Page 126 of Just Ten Seconds

“Yes,” I breathe.

“Yes?”

“Yes, I’ll be a family with you!”

He closes the gap and wraps his arms around my waist. “Baby, we’re already a family.”

I feel like I’ve waited my whole life to meet a man like Dean. One who is good and kind, a protector and healer. Now that I have him, I would spend eternity taking it slow. Because every second of that is more glorious than a life without him.

“I love you, Dean. For you, I have all the time in the world.”

DEAN

“Did I ever tell you about the moment I knew I was absolutely, positively in love with Mara Williams?

She quoted Tommy Boy.

Here is my advice to you. When you meet a woman who can quote early 2000 SNL-based comedy … marry her.

I know I did.

Did you get all that?” I ask my son as he lies in my arms.

At just three months old, he is the picture of all the things that are good in the world. Soft skin, dark hair, and deep blue eyes.

I’m sitting here, in his nursery, bestowing on him the life lessons I know a young man will need to learn. I know he’s too young to understand, but I figure I have to start early if I want to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistakes I did as a kid. That, and it’s kind of funny to impart my wisdom on him when he’s still in diapers.

There’s a clearing of a throat in the doorway. I look up and see my beautiful wife standing in the threshold with her shoulder leaning against the frame.

My son is the essence of all things good in the world, but Mara … she’s what beautiful things are made of. Long, dark hair and those stunning hazel eyes wow me every time she looks at me. And it’s not just her outside that’s beautiful; her inner strength has always warmed my heart. She’s a woman who has experienced more pain than anyone should in a lifetime. That strength that she wears on her sleeve attracts me to her beyond words.

“And what outstanding piece of wisdom are you imparting on our son today?” she asks with a smirk to her Cupid’s bow lip.

“I’m just telling him how much I love movie quotes.”

Her mouth parts with a nod. “ ‘Everything I learned, I learned from the movies,’ ” she says.

I tilt my head in question. She knows every movie, new and old. It’s sometimes impossible to know what she’s quoting.

She lets out a laugh. “It’s an Audrey Hepburn quote. One of my favorites.”

“We should frame it for your office,” I say as I rise up, my knees creaking. I try to be stealthy as I slowly walk my son to his crib. I haven’t done this in ten years, yet it’s all coming back naturally, like riding a bike.

“Armando has your nose,” I say.

She laughs. “He’s too little to know. And I hope he gets all your features. With a strong name like Armando, he needs to be manly.”

I laugh and point at my chest. “I’m his father. Of course he’s going to be manly.”

Her hand grips my shirt as she pulls me in for a kiss. My hands land on her face and hip as I grip her tight to my groin.

“What do you say we hide away in our room while he sleeps and try for baby number three?”

Mara hits me in the arm. “I’m still healing from our son. How many kids do you want?”

“Ten,” I say as a joke, but I’m kind of serious. I’d have a bus full if I could.

“Well, let’s see what fate has planned for us. In the meantime, baby number one is downstairs in the living room, studying for her science test, so it would be in poor parenting taste for us to get frisky in the afternoon.”