“I’m so proud of you,” Tanner says, turning to me. “Not only are you a bestselling writer – which, by the way, I always knew you’d be – but you did it without using my name.”
“Hey, your book was a massive success, too,” I say. “And as far as I can recall, I’m not the one with the book tours and the interviews.”
“Yet,” he says, with the utter confidence that always makes me feel as though I can do anything, be anything.
With him.
Together, we can conquer the world.
“I love you,” I whisper, leaning over and running my hand through his hair.
“I love you more,” he smiles.
“Not possible, Tanner,” I giggle.Extended EpilogueEight Years LaterTannerThe fire crackles warmly, filling the room with its hazy embrace. I sit with Gizmo curled up in my lap, the Chi-Poo’s head buried in the nook of my arm as he snores softly. Across from me, Kait and her husband – Sebastian – sit with Kait cradling her newborn to her chest, the couple difficult not to smile at when it’s clear how happy and ready for the future they are.
Then I hear my daughter clear her throat from the doorway behind us and my smile becomes so wide I feel as if it could break my face.
This is my future, right here, the beautiful life I never even knew I was waiting for. Sometimes I think about the cold existence I led before I gave into my instincts before I realized that to be fully whole I’d need to give myself to another.
But it could only be Tess.
It’s true.
Without her, I would’ve stayed alone forever.
She completes me.
“Uh hum,” Bella says, strutting over to the fire with her papers proudly held out in front of her. Everybody says that Bella has my blue eyes, but when I look at her I see her mother’s sassiness and confidence. “It is now time for this play to begin …”
She trails off, exchanging glances with me, a note of nervousness in her eyes.
I raise my hand and give her a little salute. She smiles and her cheeks bloom red, the flush spreading down her neck just like her mother. When she was five years old, she fell and scraped her knee, and when I called her a good soldier for not crying she saluted me. Ever since then, a salute between us has meant that we’re going to push on, no matter if things get a little difficult.
Because there’s life to be lived.
And life is beautiful.
I glance at the rear of the room to make sure that the camera hasn’t fallen from the tripod and that the light is still on. I know that Tess and I are going to rewatch this endlessly, and never get tired of it.
“Once upon a time there was a mother bear and she was very pretty,” Bella says.
I turn to watch my glorious, beautiful wife walk into the room, wearing the bear ears that Bella and the boys hastily mocked up from some clothes hangers and brown felt.
Motherhood has made her even curvier than when we met, her jeans and T-shirt outlining her so that even now, with Kait and Sebastian and our children here, I have to swallow hard to push down my more beastly nature.
I’m so proud of you, I think, watching as she walks over to the fire, joining our daughter.
Tess’s career has exploded since her second novel was published, catapulting her into literary stardom. She’s even had one of her stories optioned for a Hollywood movie.
“But the mother bear was very nervous when she couldn’t find her two cubs,” Bella goes on, the pride she takes in each word making my heart swell and a single tear to bud in my eyes.
I blink and wipe it away. Tess sees and we share a smile.
She mouths, I love you.
“Mommy?” Bella prompts.
“Oh, drat,” Tess says, and everybody laughs.
It’s become something of an inside joke when Tess says drat since she normally chides herself for it.
“I mean … Where are those pesky cubs?”
“Yes, you see,” Bella goes on, “she searched far and wide, but they were nowhere to be found. But then the mother bear found out that if she closed her eyes and loved them really, really hard, they’d hear all that love and come running.”
Tess closes her eyes and I can tell she’s doing it, really sending her love out to Kevin and Miles, and not just faking it for the play.
“And then – poof – her cubs appeared.”
“Rargh, I’m a big bear,” Miles growls, stomping into the room with his arms raised to display his makeshift paws. Our five year old grins from ear to ear and lets out another growl. “Where is my mommy?”