I exhaled. I already felt like Mehki was my son, but I always choked up whenhementioned anything about me being his father. “Right,” I croaked. “I’ll be your daddy.”
Mehki wrapped his arms around my neck. “I love you.”
Closing my eyes, I held him close. “Love you, too.”
He pulled back. “You have my permission. Can you go ask Mommie now?”
“Ask me what?” Angel walked into the room with two glasses of lemonade in her hands. “What are you two up to?”
“Cooper wants to ask you something,” Mehki announced, a wide grin on his face.
“What is it?”
“Can you give me your hand, baby?” I held my hands out. “I think I might be stuck on the floor.”
Laughing, she helped me up. She smiled. “I told you he needed a practical table, not this Spider-Man thing you bought him.”
“It’s cool,” I argued. “But short.”
“Exactly.”
Mehki picked the ring box up off the floor and handed it to me. “Don’t forget this,” he said.
“Thanks, Lil Man.”
Angel gasped, her hands flying to her cheeks. “Cooper, you… Oh.” She looked at the box. “You’re… Are you…?”
“Yes, baby. I am. You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“What about me?” Mehki asked.
Chuckling, I said, “You, too.” I met Angel’s watery gaze again. “I love you so much. I want this life forever. I want my home to always be with you.” I opened the box. “Marry me?”
“Oh, shit. That’s huge.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry, Mehki.” She grinned. “Yes!” She jumped in my arms and kissed me. “I can’t wait to be your wife. I love you.”
“Love you, too, baby.”
Granddad told me sometimes time didn’t heal all wounds. But standing here with my family, knowing that it was going to be like this forever, I could say sometimes it did.
* * *
