A Couple of Forevers (This Time Forever Book 2) (18 page)

Epilogue

Three
Years Later

Renee

Renee wasn’t sure if it was her new lifestyle, a sense of
needing to move on, or that she had just changed.  It probably was a
combination of those things.  Once she decided to sell her portion of the
company, everything fell into place for her.  Of course she felt a certain
sense of loss once the transaction had been concluded.  That sense of loss
didn’t last for very long, though.  It was soon replaced by a feeling of
freedom and accomplishment.  It had been something that she had watched grow
and become successful.  She was very proud of it and herself.  It hadn’t always
been easy, and there were times that were lean, but she had great support from
her family and friends.  It was, however, time to move on.  She had everything
that she needed and wanted, plus some.  She didn’t just sell the company and
leave everyone who had made her so successful hanging.  Renee sold the company
to Genie and her husband, Brent.  Genie and Brent had eloped shortly after
Renee and Elliott married. 

Renee was madly in love with Elliott.  They had two sets of
beautiful twins, their real source of pride and joy.  Financially, they were
set for life and then some.  They may have been separated for all those years
when Maggie sent her away, but their being apart didn’t diminish their love. 
Nothing and no one could ever come between them. 

Elliott was relieved, ecstatic, and overjoyed, to say the
very least.  When she told him that she just couldn’t do it anymore, he didn’t
immediately understand what she was telling him.  The night of the incident
with Jonathan had been the last straw.  Elliott didn’t know that Renee had
taken his concerns about the amount of time and energy that she was putting
into her business seriously.  When he would approach her about it, she seemed
to be tense and defensive.  She kept reassuring him that her family would
always come first.  She was true to her word.  Renee never left him or the
kids, or anything that had to do with their family hanging.  She was just doing
too much and there was no need for it.  Was he selfish for wanting his wife and
the mother of his children to spend the majority of her time with him and
them?  Yes.  Did he feel guilty about his feelings?  No.  Before Renee and
their kids came into his life, he was living a very one-dimensional existence. 
He’d dated, taken nice trips (some of them with women), and had a beautiful
home, but what he really wanted and needed was missing.  He had never stopped
loving Renee and when she left the way she did, he just sort of shut down.  He
mostly focused on work and making his firm the most successful in the state of
California.  Now, with Renee and the kids with him, his life was everything.

Renee and Maggie were never going to have a mother-daughter
relationship.  Maggie never seemed to know what to do when it came to being a
mother.  The concept of a happy medium had totally escaped her.  She always
overstepped boundaries, and as a result things spiraled out of control.  The
whole situation with Jonathan happened because of Maggie.  Once she knew that
Renee was back in LA with Elliott and that they were going to get married, she
started setting wheels into motion that would allow her to get close to Renee. 
Alexandra Benson, aka Alex, Renee’s best friend throughout high school, had
told Joan, her mother, about Renee moving back to California and her upcoming
marriage to Elliott.  After that conversation, Joan contacted Maggie to see if
she had spoken with Renee.  Maggie hadn’t spoken with Renee since Matt and
Kayla were born, and she knew she wouldn’t hear from her.  Maggie had an
ex-coworker who knew a person who did private investigation. 

Hall Investigative was a front that Jonathan used to hide
his illegal dealings.  Maggie met with Jonathan and told him what she wanted
him to do.  To her, he seemed to be legitimate.  She provided him with basic
information about Renee and gave him the name of her company.  Jonathan had
been struck by Maggie’s beauty when he met with her in the restaurant. 
Jonathan knew he was a good-looking man, but Maggie was all business and she
wasn’t fazed by him in the least.  When she provided him with a picture that
she had printed out of Renee from her company’s website, Jonathan was struck
again.  Clearly, beauty ran in the family.  She’d paid him to keep tabs on
Renee and to keep her updated as to what she was doing.  She hadn’t paid him to
stalk and become obsessed with her.  Once everything was over, Jonathan had been
placed in jail for life for racketeering, plus a fine that was twice the amount
of his illegal profits.   

Renee did make one call to Maggie after everything was
over.  She told Maggie to go on with her life.  She wished her well.  She told
her that there was no need for her to contact her ever again.  She made it
clear to her that she, Elliott and their children were happy, and that Maggie
needed to find her own happiness, if that was possible.

~~~~

“Good night, mommy and daddy,” Noelle giggled in unison. 
They were energetic, mischievous, and very adorable.  Renee and Elliott had
taken them out earlier that day.  They’d taken them to the Roadhouse Aquarium
where the kids were treated to a variety of activities, including a touching
and viewing tank, puzzles, and games.  Afterwards they went for pizza and a
walk on Manhattan Beach.  By the time they got back home, they were all tired. 
Even though they had their own rooms, they slept in the bunk beds in Noah’s
room tonight so they could look through the books they got from the aquarium.

Renee kissed their faces.  “Did you two have fun today?” she
asked.

“Yeah,” they both said.  Noah said, “Wanna go back.  Can we
go tomorrow?” 

Renee reminded him that they were spending the day with
Grandma and Grandpa.  Noelle said, “Grandma will make me some cookies.”  She
loved to say things to tease Noah.

“Well, Grandpa is getting me a car.”  Ben was getting him a
car.  A remote control model car. 

Elliott came into the room and said, “Okay you two, lights
out.  Grandma and Grandpa are going to have their hands full with you two
tomorrow, but you should be good and tired right now.”  He gave each of them a
little tickle and kiss on the cheek.  “See you in the morning.”

After Elliott finished getting ready for bed, he slipped
under the covers with Renee.  She was reading her latest download on her
Kindle, a steamy romance novel in which she pictured Elliott as the hot, sexy
alpha (which he was) and herself as his beautiful, sexy desire. 

He set her Kindle aside, removed her glasses, and pulled her
on top of him.  “Are you happy, baby?” he asked.

She gently caressed his face and looked deeply into his
desire-darkened eyes.  “I am, Elliott.  So very, very happy.  I love you more
than you can even imagine.  Are you happy?”

He gave her a wicked, sexy grin as he slipped her sleep
shirt over her head.  He then changed positions so that he was now on top of
her.  He gave her a scorching hot kiss, sucking her full bottom lip before
entering his tongue into her mouth, his tongue playing with her tongue.  He
kissed and nipped her neck, causing her body to tremor.  He moved down to her
breasts, his hands softly kneading her soft, plump flesh, his tongue teasing
her hardened nipples before sucking into his mouth.  The stubble on his face
added another layer of pleasure that shot straight to her core.  She’d stopped
wearing underwear to bed a long time ago.  There just wasn’t any need for it. 
She opened her legs for him and his steely erection teased her slick, wet heat.

“I love you too, baby.”  That wicked, sexy grin was back. 
“I’m going to show you just how happy you make me.”  His darkened gaze held
hers as he slid thickly and hotly into her wet, tight heat.”  They moaned each
other’s name and worked their bodies together in a sensuous, sexy rhythm that
would be theirs forever.

They were, indeed, very, very happy.