Epilogue

"And then Miss Olivia was a little mad at me and Max and we needed to sit in the hallway," I hear my almost-six-year-old son complain. His tone is almost offended, and it immediately brings a smile to my face.

I close the door behind me and kick off my shoes before I make my way into the living room where I find my wife, son, and daughter in the kitchen.

Ana is cooking, Teddy is still complaining about something that happened at school, and Phoebe is sitting next to him while coloring in her princess book. My heart swells with pride. These three are mine.

"I think Miss Olivia was right to put you in the hallway, Ted. You can't paint the door without asking it first. Seriously, what were you thinking?"

I smirk as I watch Ana while she talks to Ted. She had texted me two hours ago. Apparently, Teddy and his nephew Max decided that the door of their classroom needed a new look, so they made it orange. Needless to say, their twenty-three-year-old teacher wasn't pleased about it.

"Max and me want to do the same as uncle Ell and dad. We don't like school," Ted answers as if it's the most normal thing in the world. I can't help but chuckle to his response.

"Daddy!" Phoebe yells the moment she hears me chuckle. She jumps off her stool and sprints over to me, her little feet making adorable sounds on the hard wooden floor. Bobby, who was sitting next to her, immediately follows her, like he has done since the day she was born.

"Hi princess," I smile before I catch her and pull her against me, her tiny arms finding their way around my neck while her face hides in the crook of it.

"Me missed you." She whispers while I sway her from left to right softly. I've missed her too. I always miss them when I'm at work.

After a busy, chaotic day at work, there is nothing better than coming home in another chaotic mess. The chaotic mess that my kids make. I live for it.

"Teddy did a bad thing again," my little girl sighs while rolling her eyes when I've put her back on the ground. She has just turned three, and she is all Ana. From her brown long hair to her button nose, all my wife. She even managed to get the eye rolling.

Before I make my way over to Ana and Ted, I try really hard to keep my expression in check. I can't laugh, even though I find what Ted and Max did pretty funny.

Max and Ted are exactly 10 days apart. Max was born twelve days late on January 25th, Ted fifteen days early on February 4th. Ever since then, they are more bothers than nephews, and since they live a few minutes from each other and go to the same school, they see each other every day.

Ana and Kate have debated several times if it was the right thing to do, putting them on the same school, but Elliot and I pushed it. We know how important brothers are to each other, so we didn't want to separate them.

Right now though, I do question if it was the right choice to make, and I'm sure Ana will be calling Kate tonight to talk about that as well.

"Don't you dare," Ana mouths, completely aware of my attempt not to laugh.

"What's going on Ted?" I ask my son, who is now suddenly looking at his hands with a lot of interest. Phoebe has taken the seat next to him again, ready to watch the show. With me on his other side and Ana standing in front of him behind the counter, he is now completely closed in.

"Nothing," he doubtfully says, not convincing at all.

"Try again."

"Eugh," he whimpers while he throws his hands in the air for drama, "we just did it because Lizzy's favorite color is orange."

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise and when I look at Ana, I see that her expression has turned soft. She is endeared. "And Lizzy is?" I ask, just to be sure. And to tease him a bit as well.

"A girl," Ted mutters, his cheeks turning pink right after his confession.

"Right," I say and then look at Ana knowingly. Without words, she understands what I mean, and walks from behind the counter to Phoebe.

"Come on, Pheebs, let's go to the garden to see what Bob is up to."

While Phoebe jumps up and follows Ana, loudly chatting about how Bobby, who ran off to the garden a few minutes ago, is probably looking for flowers, I take the evacuated seat.

"So you painted the door for Lizzy?" I ask him when I'm sure that Ana and Phoebe are out.

He nods his head, cheeks still pink. He is a clone of me, but when he is blushing, it's definitely Ana. I love how we have one of each.

"Did she ask you to paint the door orange?"

He immediately shakes his head, eyes wide. "No! She just said she liked orange. Max and me made the plan to surprise her."

I think about how to respond to this. Even though I think it's funny and Ted handled out of young love, I do realize that I need to let him know that this can't happen again.

"Listen bud, you can't just go and paint people's doors without asking them first. I don't do that either. I wait for people to ask me if I can make them something, and then I do it." I explain.

"But it was a surprise. You aren't supposed to tell about them," he frowns. He really didn't realize that he was doing a bad thing. He just wanted to surprise this girl.

At these moments, I hate parenting.

"But the door wasn't yours. You should've made her a drawing. Why didn't you do that?"

Ted now rolls his eyes, and I remind myself to tell Ana not to roll her eyes that much in front of the children, even though it gives me a reason to spank her when the kids are in bed.

"Because," he starts as if it's the most simple thing in the world, "you don't do that. You built this house for mom. You didn't give her a stupid drawing."

Fucking hell, he is good. What the hell do I say to that?

"What did Lizzy think about it? Was she happy?" I ask, trying a different approach and hoping that the girl wasn't impressed.

"I don't know. We had to go to the hallway," he says, now mad again. Mad and offended.

"Miss Olivia was right to punish you and Max. You can't paint things that aren't yours. And even if they are yours, you should ask it first," I tell him, hoping that he doesn't get any stupid ideas and decides to paint his own room.

"Fine," he growls, arms folded in front of him.

"Good. No tv for you tonight though, Ted. And I want you to apologize to Miss Olivia tomorrow. As a matter of fact, you should make her a drawing."

"Ah, come on dad," he protests as if I'm asking him an outrageous thing.

"No Ted. You did something bad, and now you need to accept that you are being punished," I stand my ground. Fuck, I'm proud that I'm standing my ground.

He jumps off the stool and then makes his way to the door at high speed. "I don't like you!" He yells before he disappears out of view.

I sigh and let my hands go over my face. I hate it when they are mad at me, even though I know that I'm right to teach them what they can and can't do.

"You did the right thing."

I feel two arms wrap around me from behind, her small hands just able to reach my abs. I feel her belly against my lower back, and just close my eyes and enjoy it for a second.

"I know, but I hate it when they are mad," I tell Ana while I turn around to face her. She steps back for a second to give me space and then moves back in between my legs, her belly against mine.

"He's over it before dinner is ready, trust me," she mumbles before she gives me a kiss. "Hi," she smiles when we pull back.

"Hi," I reply, a smile on my face, "how's Pheebs?"

"Good. Making a daisy collar for Bob," she smiles. "How was work?"

"Tiering and busy. Needed to have that talk with Rick. He didn't take it well," I sigh as I think about it.

Rick is the seventeen-year-old guy we hired three months ago. He was kicked off of school at sixteen and has no idea what to do with his life. We renovated the office of his dad and he asked us if we could give him a job.

I saw myself in the kid, lost and mad at the whole world, so I gave him a chance. The first month went fine, but after that, it went down pretty quick. He never showed up on time and I'm one hundred percent sure that he came to work while being high. Instead of help, he became a burden, so today I fired him. I hated it. I'm still not good at it either.

Since Elliot and I build that hotel for Mr. Tang, we have been getting a lot more projects. Within a year, our employees doubled, and now we have over two hundred fifty people working for us. Not just in Seattle, but also outside of it. It's great, but also a lot of work.

Elliot and I make sure we are still on the scene a lot. We both love it too much to let it go, but managing the whole thing is a lot of work. Kate helps us, just like Mia, who we hired as well. It's like a family business.

Thankfully, the bond with Mia stayed the same, even though she is the only one who still has contact with Carrick. She doesn't see him a lot, but she refuses to cut ties, even though he is too busy with his new, way too young wife. She keeps saying that he is her father, and I respect that. We never talk about him though. I only know about his wife because Mia was invited to the wedding, and asked Kate and Ana for advice for the dress.

She went for a black one in the end.

"You know it was inevitable," Ana responds, "but I understand it sucks."

I nod my head and lean my forehead against hers, enjoying the silence for a moment. A very brief moment, because after thirty seconds or so, I feel Ana's belly move against mine, making me chuckle.

"Another one who wants to greet its daddy," Ana smiles while my hands move to her belly, feeling our third one move.

Ana is thirty-two weeks pregnant and unlike the previous two times, we decided that we don't want to know the sex of the baby. Since we both agreed that this is the last one, we like to be surprised.

"How is he doing?" I smile. That we don't want to know, doesn't mean we can't speculate.

"She's good. Busy like her daddy," Ana giggles and kisses me one more time before she walks out of my arms and back to the food she is preparing.

I turn around again, so I have the perfect view of her in our kitchen. Pregnant Ana is absolutely stunning. She is one of those women who is glowing from month one all the way through month nine. She never complains, she actually loves being pregnant just as much as I love seeing her pregnant.

"How was your day?" I ask after a few minutes of watching her. I'm amazed by how gracious she still moves while being this far along. The first two times, she gained more weight.

"Nice," she smiles, "Pheebs and I went to the park with Bobby and we had some ice cream. After that, we picked up Ted. Pheebs is getting so wise. It's all going too fast."

I chuckle and nod my head. "Tell me about it. Ted has his first crush. That's fifteen years too early."

Ana laughs, her cheeks a little pink. She looks amazing like this, carefree and happy. "It's cute though," she smiles when she has stopped laughing. "And that Lizzy is a pretty girl."

"I'm dreading the day that Pheebs will turn six then," I sign. The thought of boys coming for Phoebe is seriously making me sick.

The snort that Ana lets out makes me smirk. It's too fucking cute not to.

"Oh, before I forget," Ana starts, "your mom called. She wants to know how late we bring the kids over tomorrow."

Once a month, the kids stay at my mom from Friday to Sunday, along with Ava and Max. The kids always look forward to it, just like mom. They adore her. They also stay at Carla and Ray's quite often.

The bond between Carla, Ray and I is a special one. One I couldn't explain even if I wanted to. I think it's called love/hate construction. Especially Ray and I. We can have a serious discussion for hours, disagreeing on everything and anything, only to top it off with a talk about baseball. It's fucking weird, but it works.

As for mom, after she left the Heathman that day, she only saw Carrick twice. Once when he came to collect his shit, and once to sign the divorce papers. She then went to Europe for six months to clear her head. She needed time to give everything that had happened a place.

When she came back, she had everything figured out. She looked good, she felt good and she was ready for a new start. She sold the house in Portland and bought one in Bellevue as well, about ten minutes from Elliot and me.

We've worked on our bond, and I think that I can say that we've reached the point of forgiveness. I haven't forgotten, but I do realize that she is my mother and that I only have one of her. I love her, and we are in a good place right now.

"Why not the same time as always? Around four, after school?" I frown. We've always brought them after school.

"Because Eric is staying over," Ana answers, and suddenly I understand. My mother is dating.

Yes, dating. She found this guy through a website for people above fifty who are looking for romance and she is head over heels. I haven't met him yet since mom is hesitant to introduce us, but Ana has shown me the pictures that mom showed her.

He is completely different than Carrick. He has his own garage, his left arm is covered in tattoos and he looks rough. And according to mom, he treats her like a queen. I actually think we are going to get along which makes it even weirder.

"What time does he leave?"

"Well," Ana begins, a small smile on her face. She is up to something. "Your mom suggested that we should stay for dinner. Eric will stay for dinner too."

"So she wants us to meet him?" I'm surprised, to be honest. I didn't think she would ever introduce us.

"Yes," Ana says, "and you can smirk all you want, but you and Elliot will behave. You've teased her enough."

Ana and mom have developed a strong bond after mom returned from Europe. Ana doesn't hold any grudge against my mom, and they often go for lunch. Now that Ana is pregnant, mom also helps her a lot with the kids.

The plan was that Ana would go to work part-time after she gave birth to Teddy, but when the moment came, she couldn't do it. She didn't want to miss anything of him, and after we've talked about it for days, she made the decision to stay home with him.

She sometimes helps Kate a little with work for Grey Constructions, but most of the time she is with the kids. It's a role that was made for her. She is an amazing mom, an amazing cook, and an incredible wife. She makes sure that everything goes according to plan.

She is the shining head of our family.

When she was pregnant with Teddy, she sometimes had horrible nightmares. Every time it was the same one. The one where our boy got bullied and Ana couldn't do anything about it.

She was scared that our kids would go through the same thing that she went through, and like any parent, she was afraid that she couldn't protect them. It once again showed me how much everything had an impact on her.

She managed to get her fears under control, but I can tell she still has then sometimes, even though she acts like everything is good. She tries to be strong.

"Alright," I hold my hands up in surrender, returning to the subject at hand. "I won't tease her. Have you told the kids about Eric?"

She shakes her head. "no, I thought we could do that together during dinner."

I nod my head and watch her make up the plates. The smell that's coming from it is delicious, and in agreement, my stomach rumbles.

"All done," she smiles when she has four perfect plates standing in front of her.

I hop off my stool and move towards her. Not being able not to touch her, I pull her in my arms again, this time my arms around her shoulders.

"I love you," I nuzzle her hair and enjoy the smell of vanilla and Ana. And also bubblegum which is the scent that Phoebe uses on her dolls.

"I love you too." She kisses my shirt covered chest before she looks up and kisses my lips. "Can you get the kids? I need to pee."

Just like that, the romantic spell between us is broken, and I can't stop my laugh because of it. "Perfect timing, Ana," I chuckle as I watch her run for the bathroom.

"It's your baby," she calls before she disappears out of view.

Fuck, I love her too much. Simple things like this, random days out of my life like these, make me realize how perfect everything is at this moment.

I have two healthy kids, another one on the way. Grey Constructions has never been bigger and finally, my family seems to have some peace as well. Everything has finally fallen into place.

And it's all because of her. The girl I met in Italy when she was sixteen years old. The girl that I met again when she had turned into a gorgeous woman. The woman that I had the pleasure of turning into a mother. The best mother for my children.

She is my light.

She makes it all perfect.