Page 46 of Chasing Honor

“Yep. Honor printed them out. She taught me how to mod . . .”

“Mod podge,” I reminded her.

“We mod podged the pictures to the letters and painted the wood. Honor said she had to glue the letters to the wood because the glue was poison and I couldn’t touch it. See?” Carson proudly pointed to the piece of wood then to the black and white photos of her and Ethan that covered the L-O-V-E. “It’s me and Daddy.”

“This is the best present I’ve ever received,” Lily announced with tears in her eyes.

“I take exception to that,” Lenox said. “You told me the diamond earrings I gave you last Christmas were the best present.”

He winked at Carson.

“Well, now this is,” Lily huffed. “Lenox get a hammer I know just where I want it.”

“Now? We have a house full of people, woman.”

“Yes, right now.”

Lenox tromped out, muttering something under his breath. He wasn’t fooling anyone. He’d do anything to make Lily happy, including hanging a photo collage in the middle of a party. By the time Lenox returned Ethan still hadn’t said anything, and I worried I’d overstepped. Lenox and Carson followed Lily into the living room.

“Do you like it?”

“No.” His answer wiped the smile off my face.

“No?”

“There are no pictures of you.”

“Me? Why would I put a picture of myself on the sign? It’s supposed to be about family.”

“I want you guys to make a new one. With pictures of you included.”

“Ethan, I don’t have any pictures of myself.”

“I do.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it, tapped the screen. “Here,” he said, handing it to me.

There was a picture of Carson and me with our heads together looking at the back of my camera. We were in Savannah.

“I didn’t know you took that.”

“There’s more,” he told me.

I scrolled through the images and there were dozens and dozens of pictures of me with Carson. Us cooking, me showing Carson how to use my camera, us reading, some images I didn’t know what we’d been doing but we were smiling at each other. Then there were the ones of me alone, I was never looking at the camera. He’d captured me doing everyday things around the house, including vacuuming.

But there were none of Ethan and me.

“Why did you take these?”

“I remembered what you said at the park the first day I met you. I’ll never forget those moments but I still wanted the reminder. I like knowing I can pull up one of those pictures and see your beautiful face and remember how happy you make Carson and me.”

“Thank you. I want these, all of them. I don’t have any of Carson and me.”

“I want those on a new sign for our home.”

“Okay,” I whispered, afraid if I spoke any louder my voice would give away how much it meant to me that he wanted to include me in his family pictures.

“Will you go out to dinner with me tomorrow?” he asked.

“Of course. We should go to the pizza place with the Pac Man game. Carson loves it there.”