Claiming Them by Rosa Mink
Epilogue
Luca
Alessa lets out a little scream drawing my attention over to her from the grill. I chuckle seeing the dogs rolling around in the grass with her. Bogo and Buck are definitely guard dogs when it comes to my girls. They adore them, start whining if any of them are crying.
Tyler scoops her up, putting her onto his shoulders and I’m honestly amazed at the change in the kid. Well, not so much a kid anymore, I guess. He just graduated college and we’re having a family get together for that, birthdays, and the holiday.
Alessa is now almost three and a half. Still looks just like her mama, but so do Sofia and Marissa. My girl’s given me two more beautiful daughters since then. Sofia was born thirteen months after Alessa was and Marissa was born fifteen months after Sofia was. We weren’t anticipating any of them, but it seems that together we’re too explosive to not make it happen.
So much so that right now, my girl is sitting in her favorite spot on the porch swing while our one month old little boy Renn rests in her arms and his twin brother Ries rests in Olivia’s.
Rylee marched into the shop ten months ago, her face frustrated and tired, smacking the positive pregnancy test into my chest. My first reaction was pure unbridled pride. I mean hell, I barely had to touch my wife to get her pregnant. Then I saw the tiredness in her eyes and promised her I’d get snipped.
Which I did while she was wrestling with morning sickness and our girls.
Learning the new baby was actual twins made me glad that I’d done it. The pregnancy was harder on her than the girls’ were, and she ended up having the babies four weeks early, but we didn’t mind. It seemed fitting actually because the boys were born on Rylee’s birthday.
Alessa was our first gift on mine, and now the boys are our last on hers.
“Let me take over,” Devon says, seeing my eyes on my wife and I give him a nod. It won’t be long before Camila will be over next to him. They’re not much better than me and Rylee after all, although they’re only on one baby in three years of marriage.
“Hey mama, you doing okay?” I ask, taking the spot Olivia vacates but she doesn’t hand over my son making me grumble.
“Oh, you big baby,” Rylee teases, handing Renn to me. I cradle him in one arm, wrapping my other around her, loving the way her head falls onto my shoulder. “Promise me next year you’re not going to do something big and stupid for my birthday. I don’t want a party reminding me I’m old.”
“Forty is not old, mama. I mean, how am I going to top the present you got for thirty-nine? I got that shit locked down now,” I add, making her laugh.
“Thank you,” Rylee says, bringing my gaze down to her happy face and I kiss her forehead, rubbing her cheek with my knuckles.
“You don’t have to thank me for getting the snip, mama.”
She shakes her head no, her gorgeous eyes twinkling at me. “Thank you for all of this. Four years ago…I felt like I had nothing to look forward to, and then there was a positive on that test and it gave me hope that something would be better. When you pounded on my door worried about me…”
“I was staking my claim of you, mama. Couldn’t stand the thought of another man touching you. Still want to deck the boy for scaring you that night at times, but he’s mine as well now, because you love him.”
“I love you, babe.”
“Love you more than you can imagine, mama. When you said you were pregnant, I wasn’t about to let you go, let you down. Knew that’s all you’d had in the past and wasn’t going to be like that, no matter who was there when she was created. I was claiming you both as mine. Just look at us now, sweetheart, five little babies, one grown son, and a lifetime to make more memories.”
“Just not on my fortieth,” Rylee warns making me laugh.
“Alright, no party for you next year. We’ll throw the boys a huge first birthday bash then send the kids home with Nana. We can have dinner just the two of us and I’ll bathe your pussy with attention,” I suggest pulling a giggle from her that makes me hard. At least two more weeks without being inside her is going to be hell, but I’ll do it.
“Only if you promise me that dinner will have…”
“Tamales, yes, mama. I’ll never forget your tamales again, I swear,” I tease her. Her laugh pulls my sisters’ attention our way and Olivia’s brow lifts curiously. “Just promising not to come home without tamales ever again.”
“Speaking of which,” Camila says, carrying over a plate our way. Emma slips one of the tables that dot the porch over next to us letting Camila set the plate down. “Just for our favorite sister.”
“I so love you all,” Rylee moans around a mouthful, not at all embarrassed by how fast she inhales it. Shit, it’s hot watching her eat, feeding her, filling out her curves more.
“We love you too, Sis,” Olivia says looking down at Ries. “You have one of the two best mamas in the world handsome, you don’t know how lucky you are.”
“Hey, what about me?” Camila tosses at her.
“Okay, three, happy?” Olivia says pulling laughs from us as the girls play in the grass, the dogs chasing them, the cat asleep on the porch rail. The soft whinnies of the horses who are outside in the little pasture float down to us, and I kiss Rylee’s forehead again.
“You know, I think we need to have a talk about when these little guys can date,” Rylee states, looking at Renn as he sleeps on in my arm. “Yeah, not happening until they’re thirty.”
“You don’t want them to know this much love until they’re thirty?” I tease using her argument she uses on me for the girls on her.
“Twenty-five is as low as I’m going.” I lift my brow at her little huff. “Hey, I’ve seen enough co-eds throw themselves at you, mister. There are now two more miniatures of you to worry about. Not letting any horny co-ed touch my baby boys.”
“Welcome to the club, mama, because no horny co-ed is going to touch my baby girls,” I return, stealing her lips in a kiss that will have to last me until I get her all to myself again. “No one touches my girls, or my boys, without going through me first, that work?”
“That will work,” she agrees before going right back to her plate of tamales, but who can argue? She’s feeding both of our boys and Sofia still nurses at night before bed. My girl needs her sustenance.
Fuck its hot though. Two weeks won’t come fast enough but I sure as hell will once, I’m buried inside her.
She was mine the minute I laid eyes on her, even if she didn’t know it then. Now, no one can claim she’s not mine. Not with my babies in her arms, my name as hers.
And especially not with my name on her skin, or the way she loves wearing tops that show it off. Just like the little thing she’s wearing today. She stands up and its there for anyone to see, and shit, that makes me want to claim her all over again.
So maybe next year I’ll add on a little surprise for her on her birthday…a vow renewal to show her once again, her age is fucking perfect. She’s perfect. I can’t begin to resist proving it to her and I’m certain mama will enjoy it, especially if I give her a reminder of our wedding night, sans baby bump this time.
