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“We already have a son together,” I tell her. “Mikey isn’t just yours. He’s ours. Not just mine and yours. Ours.”
“And we’ve got another one on the way,” Elias adds. “Also ours.”
“Gosh, this is so weird and awkward,” Amaya mumbles.
I can only shrug in return. “Maybe. But we love each other. There’s no denying that, is there?” I ask, and she shakes her head slowly. “I love you, Amaya. We all love you. More than anything. And we’ve been more than patient. We’ve also fumbled the ball once or twice, but dammit, we want to be with you.”
“We were good together, you can’t deny that” Finn says.
“We are good together,” Amaya ultimately concedes. “I’ve missed the three of you like crazy. My stupid ego got in the way, making a bad situation a thousand times worse.”
“There’s nothing bad about an unexpected pregnancy,” Elias reassures her. “Well, not that unexpected, if you consider the fact that we were at it like horny rabbits all the time.”
The sun pours through the window and falls directly across Amaya’s beautiful face, highlighting the specks of gold hidden in the depths of her brown eyes. I see the hope swirling in her gaze and her chest rising and falling slowly with each breath. Hell, I see the woman I was meant to be with. The woman I’m never letting out of my sight, ever again.
“We want to build a life with you,” I tell her. “A good life. A peaceful life. Nobody needs to know about us, except those closest to us, those we can trust. For now, I’d stick to Tanya and Mira.”
“How’s that gonna work if you had Derrick arrested? I mean, won’t the cops find out about us?”
“We resolved the issue with the lead detective from the very beginning,” Elias replies. “Consider him a third trusted party. Your name and identity will never be divulged, not even during the upcoming trials. We’re safe, baby. I promise.”
She looks at us with a mixture of longing and fear, but the fear soon subsides. Relief takes over as her shoulders drop, a smile blooming across her face. “Then, yeah, we could give this another try.”
“We will absolutely give this another try,” I say, straightening my back. “Somebody needs to look after you, clearly. You don’t have to shoulder anything else on your own ever again. We’re a team, Amaya. And there’s nothing we can’t do if we stick together. You have me and Finn and Elias for life. All you need to do is say so.”
“I want you. All of you. For life.”
“Then it’s settled,” Finn declares with a brilliant smile. “We’re gonna be the weirdest, happiest, funniest family on this side of the continent, for sure.”
“I already feel better,” she laughs lightly. “I guess you were everything I needed all along.”
“We are going to be a handful, though,” Elias jokingly warns her. “We’re gonna keep you close. And we’re gonna keep you busy whenever we get a few minutes alone.”
“We’re going to spend every waking hour making you happy and making sure you’re always safe,” I add. “We’re gonna do everything in our power to see you smiling, and when you feel like crying, you’ll have three shoulders for that, not one.”
“Three for the price of one, baby,” Finn exclaims.
Tears fall down her cheeks, but they’re tears of joy and relief. It floods me with the best kind of feeling in the world as I wrap my arms around her and pour all of my love into this simple but telling gesture. She knows. She understands. It’s over.
All the struggles. The fear of abandonment and the fear of failure.
Amaya will never be alone again. I’m just sorry it took so much turmoil and so many avoidable mistakes to get here. I suppose sometimes we just have to go through these cycles of pain in order to better appreciate the good things in life.
For a moment, I thought we were lost. I had trouble imagining a future without Amaya and Mikey in it. But with another kid on the way, I begin to realize that the universe wanted us to pull together. It was our stepping stone.
And stepping stones only serve to propel us forward.
30
Amaya
“You’ve got Mikey staying with Nikki for the night, right?” Kace asks.
We’re in my kitchen, just about wrapped up preparing the food for our first dinner date since I got out of the hospital. It’s been a week, and every day has been a sweet and soothing dream for me. I have my life back. My peace. My happiness.
There’s joy in every moment and plenty of reasons to smile. Knowing that Derrick is behind bars has certainly upped my mood. I’m not one to revel in the misery of others, but after everything that he and Ramada did, I’m honestly glad that they’re going to pay for their crimes. The farther away they are from us, the better.
“Yes,” I tell him. “He likes it there. Niki has a Wii, so that’ll keep him busy and moving until it’s bedtime.”
