“Little more lip gloss and that’s it. You’re pretty enough.” I kissed her cheek before she scurried back to Amanda and puckered up.
“All right, you made me wear the monkey suit. Let’s get this show on the road.” My dad burst into the room, and then it all hit me. My eyes stung as my bouquet shook in my hands. Panic set in for a moment that this was all only a dream. I’d wake up and all I’d have from Josh was his letter from last week. I gazed at my father and a shiny-lipped Victoria, both beaming at me. All the detours and bumps in the road really did make the final destination that much sweeter.
“Okay.” I brushed my hair off my shoulder and slid my arm into Dad’s.
“Let’s go.”
An instrumental wedding march drifted from the speakers as I walked down the aisle with my father. Victoria ran ahead, throwing fistfuls of flower petals before saddling up at her father’s side. I chuckled at her excitement until my eyes locked with emerald green ones. Josh in a black tuxedo was almost too much for my system to bear. He was beautiful—and mine. Nothing would tear us apart. He was good enough, and I was good enough. The struggle, the shortcomings, and the unexpected turns didn’t matter. The love we were blessed with was too precious to throw away on technicality, and the both of us were committing today to never let that happen again.
Josh’s glossy gaze held mine as he took my hand.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Waiting long?” I whispered.
A slow smile washed over his face.
“Just my whole life.”
Brianna
I’D NEVER FUNCTIONEDon this little sleep before. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I actuallydidsleep. I think I may have gotten five minutes yesterday morning, but the exhaustion left me in such a daze I wasn’t able to say for sure.
“You’re a troublemaker,” I whispered in Chris’s ear before I kissed his chubby cheek. “Gorgeous, but a troublemaker all the same. Just like your daddy.” He was only a month old, but we thought he’d get his days and nights sorted by now. We swayed back and forth in the glider in his room, but the only one being soothed to sleep was me.
“He’s still not asleep?” Josh laughed as he crept into the room. “You’d make a good frat boy.” Josh pressed his lips to his fuzzy forehead. Chris didn’t have a full head of hair yet, only brown little whips of hair that drifted over his scalp and forehead. Victoria said he looked like a troll. He had a much cuter face, but she wasn’t far off.
“But even they sleep during the day, buddy.” Josh crouched next to us and kissed my shoulder as he kept his eyes on his son. “He has your nose, I think.”
I scoffed and leveled my gaze at Josh. “You know he doesn’t.”
He shrugged. “He’s a momma’s boy, that’s for sure. That’s why he turned you into a zombie.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. For years, anytime Josh mentioned the word ‘adoption,’ I shut him down quickly. We researched IVF with an egg donor, but couldn’t afford that for at least a couple of years. When an old co-worker of Reid’s told him about a pregnant teenager still in foster care looking to give her baby up for adoption and he suggested we meet with her, I refused at first. I was terrified to get attached to even an idea of a baby. My heart wanted to say yes, but my mind wouldn’t stop running awful possibilities. When the social worker brought us to meet with her, she was sweet but frightened. Before we left, she begged us to take her baby so he wouldn’t go into foster care like she did.
We went through the motions and paperwork before the call came from the hospital. We had the option of watching the birth, but I couldn’t do it. If the baby was mine, I preferred to imagine a stork of some kind. I wasn’t sure I could watch someone else give birth and still think of the sweet little boy I saw in the sonogram picture as my son.
The nurse put him in my arms, and his cute little face crumpled into a strong cry. It was the second time in my life I fell so fast and hard for a boy. Christopher Josh Falco was all ours.
“I have a surprise for you. I took a week off from the shop starting today.” He scooped Chris out of my arms. “So, we are going to catch up on ESPN and you are going to get some sleep.”
“Really?” My tired eyes widened. “You’re sure?”
My job at the ad agency was freelance now and I wrote full-time, but I took a leave from both when Chris came home.
“Yes, very sure.” The baby stirred and whined in his arms. “Hey, where’s Daddy’s boy? We’re going to hang out this week and let your mom get some sleep.” He laid him on his shoulder, and my heart melted when Chris nuzzled into his neck.
“See, we’re fine.”
I rose from the glider and gave them both a kiss on the cheek. “His bottles are—”
“I know where they are, Cupcake.” He rolled his eyes. “See, Christopher, this is what you call controlling. Say it with Daddy, con-troll—”
I slapped his shoulder and kissed his lips. “Don’t get cute, Falco.”
“I’m always cute,Falco.”
Yes, he was. My eyes glossed over the tight black T-shirt my husband wore over his muscular torso, the sleeves stretching over his inked arms. Another reason why I was anxious to get Chris to start sleeping at night. I couldn’t remember the last time I didthat,either.
