I nodded. Took a breath.
"Okay," I said. "Let's go."
We went up the porch steps and through the screen door and the warmth and noise of the kitchen hit me all at once—Pennyscrambling toward us, Bea already shrieking from somewhere in the living room, the smell of whatever Peggy had been making all day wrapping around everything like a second kind of warmth.
Millie turned from the counter and smiled when she saw us.
"There they are," she said. "I was about to send a search party."
"We were at the creek," I said.
"I know you were at the creek." She gave me the look. "You always go to the creek."
Sawyer squeezed my hand once and let go, moving to say something to Gage, and I stood in the doorway of this kitchen that had become as familiar to me as my abuela's and looked around at all of it—Dakota already talking too loud, Haven at the table with Ethan in her lap, Forrest with his coffee at the far end, Adam appearing from the hallway looking like he'd absolutely been distracted making something, Wyatt standing against the counter with that quiet watchful presence he always had.
Peggy at the stove.
Millie watching my face.
I touched the medal at my throat.
Then I said, to the room, at a volume that cut through Dakota mid-sentence: "Sawyer and I are getting married."
Complete silence.
Then everyone talked at once.
"What—" Dakota.
"I knew it—" Millie.
"Congratulations," Forrest, from the end of the table.
"Wait, when did—" Haven.
"Good," Peggy said, without turning from the stove. Like I'd told her dinner was almost ready. Like it was simply the correct state of affairs and she was satisfied it had finally arrived.
Millie crossed the kitchen in four steps and grabbed both my hands.
"When," she said. Her eyes were already filling. "Where. How. Start talking."
"The creek," I said. "This afternoon."
"I knew it was going to be the creek?—"
"I asked him," I said.
Millie blinked.
Then she turned to look at Sawyer with an expression I could only describe as delighted outrage. "She asked you?"
"She did," Sawyer said, entirely unbothered.
"In my defense," I said, "I had good reasons."
"What reasons?—"
"He was taking too long."
