It made June feel giddy just to think about it.
They were just sitting down to actually start performing when Benjamin’s little head appeared in the doorway.
“Uh, hi,” he said, slightly sheepish. “I finished my book. Can I listen?”
June glanced over to Levi to check in with him, since he was less familiar with the kind of kid interruptions that characterized most of June’s life. But he was already beckoning Benjamin forward to sit behind the recording program that was running.
“Okay,” he said. “You can definitely listen, but you have to berealquiet, okay? If you want, you can also listen with these headphones, which will show you what the program is picking up. Be careful not to mess with any of the buttons though, okay?”
Benjamin was looking at Levi like he had hung the moon.
“I won’t touchanything,” he promised, sitting on his hands in illustration. He stayed still for Levi to put the oversized headphones on his head, and June made a mental note to get a picture later, as it was adorable.
For now though, it was time to get into the zone.
She put on her own headset, which obscured the noise from outside enough that she barely heard Levi say, “Okay, Ben, ready to hear your mommy sing?”
“I can’t wait,” Benjamin whispered, quiet and earnest.
June closed her eyes for a minute. If she looked at her boy and the man who was taking more and more control of her heart…
Well, she wouldn’t be able to focus enough to sing.
She kept her eyes closed as she listened to the background music that Levi had recorded on the guitar during their last session, then sang the lyrics that the two of them had written together. Levi had spearheaded the writing, since June felt alittle more assured with singing than with songwriting, but she’d contributed enough that it really felt liketheirsong. She let all the emotion of their connection into her singing, and when she was done, she felt like she had reallymadesomething.
It felt really, really good.
But not quite as good as it felt when she opened her eyes to see Benjamin looking at her like he’d never seen her before, while Levi beamed proudly at her.
Benjamin glanced up at Levi to check that it was okay to make noise and waited for Levi’s nod of approval.
“Mommy,” he breathed once he knew that he wouldn’t ruin the recording. “You sing like… likemagic.”
“Thanks, baby,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. So much for her resolution not to cry.
“That was cool,” Benjamin said in an understated way that felt like the highest praise in the world to June.
Levi’s hand touched hers lightly, and she flipped her grip so that she could weave their fingers together. With her other arm, she pulled Benjamin in for a hug.
Thank you, she mouthed at Levi over Benjamin’s head.
Levi just squeezed her fingers. It had been a long, long time since June had felt this happy, and she planned to hold onto that feeling for as long as she could.
The wonderful part was that she was starting to believe that she would really get to keep this life that was taking shape around her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Diana looked up from admiring her ring only to realize that, oh shoot, she was late for book club. Even so, it wasn’t easy to tear her gaze away from the sparkling rock on her left hand.
She was just soexcited.She and Anthony had laughed over Diana’s misconception… after he’d apologized for making her worried. Now that she knew the full story, she completely understood, though. Working full time and being a partner and parent took up a lot of time. She understood how planning a proposal as perfect as the one he had gifted her with would cut into those responsibilities.
Besides, as he and Eloise had laughingly described, there had been alotof hiccups in getting the plan in action. Supposedly one version of the plan had involved Eloise calling from school pretending to be sick, before they’d realized that evenpretendthrowing up was not exactly the most romantic.
By the time they’d been done with the celebratory cake that Anthony had stashed away in his car, they’d all been in stitches.
The smile hadn’t faded from Diana’s face in days.
Itwasmaking her late for a lot of things, though. It was like her ring hypnotized her and the next thing she knew, she’d beendreaming about the wonderful life she, Anthony, and Eloise would have together long enough that she needed to hurry.
