Epilogue - Tess's Secret: A McGregor Christmas

Chapter 1

Tess rubbed her temples in a clockwise motion for five seconds, then reversed direction. Her head was pounding. Why couldn't Zane just shut up? Why? She already yelled at him once. But, no. And what he was doing with the kids was dangerous.

Their Christmas tree was a huge Scotch Pine that nearly reached their twenty-foot high ceiling. Okay, it wasn't that tall. But tall enough to be dangerous. What if the damn thing fell? What was he thinking? Oh he was annoying her with the game he was playing with the children.

Zane, Cole, Lee, Alex and Mia were all running around and around the tree playing tag instead of hanging ornaments. She walked away once after he promised to settle down, but now she could clearly hear she had to warn him again. Untying her apron, she tossed it down onto the counter with a huff.

"What if mama sees?"

"Shh. She won't if we do this fast enough. Lee, daddy's gonna put you on Cole's shoulders and then Cole I'll...,"

Over. My. Dead. Body. Cole, please put your brother down."

"Told you, Daddy," Cole craned his neck up at his father. 

Zane chuckled. "Relax. I knew you were listening. I wasn't going to do anything dangerous."

"And running around this thing isn't?"

"No? It's not gonna fall, Tess. I put it up."

"And?"

"Trust my work," he shrugged.

"No thanks. Come on kids. It's almost time for dinner."

"I could have done it, mama. I'm strong," Cole puffed his chest out, demonstrating his muscles. "And I'm eight," he shrugged to match his father.

"I'm twooo! Two, two, twooo!" Mia held up three fingers as she marched around the tree stopping to peer into the only ornament hanging on the tree.

"I'm eight!" Lee bellowed.

"I'm eight!" Alex punched Zane's leg.

Zane scooped Alex up and tickled him. "All of you are three," he corrected.

"Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we need to get everything done, guys," Tess complained.

"Well, I was trying and you stopped me."

"The star can wait for your brother," Tess waved Zane away.

Tomorrow was a big day. Aside from it being Christmas Eve, it was also the day they planned on revealing their baby's gender. It was one thing to have Cole, and another to have the triplets, but it was a complete mortification when she learned she was pregnant...again. Guess she never heard of birth control. Either way, she was the only one who knew the deets. With the exception of her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, Carrie and her father. So almost everyone knew while Zane was in the dark, along with her father-in-law and brother-in-law. So she was a bad secret keeper when it came to the women in her life. It was just too hard to keep her lips zipped! She was beyond excited now that the reality of her pregnancy finally settled in her brain.

Tess smirked as Zane helped her get dinner on the table and served their kids. None of this would be possible if it weren't for Zane's bravery as well as her own.

The memories from the day of her escape were clear in some areas and blurry in others. The most prominent was her reunion with her family.

Her father, Cole, Karrie, Zane's parents and siblings, seemed to have aged during the short time she was missing. The fear in their eyes, melting away to complete relief, brought her to her knees that day. She had never felt more loved in all of her life.