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Before Anna could think of anything to say, the baby monitor vibrated in her hand, and Adam’s cries echoed between them. He always needed her. It gave her gravity in an otherwise aimless world.
“Uh-oh,” Violet said. “I’d go, but I have about a million problems in the kitchen. You wouldn’t believe the stress of a wedding planner.” Even as she said it, her eyes gleamed with happiness. Maybe this was her new gravity.
Smith laced his fingers through Anna’s as she guided him to the quiet room to the left of the venue, where the last of the blue light of the day spilled across the carpet directly beside Adam’s carrier. Adam kicked his legs happily, and his fingers fluttered just beyond his taut sleeves. With a flourish, Anna picked him up and bobbed him around as he giggled. His eyes danced to Smith’s.
“He remembers you,” Anna said, although she wasn’t sure that was true. How long were babies’ memories?
“Even if he doesn’t,” Smith said, “I’m not going anywhere ever again.” He took Adam in his arms and danced across the carpet, wiggling Adam’s hand. When he glanced back up, his eyes were illuminated. And he said, “My brother, Freddie, will be here tomorrow.”
Anna’s heart opened. In Smith’s eyes, she recognized a future—one of hardships, promises, and responsibilities.
In some ways, she would become Freddie’s “mother.” And that would be an entirely different proposition altogether.
“I can’t wait,” Anna whispered. She cleared the distance between herself and Smith to wrap her arms around them. She prayed for the strength to lift all of her loved ones up—to carry them through the hardships of life, to have the strength that all mothers were allowed. She prayed, forever, for the power to go on.
