Staying.
Building.
Choosing each other every day instead of just once.
Alysa runs back toward us, face flushed.
“Daddy! Push me!”
He stands immediately.
“Coming.”
He jogs toward the swings, scooping her up effortlessly.
Amber toddles over to me, climbing into my lap.
“Mommy,” she whispers, pressing her cheek to my chest.
“Yes, baby?”
“I like bikes.”
I kiss the top of her head. “Me too.”
She runs back to play and Jesse soon returns. He settles next to me on the bench and rests his arm on my shoulder. “You remember the tandem?”
“How could I forget?”
“That was a gamble.”
“So was everything else.”
He glances at me. “Worth it.”
“Absolutely.”
We built this.
Not perfectly.
Not without bumps.
But deliberately.
That night in Vegas could have been chaos.
Could have been a story we told once and never revisited.
Instead, it became foundation.
Jesses brushes a kiss over the top of my head.
“You ever think about that night I ended up in the holding cell?” he asks.
“Sometimes.”
“I was convinced I’d ruined everything.”
