Every Which Way

• e p i l o g u e •

I know you guys are curious to know how we made the long-distance thing work.

Long distance relationships were not easy. We went through two breaks and one break up that lasted about a month and a half. Yet we always found our way back to each other.

So when we both earned our degrees and moved back to our hometown at the age of 23, Declan proposed.

We had our wedding right here in our hometown. It was a small gathering with our closest friends and family and it was the happiest day of my life. We took a cruise around the Caribbean for our honeymoon.

It's been years down the road since that honeymoon. I work at Routledge high as an algebra teacher now. I still have my camera and do photoshoots on the side when I have time. I never thought teaching teenagers would be something I loved doing, but I do. Evelyn was a student of mine at one point. I had very clear orders from Declan to keep an eye on her.

Declan's interest in math pushed him towards engineering, so that's what he went for. When his dad passed away in college, Julie took over the hotel business and insisted that Declan take all of the money that he left behind. Even after Declan made Julie keep half of the inherence, we were still living very comfortably off of just that alone.

Today, we have four children. Two of them were birthed and two of them were adopted, but all of them are equally ours. It was three girls and one baby boy.

Cyrus and Natalie bought a house at the end of the road from us. Cyrus is a real estate agent and Natalie runs her own successful coffee shop. They have one child and Natalie is pregnant with her second. Our five-year old's were already the best of friends.

We met our new neighbors the other day. It took me a while to realize that I had already met this girl years ago at a high school soccer game. Her name was Adelaide and her husband's name was Tristan. They had a three-year-old little girl. We became good friends with them and the kids had lots of playdates together.

Don't worry you guys, Adam is still around. When he found out Tristan's last name was Presley and they didn't name their only child Elvis, he damn near threw a fit.

And you know how I once joked that Declan, Adam, and Cyrus were the three stooges? That's what it was, a joke. Because we met Tristan's best friend, Tate, and Adelaide's brother, Carson. With Adam there, those three were the real stooges.

Anyway, Coach Clarke is now retired and guess who became the new one? Coach Myers. Adam is still a big flirt but he's trying out dating now, even got himself a date with the new art teacher Ms. Capra. If you ask me, he was already obsessed with her. He's still a frequent visitor at our house and the kids are obsessed with their cool Uncle Adam.

Sitting here all together with the kids and all their aunts and their uncles and their grandparents, I thought back and smiled softly at every moment that led us up to here.

And I look at Natalie, Cyrus, Adam, and Declan and my smile only grows.

After everything we had been through together, there was no way that any one of us was going to lose touch with each other, because even before the marriage and all the children, we were already family.

So, life can continue to pull me every which way, I didn't care. Because one way or another, this family was only growing from here.