“Kaden!” she screamed, her third release tearing through her and tipping me over the edge.
“I fucking love you!” I bellowed as I spilled into her wonderland.
“I love you too,” she moaned at my ear. “Always.”
Epilogue
Mieke
Five years later
I sat nervously between my mom and dad as we watched one graduate after another walk across the stage and receive their degree along with their honorary stethoscope. Kaden was down there, patiently waiting his turn, but I couldn’t help feeling a little anxious.
This day had been a long time coming, and it hadn’t been without a few frustrations, but my husband was about to become a doctor. During the last five years, I’d stood by him and helped him every step of the way, making sure he fulfilled his dreams. He had already made my own dreams a reality, giving me the chance to learn under his father and urging me forward even when I’d wanted to slap his brilliant father time after time for ignoring his son in favor of his next invention.
Beside me, Dad was watching with tears in his eyes. He and Kaden had become close, and I knew he was proud of his son-in-law. He would never understand how much that meant to my husband, but he didn’t need me to tell him that.
“Here he goes,” Mom whispered, clutching my hand tightly in hers. “He’s so handsome down there, Mieke.”
She didn’t have to tell me that. I’d spent the morning showing him exactly how much I loved the way he looked in and out of his cap and gown. My man looked good in anything, but my favorite was seeing him in his work scrubs.
“Doctor Kaden John Carmichael,” the dean announced. Mom, Dad, and Jaco, who was sitting on the other side of Dad, started cheering just as the other families had when their loved ones’ names were called.
I couldn’t get my throat to work to call his name along with them. I was too emotional, too proud of the man beaming up at us to find my voice. Tears of pride spilled down my cheeks, and I lifted my hands over my head, clapping louder than anyone else for him.
Even with the distance that separated us, I saw him wink, and my heart overflowed with love for him.
It felt like it took forever for the rest of his graduating class to get their turn to walk across the stage. I sat between my parents, practically dancing with excitement and itching to kiss my husband. The news I wanted to share with him was demanding to be released. I’d been waiting two weeks now to tell him our news, but I wanted him to have his special day before I told him he was going to be a daddy in seven short months.
“Feeling okay?” Mom asked quietly so Dad and Jaco couldn’t hear.
I nodded. She was the only other person who knew my secret. I’d been dying to tell someone just to get it off my chest, and there was no one I’d rather share it with than Mom. She was just as excited for Kaden to know as I was, but probably because she wanted to tell Dad the news as well.
Between my parents, they’d already conspired to get us closer to them. I wasn’t convinced they hadn’t driven their next-door neighbors batshit crazy so they would move, but I wasn’t going to complain since I’d always liked that house. Kaden and I bought it the year before, after we got married, and his dad wired it with all kinds of new gadgets as a wedding present. It was even more high-tech than our apartment had been.
When the ceremony came to a close, I was already on my feet. Leaving my parents behind, I pushed through the crowd until I reached my husband and threw myself into his arms. My legs went around his waist, and he swung me around, kissing me breathless.
“Congrats, Doc,” I said with a shaky laugh, tears spilling down my cheeks.
“Thanks, baby.” He kissed me again. “None of this would have been possible without you, though. You know that, right?”
I nodded, my happy tears coming faster. “Yeah, we’re aware, Daddy.”
I felt every one of his muscles go tight under me, and suddenly his dark-blue eyes were filling with tears too. “Daddy?” he breathed. “Mieke… Are you pregnant?”
My chin trembled, but I smiled as I nodded. “Yes. We’re going to have a baby, Doc.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against my own. “I didn’t think this day could get more perfect. But that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard, babe.”
“You’re happy?” I teased, knowing he was.
“I don’t think a man could be happier than I am right now,” he choked out, his mouth slamming down on mine.
I believed him.
Needing Forever Volume 2 COMING SOON!
Needing Forever VOL 1: Part of The Rocker... Series Universe Page 15
