MASCARA

Epilogue

A year later.

Crying. Loud, almost blaring crying pulls me out my blissful sleep.

Maci.

Our beautiful baby girl, Maci Marie Ovard, had the strongest lungs and vocals of any three month old I'd ever met. Her crying never seized to wake the entire house, as if it were our own little alarm clock.

"I got it." My husband, Jay, says standing and slipping on a tee shirt and I mouth a thank you to him as he walks out.

Moments later he returns with an arm full of Maci and Maya, both kids grinning ear to ear.

"What is this I see? My favorite girls and guy?" I ask while scooping Maya from Jay and peppering her face and chocolate curls with good morning kisses.

"Is it your birthday or mine today?" I ask Maya and she points to her self proudly.

Maya was turning five today and I had planned a grand birthday party for her and some of her friends from school. Planning her birthday party had been an honor and it give me a feeling of happiness and joy to know that I could be apart of her life.

"Is granny still coming?" She asks and I nod.

Her granny, Lorraine, had called the day before saying that she wanted to come to the party to which I agreed. We had all kept in touch and now Maya visits her granny every other weekend.

It's been incredible watching Maya grow up over the past year. She now attends school, practices ballet, and plays the piano. She's becoming an amazing little girl.

After getting Maci dressed I went down stairs to finish setting up the tables and soon the door bell was ringing and children were arriving in piles.

The party was in full swing and all of the family had come out to be apart of Maya's birthday.

"Hey, Nana," I say, hugging Nana closely.

I had just seen her a week before, but every time was like new. We had both promised to stay close to each other and now she was also moving to the Hampton's so that we could all be here together.

"Nana!" Maya screams, running straight into Nana Mae's arms.

"Hey, birthday girl!"

The party continues and more guests arrive. All of the children are out back in on the trampoline while the adults are inside talking and laughing, just catching up.

"Knock, knock." I know the voice before I see her and go to greet Jessica files in with her fiancé behind her.

"Hey, Jess. Hey, Adam." I greet the love birds enthusiastically making sure to hug them both.

Jess and Adam had gotten engaged a couple months ago and it had totally shocked everyone considering that no one knew Jessica was dating anyone.

Hours later the party had come to a close and the last of the guests had just left leaving no one but Jay and I.

Maya and Maci had both gone with Jessica and Adam giving Jay and I a much needed break.

"Tiny people make big messes." Jay says picking up the last bit of trash from the flood and I nod my head in agreement.

"Can you believe we have two?" I as more to myself than him but he replies with a laugh.

"What?"

"I was just thinking about the future. Do you want more?" He asks and nod.

It was the truth. At one point in my life I didn't want any, but now I wanted a ton of far cheeked babies.

"How about we go practice then?" He says wrapping his arms around my waist and I kiss him gently.

"Beat you to the bed." I say running out of his arms.

The craziest thing about the future is that it's unpredictable. In this moment we wouldn't know that we'd have three more kids, move twice, and adopt a two legged dog. We didn't know anything at this moment and that was okay.

The best things in life are the ones we have yet to find out about.

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Hey, everyone.
Sadly, this story is over and while I'm excited about the new ones, I'm kind of sad.
Mascara is my baby and my baby has grown up and left the nest.
I'd like to say thank you to all of the readers, commenters, voters, and people who have added this to their reading list! Thank you and I love you all.