Let's Find Forever | Herophine Fic

Epilogue - Part 1: This Means More

HERO

A year and a half later

Pushing the door open to the house, the quiet I'd both hoped for and expected greets me. But that doesn't stop me from creeping inside and closing the door behind myself quietly. I'm on a mission. A mission only I know about.

I went into training early today, telling a little white lie to Jo and our girls that I was needed earlier. That really wasn't the case, I just didn't want to miss out on anything with me purposefully leaving early. I did what I needed to before anyone else arrived, including both Trent and Holly which seems to be earlier and earlier these days.

I have something to sort out before Jo arrives home from dropping our girls off at my sister's for the night. About a year ago, Mercy finally decided it was time to fly the nest and move out. It didn't come as a surprise to any of us that she moved into central London into a swanky new penthouse in one of the towering skyscrapers. It's a beautiful building, located in Marylebone, about five minutes away from the tube stop making it nice and easy for her to go to any of her businesses should she need to. And so she can have a night out with her friends, of course.

I've had to plan this to an absolute T without anyone knowing. Aside from Jo's father, of course. I'm traditional and had to ask for permission before acting on my intentions. Usually, there are no secrets between me and my girls. But this simply has to be. With our girls at their aunt's for the night, I have Jo all to myself. Now not only do I plan on taking full advantage of that but there's also something else I have lined up. Something that sends me dizzy and makes my heart pound with nerves whenever I think of it. It has since I decided I wanted to do this. One of the things I need is in my bag and the other two are sitting proudly in my bedside cabinet. Thankfully, somewhere Jo never ventures.

Feeling my heart begin to flutter with the dancing butterfly wings in my belly, I ascend the stairs two at a time and head straight to our bedroom. Pushing the door open, I slowly pace over to the foot of our made bed and place my bag down in front of me. The first piece of my puzzle is in here. Reaching in, I collect the freshly pressed, brand new home jersey for this football season. I always get Jo one and Mila and Sydney too. Theirs are easy to come by but this season, getting a woman's jersey was a bit of a challenge. It's easier for me to get them from the kit department at Rush Green but the one in my hands now is different. It's special. This means more, for us and our girls.

Usually, the ones I get are blank because it's easier and saves time. If my girls want anything on the back - namely my name and number - we'll go to the store in central London to get it done. It's an excuse to go out and see Mercy too. But given the reason and occasion, when I told the staff why I needed my name and number on the back this time, they were only happy to help.

Simply put, today, after too long I'm going to propose to Jo. I'm going to ask her to be my bride, my wife and my life partner.

Legally, as I asked her to on the night of Sydney's unexpected birth Jo adopted Mila last Christmas. The documents were sealed and wrapped awaiting Jo's signature to finalise everything. As I promised, I sorted and took care of everything. Mila knew the documents were there waiting for Jo and as soon as she saw them, she grabbed a pen and scribbled her name and signature on there, sealing the deal. Last year, I needed her signature but right now, I just need her to say one word.

Carefully, I lay the jersey down on the foot of the bed with the back proudly displaying Fiennes Tiffin and the number 8. I smooth it out, laying out the creases before slowly rounding the bed to go to my bedside cabinet. The other two things I need to pull off my plan are in here and have been for a good while now. These two things, primarily one over the other have given me fucking sleepless nights. And I can guarantee it's not the thing you're thinking of that's resulted in me losing sleep like we have a newborn all over again.