Because of You Read online

  Sutton held me tighter and I closed my eyes, resting my head on his chest. I don’t know how long we stood there, but the one thing I’d thought about over and over again this past year rose up. I pulled back just an inch, my heart in my throat. “What did you say when you were in the back of the cruiser, right before they drove off?” He cupped my cheek, his thumb smoothing over my bottom lip. “You probably don’t even remember what I’m talking about—”

  “I remember,” he said softly. “I said, I’ll come back for you.” He pulled me in for another embrace.

  “And you did.” He cupped the back of my head and I felt everything fall right into place.

  “I did.”

  Epilogue

  Sutton

  Ten years later

  I smiled as I sat in the corner of the hospital room looking down at my son. God, how on Earth did I get so lucky? He had a little blue and white polka dot hat on, and a matching swaddle blanket wrapped snugly around his tiny body. Our daughters, Maddie and Rainy Rose, sat on the bed with Catherine.

  My wife.

  Soul mate.

  My whole fucking world.

  Catherine was video chatting with her mother, the smile on her face happy, sweet. After all these years, a somewhat taboo romance, a perfect wedding, and two little girls, we’d brought our third child into the world.

  A little boy.

  Sutherland, the name Catherine had picked out because she wanted his name to resemble mine.

  I held Sutherland in my arms, staring down at how perfect he was. The little baby grunted softly in my arms and made my heart fill with even more love. I didn’t think it was possible to care for another person as much as I did about my three girls.

  “When do you go back to work?”

  I heard Catherine’s mother say.

  “I’m taking six weeks off.”

  “Not the full twelve? Honey, you own the bakery. You can decide when you return, set your own rules.”

  I looked up at Catherine, knowing that bringing up the fact she owned the bakery would make her sad. Over the last ten years a lot had changed. Catherine had stayed at the bakery while going to school for management, on top of being a mother and wife. He goal had been to help Rose with the business aspect of running the place.

  But then Rose got sick, hung on for a few years, but ultimately passed away, and I knew Catherine was left with this huge hole in her heart.

  I knew she had seen Rose as a second mother. And it was that close connection between them that had created this unbreakable bond. So much so that after Rose passed away, Catherine found out she’d been left the bakery.

  “Mom, six weeks is plenty.” There was definite sadness in my wife’s voice. I wanted to go to her and pull her in close, to tell her everything would be okay.

  “Okay, honey. Maybe I’ll come out and help with the baby in a couple weeks?” I saw Catherine smile.

  “That would be great, Mom.”

  I looked up at Catherine, who had passed the phone off to the girls to talk with Grandma. I could hear my father in the background, his voice animated as he told the girls about his fishing trip. While growing up he’d been a hard ass with me, but as soon as the girls had come along, I saw the change. He was a grandpa now, and a good one at that.

  Catherine watched me, this small smile on her face. Shit, she had stuck by me through everything, waited for me for that year I’d been gone. She’d been the only girl for me. She was the only girl for me. And now we had a family.

  A perfect, happy, full family.

  I was complete.

  Who would’ve thought a delinquent like myself, one who had run in the wrong circles during his adolescent life, would fall in love with his stepsister, would become a father before he even knew it? God, I was so lucky to have a wife and three gorgeous children.

  Because I certainly never thought I’d have any of this, never even dreamed of it.

  But I did have it, and dammit if I’d let anything change it.

  Several days later

  I pulled Catherine in close to me and buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deeply. We were home from the hospital, little Sutherland sleeping soundly in the bassinet by the bed, my girls in their rooms fast asleep, and my wife tucked in close to me.

  I pushed the fall of her hair away from her neck and kissed the slender arch of her throat. She stirred softly before shifting on the bed so she was facing me now. She rested her head on my chest, breathing out contently. With everything calm and still in this moment, the girls asleep, the baby full and content, and my woman in my arms, I knew that there was nothing else in this world that would be this perfect.

  I was the happiest man on the fucking planet.

  “Three kids,” she said softly.

  I kissed her forehead and pulled her in impossibly closer.

  “I wish we had a whole house full,” I teased, but in reality, I was being truthful. I wouldn’t mind a bunch of kids in the house, little Catherines and Suttons, the sound of their laughter, the noise of them tromping through the house. God, I’d love it all.

  I’d missed so much time in the beginning with Maddie, months I’d never get back because I’d fucked up my life. But that would never happen again.

  I’d always be here for them, no matter what.

  I thought back to when I first came home, when I saw Catherine again, saw little Maddie by her side.

  I’d known right then and there she was mine, the same blue eyes I saw every day in the mirror looking up at me.

  But that was in the past. We had all the time in the world now, a lifetime, a future together.

  I looked forward to sitting on the porch with Catherine when we were old, our grandchildren running around, my life fulfilled because of what I’d accomplished, what I had.

  God, that sounded like heaven all in itself.

  I kissed her head again. She was mine. I would never allow anyone to have her but me. Catherine was stuck with me forever, and I looked forward to every single day more than the last.