Page 118 of The Blessing

“I can’t believe it. Congratulations, sweetheart,” he finally says.

As soon as everyone calms down, the attention shifts to Harper as she tries to think of something she’s thankful for. Finally, she says, “Thank for Grey.”

“Aw, baby. Grey is a good friend, isn’t he?” Eden asks her daughter.

“Yeah, Mommy! The best!”

It’s now Bryant’s turn. He’s quiet at first, but finally says, “I’m thankful my wife gave me two wonderful daughters. I can never thank her for that enough. If she were still alive today, she’d be extremely proud of the women you’ve both grown to be.”

Ronnie and Eden both reach for their father’s hands. I rub my girl’s back as she comforts her dad. I hate seeing her hurting. I’d carry the burden for her if I could because all I want is for her to be happy. After a few moments of silence, we move on to my father. I cringe at the thought of him having to say anything. I can tell this is so fucking hard for him. I can feel his pain as if it were radiating from his body.

“You don’t have to say anything, Dad,” I quietly mutter.

His eyes are pained as he looks at me, but he still gives me a small, wistful smile before saying, “It’s fine, Trevor. I’m thankful for my son. He’s become such a wonderful father and I’m so proud of him.” His voice is raw and sounds so fucking sad. Yet, it’s filled with so much love. Even I can hear that.

“I love you, Dad.”

He smiles at me. Even though it seems he can’t find the strength to say it back, I know in my heart he loves me just as much as I do him. The attention turns to my mom, who’s more than happy to share her answer with the table.

“I’m thankful for my son, as well. We found each other recently and I’m so overwhelmed by him. He’s such an incredible person and he manages to surprise me at every turn.”

My cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Even though I’m so fucking happy to hear this, I’m not used to hearing people sing my fucking praise. I’ve never experienced it while I was growing up, so, it’s fucking odd to hear it now. Of course, my dad would compliment me every now and then, but the attention was on my brother. I always took the backseat. I was never jealous because I loved Dean and I honestly didn’t envy the attention—but I would’ve liked some recognition every now and then. Having so many people praising me now makes me feel like I’m on an episode of the fucking Twilight Zone.

Now that it’s my turn, I’m happy to talk about someone else. “I’m thankful for my son and my beautiful fiancée. I never imagined a girl like her could ever love a guy like me, let alone marry me. Somehow, she fell in love me, and wanted to be a mom to Greyson, and I’ll forever be thankful for that.”

Eden gasps aloud and reaches for her sister’s hand. “How did I not notice that!? I can’t believe I was so distracted today, I didn’t notice your engagement ring! Ronnie! It’s beautiful and so perfect for you!” she gushes excitedly over the humble ring on my girl’s finger.

Ronnie giggles and replies, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice, as well. Trevor and I wanted to make a formal announcement sometime today, but this works, too.” She smiles and throws me a wink.

“Congrats, guys!” Quinton exclaims, giving me a thumbs-up from across the table.

While Ronnie was busy chatting with her sister, Mom turns to me and warmly states, “I just want you to know I’m so happy for you. I know you guys already told us, but I still think it’s incredible, sweetheart.”

I smile and nod because all of this positive attention is too over-fucking-whelming for me. If I got any attention in the past it was because I fucked something up or got in trouble. As the chatter dies down, it’s finally Ronnie’s turn and I’m more than curious to see what she’ll have to say.

Before she says anything, she looks down at Grey and reaches to tickle his chubby, little belly. “Do you have anything you want to say, Grey?” She tickles him again and he throws his head back and giggles until tears are running down his little face. “Are you thankful for anything, my sweet little boy?”

He squeals with laughter before screaming, “Mama!” He laughs some more and lets go of his new toy for a minute to grab ahold of my finger. “Dada!”

He’s thankful for us. The whole table laughs, “oohing” and “awing” at his response before they quietened down so Ronnie can speak.

“I’ve got so much to be thankful for. This last year brought so many changes to my life. I thought I was really happy before, but I now I realize that I didn’t quite understand what happiness was until Trevor and Greyson came into my life.” She looks at me, her eyes glistening with tears, then she continues, “I’m so thankful that I have my own family now. I’m so thankful I have a man in my life who loves me more than anything, as well as a son whom I absolutely adore. I’ll never take for granted how lucky I am.”

Ignoring the room full of people, I turn my head and crash my lips against hers as soon as she’s finished speaking. When she’s around, it’s like the rest of the world fades away. I love her so much—it’s fucking scary at times. I pour all of my love into our kiss and when it comes to an end, I pull back to stare into her eyes, feeling completely captivated by her.

I have so much to be thankful for, but above all else, I’m thankful I’ve been given a second chance. Ronnie and Grey have been the most incredible fucking blessing. My life has completely transformed. I’m thankful I’ve had the strength to not fall back into any of my bad habits. I’m thankful that before they died, Dean and Catherine believed in me enough to give me their son, therefore, giving me this second chance in life. I have so much to be thankful for, and I’ll do everything in my power to not fuck these blessings up.

chapter 43

heaven beside you

I’m not used to things running so fucking smoothly. The past month has been strangely perfect. So much so, it makes me fucking paranoid. Whenever something in my life goes right, I just sit around and wait for something else to go exceptionally wrong. Meeting Ronnie’s dad went better than I could’ve hoped. He accepted me right off the bat and explained that he trusted the decisions his daughter made concerning me. I was fucking thrilled. I was so worried he wouldn’t like me. He’s actually a lot cooler than my original impression. I was shocked to see he had a tattoo of his own. It was a beautiful, black and gray tribute to his late wife on his back. It’s smaller than my tribute to my brother, but it’s just as beautiful. It’s a large hyper realistic rose with his wife’s name, Rebecca, in cursive lettering.

We didn’t become fucking chummy or anything like that, but there’s a mutual respect there—or at least, I hope there is. It turned out, Bryant and I have a good deal of things in common. Not something one would expect between a fire chief and a former druggie, but somehow, we do. Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to become close. I could tell that Ronnie was upset when her dad left to return to his work. I promised her we could fly out to Virginia to visit him, no matter how tough the trip would be with a toddler.

Grey’s first Christmas was fucking amazing. I’ve never seen my little guy so vibrant and content. I pulled out all of the stops, along with my parent’s help, to give him the best holiday season I possibly could. He deserves it… He deserves everything. We got our little guy’s pictures taken with Santa, went to a Christmas lights festival—where Grey, unfortunately, cried the whole time. Apparently, the bright, glittering lights frightened the hell out of him.

On Christmas day, under the nicest tree we could find in late December, Grey opened his plethora of gifts. Ronnie couldn’t stop snapping his picture as he opened bag after bag of different stuffed animals and toys. One of my favorite parts of the day was watching my girl open her present. I got her a beautiful, yet simple, locket with Grey’s baby picture. From that day on, she hasn’t taken it off. She got me an X-box, after watching countless hours of me playing Star Wars Battlefront with Quinton. My girl is fucking amazing.