“I’ve been taking pictures of you since the moment you got here, baby.” Her eyes meet mine. “I’m still mad I didn’t take one of the night I ran out of the house though, when you were playing your guitar and singing to Remy.”
“Why?”
“Because that was the night I realized you completely owned me, and I don’t want to ever forget that.”
She reaches up and cups my face. “You won’t. It’s just a memory that lives on in your mind instead of on paper.”
“Well, there are a few more memories we still need to put on paper,” I say, gesturing to the scrapbook, prompting her to keep flipping the pages.
When she gets to the one I’m nervous about, she freezes. “Henley…”
“I’m not proposing now,” I clarify. “But one day, we’re going to put our wedding picture on this page.”
“The day my mommy and daddy got married,” Elodie says, reading the title I wrote at the top of the blank page.
“And I want you to adopt my daughter when that happens so that she’s yours—because she is. You are her mother, the one that matters, El.”
Tears instantly form in her eyes. “I would be honored.”
“I’m in this,” I say, reaching for her hands and pulling her closer to me. “That’s why I did this. I want you to know that you’re it for me. You will be my wife, you will be the person I grow old with, and you will be the mother of our daughter and any future children you want to have with me.”
Elodie lunges for me, straddling my lap as we laugh and then press our lips together. I bury my hand in her hair and savor the taste of her tongue against mine, memorizing this moment because now that I have it, I don’t want to forget it.
I don’t want to forget any second I spend with this woman.
“I love you, Henley,” she says when I release her lips.
“I love you too, El. And now we have all the time in the world to do this right.”
***
“I’d better not get sick after being here,” my sister says as she stands next to me in the cafeteria of Blossom Peak Elementary.
“Why would you get sick?”
“Look at all of these kids,” she explains, motioning to the crowded room. “It’s like a germ cesspool. I feel like I’m going to need to take a bath in antibiotics when I leave.”
Elodie snorts from beside us, readjusting Remy in her arms. “I think you’ll be fine. Most of the winter colds are done now.”
It’s March and Career Day at the elementary school, hence why my sister and I are here instead of at our respective businesses. Turns out, when one of your best friends has a kindergartener and she is told she can invite whoever she wants to speak at career day, she invites literally every adult she knows.
Elliot and Fletcher walk through the doors, Laney holding Fletcher’s hand. “Jesus, it’s utter chaos in here,” Elliot says as a group of kids run right past him, making him stumble.
“That’s what I said,” Dilynne echoes, but Elliot rolls his eyes.
“Hold on. You two actually agreed on something?” Fletcher asks for clarification. “Did hell just freeze over?”
“I don’t know. Ask Satan himself.” My sister juts her thumb in Elliot’s direction.
“Elliot can’t be Satan if I’m Lucifer,” Fletcher interjects.
Laney pats his chest. “Maybe it’s time to pass on the nickname, babe. Besides, Dilynne has a list of them for Elliot, so it’s not like just one is going to stick.”
“Uncle Fletcher!” Ellis Hart, Rhonan’s daughter and the reason we’re all here today, comes running up to Fletcher and jumps into his arms. “You made it!”
“I told you that I would.” He bops her on her nose then peers around the room. “Where’s your dad?”
“I don’t know. I hope he won’t be late. Ms. Lewis says we’re about to start.”
