Twin Babies with the Billionaire for Christmas

Epilogue

Rachel

Three Years Later

“Emmy, get down from there right now!” I call to my daughter who is trying to climb the bookshelf behind my desk to reach for something.

Luckily the shelf is screwed to the wall for safety. Tristan hired professional baby proofers to come into every space the kids may ever set foot in.

It’s a good thing too, because it turns out we are raising monkeys.

“I want my book!” she sasses me back, slipping and then hopping up on the lower shelf again, reaching as far as she can with her chubby little arms.

I roll my eyes and apologize to the author I’m in a Zoom call with, then rise from my desk and get down the children’s picture book that my toddler wants.

“Can you please be patient for just a little longer, Em?” I ask, tapping my foot and looking down at the charming little cherub grinning up at me.

She has my coloring, but her father’s golden-brown eyes and she’s every bit as high energy as he is.

I don’t usually bring the twins to work because they are terrors right now, but today their daycare was closed for the holidays and I needed to come into the office and attend to some meetings and other business.

“Thanks for my book, Mommy,” Emmy says, toddling off with the book clutched to her chest. She plops down by the small, fake Christmas tree in the corner of my office, happily flipping through her book and mumbling to herself as she pretends to read.

Her brother, Easton, is engrossed in a train set he built on the floor.

“Sorry about that,” I say to the author who is waiting patiently on the other end of the Zoom call. “Now, what were we talking about? Oh, release dates.”

I lose myself in the fun of planning out a new author’s rise to success, feeling completely and entirely at home. I hadn’t fully appreciated just how much Tristan’s idea about starting a publishing company would suit my temperament until we actually got the company up and running.

Smith & Black has become a huge success with a reputation for taking on promising new authors and being willing to work with a wide array of genres.

While biographies were always my first love as a writer, I had published some titles in other genres when I was a younger writer. It felt nice to come back to my roots.

“I was hoping to copy the release plan that you used for Finding Love in Unlikely Places ,” the woman on my computer screen says. “I just felt like it exploded onto the scene and everyone fell in love with it immediately. Maybe it was because it was the holidays when it came out.”

I hadn’t been able to publish Tristan’s biography, but I had instead taken the writing that I had done about him and included it in the book about love and life that I had been writing when I met Tristan.

The book had become a mutual love story and biography that had immediately rocketed to the top of the bestseller list.

It had been number one for weeks the year I released it, published by Smith & Black of course. It had been the flagship of our company, and it had ensured the success of the publishing house.

“Let me chat with my agent about a couple of details from that campaign,” I tell the author on the call. “I need to remember how we timed some of the release parties and so forth.”

It honestly felt like decades ago, but it had only been two years. Maybe that was my current pregnancy talking, though.

I pressed a hand to my growing belly. Being pregnant with twins again was exhausting, but I was excited anyway. Even if I did sometimes fall asleep while we were watching Yellowstone .

Tristan and I both nearly fainted when the doctor gave us the news of our second set of twins. What are the chances? Apparently not that low.

I finish discussing some more details with my new client, then end the call. I check the time and sigh. Tristan was supposed to have been here about ten minutes ago.

I lean forward and push the intercom button for the reception desk. Our offices have grown enough that we actually have multiple floors in the building, and the reception desk is farther away than I want to waddle right now.

“Jesse,” I say when I hear the receptionist’s voice on the other end of the line, “have you seen my husband somewhere?”

I can hear the smile in his voice as he replies. “He’s just stepping off the elevator. I’ll send him up.”

“Thanks,” I say in reply, then I notice a notification that Ali has sent me an email.

I open the email and reply to her questions, smiling at the thought of the new press releases that we are planning. Ali had been so excited about the possibility of what Smith & Black could be, that she had asked if she could come work for me.

I never stop teasing Tristan about stealing his best marketing team member for my company.

“Daddy!” I hear Emmy and Easton shriek in unison, just as I realize that Tristan has stepped through the door to my office.

He catches their tiny bodies as they hurl themselves at him full force. He swings them around and they giggle and squeal.

I lean back in my chair and watch them, feeling a little amazed that this is my life now. After all of the stress and chaos of the years that led up to meeting Tristan, and then the stress of the way that our relationship began, I hadn’t truly believed that I could ever be this happy.

“Are you bothering Mommy relentlessly?” Tristan asks our twins as he jostles them a little in his arms.

Emmy draws her little brows down and chews over this new word. “Relentlessly,” she mimics. She tilts her head to the side. “What does that mean, Daddy?”

Tristan smiles at her and pushes her messy curls back off her forehead. “It means that you are bothering mommy all the time without taking a break.”

She grins. “Oh, then yes,” she says with a giggle.

We all laugh at that, and then Tristan puts the twins down. They zoom around my office making silly animal noises and just generally showing off.

“I live in terror at the thought of four of them acting like this,” Tristan says to me, leaning over my desk to kiss me.

“No more than me,” I say back with a lifted brow. Easton stumbles over his own feet and tumbles to the floor, but he pops back up with a laugh and starts racing around again.

“Maybe they can start school sports early,” Tristan says with a chuckle.

“Can you take them home for me?” I ask my husband. “I have to take one more call this afternoon and they’re about done with being here.”

“Sure,” he says easily. He looks over at me with one brow lifted. “Don’t forget that we need to finish packing tonight for Montana.”

I look at my work calendar and realize that he’s right. We are supposed to leave for Montana tomorrow.

We always head out to the ranch for the holidays and then spend some time there over the summer as well.

It makes an ideal place to have guests. Jay, Janet, and their kids visit often. Danny loves it at the ranch as well. In fact, I think it’s become his new favorite place. Cara and Isaac have even been out to visit.

I pull at the thin star on the little bracelet Cara gave me years ago. It has always meant a lot to me, but now it means so much more. She knew everything would be okay. Even when I didn’t. She was right. She is a good friend.

“Don’t tell me…” Tristan says with a shake of his head. “You scheduled meetings tomorrow?”

I bite my lower lip and nod apologetically. “But I can push them out a day. I can take care of this stuff over Zoom at the ranch.”

Tristan rolls his eyes fondly. “You work too hard,” he tells me.

I scoff. “So do you!”

“Touché,” he agrees and we share a smile that’s filled with mutual understanding. We had promised one another before we actually got married, that we wouldn’t step on one another’s toes when it came to business or career considerations.

Tristan had confessed to me that none of his other relationships had worked because the women he was with hadn’t understood his passion for his job.

I realized that I had also run into the same troubles over the years. It had been easy to agree to do things the non-traditional way in order for both of us to feel fulfilled.

It was also why I hadn’t taken his name when we got married. I wanted to preserve my professional identity, and it just hadn’t felt…right to take someone else’s name.

Sometimes we got questions about this from the media or from people at professional gatherings, but I would always just point to people like Kim Kardashian. She didn’t change her name, why should I?

Tristan had once joked that I should change my name to just a single word like Prince or Cher.

“Come on, darlings,” Tristan says to the kids, scooping them up again. They both nestle sleepily against his shoulders, already worn out from their antics. “Let’s go home for a nap. When mommy comes back we can finish packing to go to Montana.”

“I miss Dot,” Emmy says, her voice thick with sleep. Dot is her little spotted pony who lives at the ranch. She was already passionate about all of the animals on the property, and I could foresee something like horseback riding lessons in our future, even when we weren’t in Montana.

“Of course, you can see Dot,” Tristan murmurs back to the dozing child in his arms. “She’s been asking about you.”

“Really?” Emmy asks, her voice dreamy.

“I knew Dot could talk,” Easton chimes in.

I wink at Tristan and wave at him, watching as he shuts the door to my office. Taking my world with him.

I check my watch. I have a few more minutes before my last call of the day and I have some notes to go over.

***

“Thank you for always making sure we get out here,” I say to Tristan a few days later.

We both draw our horses to a halt and look out over the spread of beautiful acreage that surrounds the large home below us. Easton is nestled safely in front of Tristans' body.

It had snowed the night before, and the scene before us is like a winter wonderland.

I love spending Christmas at the ranch. It just feels much more like the holidays when there’s snow on the ground.

The wind tugs at my hair, and strands of it whip across my cheeks.

I lean forward and pat the neck of my reliable mount. I wouldn’t dream of riding any horse other than Patch while I’m this pregnant.

Frankly, this might be my last ride before our second set of twins arrive. I’m already getting uncomfortable due to the size of my belly.

“There’s nowhere else on earth like this,” Tristan agrees, tipping his hat back a little and looking out across the snow-covered land.

“Danny, I want to go up to Mommy and Daddy!” I hear Emmy say.

I look over my shoulder and smile at the sight of my brother riding his horse and leading Dot and Emmy. The little pony’s short little legs churn as she keeps up with Danny’s bigger, dark bay quarter horse.

Danny had taken to riding like a duck to water, and he had confessed that he wanted to start a riding program for special needs kids.

Tristan had been working on this plan with him for a couple of months, and it sounded like Danny wanted to be a counselor.

It thrilled me to see Danny coming out of his shell and being more excited about engaging with the world. He had sometimes struggled with depression, but he seemed much more hopeful and happier now that Tristan was in our lives.

“Mommy, Dot is so fast!” Emmy shouted to me as Danny drew his horse to a halt by mine.

“I see that, baby,” I tell my daughter. “Don’t bounce on her back, remember?”

“Sorry, Mommy,” Emmy says regretfully, leaning over to give her pony an apologetic pat on the neck.

“Shall we head back?” Tristan says to us. He glances meaningfully at my very pregnant belly and the hand that I have pressed to my lower back.

“Yes! I’m freezing,” Easton whines.

“And I think Mommy and two certain kids need an afternoon nap,” Tristan adds.

“Naps are stupid,” Emmy says a little mulishly.

“What did I say about using that word?” Tristan says sternly to our daughter.

She looks down apologetically. “Sorry, Daddy.”

“I forgive you. Now come on. Time to head back.”

“Thank you,” I say to my husband as we guide our horses back to the fence line.

I reach out and grab for his fingers, lifting our clasped hands a little so that we don’t get jostled apart by the rocking and rolling motion of our mounts as we ride.

“For what?” he asks, his eyes on Emmy who is talking Danny’s ear off about something to do with the dogs who herd the cows.

“For making my life so wonderful,” I say honestly. “I never thought I would ever be this happy.”

Tristan turns to me with a grin. “It wasn’t me,” he teases. “It was a Christmas miracle.”

I roll my eyes, but then I smile at him. “Either way, I’m grateful, and I love you.”

“I love you too,” he says back, leaning over to kiss me awkwardly for a moment before his horse trips and we are pulled apart abruptly.

I look at my little family and feel like my heart might burst from happiness.

I could never have written a more perfect story than ours and I’m so grateful that we have found our happy ending.

The end.

***

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***

One night with the new bad boy in town left me with a major surprise: TRIPLETS. And now the hottie is my boss for the summer.

Years on the hockey rink have chiseled Finn in all the right ways. But who knew this grump had a knack for turning dreamy one-night stands into nightmares?

Now I’m stuck with a growing belly, crushed law school dreams, and a playboy boss who was looking for a fling–not fatherhood. I guess I should’ve asked for a condom instead of a cocktail.

But I can't resist as this billionaire heartthrob claims me over and over again. Can we turn our forbidden summer fling into a permanent party of five?

***

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