The Wright One

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EPILOGUE

SIX MONTHS LATER

This is Alex’s first family dinner. Over the last six months we have learned more from each other. Like the fact that my family scares Alex, he is an only child that his parents died when he was twenty, so he doesn’t have a huge family that requires much from him. That is why we have put off him coming to this dinner for a while. But tonight that ends. I want him to get to know my family because ultimately my family means a lot to me.

When we pull up to the house, Alex looks over at me from the driver’s seat with that damn grin. “Sure you don’t want to go to a movie?”

“Alex, we are going in there. I promise that it isn’t the end of the world. You are going to do great.” I smile back. It’s cute that he cares this much.

“Yeah, but I am sure that your parents have seen the bite marks I leave sometimes. I really don’t want to have your dad kill me.” I have to laugh.

“Do you honestly think I have let my parents see the marks you leave? I am a little smarter than that. William is a detective. I am sure if anyone was going to see them, it would be him. Relax, no one has ever seen them.”

He leans forward grabbing the back of my hair. “Maybe I need to leave a few more.” He growls.

“Later.” I smirk. Pulling out of his grasp. Getting out of the car I feel excited, Alex likes it when I play a little hard to get but also the thrill of next time is what we both like.

I can feel him come next to me. Quickly he pulls me into his arms. “You are going to be in so much trouble later.”

“Promises promises.” I whisper. Thankfully I did because my mom came running out the door.

“Oh, my Gosh, you are finally here. I have been trying to meet you for months.” She has been. I swear she called every day asking when I would bring him by to meet them. She bounds down the stairs and almost lunges her body at us. She hugs us both. “I am so happy that you are both here.”

“Mom, we kind of need to breathe.” I laugh.

“Oh, sorry.” She backs up a step. “I am just so excited.”

“Mom, this is Alex.” I decided to officially introduce them.

Alex puts out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Wright.”

My mom starts blabbering really fast. “Oh, don’t call me that, it is so cold and impersonal. You can call me mom or Lauren. Or really anything else. I mean if you really want to call me Mrs. Wright you can, but I would really prefer if you didn’t.”

“Mom.” I stopped her. “Can we go in the house?”

“Oh, yeah, let’s go, everyone else is here.” She turns ushering us into the house. “David brought his new baby.”

I can feel Alex’s grip on my hand tighten. That is one of his biggest fears, he isn’t ready to have kids. He wants to have a family but not yet. That was the whole purpose of buying his house. He wants kids but he wants us to have time to enjoy our time together. I am not exactly ready to have kids yet either. I think he is a little worried that I will get baby fever though.

“Well, Justin Jr. isn’t far behind.” I stated. I like teasing Alex. He panics so easily.

My mom laughed. “I hope to God that he doesn’t actually name the baby that. But Justin is a little bit conceited.”

She says this as she opens the door and we hear Justin as we come in. “Thanks Mom. I feel the love.”

I give Justin a hug. “I wouldn’t worry Mom. Hannah keeps him in line.”

Justin grumbles. “Come on Justin Jr. is a perfect name.”

I pull back. “What does Hannah want to name him?”

“Nathon. I can’t even believe that is what my son’s name is going to be. I think I am just going to call him JJ anyway.”

Hannah comes out of the den hobbling with her round belly. “Do that and you sleep in the den.”

I point to Justin and Hannah. “Alex, this is my brother Justin and his wife Hannah.”

Justin narrows his eyes. “So this is the guy that thinks he is good enough to be with my sister.”

My mom glares. “Justin.”

“What he thinks he can not show up for family dinners and we are all just going to accept him.”

I glare at him too. “Really, coming from the guy that missed the first eight years of his son’s life.”

Justin backs off then. “Fine, but you do one thing to hurt my little sister and it will be the end of your life.”

Alex doesn’t exactly take the bait but he doesn’t back down either. “I would never hurt Issy.” He states, putting his hand on my hip, pulling me closer. “I am just not really a big family person. I mean I like family and all, but I came from a very small family we didn’t have gatherings like this. It is taking me a bit to get used to it.”

Hannah nods. “I understand. My parents weren’t exactly the picture of the perfect family. I was terrified that the Wrights would hate me. Especially after I disappeared for several years then came back with Caden. But the Wrights are good people. They took me in as one of them. You couldn’t be a part of a better family.”

I decided to jump in too. “Besides, we have only been dating six months. It’s not like we are married. Or planning marriage yet. We are taking things slow. So this is a perfectly acceptable time to meet parents. We don’t want to rush anything.”

Alex holds me close. “Not that we aren’t serious. We talk about those things, but like Issy said, we want to take things slow.”

Mom nods. “I know sometimes we try to rush things. All of us kind of find love and just jump in. It’s a family trait I’m afraid. But it seems to work out too. Isabelle is always a cautious one. So it is logical that she would be more hesitant in a relationship.”

I hate when they start talking about me like that. “Alright, we are here for dinner.”

I spent the next twenty minutes introducing Alex to everyone. I got to David and Megan last. Megan looks tired. She hands the baby to me. He’s a cute little bugger. “You look tired.” I say to Megan as I smile down at the baby.

“Yeah, James doesn’t want to sleep. I think he is actually terrified of it. Because he cries until he falls asleep.”

Alex surprises us. “Have you tried laying him on his belly across your lap?”

We looked at him in shock. “What?” I ask.

Alex smiles. “My cousin, before they moved to California, she had a baby that would get really gassy when she was nursing. They found that if she laid on her belly it relieved the gas. My cousin had to change her diet to make the gas easier on the baby, but to help the baby more comfortable they would try that. It worked like a charm. The baby would get more calm and would sleep better. You have to watch them though because of SIDs. But as long as you watch him he should be fine. Also adjust your diet so that there are no gassy foods.”

Megan pouts. “Well, there goes my morning eggs.”

David laughs. “Damn, that is actually really helpful. The doctors just kept saying it was an adjustment thing. That it would take time to get used to being out of the womb. He’s eating fine, so it wasn’t that.”

I shift James so that he is on his belly and he instantly starts to settle down within a few minutes he is snoring.

Megan heaves a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God.”

I pass James back to Megan and we all head into the dining room. My father is sitting at the head of the table. “Well, it looks like we are all here.” Caden comes running into the room last. “Boy, you need to slow down.”

Caden just smiles. “Sorry Grandpa. I was just running a play outside with Uncle Luke.”

Luke slinks in his seat. “He is good. I swear it was like watching a pro player. He’s got moves I didn’t have until high school.”

Justin preens. “Duh, he’s my son.”

Dad just rolls his eyes. “No running in the house.”

Caden smiles. “Yes, Grandpa.”

Then Dad turns to William. “So how is work? Are they finally giving you a chance to be a detective or are they still pushing you around.”

“Well, I’m not sure yet. They are talking about me doing this other beat cop stuff. I am getting really irritated with it. You remember that robbery at the bank on third?” We all kind of nodded. It was a big deal. A robbery like that hadn’t happened in town in a long time. It was a smaller branch of the bank so they didn’t take in a huge amount of money. “Well, they are putting me in charge of the case. But it’s like they have already solved the case and I am just supposed to track down the culprits. Only I’m not so sure the conclusions that they have come up with are actually what happened. They think this woman ran the whole thing, but she hasn’t had a history of any crimes. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, is a bad guy. But they want the woman.”

My dad nods. “Well, I can’t say I know much about the business since I am well a corporate man. But I say follow your gut. If you think the woman didn’t do it, then use those detective skills and prove it.”

William nods. “That is exactly what I was thinking. I’m just not sure if that will kill any chance I have of them taking me seriously. But I want to do it right.”

Dad leans back. “If you do it right then they have no reason to question your skills. Just prove to them with evidence that you are right, then they don’t have a leg to stand on.”

William sighs. “I already decided to do what was right. I just wanted to let you all know that they might give me crap for not doing it their way.”

I pat him on the shoulder. “You are still the best detective that I have ever met even if the force doesn’t think so.”

He smiles. “That means a lot.”

I smile back. “That is what family is for.”

Later that night, once we are home to Alex’s house that I have recently moved into, Alex pulls me into his arms. “So, I think I was worried about the wrong thing.”

I smile, hugging him back. “Oh, yeah, what is that?”

He shrugs. “I was worried about you getting baby fever, but when I saw you holding James today. I kind of wanted that. You holding our baby.”

I gasp. “Alex, are you out of your mind? We decided to wait.”

He smiles. “I know. I’m not saying right this minute. I’m just saying that I want that. I want to go to your family dinners with a baby in your arms. I want it all. I want it all with you. But we are still going to take it slow. First…” He trails off, but falls to his knee. He pulls out a little black box from his pocket. “I want to ask you to marry me.”

He opens the box and I feel like my heart just exploded. The ring is simple, we are teachers after all. A gold band with a blue stone embedded in the band. Simple but thoughtful. Because sapphires are my favorite stone. “Oh, my gosh.” I can hardly hold in the tears of joy.

“Um, is this a yes?”

I laugh. “Yes, yes.” I bend down to get to his level and wrap my arms around him.

“Well, that just made me the happiest man on earth.” He states, wrapping his arms around me.

Even though we plan to take things slow and things were really rocky at first, we are here and that is what matters. We love each other and we want to be together. That will always be enough for me. I don’t care if we have a million dollars in the bank, that wouldn’t mean nearly as much as this right here.