Taken

Epilogue

RIKKI

10 Years Later

"Kade, do you have the crib put together yet?" I called up the stairs.

"Yes, honey. Come up here and look at it!" he called back.

I slowly climbed the stairs and entered the now-finished nursery. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the completed room. "It's beautiful," I breathed. The nursery was painted mint green with cartoon elephants on the trim. The crib was set up in one corner, and the changing table and dresser in the others. There was a rocking chair along the wall by the crib, and a light gray rug was in the middle of the wooden floor.

"I'm glad you like it," Kade replied, stepping behind me.

"I don't like it, I love it," I smiled, looking up at my husband.

"Hopefully the baby will love it, too," Kade said, placing his hands on my round stomach.

"I'm sure he or she will love it just as much as we do," I assured him.

"Yeah. Do you think they'll be a boy or a girl?" asked Kade.

"I don't know," I replied. "I want it to be a surprise, remember? That's why we didn't look at the ultrasounds."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know," Kade laughed.

"I just hope our child doesn't have to go through what we did when we were still just kids," I sighed.

"Where did that come from?" asked Kade. "We haven't talked about that in years."

"I don't know. I guess I was just thinking about when we were young, and you know that I'm never going to forget about what happened. I don't think about it as often anymore as I used to, but I don't want something so awful to happen to our kids."

"Rikki, I promise you, nothing will happen to our children. I won't let it happen. Jeff will be in prison for the rest of his life, and Troy and Carlos will be in there for at least twenty more years. They can't hurt us anymore," Kade assured me with a soft voice.

"I know. I guess I just get worried sometimes," I sighed.

"And that's okay. You have every right to be worried, but again, I promise you that our kids will always be safe," Kade said before kissing my temple.

I turned towards Kade and buried my face in his chests before saying, "I love you so much. You always know exactly what to say."

"I wouldn't go that far, but I'd like to think that I know you better than pretty much anyone. I love you, Rikki," Kade said. Then he leaned down and lightly pressed his lips against mine. We broke the kiss up quickly, but Kade held me close as we stood in the middle of the nursery for a while. Then my phone pinged.

"Oh, I think Bailey and Taylor just got into town," I commented, looking at the text I had just received.

"Oh good. We're still meeting them for lunch, right?" Kade asked.

"Yup. We're meeting them at the café in an hour. You don't have to be at the stadium until later this afternoon, right?"

"Yeah, we don't have shootaround until 4:30," Kade replied.

"Do you guys think you can beat the Knights tonight?" I asked.

"Definitely," Kade said confidently. "They're not very good. The rest of the Huskies and I will be fine. Do you think our assistant physical therapist will be prepared for tonight as well?"

"Oh, she'll definitely be ready," I laughed, referring to myself. Just recently, I had finished physical therapy school, and by some miracle, I managed to land a job as assistant physical therapist of the Minnesota Huskies. Most people think that it may have had something to do with my professional basketball playing husband, but I had to apply and go to an interview like everyone else that applied. "I just hope none of you get hurt. That makes both of our jobs easier."

"Yeah. Well, do you think we should get ready to go meet Bailey and Taylor?" suggested Kade.

"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea," I replied. A few hours later, we were standing line at the local café, waiting for our friends to arrive. Bailey and Taylor entered the café a few minutes later, and Kade and I went to greet them.

"Bailey, Taylor!" I cried before hugging them both. "I'm so glad to see you guys again."

"Yeah, it's great to see you guys, too!" Bailey replied with a smile. She then moved her eyes to my stomach and said, "So, when is the baby due?"

"March twenty-third," Kade and I replied together with a smile.

"I'm so excited! I'm going to be the godmother, right?" Bailey said expectantly.

"Of course," I laughed in reply.

"Yes!" Bailey cheered in triumph.

"So, how's California?" I asked. It had always been Bailey's dream to live in California, so as soon as she and Taylor got married, they moved to Malibu. They had returned to Minnesota a few times to visit family and us, and they had also come back for Tanya and Lacey's weddings to Zayn and Lance respectively.

"It's great and all, but we miss Minnesota. That's one of the big reasons we decided to come back to visit. While we're here, we're going to look for a house. We've decided that we're going to move back home," Taylor announced.

"That's great!" exclaimed Kade.

"Yeah, we're so happy for you," I added.

 "I don't regret moving to California at all, though. It was a great experience, and I got to live out my dream. It's just that Taylor and I decided that we would rather raise a family in Minnesota than California," Bailey explained.

"So you guys are going to start a family soon, I presume?" I asked, trying to be nosy.

Bailey rolled her eyes before replying, "Rikki, we'll have kids when we're ready."

"I know, I know. I was just kidding," I laughed.

"So are any of the others coming to the game tonight?" Taylor asked. "I know Zayn and Tanya aren't because they're still on their honeymoon in the Bahamas, but what about Lacey and Lance?"

"Yup, Lacey and Lance are coming," I confirmed. Of all of our friends, Zayn and Tanya were the last to get married. They got married about a month ago, but they decided to wait a few weeks before going on a honeymoon.

"Cool. The gang will almost be back together again," Bailey said.

"Well, we were all just together at Zayn and Tanya's wedding a month ago," Kade pointed out.

"That is true, but it just hasn't been the same since Kade got drafted, we all graduated college, and you two moved to Cali. We haven't been able to get together as much as we did in high school," I said.

"Yeah, but now that we're moving back, we'll all be pretty close to each other again. I hope that we can get together more often now," Taylor said.

"Yeah, hopefully," Kade agreed.

"Life is good," I commented.

Kade placed one of his arms around my shoulders before smiling at me and replying, "Yes, it is indeed."