Color of Forgiveness (63 page)

“She is.”

“I can’t tell who she looks like.”

“Me either. I can’t believe how much hair
she has. She definitely got that from you.”

Dylan smiles and rubs his thumb across her
tiny, soft fingers. “I love you, Myra. Thank you for giving me
this.”

“I love you too. But you had a big part in
this as well,” she says, smiling.

He smiles back but shakes his head. “That’s
not what I meant. I meant thanks for showing me that I could do
this again… that I could be a dad again.”

She reaches her hand up and touches his
cheek, her eyes filling with tears. “That was all you. I had
nothing to do with it. That was your choice.”

He thinks about it for a minute before he
nods. She’s right. It was his choice. He has decided to live again,
and he has a lot of living to do. He plans on living for that
beautiful little three-year-old boy that is somewhere up beyond the
stars, and for this precious new life that clings to his
finger.

The door bursts open and in comes Susie and
Jackie carrying bags of baby stuff.

“What the?” Dylan says, catching himself
just before he falls off the bed. “What are you?”

“I talked Jackie into bringing me back,”
Susie says. “I have to go home in a few days so this desperate
godmother needs to get in as much Megan time in as I possibly
can.”

Susie sets her bags down and pulls up a
chair. “Now, while I’m here, I think we should start talking about
baby number two…”

Dylan’s eyes almost bug out before they dart
to Myra’s. She just giggles and shakes her head and mouths,
sorry.
He takes in a deep breath and wonders when the hell
visiting hours are over…

CHAPTER 17

Epilogue 2

8 Years Later…

Dylan presses the end button on his phone
and sets it on his desk. For a long moment, he just stares at it
with his brows furrowed, but then his face relaxes and a small
smile tugs on his lips. “Wow,” he whispers, shaking his head.

The door to his office flings open, slamming
against the wall with a loud bang as Chad barrels into the small
space. “Well? What'd they say? I'm fucking dying here, man. I'm
dying
, bro,” Chad shouts like a drama queen, leaning his
beefy hands on Dylan's desk and staring down at him.

Dylan clears his throat and averts his eyes,
fiddling with some papers strewn in front of him. His brows stay
furrowed, and he tries really hard to keep his expression neutral.
“Well, I have some bad news…”

“Huh? Are you fucking kidding me?” Chad asks
before he flops into a chair across from Dylan, his shoulders
sagging. “Not again. Damn it, this fucking sucks. I really thought
we got it this time. Who outbid us?”

Dylan leans back in his chair. “Well,” he
says warily, “we didn't actually get outbid.”

“Well, shit. Then what the hell
happened?”

“The bad news is…” Dylan begins as he
stretches his arms out and folds them behind his head, “that you're
gonna have to put in some overtime to get that new construction
crew together.”

“You fucker!” Chad shouts with a grin on his
face, leaping from his chair and running around the desk straight
for Dylan. “You're going down, bro. Headlock time little
brother.”

Dylan busts out laughing and jumps from his
chair to flee, but Chad's too fast. He grabs him and in a split
second has Dylan trapped in a headlock, rubbing his scalp hard.
“All right...
Ow
. Jesus, you asshole, that hurts.”

Chad cackles and finally lets Dylan go, but
immediately grabs him in a huge hug, pounding him hard on the back.
“Bro! We're gonna be building shit. This is so fucking awesome. You
wanna go grab a beer and celebrate?”

“Nah… maybe some other time; I gotta go home
to the family.”

“Yeah... that reminds me…” Chad says,
pulling out his phone. “I can't wait to tell Nat. I'm gonna get
laid for the next month, dude.”

Chad puts the phone up to his ear and looks
up at Dylan. “I'm heading out. See ya in the mornin', brother. And
just remember that I owe you for tricking me like that, you shit
eater.” Chad throws him the middle finger before he lumbers from
Dylan’s office.

Dylan laughs and calls out a goodbye to his
retreating figure. He grabs his phone to call his dad about the
good news. He'd prefer calling Myra first, but he wants to tell her
in person.

His dad retired three years ago, leaving the
business to Chad and Dylan to run, but the physical aspect of
contracting work began taking a toll on Dylan's back. So when Myra
got her book deal, she begged Dylan to quit since they had plenty
of money to live on. But he couldn't do it. He
needed
to
work. It was important for him to provide for his family. After he
and Myra had a few heated discussions over the matter, she came up
with the idea of him and Chad getting into new construction with
Dylan supervising. They started
Lawson Construction
on the
side while they continued working the contracting business, and
they've been bidding on construction projects around Boise for
months now. They had lost every bid... until today.

He chuckles as he hangs up with his dad who
was thrilled with the news. As he wraps things up for the day, he
can't keep from grinning like an idiot because he can't wait to get
home and tell Myra the news.

As he stares out the window of his truck at
the scenery whipping by, he decides that this is probably his
favorite time of the day. Well, maybe not. Nights wrapped up in
Myra's arms are pretty fantastic too. That and snuggling up in the
morning with her softness and a couple of kids in the bed isn't so
bad either. But there's just something about coming home after a
long day at work and having his wife there at home, waiting for him
with some kind of delicious home cooked meal ready. Myra has
spoiled him rotten. He knows he's rotten and loves every second of
it. And seeing his kids after a long day of missing them? He smiles
when he thinks of that feeling he gets when he hugs them tight to
his chest and kisses their soft little cheeks. There's nothing in
the world that can compare to it, absolutely nothing.

He pulls into the garage and grins like a
fool when he enters the kitchen. It smells fantastic… something
Italian.

“Hey, boy,” he says, bending down to pet
their chocolate lab, Brownie, who earnestly nudges his hand with
his wet nose. Brownie's giant tail wags excitedly and hits the wall
over and over again making a loud thumping sound.

Lifting his eyes, he catches Myra's gaze
with his as she stands at the stove stirring something with Matthew
resting on her hip. Her smile that greets him lights up the entire
kitchen, causing a warm sensation to spread in his chest.
Nobody
should be this lucky
, he thinks to himself. But somehow he is.
He matches her smile and winks at her as he quickly straightens and
makes his way towards them.

“Hi, baby,” Myra says sweetly. He pulls them
both into his arms and his lips find hers, kissing her gently.

“Mm, I missed you,” he whispers softly
against her sweet mouth. He jerks away from her and shouts,
“
Ow!
” when Matthew's little fist grabs a handful of his hair
and tries to yank it from his head.

“Oh, no,” Myra mumbles. He can feel her
trying to pry Matthew's fingers away. Several grunts and groans
leave his lips and he knows at least a couple chunks of his hair
are lost before Myra is finally able to remove his son's chubby
fingers from his scalp.

“Are you okay, baby?” Myra asks,
snickering.

“
No
.” He rubs his scalp, frowning.
“Son, you're gonna make me bald before I hit forty.”

Matthew responds by grabbing his bib and
shoving it in his mouth and blowing a loud, wet raspberry while
kicking his legs excitedly.

Dylan can't help but smile at his adorable
son. Holding onto Matthew's little hair-snatching hands, he leans
down and kisses his cheek. He breathes him in unable to get enough
of that wonderful clean, powdery baby smell.

“So?” Myra prompts, staring up at him with
wide eyes full of anticipation.

He smiles and nods. “We got it, baby.”

“I knew it! I'm so proud of you,” she says,
wrapping her free arm around his neck and squeezing him.

“It was all you, baby,” Dylan says. “We
wouldn't have even gone in that direction if you hadn't pushed
me.”

“I just didn't want to see you in pain
anymore. Now you can just boss people around. How's your back
today?” she asks, reaching her free hand up underneath his shirt.
He can feel her fingers tracing over the small scar on his back
where he had disc surgery six months ago.

“It's good…”

“Daddy!”

His heart, which was really soft and mushy
to begin with, just flat-out melts into pure liquid the minute he
feels little bodies wrap around his legs.

“Daddy! Daddy! Be the Tool Man! Please?”
Megan begs.

Myra smiles at him, love shining in her
beautiful eyes before she turns back to the stove.

“The Tool Man?” he asks in a deep voice as
he starts walking towards the family room with Megan, Madison, and
Max clinging like tiny spider monkeys to his legs.

They all shout, “Yes!” among bursts of tiny
giggles.

He stops when he gets to the family room.
“Tool Man hungry,” he announces in a throaty, monster-like voice as
he pats his stomach. “Tool Man needs little children to munch
on.”

“Don't eat me, daddy,” Madison shouts amidst
little giggles. “Don't eat me.”

“Eat me, daddy!” Max shouts.

“Tool Man need snack,” Dylan says loudly. He
leans down and grabs Madison, pulling her from his leg. She squeals
in delight as he holds her tiny little squirming body up in the air
vertically before his mouth descends on her neck, kissing and
making chomping noises while his fingers dig into her little sides,
causing her to shriek.

He repeats the process with Max and Megan
until he ends up flat on the floor with the kids crawling all over
him.

“Dinner's ready,” Myra announces. “Kids, go
wash your hands.”

They all start whining. “You heard your
mother. Now get to it,” Dylan says affectionately as he starts to
stand up. But before he can, Megan wraps her arms around his neck.
He stands and holds her in his arms.

“Daddy?” she asks her blue eyes framed with
thick, dark lashes looking up at him intently.

“What, sweetie?”

“Do you like my nail polish?” she asks,
holding her small hand up for his inspection.

“Hmm…” he says, staring at the glittery
purple color on her tiny fingertips. “Why, yes I do. That's a very
lovely color on you.” He doesn't know a thing about nail polish,
but he does know that everything looks beautiful on his little
girl.

“Mommy painted them for me. Thank you,
daddy, I love you,” she says happily her little arms hugging his
neck tightly.

He feels like a pile of mush, just a gooey
pile of nothing on the floor. “I love you, too, pumpkin.”

“I'm not a pumpkin, daddy,” she says,
pouting. “I'm a princess.”

“I know,” he says with a smile. “Daddy's
little princess.”

“I'm yo pwincess, too, daddy,” Madison says
with a tug on his shirt.

He looks down into her dark brown eyes. “I
know. I'm the luckiest daddy in the world. How did I manage to end
up with two princesses?”

Madison cocks her head to the side, smiling
up at him as the dimples in her cheeks deepen. “It's 'cuz yo
special, daddy.”

Dylan reaches down and picks her up, holding
both of his little girls in his arms. He doesn't know if he's
special or not, but he's absolutely certain that he's blessed,
profoundly blessed.

He quickly gives each of them a kiss on the
cheek.

“Max?” he calls out to his son. “Hang onto
dad's leg, son. We gotta go wash our hands.”

His face hurts a little from smiling so much
as he limps towards the bathroom with Max hanging on his leg and
his two beautiful little princesses in his arms.

* * *

“
No,
” Myra says in a sharp voice her
eyes darting to the closed bedroom door. “I don't even know where
it's at.”

“You are so full of the shitty shits right
now, it's not even funny,” Susie retorts. “You know
exactly
where it's at. Now hurry up and go get it. I'm aging here.”

Myra rolls her eyes at the Face Time on her
iPhone. “How do you know I didn't throw it away?” she asks, looking
down at Susie's face. Susie cocks an eyebrow at her.

“Um, because I demanded that you save it?
And you sure as hell saved all the other ones. Besides, you know
I'd come out there and beat your bony little ass if you didn't.
We've been friends for way too many years now for you to start
trying to pull the wool over my eyes so don't
even
try it.
Now hurry! I'm getting all tingly and excited here,” Susie shouts,
throwing her hands in the air and wiggling her fingers all
crazy-like.

Myra huffs loudly. “Fine… You're so pushy,”
she mumbles. With a frown on her face, she reluctantly sets her
phone on the bed. She quickly locks the bedroom door and stomps
into her closet. She doesn’t have time for this… she could get
interrupted at any minute. Dylan’s giving Max a bath while Megan
and Madison are playing together in Megan’s room. Plus, she just
got Matthew down for the night, and he was fussy and could wake up
at any minute. Looking up at the multiple boxes on the top shelf,
she finally lays eyes on the one she's looking for. Pulling it
down, she scrunches her nose up at the thick layer of dust covering
the lid. Blowing gently, she watches as a puff of dust swirls into
the air.

Carrying it back to the bedroom, she removes
the lid and smirks when she sees the still unopened pink dildo that
Susie sent her so many years ago. She moves it aside and rummages
through the box until she finds what she’s looking for. She leans
over and picks her phone back up.