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“Now that’s a grand gesture. Well done, bro.”
The girls screamed and piled onto the VW bus. In two seconds, they’d already figured out how to pop the metal latches on the tiny side windows and were climbing on and over the seats, hooting with delight.
“Are you serious?” Bryce whispered to him, and as he nodded, she flung her arms around him. He kissed her lips, his light blue eyes dancing as he spun her around.
“Go check it out.”
As she climbed into the driver’s seat, she spotted the same rearview mirror—with its little haze around the edges—that his platoon had brought back from Afghanistan.
Ryker climbed in to sit on the passenger side, moving Six to sit on the floor between them. The dog’s head whipped back and forth as she looked at one, then the other; her tail wagged so hard it banged the leather seats like bass drums.
“I don’t need it anymore.” He smiled, nodded to the front end and mirror. “Those mirrors are for looking behind, and all I want is to look ahead at the future. With you.”
“I have half a mind to drive back down to the courthouse and marry you right here and now,” she said, her voice low, meaning every word.
“Let’s do it.” He grinned. “You’re in the driver’s seat. I’m just waiting for you.”
She smiled. He’d told her the same when he’d proposed with the gunk-covered diamond.
“Not today. Today’s about them.” She gazed in the rearview mirror at her sweet girls laughing and battling over seats, begging to have Six come back and sit with them. “But soon.”
“Hey, is there room for all of us grandparents in there for the maiden voyage of the Weatherford bus?” her father, his arm around Mom’s shoulders, called out.
Cecily threw open the bus’s back door. “C’mon in, Grandpa and Grandma! You, too, Nana and Pop-Pop. We can all fit, because this bus is huge.”
All the girls’ grandparents were loaded up, with Addison changing seats three times until declaring she’d gotten the one she wanted.
“Okay, everyone’s buckled in?” Bryce asked. Her heart was full as she started the VW, the vintage engine turning over and catching easily, wafting through the open windows the intoxicating smells of gas, grease, and possibilities. The sight of her nieces—her children—happy and chattering with their grandparents in the back seats of the vintage bus caught at her heart. She blinked furiously.
“You good?” Ryker’s finger caught and brushed away her stray tear.
She shook her head. “It’s…a hug emergency.”
He chuckled, drawing her to him. “Love you,” he said, kissing her lips.
Her lips smiled against his mouth as she answered. “You’d better. Because I love you more.”
Six leaped between them, all grinning golden smiles and doggo breath as she inserted herself in the moment.
Bryce laughed, petting her sweet head. “Aww, Six-y. Don’t worry.” She kept her hand on the dog as she met Ryker’s gaze. “There’s no reason we can’t both have this guy forever.”
As she leaned over, stealing one last lingering kiss from Ryker, she heard her girls whispering to each other, coming to some sort of agreement.
Then they started singing.
“Ryker and Aunt-Mommy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
