Page 13 of Worth the Wait
Eventually, that will include children. Something we both hope to have. The how doesn’t matter, only the outcome does.
In the years since we’ve met, Carter and Hazel have added to their family, having their first child, Johnny, a few months prior. While Marcus and Skye have expanded theirs as have Tyler and Khary.
We have thoroughly enjoyed being Uncle Peter and Auntie Bella, as the kids prefer to call me. The shortened version wasn’t intentional, but it was a struggle to get all the syllables out in the beginning for one of the kids. When they stopped at Bella, I let it ride, finding it adorable. Now they all do it and I can’t get enough of it.
“I missed you,” he says, stealing yet another kiss. I know he’s not just referring to me being gone for eight hours, but the past few months during a deployment. Thankfully, this one wasn’t as extensive as others have been, but even a day is too long.
“I bet I missed you more,” I tease, knowing it’ll rile him up. When he first gets home, we spend as much time as possible making up for all the togetherness we lost. As he just returned two days prior, we’re still in the midst of that period.
Lucky me.
And I am, over and over that night and the next few as he repeatedly proves it.
Epilogue Two
Peter
Ten years after meeting…
“Are we done yet?” I ask my friends, surprised none of them beat me to it.
We’re all just as close as ever and continue to spend a lot of time together. The six of us as a group and with our families. “You’re as bad as Freddy Bear,” Marcus teases.
“But still better than the Teddy Bear,” Carter tacks on. This has never ceased to be funny and it probably never will. Especially to Carter as his daughter, Sasha, started it. Come to think of it, she’s also behind the moniker Bella for my wife.
Sasha couldn’t say Frederick and, having nailed Teddy’s name, decided to shorten it to Freddy. It didn’t help that, on her third birthday, they’d each gotten her a stuffed bear.
Therefore, they are inundated with bear jokes. And not just by us.
Bellamy was out shopping with the other wives and came across a bumper sticker that read, ‘Bear with Me.” Oh, it gets better.
She did not give it to Frederick and Teddy to place on their cars. Not my brilliant woman. Instead, Bells affixed it to their wives’ vehicles. That way, if the guys were with their spouse in said ride, the logo was literal because there was a bear with them.
Maybe you had to be there. Either way, it’s freaking hilarious.
A loud noise, followed by the slam of car doors, has all of us looking toward the parking lot. We’d gone to the basketball court to work off some excess energy, and we did. But as time passed, and our energy faded, we’d each began checking our watches.
Ready for everyone to start arriving for the picnic portion of the day.
And now that they’re here, we can’t get to them fast enough.
Passionate kisses are exchanged between couples, though they’re more subdued than usual as we are in public. High fives and hugs are given by the kids before we start unloading the trunks.
“Man,” Tyler says upon seeing all of it, “you’d think we were feeding a bear.”
“Or two,” I correct him, which leads to Freddy and Teddy chasing us. “Bears,” I call, hoping Tyler gets the reference.
He does. “Bears,” he continues.
“Big bears,” I add, almost laughing too hard to get it out.
“Big bears,” Tyler repeats, with us both finishing, “chase ussssssss.”
We fall down, uncaring if we’re caught, wheezing from our amusement. “Did you idiots just quote John Candy’s famous scene from The Great Outdoors?” That would be Skye, grinning to lessen the name calling. Sort of.
Tyler shrugs. “We had to embellish a little.”
Before we can get up, my five-year-old son, Porter jumps on my chest. Followed by my daughter, Irene. She’s only three, so her big brother holds her hand to steady her, then she plops down in a very sensitive area. “Oof,” I say through gritted teeth, mentally unleashing numerous curse words that are not fit for young ears.