Epilogue
Five Years and Ten Months Later
Ian
“Daddy,” I heard a little voice whisper beside my head.
I groaned and shift beside Charlie, who was lying beside me.
Someone poked my cheek. “Daddy, wake up!” the voice whispered.
I opened my eyes to see Kole and Greer both up and grinning at me from the side of the bed.
“What are you two doing up?” I whispered, rolling away from Charlie so she could sleep still. She was going to need it soon enough.
“We haves to make Mommy’s burfday breakfus!” Kole, our four year old, said. Greer, who was two and a half, nodded along with him.
“Alright, I’m up,” I said, pushing the covers off me.
Our two boys looked exactly like I did when I was their ages, except for Greer. He had Charlie’s blue eyes. They waited for me until I got out of the bed, kissed Charlie on the forehead while she continued to sleep, and headed for the stairs with them, holding both of their hands.
Charlie and I had gotten married the October after we graduated high school. I got to make her my wife exactly a year after I asked her to be my girlfriend. She looked absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress, just like I thought she would.
Only two months and a half months into our marriage, on Christmas Eve none the less, we found out we were expecting Kole. Everyone was totally thrilled seeing as after the accident the doctors had told us that it might be a little harder for Charlie to get pregnant. Well, it turned out is really wasn’t.
When Kole was almost a year old, we then found out we were expecting Greer. He was kind of a surprise baby since we weren’t actively trying but we weren’t not trying either. Life with two boys was hectic at times but Charlie and I adored them.
And now that we were adding another little one to the family, it was going to get even more great.
Charlie was two weeks away from her due date…and this time we were having a girl. When we found out, we were ecstatic. To our surprise, Kole and Greer were excited to have a baby sister when we told them. The two of them were already acting as big protective brothers just like I wanted them to.
We were going to name her Reece Michelle Elizabeth Macpherson. Yeah, we’re giving her two middle names, after my mom and Liz. We wanted to give her a name that meant something to us and naming her after Charlie’s mom was something that we both agreed to.
As for the rest of our group of friends, Cam and Julia were engaged now. They dated all through college, even though they went to two different ones. They were getting married in three months and Charlie was maid of honor. She keeps saying that hopefully she’d loose all the baby weight before so she would look good in her dress.
Freddie went back to England after high school to go to Oxford. He came back to the States after he graduated, though…and with a fiancé on his arm. Her name was Isabel and even I had to say she was great for him. She and Charlie had become fast friends when we first met her. They got married over in England last year and were expecting their first child, a boy.
As for my friends, only Levi’s settled down and gotten married. Carson and Cooper were still ‘playing the field’ and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continued for a few more years.
Now it was Charlie’s twenty-fourth birthday. And like we promised each other, we were keeping up the tradition of taking the picture that we’d taken every six years.
But now, just like we’ve done for two years now, the boys and I started on Charlie’s birthday breakfast. I sat the two of them on top of the counter and set the bowl where we were going to mix the pancakes up in between them. They both helped…and got flour and pancake mix all over the counter and themselves. And once we were done, they ran outside to pick some flowers from the yard and I put everything we made on a tray so we could bring it up to our room.
“We’ve gots the flowers!” Kole said, holding a bunch in his hand. Greer had three clutched in his little fist also.
“Alright, let’s get a cup and put them in water,” I said, walking over to the cabinet. Once we had them in a cup and on the tray, I looked down at them. “You want to go wake her up?”
“Yeah!” they yelled, and started running for the stairs.
“Be careful, though!” I said.
I followed behind them with the tray in hand all the way up the stairs and up to mine and Charlie’s bedroom. Kole and Greer opened the door slowly and quietly, peeking inside.
Charlie was still lying in the bed. She had one hand resting on her pregnant stomach and the other covering her eyes. I knew she was awake, though, because her lips were threatening to curl up into a smile.
Kole and Greer tiptoed over to the bed and crawled up on it. When I set the tray down on the bedside table and turned on the lamp, they started jumping on the bed around Charlie. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Wake up, Mommy! Wake up!” they both yelled, laughing.
Charlie still had her hand over her eyes but her smile finally appeared. She started laughing as she uncovered her eyes and watched them jumping up and down.
“Why is it I always get woken up on my birthday by boys jumping on my bed?” she asked.
“Okay, you two, that’s enough,” I said, still laughing. “You’re going to make your sister come if you keep it up!”
“But we wants her to come!” Kole said, and continued jumping.
“Well, then Mommy won’t be able to eat anything that we made her,” I said.
They both stopped jumping and crawled up to the top of the bed to kiss Charlie on her cheeks.
“Morning, Mommy,” they both said.
“Look at what me, Greer, and Daddy made you!” Kole said, pointing over to the tray of food.
“And tha flawas we gots,” Greer said.
I sat down beside her and handed her the tray. I put my hand on her stomach and leaned over to give her a kiss.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I said, smiling at her.
“Good morning, sexy man,” she said, smiling back, and kissed me again.
“Ew!” Kole and Greer squealed.
“You needs to eat, Mommy!” Kole said. “No kissin’ Daddy until then! Baby Reecey’s hungry!”
Charlie laughed and picked up her fork. “Alright, alright, I’m eating,” she said.
They waited until she took her first bit.
“Is it good?” Kole asked.
“Very,” she said, smiling.
“Yay!” they said, and started hopping up and down again.
They continued to talk as Charlie ate. They stole a couple of her bites but she was willing to let them have them. I even got a few.
When she was done, I leaned over and opened the bedside table’s drawer, pulling out my camera.
“We’ve got to do something,” I said, holding it up for her to see.
“Can I take it? Can I, Daddy?” Kole asked.
“If you do it well, then you can,” Charlie said.
I turned on the camera and showed him where to push the button to take the picture and told him to make sure we appeared in the screen on the back.
“You ready?” I asked Charlie, leaning toward her.
“Always,” she said.
Kole was holding the camera in front of us with Greer looking over his shoulder. I put my hand on Charlie’s stomach and baby Reece kicked my hand. I smiled as I leaned in to kiss Charlie’s cheek…
And the camera flashed.
***Well... *tear* It's finished!!!1 Thank you guys for reading it! It's been so fun writing it and reading your comments!
And some might be wondering if there will be a sequel...AND THERE WILL!!!1 It's called You Again! I'm so freakin' excited, too!!!1 Yes, Charlie and Ian will be in it...because it's going to be from their daughter, Reece's POV! Old characters will be making their appearances, be assured! The prologue's already been written so it'll probably be up later! You'd better read it because I think it's going to be better...and longer! (I just noticed that every single sentence ended in an exclamation mark! Haha!)
Again, thanks for reading, commenting and voting. Love you guys!***