“Yep,” Kaleb said. “We’re all here.”
The pastor smiled as he opened his Bible. “Excellent. Let’s proceed.”
Tears filled my eyes as the short service progressed.
This family that I was standing among had been through so much.
Millie’s sons hadn’t been invited, but they’d stubbornly invited themselves because they thought it was their place to be here for their cousins and the aunt they’d barely known.
In their eyes, family was family.
Being a Remington meant something to the people who were here.
It meant loyalty to their family, no matter what kind of trial that family was going through.
Asher would never admit it, but his family showing up for him and his mother had meant something to him.
I’d seen a quick flash of gratitude in those dark eyes of his before he’d been able to hide it.
I was starting to believe that it wasn’t that Asher didn’t want to be part of the Remington family.
He just had no idea how to make that happen.
The family that Cole and Asher had been raised in had been so dysfunctional that they had no idea how to belong to a normal family.
Cole was learning, but Asher was so averse to mingling with people that it probably felt impossible for him to be part of the family that wanted to accept him.
Cole had squeezed my hand tightly when he’d seen his cousins arriving, so I knew he’d been touched that his family had cared enough to be here.
“Why are you crying?” Cole asked as he leaned down and whispered in my ear.
I reached up and swiped a tear from my cheek.
How did I explain how I felt right now?
I wasn’t sad.
My heart was actually hopeful.
Hopeful that at some point in the future this family would be together in the way they were always meant to be together.
Hopeful that Cole and Asher would someday heal completely from the trauma of their past.
Every single day, I fell more in love with Cole Remington.
I wanted him to be happy more than I wanted anything else in the world.
I couldn’t heal all of the wounds of his childhood, but I could try my best to make sure that he always felt loved and appreciated.
Being withhimwas definitely the best thing that had ever happened to me.
The man definitely made me feel adored.
Wanted.
Accepted.
For a woman who had always felt like an unattractive geek, those feelings were intoxicating.
