Page 79 of Base Block

“And with me trying to fit sideways into the bathroom. Yeah, I’d be happy there, too. You’re my happiness,” Callum said. “That’s the truth.”

I didn’t have any doubt at all. I only had a lot of love.

Epilogue

Callum leaned forward and adjusted the camera. “Hello? Hello,” he said to the lens.

“The mic works. Just go ahead,” I encouraged.

He nodded at me. “You’ve heard from me before, but it’s mostly Rainey in these videos,” he told our followers. “She’s been doing all the social media stuff for us for a while and you’ve seen a lot over the years.”

“You watched Callum make the Woodsmen team,” I pointed out.

“You watched us buy our house and Rainey made it beautiful,” he continued.

That had been fun. I had used our reupholstered chair and Beau had helped with everything else. Our home was exactly what Callum and I had wanted: not too big, not too fancy, and with a giant bed so that his feet didn’t hang off and he didn’t get afraid of smooshing me onto the floor by mistake. We still found ourselves in the middle of it, tangled up together, though.

“You saw him become a starter and an all-star,” I said.

“You know that she designed her own line of clothes.” He held up his arms and swiveled around to show off his shirt. “Like this.”

“You’re my best model.”

Callum kissed me, although we tried not to do too much of that in our videos. But this one was special. “A lot has happened over the past few years,” he stated. “Our lives have come a long way from the day that Rainey filmed the mess in my old house back in Indiana.”

“They’ve come so far,” I agreed. “I never could have guessed!”

“I never could have dreamed it,” he said and kissed me again.

More had gone on than we could have summed up in one video, but we put together a few of the highlights. One was Anara’s wedding, with her about to pop out of the dress that I had worked on feverishly to add extra panels and reinforced seams—it hadn’t been the same gown when I was finished, but she had loved it anyway and the party had been amazing. She had gone into labor the next day and since then, they’d had another baby, too. Demitrious was still playing football, out in Oregon now, but she and the kids mostly stayed at their home base in Illinois, near his family. He planned to retire after the next season to join his father’s business, so they could be together all the time.

Another clip was of Heidi and George. They were still in Kansas where he was now a high school coach, and his team was doing great. She had her own kindergarten classroom, where she taught them all about the amazing animal life of our planet.

One thing we didn’t include was about my other job. I was now partners with Beau and our business was booming. We’d had to move into a new office with more space and hire an assistant, which had been especially helpful since I had also been going to college and had gotten my degree. Beau had been instrumental in helping to plan my wedding with Callum, which he had called the social event of the century. We did include a little clip of that, and of my husband graduating with a bachelor’s. Callum had more plans for when he finished playing, lots of ideas.

But he wasn’t done with the Woodsmen, not by a long shot. And we had even more brewing.

“Thank you,” he said to the camera. “Thanks for all the support and love that you’ve shown us. And for everyone who had something negative to say, I hope you’re not as miserable as you come across in the comment section. That’s a hard way to live, and I think you should put down your phone and go outside for a while. Walk your dog.”

Our dog thumped his tail. Maverick was such a good boy.

“Look at the sunset. Throw around a football. Enjoy your life, the only one you’ll get,” he said. “Don’t waste it being angry and unhappy.”

We sure weren’t. I hadn’t heard from anyone in my unhappy life before I’d met him, except when I’d read that Damian had declared bankruptcy and then been arrested for possession with intent to distribute. Whatever they were all doing now, I didn’t really care.

“Rainey and I have one more thing to tell you before we sign off for good. Baby, can you stand up?”

I could, barely. For months now, I’d been filming myself behind my desk or with strategically placed accessories, because we had a fourth member of our family coming. I pointed to my stomach, which had gotten so big over the past few weeks that I had been convinced that the doctor was wrong and I was carrying twins (at least). But there was really only one baby coming, and our son would be the size of his father someday.

“Surprise!” I announced. Then I turned to Callum. “I love you,” I told him.

“Do you? Hell. Can you believe this?” He cupped my stomach with both his hands, then he kissed me there, too. “I love both of you. I’m so happy that I think that I love everybody.”

I understood his feelings. “Thanks,” I told the camera. “Goodbye.”

He turned it off. “That’s over.”

“No, we’re just getting started,” I countered.

“I can’t wait for the rest.”

And neither could I.