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“Grandma,” they say again, closer this time. Footsteps thunder in my direction, and I turn, a group of children sprinting toward me.
“Milo’s done it!” A small girl with blonde hair and green eyes says. “He beat the record. Come see.”
She takes my hand, and we jog toward more children circled around a pit of sand. They wave us over with smiles on their faces.
“He jumped all the way to the end,” another boy says. He resembles the girl, and I know they’re family, related in some way. “We need to make it longer.”
“Make what longer?” I ask.
“The long jump,” the girl says. “Milo, can you do it again?” She shakes the shoulders of a young boy in his teens. He has blonde hair and green eyes like hers. There’s something familiar about his gait, the way he stands smiling down at her. It puts me at ease watching them, even though I’ve never seen these children before.
His smile widens, laughing at her excitement. “I can try, but let’s wait for Dad and Uncle Beau.”
I’m holding my breath, my eyes brimming with tears and my heart full. Stepping forward, I take the young boy’s face in my hands and look him over. Milo, this boy, is one of the scribbled names on my wrist.
“What’s wrong grandma?” Milo asks through squished cheeks.
“Nothing,” I choke out. “You’re so handsome, is all.” He blushes and the young girl tugs at my side.
She tilts her head up at me. “Am I handsome?”
“You’re beautiful,” I tell her.
“Daddy!” she calls, noticing someone behind us.
I turn to see BeLew walking side by side with Morgan, who holds a small baby in her arms. There are no words when I look at my children all together this way. It’s more than I’ve ever wanted or asked for, and I stare at the unbelievable sight, hoping with all my heart that it’s real.
“I heard we had a record breaker,” Morgan says. “I bet it’s Milo.”
She hands me the baby she’s holding, greeting me with a kiss on the cheek.
“Wait for grandpa,” Beau announces. “He’ll want to see this.”
The boys hug me, both wrapping their arms around my shoulders while I stare at the child in my arms. She looks like Morgan when she was a baby.
“You okay, mom?” Lewis asks.
“Yeah, baby,” I say, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I’m just happy I got to see this, is all. I just never thought…” My words stop short, my voice cracking and giving out.
I look back at them, and something flickers in their faces, a sense of acknowledgment. There’s no explaining it, but I sense they understand I’m not here.
Not yet.
Not really.
They look at each other for a moment too long, and then back at me. Sam’s voice calls in the distance, and I turn, watching him stride over with Alex and Luke at his side.
Lewis touches my shoulder and hugs me from behind.
“You named him after Milo,” I chuckle.
“Had to fight Beau for it too,” he laughs. “But he named his daughter Lomi. It’s cute.” I look down at my wrist to see the misshaped letters of Lomi scribbled across. There’s Gemma as well, and I hold the baby tighter against my chest, knowing that’s her name.
I close my eyes to the sound of waves gently crashing in the distance and let myself feel the soft wind against my face, and the warm child in my arms.
Sam calls out as he draws closer, “Let’s see this long jump, Milo.”
Opening my eyes and seeing how everything we built only gets better, I can almost feel the joy erupt in my heart. “We really made it,” I say.
Beau comes to our side, setting a hand on the baby and kissing me on the head. “Because of you, Mama. Because you loved us.”
The End
