She kissed Anthony again, then bent down to press a kiss to Eloise’s forehead. She didn’t know that she had ever felt so happy, not in all of her thirty-eight years.
“I did a really good job keeping it a secret,” Eloise said, slumping against Diana’s legs as though the struggle of doing so had physically exhausted her. “We’ve been planning for practically a million years.”
“A few weeks,” Anthony amended in a quiet voice to Diana, and she laughed again as all the pieces fell into place.Thiswas why she’d seen so little of them the past few weeks. They hadn’t been trying to push her out of their lives… they’d been working on a scheme to keep them all together forever.
“Well, I was very surprised,” she told them genuinely.
“Daddy, you didn’t even show her the ring!” Eloise protested, and both Anthony and Diana jumped in realization that she was correct.
“Whoops,” Anthony said, pulling the box back up between them.
“It’s not like I really gave you a chance,” Diana said, her giddy happiness evident in her tone.
When he opened the box, though, it took her breath away. The ring inside was art-deco inspired, done in a floral halo style, with a large round-cut center gem surrounded by a gold filigree shaped like petals with small gems laid in each of the extensions. It was completely Diana’s style, and it was utterly perfect.
“Oh no,” she said, pressing her hands back to her face. “I’m going to cry again.”
“I thought she was happy,” Eloise murmured to Anthony.
“Oh, I am,” Diana said, bending down to hug Eloise, then popping up to hug Anthony, then kissing her new fiancé, then giving her soon-to-be stepdaughter another hug. She was so overwhelmed with her joy that she didn’t quite know how to spread it around. “I’m so happy I can hardly stand it.”
“Try it on!” Eloise urged.
“Here, let me,” Anthony said, his grin as big as the corresponding smile on Diana’s face felt. He slid the ring onto her finger, and it fit perfectly.
Of course it did, Diana thought. Every single thing about this moment was perfect, so why shouldn’t this be too?
“I love you, Diana,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers.
“I love you too,” she said, feeling her heart brimming over with the kind of joy she had, for so long, worried that she would never find.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Okay, I have… snacks. Wipes. Insulin. Water bottles. Tissues.”
June ticked the items off her mental list as she rifled through her bag, confirming that she had everything she needed for an afternoon out with Benjamin. Before she had become a mom, she’d thought the ‘hauling around a wagonful of kid junk’ years ended after they were out of diapers, but it turned out that this was extremely untrue.
Sure, some of the things that June now carried with her everywhere were particular to the needs of a kid with diabetes, buteveryparent knew the peril of needing a tissue for a snot-nosed kid, digging through a bag, and coming up empty. June had touched somereallygross stuff in the name of good parenting in her day.
Convinced that she had everything she could need, and equally certain that Benjamin would test the limits of her preparedness sooner or later, June turned to head for the door—and promptly knocked a stack of mail to the floor.
She crossed her eyes in an effort to keep from letting slip a choice word that she didn’t want her seven-year-old to hear, then bent to pick up the mail. She sorted as she went; most ofthis should have been thrown out before she’d even brought it inside.
Catalogue for a company where she’d bought one sweater about ten years ago? Trash. Offer for a credit card? Trash. Flyer for a big box store out of town? Trash.Anothercredit card offer? Trash, trash, trash!
June had half a tree’s worth of trash when her fingers paused on something that looked real. She opened the nondescript white envelope with her insurance company’s name in the corner. She dragged her finger through the seal, hoping to find good news about a reimbursement.
It was… not good news.
She’d asked her company to offer her a better deal on Benjamin’s insulin at the recommendation of their doctor, following the logic of some insurance-lingo mumbo jumbo that she hadn’t quite understood. She’d taken diligent notes in the doctor’s office, and repeated everything precisely as she’d been told, and the insurance rep had been positive enough to give her hope.
But alas, no. She still had to pay the old rate for Benjamin’s insulin. And the old rate was… considerable.
For a moment, overwhelm threatened her. It was just allso much, and every time she felt as though she was finally,finallygetting her feet beneath her, something new came dropping onto her plate. How was a person supposed to function when there was always some new challenge lurking around the corner?
Before her panic could properly flare, however, a snatch of music floated through her mind. It was one of the refrains that she and Levi had been working on for their song together. It was just a small little trill of notes, one of many that they’d played with in their first recording draft, but it soothed her just to think of it.
She wasn’t alone. She’d never been alone, of course. She’d had her community at her back, and her friends had never let her feel that she couldn’t turn to them for help. But having Levi in her corner?
