“I asked Natalie something important,” I say.
Maddie’s eyes dart between us. “Like what?”
“I asked her to marry me.”
Silence.
She freezes.
“Like… your wife….like a wedding?”
Natalie smiles softly. “A small one.”
Maddie’s face shifts from confusion to calculation.
“Do I get a dress?”
Relief bursts out of me in a short laugh.
“Yes,” I say. “You get a dress.”
“Sparkly?”
“If that’s what you want.”
She looks at Natalie. “Is Daisy coming?”
“Probably not to the actual ceremony,” Natalie says.
“Is this because you love each other?”
There it is.
The real question.
The room stills.
I don’t look at Natalie first.
I answer.
“We care about each other very much,” I say carefully. “And we’re choosing to build something together.”
Honest.
Maddie studies me like she’s checking for loopholes.
Then she turns to Natalie.
“You’re not going to leave, right?”
The words hit harder than any legal filing ever could.
Natalie slides off the couch and kneels in front of her.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she says gently. “If I marry your dad, I’m choosing this family.”
Family.
