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Once she’s out of sight, I take Lily’s face into my hands, and I stare into those big blues of hers. Mine. All fucking mine.
“You’re pregnant?” I ask, needing to confirm what Laura already told me.
Tears fill Lily’s eyes, “I am. I didn’t want you to find out this way, it’s the worst way ever to reveal a pregnancy, but yes, we’re having a baby.” She pauses, her eyes darting away from mine, and I can see the insecurity pouring into the open spaces in her mind. “Do you… Do you still want me? After the baby… and everything…”
Jesus fucking Christ, if this woman doesn’t shut her mouth.
“Listen to me and listen to me well. You’re it for me, Lily, you’re it. Whatever I said back in that room, it was to protect you. Laura means nothing to me. It’s all you, all you. That baby inside you. It’s a part of both of us, and you’re mine, no matter what you think or feel you’re mine and I am yours. Do you understand me? I love you. I love you with every beat of my heart, and every breath that fills my lungs. I. Love. You.” I press a kiss to her eyelids, cheeks, and forehead before kissing her pink lips.
Tears slide down her cheeks, and her chest rises and falls as if she’s struggling to breathe, “I just feel horrible like I did this. Like it was my fault.”
“No, none of this is your fault. Laura is batshit crazy, and you’re the love of my life. Losing Amy hurt me, it felt like I lost a piece of who I was but losing you. I’d never survive that. You’re inside of me, a part of me. There is no you or me, there is only us.”
“I love you,” Lily cries, and I pull her into my chest, wrapping my arms around her. My chin rests on her head, and I vow then right in the hallway of that abandoned building to forever love her, to forever cherish and protect her. Once upon a time, I vowed never to love, never to find joy in life because I thought I didn’t deserve it.
As it turns out, I was still waiting for my person to come along.
22
Lily
“How did your grandparents handle hearing about the baby news?” Sebastian asks as he walks into the bedroom from the bathroom. He’s shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and the image before me does crazy things to my head. I want to lick those washboard abs of his and climb him like a tree.
Clearing my throat, I say, “It was good. Better than I expected them to take it. Surprisingly, the fact that I was pregnant was still not as bad as me dropping out of college. They’re very old fashioned, I guess, so of course, my grandma asked when we’re getting married. I told her we’ve got at least twenty weeks before we have to worry about that. I’m not going to roll down the aisle. I want to walk…”
Sebastian grins, “Is that what you want? To walk down the aisle and become Mrs. Sebastian Miller?”
Yes! “I mean it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, now would it?” I can’t believe I just talked so leisurely about getting married but talking to Sebastian is like talking to part of me, we have no secrets.
“No, not at all. I’ve dreamt of the day you’d become my wife,” he confesses while crawling into bed. He moves up to where I’m sitting and pulls the blanket back to reveal the tiny bump hidden beneath my nightie. He cradles it as he does every night, whispering sweet nothings to our little peanut.
“Do you think Mommy and I should get married?” he asks, and all I can do is roll my eyes. I’m not worried about being married before we have the baby, it doesn’t bother me, but I do want it to happen someday.
“Baby doesn’t care,” I mumble, but as soon as the words escape my mouth, I want to take them back because right there resting on my bump is a princess cut engagement ring with three diamonds in it. The air in my lungs evaporates, and I’m afraid to move, worried that I’ll knock the ring off and it’ll disappear.
“I told you I would make you mine forever. Our love hasn’t been conventional, and the odds have been stacked against us from the very beginning, but we’ve always found a way to make things work, and that makes our love stronger than anything.”
“Sebastian,” I gasp, unable to form another coherent thought at that moment.
Plucking the ring from my lap he moves off the bed and drops down to one knee beside it, “Will you, Lily Kline, be my forever, my happily ever after?”
Tears well in my eyes and I lift a hand to my lips before squeaking out a yes.
