Chapter 27: Epilogue

The next morning, Bailey woke Gabriel with an enthusiastic blowjob to make up for passing out on their wedding night. Then they made love long and slow to fully consummate their marriage.

Then it was time to move on to the next chapter of their lives.

After her initial enlistment, Morgan stayed in the Navy. She retired with thirty-one years of service; her final duty station was as Command Master Chief of the USS Enterprise. Though she was often far from her home and friends, she was a constant in Gabe and Bailey's lives. Navy life was tough on her personally; she was married and divorced twice but had two darling children who adored their Aunt Bailey and Uncle Gabe.

Kimmy's promiscuous lifestyle eventually caught up with her. Excessive drinking and experimenting with drugs led to lots of unprotected sex which resulted in her contracting HIV after a night she didn't even remember. Thanks to friends who wouldn't give up on her, she got sober, went back to school and helped start a local women's shelter in Washington County. She died at the age of thirty-six, much too young for someone with so much promise.

After twenty-one years of marriage, Michael's wife filed for divorce. They were empty-nesters and with the children out of the house, she decided that she no longer wanted to be married. Their split was amicable; there was no infidelity, but in reality, they had basically been living separate lives for the last six or eight years anyway. Michael retired from his job as a CPA and became executive director of a non-profit foundation that helped single teenage mothers finish their high school educations and either go to college or find jobs.

Chuck and Teri were always there for the newlyweds. Teri ended up leaving show business when her kids started school. She couldn't keep up with their schedules and working on Broadway at the same time. After a couple of years of staying home, she started working as an agent, with a stable of several high-profile Broadway actors and television personalities. Chuck remained Gabriel's closest friend and became the big brother Bailey never had.

Several years after Bailey's wedding, Andy and Joanne retired, mostly due to his heart. They moved into Gabe and Bailey's house because it was closer to the doctors. He—and the high-powered rifle Gabe bought for him—took great pride in scaring off many of April's potential suitors, all of whom were worthless; Gabe had spoiled Andy on future sons-in-law. After receiving a pacemaker, Andy became the doting grandfather and Joanne the family matriarch.

Gabe never saw his father again. He finished serving his time for drug smuggling in Arizona and then wandered around the country for a while. While running a scam in Miami, he was gunned down in a gang shootout.

Despite years of trying, Bailey was never able to get pregnant due to the endometriosis. She was heartbroken, so April stepped in. Because that's what twin sisters do. On their fifth anniversary, April offered her womb to her sister and her brother-in-law. After two in-vitro tries (Gabe jokingly pushed for doing it the old-fashioned way; Bailey wasn't quite so amused), April bore her sister twins, a boy and a girl.

While she was pregnant and visiting Gabe and Bailey in New York, April was spotted by a talent scout. Enamoured by her raw beauty, he talked her into doing some photo shoots for maternity magazines. Even after giving birth to the babies, she did some more modeling but soon left the business, disillusioned and jaded at big city life. Aside from making a fair amount of money, the one thing she kept from her time in New York was a husband. They moved into the family house in Washington County where she taught elementary school and her husband managed a technology website. She hyphenated her last name and passed it on to her children so the Crawford family wouldn't disappear.