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“You got it. A Valentine’s Day wedding,” he agreed, then kissed me hard.
“I’ll have to start making a guest list,” I chuckled.
“Do we have to invite my mother?” he whined.
I nodded, but kissed him again to lessen the blow.
“Dad! Catch!” Caden called just in time for Owen to get a Nerf dart right to the forehead.
“That’s amazing aim!” he called, then he kissed me one more time before going over to tackle his son, since he’d initiated war.
I laughed at them and watched the man roll around with his boys, who both had matching guns with a million darts.
“Those are going to be a pain to clean up,” Owen’s mom said, moving a little closer to watch all the boys playing.
“What’s a little mess compared to a child's joy?” I asked, not expecting an answer.
She hummed in thought.
“You’ll be a good mom, hun,” she said quietly, still staring forward as if she hadn’t said anything at all.
I just smiled, taking the compliment right into my heart and burying it there to cherish.
“Thanks,” I whispered back.
“Hm?” she asked, continuing her denial of actually saying something nice.
I just let my smile widen as I watched the boys play.
Mom, Dad, and Patrick showed up in time for dinner, and while it was awkward, Owen helped the boys understand that Mom and Dad were my parents, and that they’d be their grandparents soon.
Mom corrected him and warned the boys with a grin on her face that the boys were already theirs. She punctuated that by handing them a gift each.
“They’re charming,” she told me after dinner while the men of the family treated us to some terribly sung Christmas songs.
“I love them,” I told her, laughing with tears in my eyes, my heart was so full. “All of them.”
Epilogue: 10 Years Later
-Mia-
My throat was sore and raw after screaming and cheering so much, but I couldn’t help myself.
Caden was standing to my right with his little sisters Claire and Cassy nine and seven, respectively. He was yelling as loud as I was as his big brother walked down the stage to take his high school diploma from his school’s principal.
I turned to Owen, who had tears in his eyes. He tried blinking them away, but that just sent them tumbling down his cheeks instead.
“Dammit,” he mumbled, wiping at them while he smiled down at me.
I grinned, then kissed his cheek.
“Can you believe he’s already graduating?” I asked with emotion staining my own voice.
“It feels like fucking yesterday you and I were just walking down the aisle ourselves,” he said, thumbing the tears falling from my own eyes.
I stared up at the brilliant man, my husband.
We’d had our February wedding, then promptly found out we were pregnant with Clair just two weeks after that. Owen had been so excited! I’ll never forget the look on his face. This look though, it was very similar, with the pride twisting his brows and the tears falling down his face.
