“I love you, Tristan.”
“I love you, princess. You gave me the greatest gift you could when you gave me your heart, and now you’ve given me three wonderful children. The only thing that could make me happier is if I knew you were happy.”
“I want to be happy. I do.”
“Then that’s my job now. To make you happy.”
The real fear that I’d never be happy again had settled into my brain during the weeks since the babies’ births, but now as I lay in Tristan’s arms after telling him my deepest, darkest secret, I believed I would be happy as a mother and wife. Maybe not that day or even the next, but with all the wonderful gifts I’d been given, I had to believe it would happen someday.
Epilogue
Tristan
“Open your eyes, sleepyhead.”
Looking up, I saw Nina standing over me with her Mom look on. “Let me guess. Time for my fun in the sun to end?”
“And time for theirs to begin,” she answered with a smile. “Not that I’m not totally loving the view of you relaxing in the sun with just shorts on, but we’ll save that for later.”
I reached out and pulled her by the arm down on top of me as I lay on the chaise lounge. “I don’t want to wait for later, so let’s see what we can sneak in before the kids come down.”
Nina squirmed in my hold, giggling as I playfully smacked her on the ass. “Tristan! I need to get up. I can hear Tressa coming.”
“So? What’s she going to see? Her parents madly in love? She better get used to it. I plan on this being the norm for a long, long time.”
My words stopped her wriggling, and she kissed me full on the mouth. God, I loved times like this when we stole moments together. Even five years after having triplets, my wife’s kiss still had the effect on my cock that it had since that first night together.
Looking down my body, she shook her head and smiled. “Three children and a nanny coming any second, and you’re hard as a rock. What am I going to do with you, Mr. Stone?”
“I can think of a few things,” I said as I lifted my hips off the chaise lounge to graze the front of her swimsuit.
She pushed herself off me, leaving me hard and committed to spending an afternoon at the pool with the kids. Life was tricky sometimes. A towel came flying at my head as she said, “Cover yourself, at least. Cara will think we’re some kind of pervs.”
Not that what some middle aged Italian woman thought mattered much to me, but I could see Nina’s point, so I quickly threw the towel over my lap and attempted to look nonchalant as the nanny and our kids came bounding down the pathway toward me.
“Daddy! Look! I have my swimmies on!” Diana screamed as she led the three of them toward the edge of the pool, proudly showing off her pink inflatables wrapped around each bicep.
“No jumping in yet!” Nina barked, trying to stop the stampede of children to inspect them. “Diana has her swimmies on, but Ethan, where are yours? And Tressa?”
The only other male in the house frowned and looked over at me for help. “Daddy, tell Mommy I don’t need swimmies. I’m not like Diana and Tressa. I know how to swim.”
“I know how to swim,” Tressa protested with her hands on her hips, which then encouraged her sister to give her opinion on her swimming abilities, causing all three of them to talk at once and saving me from having to insert my opinion on swimmies into the conversation.
Nina held her hands up in the air and loudly announced, “Enough! Anyone who has swimmies on can swim. No swimmies, no swimming.”
Cara held out two sets of inflatable arm swimmies, pink for Tressa and yellow for Ethan, and both children grudging walked over to accept them as Diana jumped into the pool to do her best cannonball. Personally, I didn’t feel the urgent need to have everyone wear inflatables in the pool, but Nina did, so worn they were.
When Mama was happy, everyone was happy.
“Daddy, come swim with me,” Diana pleaded as she bobbed near the edge of the pool. Nina shot me glance as if to warn me about what was going on under my towel, but the introduction of our children and their nanny had made any sexy thoughts instantly disappear from my mind, taking my hard-on with them.
“Only if you promise to swim in the deep end with me,” I teased as I stood and made my way to where she floated.
She looked up with that adorable little grin I liked to think she reserved just for me. “Okay, Daddy.”
From behind me, I heard the sound of feet slapping on the concrete and then a duo screamed, “Cannonball!” Diana’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as her brother and sister jumped into the pool next to her, nearly swamping her tiny body. Quickly, I slid into the water to grab onto her before she was swept away with the cannonball tidal wave.
“Tressa! Ethan! No more splashing your sister like that!” Nina ordered from behind me.
“Sorry, Diana!” they said in tandem as they swam toward the center of the pool to grab the beach balls.
Wrapping her arms around my neck, Diana clung to me as I began to walk toward the deep end of the pool. I saw the fear in her eyes as the water crept up inch by inch over her torso and whispered near her ear, “Trust me?”
In a tiny voice, she said in my ear, “I trust you, Daddy.”
“We should get Mommy in the pool,” I said, knowing that’s all Diana would need to begin the prodding that her brother and sister would quickly join in on.
“Mommy, Daddy says you should be in the pool. Please come swimming this time,” she pleaded.
I turned to look over at Nina and smiled, hoping she’d join us. “Yeah, come on in. I’m sure there’s a pair a swimmies you can wear.”
Nina gave me the raised eyebrow look and slid into the pool next to us, kissing Diana. “Big girls don’t need swimmies.”
“Mmmm…what do big girls need?” I joked, receiving a glare in response.
“Yeah, Mommy. What do big girls need?” Diana asked innocently.
Rolling her eyes, Nina tickled Diana on the ribs. “Big girls need a big kiss from their daughter. That’s what they need.”
Diana kissed her sweetly on the cheek and turned back in my arms to face me. “How about a kiss from Daddy too?”
“Mommy! Ethan took his swimmies off!” Tressa reported loudly from across the pool.
Jabbing me gently in the ribs, Nina winked. “Saved by the tattle. Looks like no kisses for you.” Turning away, she warned, “You two better behave or you won’t be able to see Aunt Jordan tomorrow.”