“You go next, Wyn,” Lenni urged.
I looked at Archer.“You guys sure?”
“Yeah,” Lenni said.
“Okay.”I got up off the couch and went to the red and white stocking that had my name stitched across it.I reached my hand down into the stocking, my fingers encountering a square velvet box.
I looked at Archer, who was watching me with glittering eyes.Lenni’s grin was wide.
“You guys got me earrings,” I teased.
“No!”Lenni shook her head.
“A bracelet?”
“Wyn,” she whined.“Open it!”
“Yeah, Wynelope.Open it,” Archer commanded.
I extracted the box as I held my breath and then flipped it open.
A gorgeous oval aquamarine encased in a gold setting with small diamonds around it peered back at me.
“You said you didn’t want a big show,” Archer said, rising and coming toward me.“But if you want me down on one knee?—”
I flung myself at him, wrapping him in a tight embrace.I buried my face in the crook of his neck, bathing his skin with my tears.
“Do you like it, Wyn?”Lenni asked.
I pulled back and held my hand out to her.She rushed forward and the three of us wrapped around each other like a Celtic knot.
“It’s perfect,” I said, holding my hand out to Archer.
He took the ring and slid it onto my finger before kissing the back of my hand.
“I helped pick it out,” Lenni informed me.“I’m glad you like it.”
“Iloveit.And I love it even more since you helped.”
Lenni backed away and smiled.
“You next,” Archer said to Lenni, squeezing my hand as we watched Lenni dig through her stocking and pull out folded papers.
“What’s this?”she asked in confusion as she opened them.“Stepparent petition for adoption?”
“I want to adopt you,” I explained.
She looked up slowly from the papers, swallowing several times, like something was caught in her throat but she couldn’t get it out.She glanced at me and then at her father.
Lenni shook her head.
My heart fissured.
“I won’t let you adopt me,” Lenni said, her voice strained.“Not with my last name the way it is.I want to be a Keel.I want us all to be Keels.”
“God damn it,” Archer said, his voice gruff.“You know how to pull a fast one.”
Lenni’s lips trembled.
