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Mia grinned and held up her left hand with a sparkly diamond on the ring finger.
“Polly!” her dad called, then stood out of his chair for the first time since we arrived.
Mia’s mom came stumbling into the room with a spatula in her hand, eyes wide and worried.
“What is it, dear?” she asked, Gran peeking out the door, too.
“Come see your daughter’s hand,” Patrick Sr. drawled with a smirk, which had Polly flying toward her daughter.
“Really?” Polly cried, excitement written all over her face.
“Mhmm!” Mia agreed, her face glowing with elation.
“Oh, honey,” she gushed, pulling her daughter in for a crushing hug.
Gran Gran came out and wobbled to her granddaughter and put her arms around the girls, making it a threesome.
“Are you kidding me?” Patrick asked from the door, his young face drawn with exasperation.
Within the next ten seconds, the kid was dragging his girlfriend into the living room, then he dropped to one knee.
“You know I love you, Maria,” he said, his face almost as flushed and pink as hers. “Will you marry me, too? We talked about this so many times, but now—”
“Absolutely not!” Polly and Patrick Sr. shouted together, the attention decisively diverted from me Mia and I.
“When’s the wedding?” Gran Gran asked me, looking up with steely eyes.
“We’re going to take our time,” I told her without apology. “But I’m sure Mia will ensure you receive an invitation when the time comes.”
Gran Gran gave a little snort, then turned to her granddaughter and hugged her again.
“And look here. All that time getting a degree and you'll just be a regular ol’ mama, anyway.”
“My degree was not a waste,” she said, chuckling at her grandmother. “But Motherhood is something I would cherish with my whole heart.”
Her eyes turned to me after saying that, and I squeezed her hand, maybe a little too hard, but damn those words meant so much to me. I couldn’t help but let my overactive imagination run away with me as I thought of Mia mothering my children, or, God help me, barefoot and pregnant with one of our children.
I’d brought up the whole age difference before because I was prepared for the complications that our relationship would bring. There was no disillusionment for me that things would go perfectly or that we wouldn’t run into problems. In fact, I knew better than most because I’d suffered through years of fucking things up with my previous wife, who was no less than a saint for a good portion of that time.
I was a new man. A better man, but I was still going to fuck up, and no matter how much I wished I could change things for her, I couldn’t make up for the twenty years I’d lived on earth without her. I was prepared to start a family fresh over with her, anticipated it even, if that was what she wanted. But was she really ready for a husband like me?
Even still, with a ring on her finger, doubts plagued me. Would it ever leave me? Even when we were married, would I be able to trust that she really wanted to keep me?
Fuck, when did my self-esteem get so poor?
“What’re you thinking about?” Mia asked, nudging my shoulder.
I shook away my thoughts and smiled, turning into her.
“Nothing. Just bullshit,” I whispered into her ear. “Just thinking about…the future.”
Her beaming smile was fucking everything. It warmed me from the inside out.
“So,” Polly said after a few minutes. “If everyone’s done with all this engagement stuff, then let’s get that turkey dinner on the table.”
Mia giggled, pressed a kiss to my lips, then hurried after her Mom, Patrick and his girlfriend, and Gran Gran, who took her time following.
After they left, Patrick Sr. and I were alone in the living room with the football game on the TV playing low in the background.
