111-EPILOGUE-PIPPA
**PIPPA**
***Three months later in the spring...***
I watch Xaver dance with Mama while Dad dances with Sally. After all, it is her day too. When we told Xaver’s parents we were getting married, Sally insisted we hijack her birthday party since all Xaver’s relatives would be in one place. Eventually, she wore us down and we agreed.
The ring my husband gave me—a solid platinum band—is tight on my finger. At nearly six months pregnant and feeling as big as a sub-compact car, everything is too small. The boutique had to alter my wedding dress three times in as many weeks. I move the ring with my thumbnail until it rests comfortably against my knuckle.
Kat, with an engagement ring of her own, enters the dance floor with her fiancé, Mike. Darla, never to be outdone by her cousin, drags her new boyfriend under a blue spotlight, bumping and grinding to the slow jam. The guy, a friend of Mike’s, seems nice enough. Thankfully, Darla had dumped Diego shortly before Christmas last year and has never looked back.
Jenna, Bobby, and Justice walk over. My maid of honor’s face is flushed with drink and Justice isn’t too far behind her. His groomsman tux is a little wrinkled and his bowtie is missing.
They plop down on either side of me. Jenna plucks a piece of lint from Bobby’s collar as Justice kicks his long legs out and folds his hands behind his head. One of Xaver’s cousins gives him the *call me* sign before adjusting her dress.
“Justice,” I say, giving him a sly grin, “you really are a dirty dog.”
He shrugs and gives me a lazy smile, making his Aegean Sea eyes twinkle. “Weddings are easy pickings, Pip. I couldn’t help myself.”
I am about to retort when Jenna taps me on the arm. I shake my head at a smirking Justice and turn to give my former roomie my attention.
“You did well, Pip,” she says, patting my shoulder with one hand and wiping at a tear with the other.
“Thank you, Jenna. Thanks for being there.” I point to my ever-growing belly. “I would hug you, but my stomach would get in the way.”
She laughs, as I intended. Today is not a day for tears, but smiles and joy.
“I will always be there, Pip. You know that.”
Justice laughs. “You are all sweetness *now,* but there was a time—“
Jenna turns from sentimental to indignant. She pushes her chin forward and narrows her eyes. “Yeah. Yeah. Don’t forget, so were *you.*”
Justice flexes, and I swear three women who were pretending not to look at him, swoon. “I came around sooner than you did.”
“Not true!” she says, shaking her blonde curls dramatically. “I was on board with their relationship after we met Xaver at Clancy’s.”
Justice scoffs. “That must have been your alternate personality…”
I let them argue. That is how they show each other they care. Lately, when Xaver and I have had them over for dinner, they have included my husband in their spats.
Bobby and I roll our eyes and watch it unfold, smiling at how well they are getting along.
***
***Later, in the spring...***
I hate Jake Cameron *and* my husband.
Well… not *hate,* but I dislike them. Immensely.
The C-section I had five days ago makes it difficult to laugh.
Which is what they are *making* me do. *A lot.* My chuckles have been coming out in “he-he-he’s” between my tightly pressed lips.
“Don’t believe him, Pip.” Jake adjusts Jaden, our son, on his arm. “That husband of yours is just trying to make himself look good. He really gave a bottle of mouthwash to our fifth grade English teacher, Mr. Engel, after class. Your hubby said, and I quote, ‘Mr. Engle, your breath is *repugnant.* I think this will help’.” Jake cocks his head, contemplating. “You know, as bad as his well-meant gesture was, Mr. Engel had clean breath after that and if I remember correctly, he even gave Xaver an extra point for correctly using a new word.”
I nearly die from laughing as I clutch my belly and hiss like a teakettle.
Xaver kisses our daughter, Jada, on the head before he scowls at his best friend. “You are a real *elephant,* Jake.”
Xaver hasn‘t cursed out loud—for the most part. He instead comes up with the most ridiculous substitutions. *Elephant* is his go-to substitution as he says they have the biggest—
“Xaver Michael Sayle. Don’t you see what you are doing to your wife?” Sally (or Ma as I have taken to call her), clucks her tongue at him. “You too, Jake. You two stop making her laugh. It pulls at her wounds.”
Xaver and Jake look so chastised under Ma’s glare I chuckle even harder. When George—Pa—comes over, I have to get up and leave the nursery. I would really be in trouble if he gets started. Who knew such a stoic man could be so hilarious?
“Are you okay, Pi?” Xaver comes into our bedroom and wraps his arms around me carefully, avoiding my sore lower belly.
I lean into him. “I am fine, Xaver.”
He turns me around, searching my eyes for the truth. Satisfied, he nods. “I have something for you.”
“Xaver Sayle, what did you do?”
“It is a Sayle custom to give their wives gifts after the birth of a child… or children in this case.”
*Our children.*
Being a parent *still* feels so unreal.
Every time I close my eyes, I see them. Our kids are the same, but different. Jada has loose, dark curls and light-brown eyes while Jaden has wavy hair, like his father, and hazel eyes. Both have their father’s olive skin, only a few shades darker. Not sure who they resemble more at this point. Mama claims Jaden looks like me when I was born, and Ma says Jada looks like her father.
Xaver takes my hand and sits on the bed, tugging me down beside him. He reaches into his bedside drawer and pulls out a light-blue box.
I run my hand over it before untying the white ribbon. Inside is a silver tulip necklace filled in with varying shades of purple stones. I lift the delicate chain and place it in my palm, marveling at how brilliantly the gems sparkle. “It is beautiful, Xaver! Thank you!”
“The jeweler couldn’t find matching purple diamonds— “
“These are diamonds?” I turn the necklace this way and that. The ombre pattern of dark to light purple is breathtaking.
My smile grows wider, thinking about all the things he does. From rubbing my feet, to drawing my bath, to giving me gifts like this. It shows that he cares.
What shows his *love* is in how he makes me *feel*…like I am the only person in the room. How he had cried when he held his children in his arms for the first time.
How he is looking at me now.
“Perfect love, right?” he says with a grin.
“Perfect love,” I confirm.
We are not perfect people. Far from it. What we have though, is the faith that our love will weather any storm that tests it.
Xaver plucks the necklace from my hand and places it around my neck, his fingers caressing my collarbone as he straightens the tulip to fall just above the swell of my breasts. I nearly lean into his hand, stopping just in time to save myself some frustration.
Six weeks. No sex. Dr. Chopra recommended longer.
*Not so sure about that...*
“I have one more thing,” Xaver says, leaning over to take what looks like a contract from his bedside table.
He places it in my hands. His silly -boy grin in conjunction with his beard makes me smile.
I scan over the document quickly, all four pages. When I am through, his expression shows he is eager for my response.
I shout it out.
“Yes!”
My husband has given me a small coffee shop, on the third floor of The Sayle Group building, right across from the cafeteria.
We have been discussing what I wanted to do with my life ever since we had gotten back together. I wavered for a while between going back to college and getting my degree, being a stay-at-home mom or working.
I decided a month ago that I wanted a combination of all three.
The coffee shop at the Sayle Group building will do that. I can take a few classes on-line and attend class on campus during the weekends when Xaver is off. I also have childcare covered for when I am at work.
Thanks to Helen’s guidance, The Sayle Group has opened a daycare in the building. She is not only a friend of Xaver’s parents, but ours as well.
Xaver bounces on the bed like a four-year-old in his excitement, making me laugh. I clutch my belly and let the sound break free. Life is too short not to take happiness where we can find it.
My husband cuts through my chuckles. “Everything will be in your name,” he says, eyes shining. “You can run it like you want to. No interference from me. The plan was to expand the cafeteria, but I thought you could do something with the space instead. You will make it work, Pi. I know you will. You always make me so darn proud.”
I cup his face in my palms, thrilled that the words he spoke reflect in his eyes. When my lips meet his, I know as *I have always known* I will never tire of loving this man.
*Six weeks,* shmix *weeks.*
We proceed to do nothing the doctor warned us against, but we come *very* close to it.