“Come here,” I say as I pull her onto my lap. She sits and looks up at me.
“I love your mommy, Ava. And I love you too, and I want the three of us to be a family,” I start. The words pour out of my mouth without much thought. I’m speaking from my heart for the first time, maybe ever. And damn, it feels good.
Ava’s eyes grow wide as does her smile. “I love you too, Unca Bray,” she says as she throws her little arms around my neck and squeezes.
I squeeze her back, planting a kiss on the top of her head, while inhaling that baby-shampoo smell that I know won’t last much longer since she’s already requesting grown-up shampoo.
“Are you going to tell Mommy that you love her?” Ava asks as she pulls back to study me.
I clear my throat to give myself a moment to think. “I want to. But I feel like I need to do something big. I want to not just say that; I want to show her how much I love her.”
Ava leans forward so our noses are touching. “You mean, like a surprise?”
I nod, and she giggles and holds out her pinky finger. “What’s that for?” I ask.
“You have to pinky promise that you will let me help. I want to surprise Mommy,” she insists.
I grin at this little girl who has such a vise grip on my heart. “OK. We need to come up with a plan,” I say.
She nods enthusiastically and claps her hands. We both hear the shower turn off and look toward the door.
“Let’s get you ready for school. Maybe Mommy will let me walk you today, and we can start on our plan,” I suggest.
“Really?” she asks.
“Really,” I reply as I kiss her forehead and place her down on the ground so she can take her drink that I’ve set on her bedside table.
It’s book club night, and guys are sitting in a circle in Roxy’s bookstore. Ava and I chatted about ideas on her way to school. She’s adorable. She wanted me to fill the apartment with balloons or flowers. Not the worst ideas, but I want something bigger. It has to be epic.
We finish talking about the book, and I look around at my friends. “I need your help,” I start.
Gray raises an eyebrow. “With what?”
“I am in love with Carly, and I need you all to help me with a grand gesture,” I say, the words coming out quickly before I can stop them.
Hutch leans forward. “About damn time,” he says.
I groan. “Dude, come on,” I growl.
Kasen just leans back and laughs. Fucker.
“You took long enough. I’ve aged two decades,” he says.
“You asshats aren’t helping,” I grumble. I really do need ideas.
“OK, what do we know about Carly?” Roxy asks as she looks at me. I can tell by her smirk that she’s known all along that I was in love with her friend.
“She loves chocolate, rom-coms, and flowers,” Hutch says.
I think about Carly. She loves all things sweet. She loves animals but never had one because her ex didn’t like them. She loves going to the zoo with Ava. She loves the color pink even though she jokes that it’s cliché. She loves books. She loves teaching and being around young people. She says they are inspiring and fun, and give her a better perspective on life. She likes to make pancakes in the morning when she has time. She loves curling up on her sofa with a book and a cup of herbal tea with two spoonfuls of sugar. She always says she wants to travel, but she’s never gone anywhere until recently. She once told me her dream was to go to Paris. I feel awful that I couldn’t talk her into going after our Italy trip, but she wanted to get back as soon as possible, so she had downtime before school started.
Everyone throws out their own ideas. From pink roses to her favorite pop songs, each of us says the little things that we see in Carly every day.
“Any of this helping?” Hutch finally asks.
I shrug. “I…sort of have an idea. It’s got a lot of moving parts, but I want to give her everything she’s always wanted.”
“At once?” Roxy asks, her eyebrows shooting up to her forehead.
