More Than Sorry

EPILOGUE: They Live Happily Ever After

ZACH

Five years later.

A tiny hand wraps around my finger. Not the one with my wedding band, the one next to that.

I look down at the little girl hovering next to me. Delicate wisps of dark hair tucked up into pigtails, she has big eyes—like her beautiful mother—and she sucks her thumb, that ratty soft pink bunny clutched up under her chin.

I squat down next to her, hugging her close to my side.

"What do you think, Josie?" I ask. "Are you excited?"

Big eyes turn to me. Her thumb is out of her mouth with a slurpy pop.

"Yeth!" she exclaims with the biggest, brightest smile until the thumb returns precisely where she likes it.

My little girl. Josephine.

I never thought I could love anyone more than Eden. When my little girl came into this world nearly two years ago, I realized my heart just had to get bigger. Now, I have the two most precious women in the world to care for. Not with money, not by working myself to death like I used to, but with my hugs and kisses and... my time.

Josie shuffles her tiny sneakers along the grass to scoot in closer to me. The soft pad of her diaper butt in pink overalls parks on my knee. She keeps her big eyes on Dad and Andie finishing the playset—the whole shebang with swings, a cubby house, and a slide. That perfect grass wasn't even on Dad's mind when he decided to build the playset. Or the sandbox next to it. He really has gotten soft.

Josie giggles when Dad gets tangled in the metal ropes to hang the swing seat. He and Andie have been going at it for a while now. The pair get along like a house on fire but are beyond frustrated. The whole playset debacle has taken longer than they thought, they had too many beers, and there has been a lot of swearing—pretty sure Andie is why Josie says 'Fut that' when I tell her tea party time is over.

"All done, Jo Jo!" Andie calls out, rubbing dirty hands on her ripped jeans.

Josie's eyes turn to me. "Me go?" 

"Yep!" I nod with a big smile. "Pop and Andie... all done."

She grins her toothy smile and then throws her tiny arms around my neck. Ratty bunny comes for a cuddle too.

"Lub you, Dadda," she says before her chunky tooshie runs across the yard to test out the new swings she's been dying to ride for hours.

I hop back to my feet, watching my Dad help Josie on the swing. He's a lot grayer than he was, but somehow, he looks younger. Lighter. We all feel like that.

Josie was another missing piece in our family.

Bunny is clutched up tight, and Josie's eyes are wary for the first couple of pushes on the swing. But soon, she is giggling and smiling, and Bunny has been passed to Dad for safekeeping while she has the time of her life. A second after that, Josie's barrelling up the climbing frame, ready to test out the slide.

Andie comes towards me, all smiles. "Bro! Did we do good or what? I really didn't think we were going to get there. When Dad installed the slide the wrong way up?" She laughs.

Funny, isn't it? The one who hated me the most somehow became one of my closest friends.

Turns out that Andie and I have even less in common than I thought, but also more. She doesn't understand why I like cooking, and she can keep her interests in cars and motorbikes all for herself. But, somehow, over the last five years, we learned to like things about each other for reasons that didn't revolve around Eden. The gym. Outdoor sports. Andie's the one who got me into rock climbing. We go once a month when the weather's good.