Baiting Him (How to Catch an Alpha #2)(63)
“Will you ever be open to the idea of falling in love?” I ask her, and she lifts her eyes off my sleeping girl to smile at me.
“I fell in love the day you were born, and now, with Chrissie and this little one, I get to experience falling in love all over again.” She kisses the top of Penelope’s head, and I pull in a sharp breath. Hearing that, I realize something I haven’t before. Both my mom and dad taught me about love and family in their own way. My mom taught me how to be happy on my own, and my father taught me to be open to the idea of love. I had the best of both worlds, and because of the two of them, I was able to recognize love when I found it.
“Love you,” I say gruffly.
“I love you too,” she whispers. I see every ounce of love she has for me shining so brightly that I feel it sear through me, and I hope when I look at my wife and my daughter they feel the exact warmth I’m feeling right now.
CHRISSIE
“Cheers.” I hold my margarita glass out toward Leah, and she lifts hers out toward me, then stops.
“What are we toasting to?” she asks, and I look around her backyard at our growing families and say the first thing that comes to mind.
“Happiness.”
“I’ll definitely toast to that.” She clinks her glass against mine, then takes a drink, and I do the same.
Hearing little girl giggles and angry boy shouts, I turn my head and sigh. Both Leah’s daughter Corina and my sweet Penelope are chasing after Zach, Leah’s almost-three-year-old son, and are trying to put a tiara on his head. The poor boy can’t even make a proper escape, because the costume dress he has on keeps getting tangled around his feet, causing him to fall. I look from him to my boy Tobias, who’s just a year old, and notice the girls have already dressed him up, and he’s now sitting in the grass sucking on a red Popsicle and wearing a headband with little yellow antennas and a set of butterfly wings that actually look adorable on him. “Do you think we should stop the girls?” I ask, taking a sip of my drink.
“Probably,” she says, not making a move to get up.
I smile at her, then laugh when I hear a rumbling “What the hell.”
I turn to find Tyler and Gaston, who’ve been chatting, drinking beer, and manning the grill, spot their sons. The look on each of their faces is comical as they rush across the yard to rescue their boys from their daughters, who are convinced their brothers are living, breathing dolls. Leah and I didn’t plan on having our kids at almost the same time, but nonetheless it happened, and I’m glad it did. Our girls are as close as sisters, and I know with time our boys will become the best of friends.
Tyler scoops up his son and places him on his hip, then bends to say something to his little girl and kisses the top of her head. Seeing that, my heart melts and my eyes start to water as Gaston gets down on the grass with our boy while our beautiful girl wraps her arms around his neck in a hug.
“I think we need another toast,” Leah says quietly, and I pull my eyes off my entire world to look at her. “To the good life.”
I hold up my glass. “To having it all.”
“To having it all,” she repeats, tapping her glass to mine.
I take a sip and watch my husband kiss our daughter until she laughs while our son giggles at the two of them. I really do have it all. I have a man who loves me completely, two beautiful children who make my life complete, and great friends and a huge family to share the good and bad with; on top of all that, I have a job I love. I couldn’t ask for more.