Page 266 of Wait for Him

“All of the speeches tonight have really tested the structural integrity of my makeup,” I say as I stand at the microphone, wringing my hands together.

“You’re still gorgeous, love!” Macy calls from somewhere in the crowd.

I wave her off, which only makes her laugh as she leans into Jade. “Thank you, Mace. Please stop encouraging the hormones.”

That gets a laugh, and I take a breath before looking around the room.

“James, cover your ears for this part.”

“God. Gladly.” He immediately puts both hands over his ears.

“Once upon a time, I met a boy with an old soul and kind eyes.” I pause intentionally. “Then I rode him like an untrained bull on the Fourth of July.”

Jackson’s head falls back as he loses it. Michael throws both hands into the air like I’m the problem in this room, which is rich considering the man has spent the better part of my adult life making every family gathering exponentially worse. My girls scream and clap on my behalf while Samson and Lauren simultaneously pinch the bridges of their noses.

“Listen, it’s relevant to the story, people.”

“Is it?” Michael calls out.

“Yes, BenBen. Some of us understand narrative structure.”

James, hands still firmly over his ears, says, “I can still hear you.”

“Then cover them better.”

Jackson is still laughing so hard that he has one hand over his face.

I point at him. “See? He remembers.”

That gets another roar from the room.

“As I was saying.” I take a seat on the stool behind me. “That night started the great love story that is Rose and Jackson. Then I met him again when Michael introduced him as his twenty-year-old best friend, the fucking liar.”

“Hey, you lied too!” Jackson calls out.

“Semantics. Hush now, you’ve already given your speech. So rude.” I wave him off and turn back to the room. “Anyway, back to how Jackson lied about his age, but it didn’t matter.”

I look at him and put a hand over my heart.

“I fell in love with him that night and never stopped. Believe me, I tried. I tried very fucking hard. But it turns out there just isn’t a version of me that doesn’t love that man.”

Jackson wipes the tears from his cheeks, and I give him a second because I'm not completely heartless. Also, I'm about to make it worse.

“Now, our story gets bigger.” I wave around the room. “Our found family. My son. How I love saying that word.”

James smiles at me through his tears, and I blow him a kiss before resting a hand over my swollen belly.

“And our babies.”

I keep my eyes directly on Jackson because I have been waiting weeks for this, and I refuse to miss a second of his reaction. At first, there isn't one. He's still sitting there smiling at me while the information spreads through the rest of the room. Macy's mouth drops open, Jade grabs her arm, Michael leans forward in his chair, and somewhere to my left Blaire gasps.

Jackson, meanwhile, is still smiling.

Come on, baby. Catch up.

His eyebrows finally pull together, and I watch his eyes drop to my stomach before slowly coming back to my face. They go down again.

Finally.