Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,73

I hadn’t paid much attention to as I’d pulled up. Sure, I’d seen them, but I hadn’t realized what they all meant. No wonder it’d been tough to find a parking spot. “Today is the grand opening. They’re even cutting the ribbon and having cake. Look.”

She pointed to a ribbon that someone was stretching over the entrance to the trailhead that we were a few yards from. Then at a table that was being set up beside it.

“Shit,” I said as I shook my head. “Making the paper isn’t my favorite thing in the world.”

Reggie rolled her eyes. “You’re so photogenic, though. Everyone else likes it when you make the paper.”

I dropped my hand to her ass and pinched it, causing her to squeal.

The baby in my arms started to fuss, and I moved him until he was upright on my chest, his face up next to my mic, and his body over my heart.

“Eeeep!” I heard called.

When I turned it was to find my… mother?

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked as I watched her powerwalk toward me.

“I’m walking while your wife is running. She wasn’t sure how far she could make it, so I’m following behind her in case she needs to pass off that sweet baby. But since he’s out, I don’t feel bad stealing him,” Mom countered.

And just like that, my baby was gone.

I rolled my eyes.

I was used to it at this point.

Dare was a hot commodity among my family.

Hell, even the other officers tried to steal him at every turn.

Not that I was complaining.

Dare was most definitely loved, that was for sure.

And as a parent, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Looking over at my wife, I pulled her sweaty little body into my arms and dropped a kiss that was likely a little indecent for me wearing my KPD uniform, but I did it anyway.

“I gotta get back to work,” I admitted. “Love you.”

Her face shone with just as much love.

I wasn’t sure how the hell this had happened—her and me—but I would thank my lucky stars every damn day that it did.

“Be safe,” she said. “Love you, too.”

“Bye, Mom!” I called out when she didn’t bother looking up.

She waved at me without lifting her head. “See ya.”

Chuckling, I walked back to the car, unaware that I was once again photographed as I got into the cruiser.

Turns out, I did make the paper.

I also made the first page.

One photo was of me holding my boy, hugging my wife. And the next was of me staring longingly at my family.

When I got home a week later, it was to find that same exact photo framed on our mantle.

Reggie had purchased a copy from the newspaper, blown it up, and then framed it so we could see it every single day.

Epilogue

My hair is a mess and so am I.

-Text from Reggie to Nathan

Nathan

Watching your wife suffer through miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage was… defeating, I felt sure.

Watching your wife not even be able to conceive in the first place? I felt that was somehow worse.

Sure, I’d never had to deal with my wife having a miscarriage. But at least they got to the point where they were conceiving. At least they had a slim chance of hope that just once, it might work.

But after four years of trying for a baby—first the easy way of just having sex together, then the harder way of going through shots, tracking her cycle, and even further of getting in-vitro fertilization.

When none of those things ever worked for her, and I sensed Reggie getting to the point where she was getting depressed, I’d gone to Dr. Messings.

He wasn’t practicing anymore, at least not as a doctor. He’d found someone after it was all said and done that could work at his practice for him and still give him that income that he was used to for his daughter. All the while, he only ran the business aspect of it, and ended up thriving.

I’d been thinking on what to do for Reggie and myself for a while now, and the more I thought on it, the more convinced I became that this was the best option.

Everybody thought that Dare was Reggie’s biological son—at least the ones that didn’t know the back story behind him.

He had the same curly auburn hair, the same skin tone, and the same color of eyes, surprisingly.

The only thing of me that he had was his build and cleft chin. He was a big ass