Chapter 60

• Bonus Chapter 1: Future Bliss
• The morning started exactly like every other chaotic, beautiful, caffeine-dependent morning since they'd become parents. Ellis stood at the kitchen counter, watching Asher attempt to flip pancakes with the confidence of a professional chef and the accuracy of a toddler throwing spaghetti at a wall. He was still sleep-tousled, his dark hair sticking up in defiance of gravity, and a smudge of pancake batter marking his cheek like war paint.
• Their two children, Max and Amelia, were running circles around the table, squealing in delight every time their father made a dramatic, exaggerated movement. It was loud. It was messy. And Ellis wouldn't trade it for anything.