Beautiful Storm (San Francisco End Game #1)

EPILOGUE TWO

Luke - Three years later

I drop my suitcase next to Amelia’s oversized work bag and yawn as I traipse through the house toward the yard. It’s not even three p.m. yet but I’m exhausted after attending an away game with the boys last night—my first since retiring—and I’m ready for sleep. At least, I am until I step outside and find my girls relaxing by the pool.

Amelia’s wearing the bright yellow two-piece bathing suit I bought her for Christmas last year and Juliet’s trying to match her with a yellow suit of her own, making me smile. She’s a mini Amelia in every sense of the word except that she looks like me with her dark hair and dark eyes.

Shadow’s head whips up in my direction from where she lies beside them, in protector mode, but when she notices it’s me, she resumes her relaxing. Gone are the days where she’d run to see me, desperately missing me after my time away. Now, like the rest of us, she worships the ground Juliet walks on. Where Juliet goes, so does Shadow, and I have to admit, I prefer it that way. It makes it that little bit easier to say goodbye whenever I leave the house.

I watch for a few minutes, not quite ready to disturb the silence, my smile widening when Amelia readjusts herself on her towel, rolling onto her back, and her mini me does the same.

A warmth spreads through my chest and I can’t help but laugh to myself. This may have been the last thing I ever imagined for my life, but I'm thankful every day that it’s what was planned for me.

Shadow looks my way again, as if she’s questioning my actions, and if she could talk, I have no doubt she’d call me a creeper. Yes, I’m quietly staring at my family, but after three years it’s still hard to believe that they’re mine. Her head tilts to the side and I know I have about five seconds to announce myself before she gives the game away.

I quickly make my move, not wanting to miss Juliet's reaction when she hears me.

“I’m home,” I announce, opening my arms wide in anticipation.

“Daddy!” Juliet shrieks my name as she jumps up and runs over, launching herself into my chest at the same time Amelia turns to face me, her loving smile making my heart race, just like it always does.

“I missed you, Angel.” I spin Juliet around as she giggles. “Have you been looking after Mom?”

“Yes, Dad. I always do. With Shadow.”

“Of course. Always with Shadow.”

Juliet gives me one more squeezy cuddle then wriggles in my arms until I put her backdown, so she can run back to Amelia.

“Is it dinner time, Mommy?” she asks, her deep brown eyes lighting up. “You said Daddy was coming home at dinner time.”

“Not yet.” Amelia laughs. “We just had lunch and the sun’s still high in the sky. Dad must be early.” She glances my way with a raised brow. “What time is it?”

I check my watch as the time clicks over to three, my smile morphing into a smirk. “It’s go time!” I jog over and press a lingering kiss to Amelia’s lips, giving her a proper hello before breaking the connection and searching around for her laptop. This is why I’m home. I took an earlier flight so I could be here in time for Amelia’s moment. A moment she’s pretending isn’t a big deal.

“Hi.” Her brows rise as she peers up at me, a little flustered. “Is it really that time already?”

“What’s go time?” Juliet asks, pouting as her eyes bounce between ours.

“It’s time to see what Mommy’s been working on.” I drop down onto the lounge beside Amelia and slide back as I bring up the website for our friend Grayson’s band—Poetic Nightmares—clicking on the link to their new release “Soulless Whisper.” Amelia wrote and directed the music video, and the extended eight-minute cut is about to go live.

As the page loads, I angle the screen toward Amelia and Juliet, now perched in her lap, but before it comes to life, it freezes.

“What happened?” Amelia asks, her expression marred in concern, proving that she’s been thinking about this moment more than she’s let on. Not that she ever had me fooled.

“I think it crashed,” I say with a smile, knowing with every fiber of my being that this is going to propel her career into the limelight. I have no doubt she’s about to become “award-winning director Amelia Bennett” rather than “Luke Bennett’s wife,” and I’m more than excited to be pushed into the shadows for her.

“It’s a brand-new laptop.” Amelia frowns. “Is it still under warranty? What a time—”

“The laptop didn’t crash, Amelia.” I laugh, bopping her on the nose. “The entire website did. Poetic Nightmares are one of the biggest bands in the country right now. Fans have been counting down the seconds until this release. It’s huge.”

“So we can’t watch it?” She pouts just like Juliet did and I have to bite back my smirk.

“Give it a few minutes and I’m sure someone will illegally upload it somewhere.”

“What? I’m not watching it illegally.” Her face scrunches before she folds her arms over her chest, and a second later, Juliet does the same as she tells me off.

“Daaad.”

“I’m kidding.” I chuckle, shaking my head, already imagining Amelia and Juliet ganging up on me in the future. And I have to admit I love it. “If we were the average viewer, we’d have to wait until they fix the site. But lucky for you, Gray sent me a link to their internal version this morning. We can watch it now.”

“Will this affect them in any way?”

“Not at all. It’s a good thing. Sort of. As long as they get it back up as soon as possible.”

“I’m nervous.” She buries her face into Juliet’s hair as I type in the new link, and I don’t need her to tell me what she’s nervous about for me to know. She’s not talking about the site crashing; she’s worried about her work. I wasn’t joking when I said Poetic Nightmares was the biggest band in the country, and with that comes a lot of responsibility and pressure for Amelia—self-imposed pressure, because Grayson and his band are the most laid-back guys I’ve ever met.

No matter how much we tell her it’s going to be amazing, she won’t believe us until it actually happens.

After Amelia took a year off with Juliet, we hired a nanny for a few days a week so she could start working again. She didn’t want to go back to full-time work, but wanted to flex her creative muscles, and when Preston’s song “Wicked Style” became huge, just like he said it would, he approached her to direct his next music video. Using her idea. Full pay this time. Including a writing credit.

And it took off. From there she was approached by bands all around the world, but the biggest win was when she connected with Grayson. After that, her career grew in line with my retirement and I’m now a stay-at-home dad, which I love. I still support the team, and with Thomas coaching, I try to get to all their home games, but my life is shifting. Football will always be in my blood, but it doesn’t hold as much value as it once did. My heart belongs here.

“You have nothing to be nervous about,” I say and I mean it. “I may have snuck in my own viewing of the final cut on the plane.” I wince as Amelia’s eyes widen until she shakes her head with a laugh. She expects most of my antics these days. “It’s phenomenal, Ace. I’m so proud of you. So much so that I had to stop myself from shouting about it to my fellow passengers. I’ve got to say, it’s much better than that quasi docudrama you did about some football team,” I joke.

That quasi docudrama that went on to make millions of dollars for our ex-owner and even won a reality TV award. That should have propelled Amelia to stardom, but she distanced herself from the project after reporting Jake to the police. While he no longer worked for Brighton Productions, they were still all questioned and it dragged their name through the mud, creating a bit of bad blood between her and the producers.

“Wasn’t that you, Daddy?” Juliet crawls on top of me before bopping me on the nose, just like she saw me do to Amelia.

“Yeah, Angel. That was me. Before you were born. Are you ready to watch?”

I’ve just hit play when Shadow jumps up and runs to our back door, making us all turn to find Lainey stepping out. Juliet’s the next to run but when Amelia moves to stand, I pull her back down.

“Nope. You didn’t jump up for me.”

“I see you plenty. Are you jealous of your sister?”

“Never,” I lie as I watch Juliet and Shadow smother her with love.

“Thomas said you caught an earlier flight,” Lainey calls out. “I came to take Juliet and Shadow to the park.”

It wasn’t enough for Lainey to steal my dog on the regular, she now steals my daughter too. But in this instance, I’m not going to argue.

“Can I go, Dad? Can I go?” Juliet runs back over and clasps her hands together like she’s begging us. Amelia did that as a joke once and now Juliet uses it for everything. As if it wasn’t already hard enough to say no to her.

“Yeah, you can go. But it’s daddy-daughter day tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy.”

Amelia heads inside to help Lainey with Juliet’s bag and I lie back on the lounge, my heavy eyes drifting closed. Random images play through my mind, but before I have a chance to sleep, Amelia’s back. She clears her throat as she stands over me, staring down at me with her perfect little pout, her hands on her hips as though she’s about to scold me.

“Was I not supposed to say yes?”

“No, that’s fine. But you weren’t supposed to watch the music video without me.”

“I know.” I cringe. “But I couldn’t stop myself.” I sit up and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her on top of me, chuckling when she squeals. “Do you want to watch it together now?”

Amelia bites her lip and her eyes twinkle with mischief. “Actually.” She pauses, trying to hide her smile. “Since I’ve already seen it a million times, I’d rather just wait to see how it goes.”

I burst out laughing and shake my head. “So you just wanted to make me feel bad?”

“Yep.” She winks before moving to get off me, not that I let her get far before pulling her back down.

“How does it feel to be the famous one in our marriage?” I ask, bouncing my eyebrows.

“Stop.” She shoves me away and rolls onto the lounge next to mine. “That’s never going to happen.”

“It better. I’m not making any more money, so one of us has to.” That’s not entirely true—I have a few endorsements in place—but they’ll eventually run out.

“Again. Stop.” Amelia laughs. “We have plenty of money. And if one day we don't, we could sell this oversized house that we don’t need.”

“Yet.”

“Yet?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking we should fill it with ten kids. Maybe more.”

“You’re dreaming,” Amelia scoffs, knowing I’m joking, but I love this house, regardless of size. “Two will be plenty. Juliet already walks all over you. You’d be drowning with ten.”

“Fine.” She’s got a point. My angel can do no wrong. “We can stop at two.” I bite back a smirk as she tucks her hands behind her head, closing her eyes, looking more relaxed than I’ve seen her in a while. She’s been nervous about the music video, and I’m guessing that now that it’s out in the world, and she can no longer change it, some of the built-up tension has left her. Which reminds me…

“I’m sorry you missed therapy today. I won’t make a habit of going to away games. I just wanted to see Thomas’s first—”

“What? No. You’re allowed to have a life, plus I… ah… didn’t miss it.”

“You didn’t? Did you give in and call my parents?” My parents are amazing with Juliet, but they’re the type of grandparents that believe in spoiling their grandchildren, and while I will admit I spoil Juliet, there’s a huge difference. She always comes home feeling sick after too much sugar when she’s been with them. They’re good in small doses.

Amelia huffs out a laugh, and then shocks me with her answer. “No, I gave in and called my mom.”

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“And?”

“She was great. She took Juliet to that fairyland park near my appointment and Juliet won’t stop talking about it. Mom was relaxed and happy. She even mentioned a new man in her life.”

A genuine smile lights up my face. After Juliet was born, Amelia decided to start seeing a therapist to talk about her family and well…me. It really helped her work through the feelings she’d held on to since she was younger, and she’s been working on rebuilding her relationship with her mom. I was hesitant at first, but after Jake was arrested for harassing Amelia, his relationship with her dad came to light, and her mom was devastated that she’d been a part of it. Turns out, when Damien found out Amelia was pregnant, he showed up at the Brighton Productions office and that’s where he met Jake.

The asshole—Damien, I mean—has some kind of addiction to causing trouble. That’s the best way to describe it. It’s not specifically about money, although he did demand it from the news outlets when he sold his story, but it’s more than that. It’s almost like self-sabotaging behavior but threefold because he likes to sabotage the lives of the people he loves too. It’s destructive behavior that I want far away from my family.

“I think she’s in a better place,” Amelia continues. “It was always going to take time for her to move on from Damien—we knew that. Even after she found out what he’d done. But she hasn’t mentioned his name recently, so here’s hoping she’s finally putting that time in her life behind her.”

When Juliet was a few months old, we agreed to let Alice see her on the condition that she never took photos and didn’t talk to Amelia’s dad, or anyone else, about any of us. It took a while to trust her, but I think Amelia’s right. She seems to have changed.

“That’s great to hear and you seem a lot happier about it.”

“I am. It’s like a weight’s lifted. But it’s not Mom or the therapy that’s truly made me happy.”

“Oh, yeah?” I raise an eyebrow as Amelia sits up and crawls over to my lounge, straddling my lap.

“Yeah. There’s this guy. He’s smart and handsome and…rides a motorcyc—”

She squeals as I flip her over, cutting off what was about to be a blatant lie. We’ve been together for three years and she still loves to sass me any chance she gets. It keeps things interesting and makes me love her a little more each day.

“You hate motorcycles.”

“No, I don’t.” I stare at her deadpan until she laughs. “Okay, I don’t love them. But this guy—” I cut her off again, pressing my lips to hers in a bruising kiss, careful to keep my weight off her.

She mewls against my mouth as she wraps her hands around my neck, her fingers dancing through my hair. “Who’s the guy?” I ask, my lips brushing hers before I suck her bottom lip and cup her neck with my palm.

“Hmmm,” she moans as her head falls back, and I can’t help but laugh, knowing the sass is long forgotten.

“I was just saying I love you,” I lie jokingly, readjusting myself to glide a hand up her leg, my fingers wrapping around the string of her bikini.

“Yes,” she rushes out breathlessly when I kiss a path down her throat, sucking the heated flesh into my mouth. “I love you too.”

Pulling back, I stare down at her as she sucks in a breath, her hooded eyes gazing lovingly into mine. This woman is my world. Always has been. And I almost fucked it all up.

But never again.

We may have a shared past that I’m not proud of, but our story is only beginning. And if they ever make a movie about our life, Amelia won’t be the director—she’ll be the star while I’m merely the supporting actor.

Amelia once told me I was born to make her laugh. She was ten at the time, but even then she had it all wrong. I was put on this earth to love her, and I plan to spend the rest of my life making her happy.

And teasing her.

Because life would be boring without her sass.

And the truth is…I wasn’t made just for her and she wasn’t made specifically for me… We were made for each other. As equals. It just took us too goddamn long to see it.

Dear Bennett Family Diary,

Life couldn’t be better. I finished my career with two Super Bowl wins and the biggest retirement send-off anyone could have asked for. Amelia’s killing it with her music videos and short films. She’s going to take on the world any minute and I can’t wait for her time in the spotlight. And Juliet…my angel…is the light in our lives, keeping us busy in the very best way.

But the icing on the cake…We’re having another baby. Juliet is going to be a big sister. Our second little angel is due in five months. I’m destined to forever be surrounded by girls, and while Reed once said it was poetic justice, I couldn’t be happier. They own me and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

So like I said… Life is good. But there’s so much more to come and I’m ready for the chaos.

Bring it on.

Luke

Thank you for reading Luke and Amelia's story.