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I smiled and pulled my wife close to my side. “Kenzie and I are married.”
Miles stopped short. “Seriously?”
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Eve clapped her hands even as she burst into tears again. “We have to celebrate!”
“No.” I shook my head and pointed my finger at her. “It’s your birthday—”
“And look at me, Zeke. I’ve reached the beached whale stage of pregnancy. Please take the attention away from me… for my birthday,” Eve begged. “Please.”
Miles looked at me and grunted, “She won’t take no for an answer.”
I exhaled slowly, meeting my little sister’s pleading stare… but there was no denying her. And she knew the moment I broke.
“I’m just so happy for the two of you,” Eve squealed. “Can I see the ring, Kenzie? I haven’t seen it in so long. I forgot Grammy even gave it to Zeke.”
A glimpse at the ring turned into a full press tour through the house and guests who thought they were there to celebrate Eve.
“There’s no stopping her,” Miles muttered, coming to stand next to me while we watched Gwen and Jules gush over Kenzie’s ring while Eve explained its significance.
“No stopping either of them when they want something,” I muttered.
Both my sisters were forces to be reckoned with in their own way.
Miles looked at me, a crooked grin claiming his cheek. “I guess some of that finally rubbed off on you.”
I tensed and then chuckled. “A little,” I lied.
I wanted Kenzie, and that was the exact reason I wouldn’t let myself have her again. Because this wasn’t about me—it was about her and her son.
“The way you’re looking at her, I’d say it was a helluva lot more than a little.” My brother-in-law clapped me on the shoulder and then walked over to Eve with a water bottle and piece of birthday cake in hand to make sure she was staying hydrated and happy.
Meanwhile, I stood there steeping in the irony of his assessment, afraid that my family and friends weren’t the only ones I’d convinced about how I felt about Kenzie.
* * *
“Thanks for stopping.”Kenzie looked over her shoulder at me, the breeze blowing a strand of hair across her face.
After one too many rounds of karaoke at Eve’s party, which she successfully turned into mostly a celebration for us, Kenzie and I said our goodbyes and left. We drove in a strange kind of silence through town. I didn’t know about her, but it was hard to feel like anything that happened this afternoon was fake. Telling my sisters. Celebrating with friends and family. The toast that ended with my lips on hers.
It all felt so fucking real.
I glanced at Kenzie as we sat at a red light in town, waiting to turn. Her gaze was locked out my window on the ocean.
“Want to go for a walk?” I asked without thinking.
She nodded immediately.
Maybe I wasn’t the only one afraid to carry this afternoon back into the apartment with us. Like dumping boiling water into cold glass, how we felt threatened to crack right through the frigid façade of our arrangement.
“You’re lucky to have a family like you do,” she said, sliding off her shoes and stepping barefoot into the sand.
I gritted my teeth. I’d spent the last four hours watching her fall right in with my family as though she’d been a missing piece. A piece I’d have to take out again once she had custody of her son.
“I am,” I agreed, following her trail of footsteps in the sand as she walked closer to the water, stopping just short of where the waves reached.
The sun danced like a bright yellow marionette along the horizon, orange and red streaming from her sides with each dip.
“I’d never been to the beach before moving here,” she murmured, her focus straight ahead. “But I think the sunsets are my favorite part. Can you imagine having this view every day?” Her head tipped to the side, and she sighed. “It would be heaven.”
