“She’s up?” I gaped and reached for my phone, panicked that I hadn’t heard the video monitor.
A moment later, Max held my phone in front of me.
“I took over Lucy-cam watch so you could have a few minutes.”
Every time I thought I couldn’t love him more, he did something that dared me to try.
“For you, Daze.” He handed me a small, elegantly wrapped box.
“Max…” We’d agreed not to get each other anything, which wasn’t to say I didn’t have a present for him, but it was the kind of present that wasprivate.
“Open it, my little wife,” he encouraged, kissing the side of my head.
I peeled open the paper as he sat next to me on the couch.
The box was plain, with no markings. A maroon cloth that suggested whatever was inside was expensive.
I lifted the lid, peeled back the tissue paper, and found an elegant glass bottle nestled into the packing.
It wasn’t until I lifted it out that I realized everyone was watching me.
“Max…” My finger roamed over the label, the edges hand-painted with a string of peonies that wove around the edge, framing the scraggly, cursive word in the center.
Daze.
There was no level of exhaustion that would’ve made me question what this was.
It was my perfume. Bottled in hand-blown glass from Nox, the label painted by Kit.
After Lucy’s birth, my perfume-making continued, but at a slower pace, and Max seemed hesitant to talk about incorporating it as a permanent offer from MaineStems. I thought it was because he worried I was taking on too much, but now I knew the real reason.
Because he was making one more of my dreams a reality.
“It’s official now,” he murmured. “Daze, eau de perfume, will be coming to MaineStems as soon as you’re ready.”
“Max…” I tried to blink back tears, but it was impossible. They rolled down my cheeks as he pulled me to him, a hum of excitement buzzing through his family.
“I love you.”
I felt him smile against my cheek. “I love you too, my little wife.”
“I can’t believe you did this.” My voice wobbled. “You didn’t have to…”
“Oh, he did, dear.” I looked over my shoulder at Gigi, who wore the biggest smile on her face.
At my confusion, she motioned for me to hand her the perfume, and when I did, she stared at it, lovingly running her fingers over the front.
“Don’t you recognize it, dear?” She turned the bottle to me, but even with another close look, I didn’t understand what she was talking about.
When I looked to her to explain, she poked Max. “Tell her.”
My eyes met my husband’s.
“This,” he paused and ran his thumb over the label. “Gigi gave it to me…the day I met you.”
My mouth dropped open, and my eyes snapped to the handwriting.How had I not recognized the handwriting?Even if I had, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind that this was Max’s label from his grandmother. While mine had saidpeony,Max had been given a label that said Daze…four years ago. For this moment.For me.
“You were always meant to be mine,” he said softly and passed the perfume bottle around for everyone to smell so he could take Lucy from his aunt and steal another moment for us. “The first bottle of the first batch of Daze perfume.”
