AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The guys laugh.
“You can share with me Mummy. Can we go up?” There’s a proper staircase with handrails to one side.
“Absolutely baby. Let’s.”
The guys all move to follow us as we start the climb and I stare at them in a panic.
“Can it hold all of us?”
“Princess, you could have an orgy with a herd of rhinos up here and a single leaf wouldn’t even fall from a branch. It’s solid, I promise.”
“Mummy...what’s an or-gy?”
“Nothing baby, just a bad word that Rebel knows.”
“Bad word!” She cries triumphantly.
I help Nix up the stairs and let her race ahead to explore. There’s safety rails all the way round and even a gate at the top of the stairs so I’m not worried. Rebel seems to have thought of everything. Almost.
“What’s wrong? Do you hate it? It was this or a horse...well, I had two horses picked out actually, a really cute little mum and baby combo for the two of you but then you dropped that little horse hating bombshell of yours and I freaked out and this was plan B. Well, actually this was plan A, the horses were plan B, so I really went back to plan A but—”
“Rebel! Stop talking!” I say. His nervous chatter is making my head spin. Horses? Oh hell no.
“What’s wrong then?”
“Nothing. This is literally a dream come true. It’s just, well, we’ll never be able to move out now.”
He laughs. “I’ll build you a bigger and better house, with a bigger and better tree house, wherever you want to go. I’ll build you and Nix your own damn treehouses. And if you’re too attached to this place, I’ll even have it dismantled brick by brick and reassembled wherever we end up. No matter how many times you want to move, I can do it every single time. And if you want to stay right here, in shitty, cold, rainy, midge-infested Scotland, then that’s fine by me too.”
I throw my arms around him and kiss him.
“I have one last gift for you and Nix.”
I groan.
“Nix, c’mere a minute.”
Her head pops up at the window and she races out to join us on the sun deck. It will be beautiful up here on summer evenings. With a few citronella candles of course.
My attention is jolted back to the present as Rebel drops to one knee and takes Nix’s hand in his. My eyes turn to saucers.
“Phoenix Elizabeth, will you please do me the honour of allowing me to stay in your family forever?”
She giggles and nods at him, and he lets go of her hand just long enough to pull a tiny ring box from his pocket, which he flicks open and presents to Nix like a prince in a Disney film. Holy crap it’s the cutest thing ever as he slides it onto her finger.
“This ring is for you, to show that we’re a family. And just like a circle can’t be broken, our family never will be either.”
I’m pretty sure the significance of his words is lost on her because she squeals that she has “a princess ring!” and launches her arms around him for the cutest hug ever. My cheeks hurt from smiling and behind them the others are all watching and grinning from the doorway.
Nix breaks the hug and races into the treehouse to show off her new “treasure” and Rebel reaches for my hand, still down on one knee, a second ring box appearing from nowhere like magic. If my eyes were saucers before, they feel like serving platters now.
“I know you can’t marry all of us, but I still want to ask. Will you be my fiancée and have me as a member of your family forever?”
It’s so unbelievably sweet of him to ask for family and not a wedding, that I find myself nodding as a sob escapes my throat. My eyes are so blurry with tears of happiness I can’t even see the ring. I don’t care about the ring.
“Y-yes!” I bawl, so unbelievably happy I could burst.
The others clap and cheer, reminding me that they’re there and I probably should have asked them how they felt about it all before giving my answer...but then it really registers that they’re happy for us and I realise that it’s okay. They must have known about this plan. Which hopefully means they’re okay with it.
