My Little Shadow

Epilogue

Stars danced in her blue doe like eyes as she stared up at me lovingly.

"Daddy. Can I get a tattoo like you?" Archer made a noise between a chuckle and snort from the other side of June.

I sucked in a breath between my teeth, looking at May from over my glass of tea.

Her swollen stomach touched the edge of the table, and she gave our daughter the scolding look. "June! Your five!"

"So?" I raised my eyebrows at the little fire cracker next to me.

"Alrighttt. I think that's cue, for your bedtime." I stand up and grab her under her arms, flying her down the hallway of our freshly built house.

She giggled the whole way, kicking her feet as they dangles in the air.

After I tucked her into her black bed covers, she pointed to her window seal, "Sissys song!"

I smiled down at the small version of May, "Alright, but only once."

I picked up the refurbished snow globe and turned it as far as it would turn. Pink glitter is dusting its way across the ballerina.

"Is Uncle Augie going to come over soon?" Augie had moved in with his sisters not long after we went to see him, him and his family came over often.

"I'm not sure, baby. I'll let you know tomorrow." The soft song played in the background, lulling my little girl to sleep.

She made me think of Angelina, but she also was completely different. She hated tickles, her favorite color was black, her hair was dark and her eyes light.

She had a brother on the way. March. Yes, we kept up with the month theme, because why not?

I stroked her black hair as her blue eyes slowly closed and soft snores filled the room.

I turned her lamp on because she hated the dark and exited her room to find Archer and May hip bumping each other as they washed dishes.

"You staying over?" His nights over had grown spares lately giving May's pregnancy pillow took up most of the bed, but I also feel like it had something to do with a woman, but I wasn't going to ask.

He would tell me when he was ready.

"Not tonight, but you better call me if March decides to appear." He fixes his eyebrows up high in warning.

"I wouldn't let you miss it for the world." I walk up behind my wife, my hands resting on her hips, loving the way she leaned back into me.

"If he doesn't come soon I might bust." She complains, and I take the opportunity to reach around her and rub my hands up and down her stomach.

"Alright, I'm going to head out." Archer dries his hands off on the back of my shirt, and I level him with a stiff glare over my shoulder.

One he ignores completely.

"Be safe."

"Always."

Then I turned all of my attention back to the woman I wanted to ravish until she had to muffle her screams with a pillow.

"You're so sexy." I growled in her ear.

"I am a beached whale." She argues back with a groan, and I laugh until she elbows me in my stomach.

"You're supposed to disagree, jackass." I stiffle the next laugh that's tries to escape because I didn't want another elbow to the ribs.

"You are stunning." She rolls her eyes at me and wobbles towards our bedroom.

She lays down on the bed groaning loudly. I grab the lotion from the side of the bed and go straight for her feet.

They were slightly swollen and I knew this would help her sleep better.

"You are the best husband a woman could as for." She sighed heavily as I stroked her feet thoroughly.

"I try."

She sits up off of the bed in a rush, her elbows holding her up so she can look me dead in the eyes.

"August.."

"May..." I raise my eyebrows before I eye her soaked through joggers.

"Oh fuck! It's happening!" I screech and May slaps my chest.

"Don't wake, June. I don't want her to be scared." I stood up and went straight to the hospital bag. We could do this, we've did this before.

"Stay calm. I got everything handled." I say to May even though my hands were shaking.

I dial my brother once I get the bags in the back of my old beat up truck, one that still had bullet holes in it.

"Yeah?" He says sounding confused about why I would call him after he just left the house.

"It's time! Call Mama and Killian and Sawyer." I heard screeching of tires.

"On the way!"

Within the next thirty minutes my mother shuffles through the door in her pajamas, her hair a mess but the biggest of smiles on her face. "Go! Go! I got June."

She ushered me and May, who was as cool as a cucumber, out of the door.

Everything happened so fast. It was morning before I knew it and I had become a dad of two.

If June was May's clone then March was mine. He looked just like me and I watched May fall in love at the first sight of him.

"How can someone be so perfect right from the start?" She kissed his little forhead.

"We make beautiful babies." She nods in agreement.

As I look down at the little boy I make a promise to myself to never make him feel the way my father made me feel.

When he cried I wouldn't tell him to suck it up, to be a man.

I wouldn't make him stand between me and his mother when I got too drunk.

I was going to be everything my father wasn't.

This was what I was made for.

I was a father and with May by my side these kids would have everything they could ever ask for.

They are all I could ever ask for.

~.~.~.~.~.~

That concluded My Little Shadow.

Excuse me while I go cry 😭😭😭