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“Bro!”
“Nolan!”
He made out the first three greetings; the rest were a mash of hellos.
“You there with her, son?” That was his father.
“Let me see her.” His mother’s face showed up on the screen. And Nolan moved over to put his face against Lizzie’s.
“This is Lizzie, everyone. I made her cry.”
She might hate him for the call, but his family was his best shot. They were the best part of him. And they always helped each other out of jams. That’s what families were for.
A chorus of hellos followed as the screen filled with bunched-together faces. And then his mother was there again.
“Hi, Lizzie. I’m Sarah, but you can call me Mom, or whatever you’d like. You’ll join us for lunch tomorrow, won’t you? I can’t wait to meet you. And to hold my very first grandchild.” Sarah teared up then. “I can’t believe I’ve missed the first three months of her life, and you... We’d have been there with you during the hard times, you know...”
“Give that to me.” Miles’s face filled the screen and then they could only see the back of his head as he turned to look at the rest of them. “Don’t overwhelm her or Nolan will have to fight this one on his own,” he warned. Then he turned back. “Welcome to our family, young lady. I hope to God you’ll marry my son, but even if you don’t, you’re family now.”
“Thank you,” Lizzie said, sounding...good. Better than good. For Miles she found her voice. Didn’t surprise Nolan at all. His dad was one special guy.
“So...you going to marry him?”
As she looked at Nolan, he pulled one more box out of his pocket. “This was the present my mom and dad sent me with,” he said, holding the phone with one hand, while giving her the small box with the other. “It belonged to my Grandma Melton’s mom and was to go to the mother of the first Fortune grandchild. And I thought maybe... Elizabeth Sullivan, will you marry me?”
Opening the box, she stared at the string of diamonds on the ring. It was more band than engagement ring, but he had a feeling Lizzie wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Yes,” she said, crying again, but her sniffles couldn’t be heard over the whoops and hollers coming from his phone.
And from the hallway of the apartment, too.
In pj’s and with a sleeping baby in her arms, Carmela stood there, tears streaming down her face.
Handing Lizzie the phone, Nolan walked over to her, took Stella and then led Carmela back to the living room with him, waiting until she sat down before he moved back to the phone. He owed her everything—having been there for his family when he was not. She was family now, too, and he’d do whatever he could to ease her way.
“Hey, everyone, meet the newest Fortune!” He scooted right up to Lizzie, placed Stella carefully half on him and half on her and turned the phone so his family could watch her sleep.
In the midst of softly spoken oohs and ahhs and even something about Stella having someone’s nose, he could see what they saw, in the corner of his screen. A thumbnail of him and Lizzie and their daughter—Stella sleeping peacefully, secure, healthy and happy. And Lizzie, grinning like he’d never seen her grin before. She was happy, too. You could see it in her eyes. Truly happy. Maybe happier than she’d ever been.
His family, on-screen with his family.
It was a picture he was never going to forget.
* * *
