"One day Faith will decide what name she wants," he corrected. "Maybe it'll be because she gets married, or maybe she'll just decide to change it. Then you can do what you want, but we get it. All three of us. That's your little girl."
"Our little girl," I reminded him. "So you're going to propose to Cy? Know when?"
"No," he admitted. "I've been thinking about it since Meredith's wedding, though. He said he wants to get married, and I want to give him every single thing he's ever dreamed of."
"We should do it together," I decided. "You propose to him, I propose to Violet, and we make it clear that it's still a we, but within the limits of what we can do."
He rolled, moving so he could use my shoulder for his pillow. "Will we still be a we, though?"
"Always," I whispered, pushing his messy hair away from his face. "The four of us will grow old here, watching the next generation of colors make something of themselves."
"Mm, I love you," Ash mumbled against my chest. "Yeah, and we should get matching rings. Four diamonds that no one else will understand but us."
"Fuck that." I bent to kiss the top of his head. "We need an amethyst, one of those, um... shit. A cyan stone, and a magenta one, and then an emerald."
Ash chuckled. "Aquamarine, and my color only comes in pink sapphires. Well, magenta sapphires."
"And mix the colors up so they're in a spectrum," I went on. "Magenta, violet, cyan, then emerald. Shows that no matter who is a husband, we're just us. Two couples that are really one group of four."
"Mm, now I love you even more," Ash said. "What are we getting for Violet, though?" He looked up to see my face. "She's not going to want some boring band."
"The delicate and feminine version of ours," I decided. "I might even have enough saved up to buy her a ring."
"Shit," Ash laughed. "No, Luke, you don't. That woman spent most of her life on the catwalk. Sure, she'd be happy with a plastic ring, but this? It needs to be perfect. Four rings. All four made in the same place - andmade. Custom. Designed to be perfect for the four people who have figured out how to make impossible work."
I turned a little so I was still on my back, but facing him. "It's a damned good thing my sugar daddy's rich, huh?"
"Yeah, it is," he agreed. "But how are we going to make this happen? How can you and I make sure they really want to get married without saying too much?"
"I'll talk to Cy," I decided. "You talk to Vi. And try to be subtle, Ash. Ask her what she'd do, or if that's really what she wants. I dunno, but don't just lay shit out there like you usually do, ok?"
"Believe it or not," Ash promised, "I can plan a surprise." He laughed once. "She also said something the other day. Figure you should know."
"Said what?" I asked.
"She's planning to take out her IUD when she's thirty." He let his fingers make lazy circles on my chest. "She said she wants to keep modeling. She wants to gain weight, have a baby, and make a family with us."
"You care about whose it is?"
He shook his head. "Nope, but means you have to share Faith." Then a smile flickered across his lips. "Her and Cy?"
"Shit, her and you," I countered.
"Or you," Ash said. "Fuck, we're going to have a lot of kids, huh?"
"Let's see how the first one goes," I said, slowing him down. "She's worried about eating, Ash. This isn't going to be easy for her, and getting pregnant? It's not like the movies. Yeah, with three of us, we can take care of her, but that isn't the same as being easy."
"I know," he admitted. "I also know that Cy helps her more than she wants to admit. So does Faith. We'll make sure to tell her she's beautiful - "
"And she will be," I broke in. "Man, seeing your woman pregnant with your kid? There's something about it. Fuck, I hated Meredith by the time she got big, and yet I still felt it. She was mine, damn it. That was my kid, and I was willing to kill anyone or anything that might threaten her."
"But she was stuck on the ring," Ash grumbled. "That woman missed out."
"Nah." I lifted my arm to pillow my head with it. "I didn't love her. I mean, she was hot. She was willing, and back then, I thought she was pretty good in bed. I liked how being with her made me feel like I was a real man, not a stupid little boy - but love? It wasn't there. She talked and annoyed the fuck out of me. She wanted bullshit, and I wanted to do things. She was worried about what people thought, and I was stuck on what came next. So nah, we never would've worked. I also would've missed out on this."
"I would've stolen you away," he promised. "Shit, the first time I saw you?"
"When you had Violet on the truck?" I asked.
