Sweet Caroline

#75 Epilogue: Rose's graduation

Ten years after the wedding

Even though my dress fits perfectly, I still feel like something is missing. I look in the mirror in our bedroom, frowning at myself. After a few more minutes, I add a necklace and decide with a sigh that this is as good as it's going to get. I'm still not completely used to my mom-bod as Nathan loving calls it. After two miscarriages and three successful pregnancies, we are done having kids. The way my body looks now feels final, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. My breasts are bigger and a lot less firm, my belly isn't flat anymore and it bears the stretchmarks of three baby's growing in there. I gained some weight, and although I know I'm not a pig or anything, I'm also not skinny. I'm not the 24-year-old girl Nathan fell in love with all those years ago and part of me will always miss her.

"You look beautiful," Nathan says the moment I walk into the living room, smiling at me. He still looks so gorgeous that it feels unfair sometimes. Okay, he's not quite the muscular god he was ten years ago, but even at 51 he's still turning heads. I've got one hot husband. His grey suits fits perfectly and he's got his favorite red tie on.

"Sure," I murmur, rolling my eyes. "Thanks. Where are the kids?"

Nathan laughs at my scowl. "Ivy and Daisy are helping Rose get ready and Ash is holed up in his room with a book."

"Helping?" I repeat with a grunt. That means it's only a matter of minutes before Rose will start shouting for us to come take her annoying little sisters away so she can curl her hair and do her make-up. For now, the house is almost eerily quiet, so I just decide to enjoy it while it lasts.

Nathan walks over to me, turning me around to look at the wall next to the kitchen, completely filled with an assortment of picture frames. "Now stop moping and look at all we accomplished, honey."

He knows me so well. I've been struggling with my weight and the changes to my body for over a year now, and he always pulls me out of my funk. Sex is one way to do it, but that wouldn't be appropriate when we've got to leave with all four of ours kids in a few minutes, so he does the next best thing: remind me of everything we've been through together and the beautiful kids that we have together.

"Our wedding," he says, pointing at one of the pictures. "Looking sexy as ever."

"Hmm..." I lean back against him, enjoying his warmth. "Yeah, that was a good day."

He grabs my hand and holds it up to kiss the wedding ring I've been wearing for ten years now. "Yeah, it really was. Then again, every day with you is a good day."

"Right back at you."

We both stare at the wall, which holds so many memories. Rose is in many of them, of course, and she's still the one to pick out which ones to put up. She and Nathan have this little ritual of going through all the pictures on all of our phones every three months to decide which ones to put on the wall. There are dozens in the staircase as well, since the wall next to the kitchen wasn't enough anymore and no matter how often I told them to just take a few down, they both refused.

"I can't believe how small Ash was as a baby," Nathan says softly, drawing my attention to a picture of me and him in the hospital, holding our newborn baby. "He's so tall now."

Ash is only 6, but he's already taller than 8-year-old Daisy. He's the only one of our kids that looks like me. He's got my bright blue eyes and light brown hair, as well as my facial features. The height isn't mine for sure, so that must be Nathan. All the girls are one hundred percent Nathan, with the signature emerald eyes and the dark brown messy hair. When you see old pictures of Rose in second grade, it's like looking at Daisy. Those two could be twins if they weren't ten years apart. Only their noses are different – Rose has got Elise's nose, while Daisy is the spitting image of her father.