Single Parent

Epilogue

I turned away from my computer at the sound of the door slamming. Years ago, Rosie and I had moved into my parents house. Like everything else, it was a tradition in the family. We moved five years after we got married, and now eleven years after we got married, everything in our lives was perfect.

I pulled myself up from my chair and walked through the house to the kitchen, to see who was home. I walked in and saw my daughter sat on the counter with her best friend of twelve years stood opposite her, making her grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Hey Mr Forrester." Ryan nodded at me and I nodded back. At seventeen, he was a good kid. He was still a troublemaker from what I could make out, getting into fights and having strings of girlfriends, but the one thing that remained constant over the years was his complete committment to Sophia, and he just seemed to change from a troublesome teenager to a very caring, protective person around her.

"Hi Ryan." I turned to Sophia and she jumped off the counter and came to give me a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. At sixteen, she was finally looking exactly like her mother. Sophia knew everything about Jamie, as of her sixteenth birthday when she finally admitted to knowing Rosie wasn't her mother and wanting to know the truth, and with Ryan's help, she got through the news pretty good.

"Hi Daddy." She smiled at me and I leaned down to kiss her head softly. "Where's Mom?"

"She's at work. Why are you two home so early?"

"We got bored. They were having the whole carnival thing today, and I got sick of all the girls throwing themselves all over Ryan, so I left, and he caught up and gave me a ride back. Is it okay if he stays for a while?"

"You know it is honey. He might be the only boy you will ever get through those doors."

"Good." Ryan threw in, staring at Sophia protectively and she giggled and kissed me on the cheek and walked towards the door and Ryan walked behind her, his hand on her back as he whispered something to her, making her laugh.

I was sat in my office hours later, when Rosie came home, having picked everyong else up from school. We ended up with four kids total, three after Sophia. We had Ben who was ten, Josh who was eight, and Emily who was six, and very protected by her older brothers, and Sophia loved all of them.

It ended up that Chris and Meg had two kids, Matt and three years later, Jane. Mark and Nicole had a set of twins who were seven, Luke and Laila, and an eight year old Kane. Tom and Claire had one child of their own, eight year old Sarah, but they also had three adopted children, Claire's nephews from her sister, who was killed with her husband in a car accident about five years ago. They were three boys, John who was twenty and Dean who was eighteen, and Carter who was seventeen, a friend of Ryan's.

We were still as close as friends as we had ever been. We were always seeing each other, and the kids who were similar ages formed similar bonds. Sophia had been taken under the wing of her three adopted cousins, who took the chance to use her to get into the family. She was still one of those people that you can't help but love.

John had taken a very protective role over her, and Dean was just as bad, whereas Carter was a bit more relaxed, but they would all come over whenever they could and spent half their time with Sophia, and the other half of their time with their real baby sister, in their eyes anyway.

"What are you busy thinking about?" Rosie walked up behind me as I stood in the kitchen, grabbing more beers for the guys, who were all sat in the lounge with their wives. We might have only been thirty-four, but damn were we all given up on babies and ready to just watch our kids grow up and have the same experiences we had.

"Sophia and Ryan." I sighed and walked into the room, not wanting to overly think about it. I took my seat and Rosie sat herself in my lap and gave me a look to explain. "I watched as Meg and Chris fell in love over the years. I watched as he took the protective role and started warning boys off her, and the way he would parade girls in front of her, making her think he was doing things with them, but really just trying to get a reaction from her. i saw the small gestures, the way he completely adored her and changed around her. She's my baby, my first baby anyway."