Gavin:You deserve it.
Me:Love you.
Gavin:Love you.
I set my phone on the table and looked at Ben, who was covered in frosting, little bits on his cheeks, a smear on his forehead, some had even trickled down to his pajama top. I grabbed my napkin, laughing as I dabbed the corners of my mouth. “Kiddo, I don’t know how you’re so good at getting the frosting everywhere, but it’severywhere.”
He giggled. “Daddy says I have hidden talents—whatever that is—and this is one.”
“The four inches of frosting on his cupcake doesn’t help.” Maya was smiling. “Ben, doesn’t it make your teeth hurt?”
“Nope! I love it! I wantmooore!”
I sliced my strawberry cupcake into quarters and took a bite. “Extra frosting is our thing,” I explained to her. “Or should I say, it’s his thing. Don’t you remember when we went skating at the arena? Well, it’s sorta escalated from there.”
Ben was licking off clumps of icing that were stuck to his fingers. “I wanna like the strawberry, ’cause Emily makes them so pretty, but I only like the vanilla.”
“Maybe one day I can get you to love it.” When he shrugged, I laughed again.
Maya took only a bite of hers and pushed it aside, opting for beer instead, pulling her glass in front of her. “Em, this”—she circled the air—“is so wildly perfect. But extra heavy on the wild side.”
I knew exactly what she was referring to. “Right? Who would have thought I’d be here? With Gavin. And this amazing little boy.” I stared at Ben, popping another bite of the strawberry cake into my mouth. “I’m the luckiest girl alive.”
I’d been thinking that a lot lately, and every time I said it out loud to myself or internally or when I voiced it to Maya just now, a wave of emotion came with it.
“You are,” Maya whispered.
When her hand moved to mine, I gazed at her. “There are two lucky girls in this room.” The overhead light caught the colors in the massive diamond on her finger. “Look at that thing. It deserves its own zip code.”
She snorted. “Jordan said he went modest—he knew I wouldn’t want anything gaudy. If this is modest, I’d hate to see what gaudy is.”
I petted it like it was Fenway. “It’s the most stunning ring I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Yours will be, too, babe.”
I waved the air. “We’ll celebrate me when the time comes. For now, we’re celebrating you, and that ginormous rock, and a wedding I’m dying to help you plan. Can we talk colors and dresses and locations and—”
“I wanna help!” Ben shouted, now with a frosting mustache.
Maya released my hand and raised both of hers in the air. “Ben, I would love nothing more. Will you please be my wedding planner?”
“Yep!” He repositioned himself on the chair, sitting on his bent knees.
Maya’s hands flattened on the table. “And you’ll help me pick out all the things?”
“Yep!”
“How about colors, Ben. Any ideas for that?” She winked at me.
“Dinosaur colors!”
Maya was taking a drink of her beer and laughed once she swallowed. “So you’re saying Emily, as my maid of honor, should wear a dinosaur-themed dress?”
“That’d be so cool.” When he nodded, a piece of frosting flung across the table. “You need to have pterodactyls flying around the room and a Tyrannosaurus rex stomping all over the place and, I know, I know”—he jumped in his seat—“little Fenway needs to have fakewings on and pretend to fly, but he really doesn’t, he just looks like he’s going to fly.”
“The stuffed animal Fenway?” Maya asked.
I pointed at the center of the kitchen island. “That one, yes.”
