“Because you’re warming up to surfing?” he asks then rolls over to face me.

I get on my side to see his eyes. “Did you eradicate the sharks?”

“No, but for you I might try.”

“Aww.” I touch his cheek. “You’re so cute . . . sometimes.”

Then, in true Mark fashion, he reminds me how not cute he is.

“I’m going to miss these.” He grabs my boob.

I smack his hand away. “Well, they’re not going anywhere.”

His green eyes darken. “And neither are you.”

“No,” I say with a smile. “I’m not. You knocked me up and married me. I guess we’re stuck.”

Mark pulls me on top of him and kisses me. “I guess so.”

I roll off him, sit up, and look around. “I think it’s how it was meant to be. We’re exactly where we should be. You, me, here on this beautiful island. Just us.”

His hand rests on my stomach. “All of us. Forever.”

“Well . . .” I pause and then shake my head. “Nah, Forever and always.”

Five Years Later

“Where are the keys?” I yell as Makenna runs around in circles in her walker. She’s the spitting image of her father—blonde hair, green eyes, and his attitude. In other words, she’s a giant pain, but awfully cute.

“Where you left them!” Mark calls out as he tries to get our oldest corralled. Cullen is a handful. He literally has the worst traits of both of us. Stubborn is an understatement. He refuses to even look at the potty, won’t eat anything that’s green or brown, and sleep isn’t in his vocabulary. Mark and I cherish each second with him, mainly because we’re on nanny number six.

Yeah, six. He’s the devil. No, he’s his father. He’s forced me to become a work-at-home mom because we can no longer get anyone to respond to our ads. I swear kindergarten can’t come soon enough.

My pregnancy was easy, but his birth was far from it. I went through twenty-seven hours of labor, only to be rushed in for a C-section. I ended up hemorrhaging, and Cullen spent eight days in the NICU for difficulty breathing.

“Cullen!” Mark yells, and I laugh. He hates his name, but when Mark was gone for the night getting some sleep, I filled out the birth certificate, and Mark signed it in his sleep deprived haze. Thus, Cullen was named. “Charlie! You can’t leave me with this kid!”

“I have to go, and he’s your kid!” I look over at Makenna, thankful I’m bringing her in the car. She’s so easy.

When I got pregnant with Makenna, we agreed not to even attempt natural birth again, but she had other plans. Nine days before my scheduled surgery, Makenna decided it was time to make her appearance. I was crowning by the time we got to the hospital.

“My mother is going to kill me!” I continue tossing over everything in the kitchen, hunting for the damn keys.

“It’s a four-hour drive. You should’ve been on the road a while ago,” Mark says with Cullen hanging upside down with no pants on.

“How is it that you can’t handle getting a four-year-old dressed? Aren’t you supposed to be all badass?”

“Badass!” Cullen repeats. Of course.

I crouch down as he hangs like a bat. “That’s a bad word, baby. Don’t repeat what comes out of Mommy’s mouth.”

Mark laughs. “We should have another kid.”

I stand slowly and glare at him. “We’re never having another child. You can’t even handle the two we have.”

“Says the woman who has ‘go get your son’ on repeat.”

“He listens to you more,” I say, still searching for the damn keys. I stomp my foot as I grow more aggravated. “We have to go, now.”

Mark pulls me against his side as Cullen giggles. “Mommy, I go to Mamma’s?”

I lean down and ruffle his hair, “Not this time buddy, but Mommy isn’t going anywhere unless I can find the keys.”

“Potty!” he says.

Mark looks at me and we both close our eyes. “He put them in the toilet,” I grumble. This kid.

I head into the bathroom, and sure enough, sitting submerged are my keys, along with a few other items I’ll never touch again.

“Mark,” I say sweetly.

“No.”

“You owe me!”

“Cash that fucking day in, because I’m tired of hearing about it.”

Never. I’ll hold on until the day I die. It’s my one bargaining chip.

Mark and I took this week off to head to DC. Dominic is being sworn in to Congress tomorrow, and of course, my mother is throwing a party. Once we realized we’d need to have the oldest spawn out in public we reevaluated and decided to leave Mark and Cullen home.

We don’t see my family as much as I would like, but I love our home here in Virginia Beach. Mark sold his bachelor pad on the beach for more money than we could’ve ever imagined, plus my apartment sold for top dollar. We bought a piece of land and built the perfect home for us. Full of toys, technology, and baby proofing.

I work from home most days, thanks to the demon I love so much, tackling various intelligence projects for Jackson and Mark. The California office exploded in the last year, so I do work for both sites. Mark made an effortless transition as co-owner, and the pay raise helps.

Everyone handled Erik’s betrayal differently, but Jackson and Mark worked hard to keep everyone calm. Aaron was by far the angriest. He lost the most, thanks to Erik’s betrayal.

“Mark!” I call for him again. “Please! I’m willing to bargain.”

Some things never change.

He comes in behind me. “I don’t get you. Slaughtering, torture, and spying you’re good, but fishing some keys out is an issue?”

“Whatever. I have to kill the spiders,” I counter.

“Let’s not even talk about your fear of sharks. The insanity that is. Cullen is going in the damn water this year.”

“He’s welcome to the beautiful saltwater pool in the backyard. As much as he drives me insane, I like him enough not to get eaten.”

“Charlie,” he grumbles.

“Mark.”

“Charisma.” He kisses me quickly.

“Such a charmer.”

“You know it, beautiful.”

He reaches into the bowl and tosses the keys at me. “Asshole! I hate you,” I say since I have to change my damp shirt and be even later to my mother’s.

This is our life. It’s crazy, fun, messy, and chaotic. We fight a lot, but we have even more fun making up. Hence, why Makenna came so soon after Cullen.

“You love me, baby!”

“Love to kill you.”

“You’d miss me.”

“Not this time! I have better aim than you,” I call out. He laughs.

When I get back downstairs, Mark is sitting on the couch with both kids nestled in his sides. I stand against the wall just watching them. He reads as Makenna stares at him with a smile on her face, and Cullen touches the pages.

Moments like this, getting to see the most wonderful husband and father, make everything we’ve been through worth it. While we may have gone through a whole lot of hell, we found our heaven—together.