Our fathers discovered a shared interest in golf and made tentative plans to play a round together in the spring when the Hensleys returned to Boston for the birth and christening of Baby Bradley.
This was family. Messy and complicated and imperfect, but real.
Nate reached over and laced his fingers through mine, his thumb brushing across the engagement ring. I squeezed back and leaned against his shoulder.
"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.
"I'm better than alright." I looked around the room at the people who had come together for us. "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."
The community had almost forgotten all about us, though I knew work would be a different story when I returned after the new year.
And of course, I had the normal new mother apprehensions, especially given that my mother lived all the way across the country.
But love had made us a family.
And I knew it was love that would carry us through.
If we could survive the beginning of this relationship, I knew we could survive anything.
EPILOGUE: NATE
The lights on the Christmas in July tree lit up to an explosion of cheers while a marching band snapped off the Beacon Hill fight song.
I stepped back, officially finished with all of my duties for last year's Lightkeeper appointment, and clapped along with the crowd in beat to the music, but my eyes scanned over the bustling festival for the one face I hadn't seen all day.
Ember stood among the crowd with the baby strapped to her chest in one of those strange elastic wraps I was forever getting tangled in the sheets during wash day, but her broad smile and the way she bounced in beat with the cheering crowd warmed me.
We'd come full circle, almost one year to the day I first kissed her and started the whirlwind of the last year. She waved, and I blew her a kiss.
The sun baked us with its blistering heat, and I imagined next month during our outdoor ceremony, it would be much the same, but I was so ready to take that step.
Making Ember my wife officially meant more to me than anything else.
When the handover was done, I slipped off the stage and found her, mingling among the members of the stage crew behind the large red velvet curtains that separated the props and stage equipment from the crowds.
She was sipping a lemonade, and it made me think of how that first day I really noticed her, she'd brought me one.
I snuck up behind her and wrapped my arms around her, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck.
"Bring me one?" I asked playfully, and she snickered as I bit down on her flesh.
"Not this year, Dr. Bradley. You'll have to get one yourself. I'm on Mom duty today." She turned, smiling at me as she offered me her bottle of lemonade, but I gently refused it.
"You're right, Momma. You need the hydration more than me. How's our little guy?" I asked, giddy as I looked down at my son's beautiful head of dark hair.
I smoothed it down gently and she clicked her tongue.
"He's sleeping. leave him be." Ember playfully swatted at me and I kissed her on the cheek.
"He looks snug…"
"He's a little oven." She fanned herself dramatically, and I pulled up a chair for her. "But he's a hit. The women all fawn over him. Little Ryder will be a lady killer one day."
I grinned.
Ryder Edward Bradley was now just over two months old and growing like a weed, and I had never been prouder in my life than to show him off.
"We have to be at your parents' tonight for dinner. Your mom insisted on making me lactation cookies." Ember chuckled as she rolled her eyes.
