“Not the first time,” I answer.
“The second?” she asks.
“Well, that didn’t work out the way I expected it to,” I answer. “You see, I’d done so much thinking when Xan walked up those stairs, knocked on my door, and blurted out, ‘I love you’, then walked away. I knew I didn’t want him to walk away again. But the next day, he didn’t show up at the time he usually did. I waited and waited. When he didn’t show, I started to panic and cry. I don’t remember how late he was that day. All I remember is the knock and not being able to open the locks fast enough. I was so afraid he’d disappear before I could open the door,” I tell them, getting lost in the memory.
“What happened when you opened the door?” Jace asks, rapt with attention.
I smile. "I opened the door, and Xan was on his knees. He told me he loved me and I couldn't stop crying. I dropped to my knees with him, and he kept asking what was wrong," I laugh a little at the memory.
“She told me she thought I wasn’t going to show up. After all that time, she should have known better,” Xander adds.
I look at him, love shining in his eyes, and I know I made the right choice coming here. He is everything to me. He is my love, my light, mylife. There’s no going back now.
“And they lived happily ever after?” Meggie prods.
Xan and I grin at one another. “After the fight,” we say together.
“Fight?” Lucy asks.
“We couldn’t be together unless we worked things out. It was all going smoothly and then…” Xander tells them.
"Snap!" I finish. "We called the guys, so I didn't have to repeat things more than once. There was no way I could've gone through that twice."
“You didn’t have enough glassware on your shelves to make it twice,” Linc adds.
“Uh,” I hedge. “Let’s just say, words flew as well as an entire shelf of knick-knacks, a vase, and a few other breakable things.”
“Oh, I really, really like her,” Meggie declares.
Trace chuckles. She must be a handful. But it looks like he can handle her just fine.
“Then we talked things out,” Jesse continues. “It wasn’t easy. I felt like the biggest piece of shit.”
“One of the worst days of my life,” Kennedy adds.
“Yeah,” Ethan murmurs.
“Then we hung up, her and Xan worked their shit out, and we showed up the next day. We worked hard to get back to the place we were before, but I think it’s stronger now,” Ben deduces.
I nod. “I’d have to agree.”
“And you two? How did that work?” Lucy asks.
I sigh. “We saw one another as much as we could, but I just wasn’t ready to be in the spotlight ofFalling Downand my rockstar husband. I couldn’t leave the apartment.”
“I promised to never pressure her, and I didn’t. Not until all you fuckers started getting married off. I wanted that. I wanted Tera with me, so Christmas two years ago, I asked her to say yes,” Xander tells them.
I nod. “He did. I knew what he meant without him having to ask any more than that. And I knew my answer was yes before I replied. I was ready. But it took me this long to get here. I hada lotof therapy, intensive therapy, for the last two years. It took thirteen months before I would step outside of my apartment. Fourteen months until I made it to the bottom of the stairs. With each week and month that passed, I made more progress. I didn't tell Xander too much about it. Just that I was getting there. I sent him a photo of me standing outside, but that's as much information as he got. I wanted to surprise him—today. On Christmas—our anniversary."
“And I was surprised. In more ways than one,” he begins, then looks at me to make sure it’s okay. I blink and nod slightly.
“Oh,” Lucy gasps.
Xander laughs. “We’re having a baby!”
"I knew it. I just knew it when you walked in today," Summer begins. "I don't know how I knew, but I did. I told Jace, and he told me I was crazy." She pokes him. "Not so crazy now, am I?"
“That’s not the reason I came, though. I had this planned before I even knew…”
