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“Open it, Mom,” Ethan ordered, slightly disgruntled.
Jules pulled open the flaps.
Froze, mouth falling open.
“Mom!”
Her eyes went wide, a shaking hand reaching into the shredded paper and plucking out the black velvet box.
“What did you do?” she whispered, stare coming to mine.
“Open it, sweetheart,” I murmured, pulling out an order of my own.
She exhaled, but popped open the lid.
An inhale this time, so sharp I worried she might choke.
“Do you like it?” Ethan asked. “I picked it out.”
Wide eyes back on mine then over to Ethan. “I love it, baby.”
“I’m not a baby—”
“But you’ll always bemybaby,” she finished, like she’s told him a hundred, a thousand times before.
Ethan shook his head, but his mouth was curved into a smile. “Okay, Mom.” Then he looked up at me, lifted his brows, telling me to get on with it.
Ordered around by a six-year-old.
Chuckling, I move toward my woman, taking the ring box from her hand and kneeling next to the edge of the bed.
“I thought a long time about how to make this special. I thought about getting flowers and whisking you away for the weekend. I thought about showering you with jewelry and presents and vacations. I thought about doing it at the arena for twenty-thousand people to witness my love for you.”
Her inhalation is shaky.
“But then I thought about you and what you would want. I thought about what is most important to you, so I asked Ethan, and he came up with the perfect idea. Me. Him.You. A special act of love. Time together as a family. Because it’s the small things we do every day that show how much we love each other.”
She exhaled, eyes damp, expression filled with love.
For me. For Ethan.
For our family.
“So, sweetheart,” I said, “you know how much I love you and Ethan and what we’re building, will you do me the honor of making it official?”
A tear slid down her cheek.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes!”
Then she threw her arms around me, mouth hitting mine.
I heard Ethan whoop, but I was lost in the moment, in my woman, in all the blessings of my future.
Which meant, that unfortunately, I didn’t have Mom Powers to steady the tray when we upended it with our kiss.
That was okay.
Because sometimes life—even with happy endings—was messy.
