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I squeal with laughter and slap his chest playfully. “My brother doesn’t do that.”
“Baby, your brother has been doing that for a while,” Silas says with a mischievous grin on his face. “What? Boys talk.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” I say with a laugh.
I reach out and run my fingertips along his strong jawline, my gaze pinned to his. My heart beats a staccato rhythm in my chest and feeling that he hasn’t softened in the least beneath me keeps the fire between my legs burning and I grow even wetter. As I look into his eyes though, a quiver of fear ripples through me and my mouth grows dry, and I blot my damp palms on the legs of my pants.
“You’re a good man,” I say. “And you’re an amazing husband.”
He looks at me closely, his eyes narrowed, the curiosity in his features deepening. He’s always been able to see through me with ease so I shouldn’t be surprised that he knows I’m holding something back. Just thinking about what it is makes my legs shake and my heart pound like a jackhammer inside of me.
“But?” he asks.
I bite my bottom lip and feel my stomach roiling. I need to tell him. He needs to know. Deserves to know. Forcing the words out of my mouth though, is proving to be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly, count to ten, and look him in the eye. “But…you’re going to make an even more amazing father.”
Silas is totally motionless for a long minute. He’s so still, I don’t even feel him breathing. But then his eyes widen, and a smile on his face stretches from ear to ear.
“Are you sure?” he asks.
I nod. “I saw the doctor this morning before classes,” I tell him. “We’re pregnant.”
Silas scoops me up, making me wrap my legs around him and hold on tight as he dances me around the office, laughing like a lunatic. His eyes glisten and I stare in shock as a tear rolls down his cheek. We’ve never talked about children, so I had no idea how he was going to react when I told him we were pregnant. I’ve always wanted kids. A lot of them. But I didn’t know how Silas felt about it. Suffice it to say though, I never expected this kind of reaction from him.
Silas stops dancing and sets me down so that I’m sitting on his desk and facing him. His smile still shining bright, he cups my face in his hands and gives me a long, sweet kiss.
“So… you’re okay with this?” I ask when I finally come up for air.
“Okay with it? Aria, I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now,” he says. “There is nothing more I wanted than to have a family with you, baby. You have truly made me the happiest man on the planet.”
He leans in and kisses me again, this time with more fire and passion than before, making my head swim. He reluctantly leans back but then pulls me into a warm, tight hug and I can feel just how much he loves me in his embrace. We’re both shedding tears and laughing with joy at the same time.
I never thought happiness was in the cards for me. But Silas changed that. And as we hold each other, I realize that I never knew this level of joy even existed. How is this my wonderful and amazing life?
Epilogue
Silas
Eight years later
The sun is slipping toward the horizon as I step out onto the back deck after a long but productive day in the office and smile. Almost a decade into this adventure with my own firm and my marriage to Aria and it all still feels new and exciting. That tells me I made the right decision to follow this path. The road can be frustrating and bumpy at times. But the fact that I can finish a day in the office feeling satisfied then come out and feel such a profound sense of joy when I see Aria and our children tells me I’m exactly where I was meant to be.
I pour a couple glasses of Aria’s favorite Chardonnay then take the steps from the back deck down to the sand and make my way toward where Aria is sitting. The sand still feels warm between my toes but the breeze blowing in off the sea carries a slight chill. It’s going to be a cool night signaling that summer is coming to an end. The sky is cast in vivid shades of red and gold as the sun descends for the day. To the east, the sky is growing purple and blue as the inky darkness of night is spilling over the world.
Aria looks at me as I drop down into the sand beside her and accepts the glass of wine, I hand her. We sit side by side in silence for a few minutes as we watch our two youngest children playing in the sand ten yards away from us, and the two older ones playing at the water’s edge.
“Don’t go too far into the water, Eli,” Aria yells.
Eli, our first born, waves to his mother, letting her know he heard. But then January, our second born, pushes her brother into the water. Eli laughs but when he tries to stand, a wave crashes down behind him and sweeps him off his feet. January howls in laughter but helps him up—only to be rewarded by Eli knocking her down into the water.
“He takes after you,” Aria says.
“How do you figure?”
“He always has to have the last word.”
I laugh. “I come from a long line of lawyers. I’m genetically predisposed.”
