The ring is the document of the homecoming.
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I think about Cormac's toast.
Cormac, who had been downstairs for four hours waiting, came up holding a bottle of champagne by the neck. He didn’t knock. He used the key I had given him three weeks ago when we agreed Konstantinos security would have brownstone keys. He walked into the living room where Lex and I were on the couch with Nora awake on the rug between us (she had been brought over from Eleni's at 10:30 PM because she would not be left out of this) and he set the champagne on the coffee table and he looked at Lex and he said, "Brother."
Lex said, "Brother."
Cormac said, "You did the thing."
Lex said, "I did."
Cormac said, "She said yes."
Lex said, "She did."
Cormac said, "In two languages."
Lex said, "In two languages."
Cormac looked at me. He said, "Sister."
I said, "Cormac."
He said, "I am going to make a toast. It is going to be short because Declan is the brother who makes long toasts and I am not Declan. Are you ready."
I said, "I am ready."
He poured. He handed me a glass. He handed Lex a glass. He poured one for himself and one for Declan who was standing in the doorway with his coat still on. He lifted his glass and he looked at the two of us on the couch with Nora between us in her dinosaur pajamas, and he said:
"To Maeve, who walked into a Greek consulate in 2022 in a green dress and ruined my brother's life in the best way. To Lex, who deserved her. To Nora, who got both of you. ‘Sláinte.’"
We drank.
Nora, on the rug, lifted her sippy cup and said, very seriously, "‘Steeneeahmaz.’"
The room broke.
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It is 1:23 AM now. I am still on the couch with Lex. The candles are burning down. The brownstone is silent.
I look at the ring.
I think about Cathleen at the door at 11:30 PM telling me, in the Boston Irish she’s only used three times, that Brendan would have lost his entire mind.
I think about Nora on the rug at 10:32 PM, when Eleni had brought her over half-asleep in pajamas, looking at the ring on my hand and then at Lex and saying, with the gravity of a federal prosecutor: "Daddy is going to be my Daddy on PAPER too?"
Lex had said, very carefully, "With your permission, ‘agápi mou.’"
Nora had considered this for a full eight seconds. Then she had said, "Okay. Brontos says yes."
Brontos had been in her lap the entire time. He had not been consulted. Brontos's yes had been imputed.
The room had broken again.
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