“Russell!”
With the applause still filling the space around me, I turn to see Jules running up the steps, her security badge bouncing against her chest as she does. Her eyes are locked on mine,
and somehow, someway, she looks a million times more gorgeous than she did the last time I saw her.
Her hair is loose, and she’s wearing some sort of fur stole that covers her shoulders, and under?—
I go completely still.
It’s a red velvet dress.
I’d recognize that dressanywhere. I remember it bunched up around her waist, remember how impossibly soft it was under my fingers.
When she gets to me, I can’t stop myself from reaching out to touch the fabric, a shiver running the length of my spine.
“It really was you,” I whisper, and when I shift my gaze to hers, I find her already staring at me, her eyes wide and tearful.
We have a lot to talk about. Details to smooth over. Apologies to make.
But there’s something I want to do first.
Dropping to my knee, I reach into my pocket and pull out a ring—a new one I picked out yesterday. One not with a fake fiancée in mind, but thinking of Jules.
My jewel.
Up on the stage, after giving my speech, after Gus ran out to me and I held him for the first time in my life as hisdad,I’d asked him for his blessing.
“I’m not a real wise man,” he’d said, a joke that was surprising, especially coming from a five-year-old.
“Gus, I’d like to marry your mother,” I said, to which he responded,I thought you already were.
With that version of his blessing, I stare up at Jules now, love, gratitude, and joy all sloshing around inside me, the feeling almost too much to bear. It makes my heart feel like a helium balloon, pushing out against my thoracic cavity.
“Jules,” I say, taking her hand in mine and watching as she brings the other palm to her mouth. “It’s always been you, since that night five years ago. It’s been way too long to wait, but if Ihad to, I would do it all over again. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She nods against her palm, and I stand, slipping the ring onto her finger and taking her in my arms, holding her like I’ve wanted to since that day in the park.
I meant what I said earlier.
I’m never going to let her go again.
When I become aware of clapping and cheering around us, I pull back from Jules to find a small group gathered—Orie, Sienna, and a woman that must be Ettie with another little boy who must be Dawson.
And Alena, bundled up, one of the twins strapped to her chest, her smile wide and proud. For a second, I see a flash of my father in her, and when I smile back, we’ve shared something more than just this moment.
A family growing, expanding. Her kids now knowing my own.
“Kiss!” someone shouts, and when I glance to the side, I realize Orie is holding Gus up, and Gus holds up a small green bundle that dangles over me and Jules.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
“Alright,” I say, turning like I’m going to kiss Jules. At the last second, I reach up and grab Gus from Orie. Gus drops the mistletoe, laughing and squirming, and Jules and I smother him with kisses, hugging him tight between us.
“I love you,” Jules says, and I feel her hand on my arm, somehow feel her warmth reaching me through the kid between us.
“I love you, too,” Gus and I say at the same time, which sends him back into another fit of giggles, and fills me with a sort of contentment I’ve never felt before.
A contentment I’ll be chasing with these two for the rest of my life.
