Epilogue

I looked out of the giant windows as I poured myself a glass of milk. Chef had taken over command of the BBQ and Hunter stood next to him and talked with Wictor. Mary was sitting on the couch and talked to Tina, Seymore’s wife. Seymore, Anthony and Clair watched as Jason was trying to get Wiktoria down from an apple tree. I smiled. She might only be five years old, but my daughter knew how to climb. She might take after me in the looks department. But she was more like her father, personality wise. I loved the confident little explorer that feared nothing. I put the glass in the dishwasher and joined Hunter, Wictor and Chef. Hunter put his arm around me and pulled me into him. He kissed my temple.

“I missed you,” he told me and I smiled at Wictor, who rolled his eyes.

“I was only gone for five minutes. Meanwhile, have you seen what your daughter is doing?”

“I have. She is about to give Jason a heart attack. I approve,” he said and chuckled. Both Wictor and Chef joined in.

“Honestly,” I said, but couldn’t stop the smile on my face. “I’m sending Mary to save him and then I’m sending you to fetch Wicki, it’s almost time to eat,” I told him. Mary was more than happy to fetch her husband and Hunter never turned down a chance to spend time with his daughter.

“Mommy, I climbed higher than uncle Jason,” she called out as Hunter came walking with her on his shoulders.

“I saw, Wicki. And you didn’t fall down once. Well done sweetie. Would you like to have one of Chef’s hotdogs?” I asked.

“Yes!” she called out.

“What did you say,” Hunter reminded her as he put her down.

“Yes, please!” she corrected herself.

“That’s my princess,” he said and gave her a kiss on her head. She giggled and took her special seat for the day at the head of the table. Everyone enjoyed the food and I watched Chef trying to not look at Clair. According to Hunter, Chef’s obsession for Clair had been going on for years. No one knew if Clair was aware of it. But neither of them was making the move. After dinner, Wicki had calmed down and was showing Clair the flowers we had planted the other week.

“She’s so sweet,” Mary commented as she joined me in watching my daughter.

“Sure, when there are people around. You should see bedtime. Sometimes I think it’s a blessing she has got her stubbornness from both her father and me. Sometimes I think it’s some higher power’s way of making my life miserable,” I told her. She laughed. Mary had become one of my closest friends. We shared some experiences. I liked her and since she married Jason, it was natural for us to spend time together both at work and in our free time. The bakery was flourishing. I had to hire another baker. I spent most of my time running the business and taking consulting meetings with customers. Mary was running the everyday business and Clara, our newest hire, did most of the baking. We talked shop while we relaxed. I felt Hunter’s arms around my waist and saw Jason embracing Mary.

“Are you talking about business? At our daughter's fifth birthday party?” Hunter asked.

“Look who’s talking,” Mary said.

“I’m sure I heard something about a protective detail around Wicki’s third hotdog,” I told them.

“Well, okay. Guilty as charged,” Jason confessed.

“Hey. Why do you fold like that? You’re trained to withstand torture,” Hunter complained.

“They are responsible for the cake. I’m not risking going without,” Jason said. We all laughed.

“Cake?” I heard our daughter call from the other side of the deck.

“I swear she has a built in homing beacon for sweets,” I said.

“I have trained her well,” Jason told us, sounding proud.

“Ready to blow out your birthday candles, princess?” Hunter called out.

“Yes!” she called back and came running. Hunter fished her up and lifted her high in the air. Wicki squealed and her two pigtails bounced. “Again!” she told her father and everyone smiled as he hoisted her upwards again.

“Now go to Uncle Wictor so I can help mommy with the cake,” he told her and handed her over. Wictor tickled her and she laughed. I smiled as Hunter and I walked into the kitchen to get the cake ready. I took out the purple cake with cats all over it. Wicki was obsessed with cats. It wasn’t that strange. Cuddles had been by her side from the day we brought her home from the hospital. The two of them were usually inseparable. But today there were too many people around for Cuddles to be happy. He had gone into hiding. Hunter took out the candles and handed them one by one to me. As I placed the fifth one on the cake, his phone rang.

“It won’t take long,” he told me. I knew who it was by the look on his face.

“I’ll wait for you,” I told him. He looked like he was about to object, but I shooed him away. Hunter’s relationship with his son was still a fragile thing. They seemed to have reached some kind of standoff. Simon didn’t like to talk about Wicki. I couldn’t blame him. I could see it from his point of view. His half sister got everything he must have dreamed of when he was a child. Hunter didn’t need to go away. The few business trips he needed to go to were at most a couple of days long. He could spend time with Wicki and give her all his attention. Wicki knew she had a brother that was grown up. We had told her Simon had done something bad and therefore had to go away to think about what he had done. She was happy with that explanation for now. Later on we would have to explain things in detail. We had already talked about what we would do if she asked to see Simon. As long as she was old enough, and Simon agreed, we would let her go with Hunter to see Simon. Hunter walked back into the kitchen. He looked tired.

“Something important?” I asked.

“No.” I understood. Simon had called on Wicki’s birthday before, just to check if we were celebrating her and to try to make Hunter feel bad for missing Simon’s birthdays when he was a child.

“Let’s take five minutes,” I told him and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around me and we stood like that for a moment.

“Thank you,” he said and gave me a kiss.

“Allways. Are you ready for this?” I then asked.

“It’s the best part,” he told me and carried the cake out. After the cake, it was time for gifts, there was no way around it. Our daughter was spoiled. As the only child, for now, in our family, she got all the nice things. But we made sure she didn’t take it for granted. Her absolute favourite was the purple and pink bike Hunter and I had got her. With training wheels. As a last activity, Wicki had her father and all her uncles starting to teach her how to ride it. Me and the other women were sitting on the grass, watching and calling out good advice.

It was a couple of hours later. The party was over and the house was quiet. Most things had been cleaned up, but the decorations were still in place for the kid’s party the next day. I was not looking forward to fifteen wild children my daughter’s age running around. But then, she would be happy, and that was what was important. I was standing on the patio and took in the cooling summer air.

“The monster is clean and asleep, the mini monster did not take a bath, but did curl up at the foot of the big monster’s bed,” Hunter told me. He wrapped his arms around me and we stood in silence and just enjoyed the evening.

“It was a good day,” I said.

“It was,” he agreed.

“Did you hear that Wictor and Anthony have been approved as foster parents?” I asked.

“Yeah, any kid that ends up with those two will be lucky,” he told me. I agreed. One of my worst nightmares was for Wicki to end up in foster care. It has been something I was really afraid of at the late stages of my pregnancy. Hunter did what he always did. He made me feel safe by having us sit down with Seymore and drafting a will. Our backup plans had backup plans. For Wicki to end up in foster care, our whole group of friends had to be wiped out.

“It would be nice with a child or two more in the group,” I said. Hunter hummed.

“Ready for bed?” he asked. I knew he wasn’t asking if I wanted to sleep.

“I am. I’m just going to lean the chairs against the table in case it starts to rain.”

“Sure. I’ll make sure everything is turned off.” I dragged out my task and waited.

“Sweetness?” Hunter called from the kitchen.

“Yes?”

“There is something in the oven.”

“There is? What is it?” I asked. Hunter came walking out.

“It’s a bun,” he told me, holding out the bun.

“So it is,” I said. I waited, he waited.

“What is it doing in the oven?” he asked.

“Would you say it’s my oven?” I asked.

“Sure, you use it the most,” he agreed.

“So I have a bun in my oven?”

“Not any more, I took it out,” he said, showing me the bun again. I giggled. He was clueless sometimes. But I had too much fun to explain the joke to him. “But how did the bun end up in the oven?” he asked and I burst out laughing.

“Hunter, darling. You are too old to ask that. You are the father of three, you should know how it ended up there,” I told him while I was giggling.

“I have two children,” he said.

“And I have a bun in the oven,” I told him. He was just about to ask me if I had gone completely mad when he stopped and looked at the bun in his hand.

“You have a bun in the oven?” he asked. I nodded. He started to laugh and lifted me up in the air. “I fucking love you, sweetness,” he told me as he put me down. Then he kissed me.

“I take it you are happy?”

“I’m ecstatic!” I smiled at him. This was the reaction I had wished for and I hadn’t realised how scared I had been that I would get another one.

“It’s okay that we will have another?”

“We can fill the whole house with them. We have plenty of rooms,” he told me. “Wicki will be so excited.”

“Let’s wait a little longer before we tell her. Just in case. I’ll book an appointment at the doctor’s on Monday,” I told him. He nodded. He was looking at my stomach and gently cupping it.

“Thank you, sweetness. You give me the most amazing gifts.”

“It goes both ways. Thank you for catching me when I fell into you.”

“Always, Hana.”