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“Lexi! She says she’s not having the babies until we’re married,” he tells us tightly, running his hands through his hair.
“Well, that’s silly. She can’t stop having the babies, can she?” Meghan asks, glancing around the room.
“No, but she says she can’t bring them into the world if we’re not married,” Linkin says, sounding defeated. “This is not how I wanted to ask her to marry me.”
“But you are going to ask her to marry you, right?” AJ asks.
Instead of answering her question with words, he pulls a ring box from his pocket and hands it to her. AJ glances at him, as if seeking permission to open the box, before she does just that. “Holy shitballs,” AJ gasps, glancing down at a pretty impressive rock.
“I’ve had it for months,” Linkin confesses, “but she always said she wanted to wait until after the babies were born before we got married. Now she’s freaking out in there and says she won’t push until we’re hitched. It’s like four a.m. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Let Grandma handle it,” Emma says, stepping forward and patting Linkin on the shoulder.
“What are you going to do?” Payton asks.
“I’m going to marry my granddaughter and the love of her life,” she states plainly and proudly.
“Wait, you? How– When– What?” Abby asks, shell-shocked.
“Oh, I’ve been ordained since I was asked to stand up for Liz and Richard in the seventies,” Emma replies, waving her hand.
“Liz and Richard?” Meghan asks.
“You wanna talk about a bridezilla, you should have seen Liz Taylor. What a diva.” Emma’s matter-of-fact statement makes all of us stop and stare.
“Liz Taylor and…and Richard Burton? You knew Liz Taylor?” Payton seems just as shocked by her question as the rest of us.
“Of course, I did, Payters.”
“Oh, Lizzy. Yes, that woman could kiss like a dream,” Orval adds, breaking the silence with his big knife-wielding statement.
“What!?” Abby, AJ, Payton, and Meghan all gasp.
Emma just seems to wave their question off. “What happens in Vegas, and all that.”
I swear you could hear a pin drop somewhere far off in an entirely different wing of the hospital.
“Anyway, the point is, I can marry you! Of course, it wouldn’t be legal because you don’t have the license,” Emma says happily.
“But we could go through the motions? I could still give her the ring,” Linkin says, his face showing his skepticism like a mask.
“Of course! Let’s get you two unofficially hitched!” Emma claps her hands before swooping down the hallway, Linkin hot on her heels.
Before he enters the room, he turns toward us all. “You might as well all come in. She wouldn’t want to do this without her sisters.”
I feel AJ’s smaller hand slide into mine as she pulls me eagerly to the delivery room. The happiness surrounding the family wraps around my throat and starts to choke me. I’d be a fucking liar if I said I wasn’t affected by the love they all share for each other. Sure, I’m close to my family, but nothing like this. They’ve already made me feel completely welcome and have accepted me as part of their own.
And for the first time since my life–and marriage–went to shit, I want that.
I fucking want it bad.
