed.  This day was not going well and it was only six in the morning. 

“Jules, can you go get yourself dressed? I need to get Keelan dressed.”  I said and she nodded before scurrying off to her room.  “Hey, baby!” I cooed happily at the baby in the crib.  “Let’s get you dressed.”

*

The phone rang, and I walked into the kitchen and looked at the Caller ID

“Hey, Nolan.”  I grinned.

“How are you?”

“Good.  The kids were wild this morning.”  I sighed.

“Well there’s five of them, what did you expect?  When are you picking them up?”

“I have to pick Juliet up an about an hour and a half, but I don’t need to pick up the boys for another four hours.”

“I get off in three; do you want me to pick them up for you?”

“That would be really helpful, thank you.”

“How’s Keelan?”

“She’s sleeping.”

“You should take a nap then.  You sound exhausted.”

“I can’t, the kitchen needs to be cleaned, then I have two loads of laundry that need finishing, and after that I need to run to the grocery store because we’re out of almost everything.”

“I can take the boys with me to the grocery store after I pick them up.”

“That would help a lot, thank you.  I’ve gotta go, love you.” I said, hanging up the phone.  I looked at the disaster that we call the kitchen and groaned.  One of the four older children thought it would be a good idea to grab a sack of flour and completely drop it.  As soon as I started cleaning, Keelan’s wail pierced through the baby monitor.

*

“We’re back!” Nolan called from the entryway.

“Jules! Brayden’s back, go play with him.” I said excitedly, pushing her gently towards the doorway.

“OKAY!” She yelled happily, running out of the room.

“Hey, Reg.” Nolan greeted me, kissing my cheek. 

“I love you.” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“I love you, too.”

“You wanna know what I realized today?” I asked looking up at him.

“Hm?”

“Our life may be crazy and hectic most of the time, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” He grinned.

THE END

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Cheesy ending, yeah?  Whatever, I'm semi happy with it haha.

Thank you to everyone who has read, voted and commented.  I really do appreciate all of you. =)