Chapter 37
[Trinity]
“Are you nervous?” Dart asks me the morning of adoption day. We have a set time at the court.
“Very.” I sigh, giving my hair one last scrunch as I look at myself in the mirror.
Do I look like a mother? Is that something you can tell by looking at someone? Is there a scent that other mothers recognize? The tired gleam in my eyes? The weight of the world on my shoulders while my heart is so full of love? Is it a badge? A handshake?
Do I really have what it takes?
“What are you thinking?” he says, as he stands behind me in the bathroom.
Mirabelle is oblivious to all of this in her honor, peacefully sleeping through her morning nap, while I’ve been a wreck. I don’t think I slept at all last night.
Dart chuckles, and I notice that I’m scowling at myself.
“Think they’ll say no,” I whisper, when it’s not really a fear. Cassidy Lane said it’s very cut and dry. Some forms. A judge. A photograph.
Afterward, there will be a party in the yard.
Dart laughs harder. “Not a chance.” He kisses the side of my neck.
“Do I look like a mother?” I ask him, smoothing my hand over my belly for some reason.
“Yes. You look like Mirabelle’s mom.” He smiles at my reflection over my shoulder. “And I have something to make it official.”
He scoops his arm around me and dangles something from his fingers.
A long chain with a delicate pendant.
“It’s called Mother and Child,” he explains of the larger figure with circular arms, extended toward a smaller one. I’ve seen it countless times. Wanted one for so long.
“I’ve been holding onto this for years.”
Our eyes meet in the mirror.
A dozen years. Three angel babies. Gone but never forgotten.
And yet we have a new angel to guard.
“Dart,” I whisper, tears filling my eyes as I watch him open the clasp and fasten the chain around my neck. He straightens the latch, and I hold the pendant in my hand, staring at myself once more in the mirror.
“Now, you really look like a mother,” he says, lowering his voice and his head toward my ear. “One hot momma.”
I laugh through the tears, blinking them away.
This man. His ridiculousness.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For everything.”
He sets his chin on the top of my shoulder. “Forever.” He winks at me. “And we should get going.”
I’m wearing a dress. Dart has on tan slacks and a button-down shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows. It’s the most dressed up he’s been in years. And Mirabelle, she’s in a sweet pink dress that matches mine.
We ride to the courthouse, just the three of us. We don’t need the fanfare of family and friends. We’re saving that for the backyard. For now, I want this moment to be private, monumental.
And it is, especially as the judge holds out a pen to Dart.
“What?” He stares at the form in front of him. A legal request to change Mirabelle’s rather generic birth certificate.
My name is in the box designated for mother.
And Dart’s name fills the one marked Father.
“Trin?” He looks up at me, surprised, shocked really, but so full of hope.
Before we talked about Dart being Mirabelle’s dad, I knew I’d put him on the birth certificate.
He is Mirabelle’s father.
But Dart wasn’t present when the social worker walked me through the final paperwork, and I asked her if there was a way to surprise him.
He’s certainly surprised, and eager.
“Do you really mean it?”
“We really mean it,” I say, jostling Mirabelle in my arms.
Dart looks at the judge and practically rips the pen out of his hands, his fingers shaking as he firmly, confidently signs his name in the box.
Father: Dart Rivers.
He drops the pen and tugs me to him, wrapping his arms around both of us.
“Am I allowed to do this in a courtroom?” he says, not releasing Mirabelle and me, as he first peppers her cheek with kisses and then lays a rather inappropriate one on me.
I giggle when the judge clears her throat.
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Rivers. It’s a girl,” the judge says.
She’s more than a girl. She’s pure joy.
I don’t think my heart could be any fuller.
Much like Cassidy said, we sign forms, the judge rules, and we take a picture. Cassidy Lane and Stone Sylver are our witnesses as they’ve been such a huge part of our journey.
It all passed in a blur.
When we get home, our yard is full.
Mom. Cort. Clint. Tate.
My girls: Vale, Genie, Halle, and Mavis, and their significant others.
Their kids.
Hutch and his boys are here with Petty.
A real gathering of all the people we love, celebrating the one person Dart and I love most.
As Mirabelle gets passed around, Mom swooping her up almost as soon as we arrive, Dart is handed a beer by Petty.
“How’d it go, Farty Darty?”
“Dear God,” I chuckle.
“Hilarious,” Dart retorts, offering me a sip of the beer Petty already cracked open.
I shake my head. A celebratory bottle of wine has my name on it somewhere around here.
“Actually,” I interject, slipping my arm around Dart’s middle. “Do you want to tell them or me?”
“What?” Hutch says, standing there as well, brows lifting as he glances from me to Dart.
Dart looks at me, all the love in his eyes. All the hope solidified.
“Actually,” he repeats, staring at me a second before looking at his friends. “I’m Mirabelle’s dad. So I think the name you’re looking for is Sexy Daddy.”
“Oh, brother,” I pat his belly and pull away, but he tugs me back to him.
He leans toward my ear. “We can role-play that later.”
“Hide Daddy’s sausage in—”
“Watch it,” Dart warns Petty, pointing a finger at him while holding a beer can.
“Are you ever serious?” I ask the goofy guy in a band.
“I try not to be.” He winks.
Late arrivals enter the yard. “Is that Savannah with Marshall?” I ask.
“Where?” Petty says, his face sobering as he looks toward the corner of the yard. The midnight-haired beauty leaves her brother’s side and heads toward a group of women.
Marshall stalks toward us.
“Excuse me,” Petty grumbles, making tracks toward Savannah.
I glance up at Dart, who slowly smiles. Uh-oh, there’s a story there. One I’m certain I’ll hear more about later.
For now, as Marshall joins the guys, I break from Dart and make my way around the party, greeting guests, passing out hugs, and taking in all the congratulations, before Mirabelle is fussing and I excuse myself to take her upstairs for a nap.
The party can continue, but the honored party girl needs a little reprieve, and I take an extra minute to hold her in the chair Dart gave me to celebrate my first Mother’s Day.
Eventually, I step into my room to use the bathroom but stop near the window overlooking the yard. I clutch the Mother and Child pendant between my fingers, running it back and forth along the chain, watching Dart move around our guests before disappearing.
When I hear soft steps coming up the staircase, I smile to myself, knowing true to his word, he’ll always chase me.
“Hey, baby,” he says as he enters our room, softly closing the door behind him. “Whatcha doing up here?”
“Just needed a little break.” I love our family. I love our friends, but the day has already been a lot. Between the lack of sleep last night and all the jitters today, I’m suddenly exhausted.
“You okay?” he asks, stepping up behind me like he did earlier today and wrapping his arms around my middle.
“Just taking in all the love, I guess.”
With his cheek pressed to mine, he smiles. “So much love,” he marvels. “All for one precious little girl and her mom.”
“And her dad,” I say, smiling myself.
“Dad,” he whispers. “I didn’t think this day would ever happen.”
“Me neither. For either of us.”
We stand in silence for a minute, letting the sad memories quickly pass. We stand here stronger now, because of our love, but also because of Mirabelle.
Wonderous miracle.
I spin in Dart’s arms, looping mine over his shoulders. “I love you.”
He smiles, slow and wide. “I love you, too, baby.”
I tip up on my toes, setting a tender kiss to his mouth, but the longer we kiss, the deeper it gets.
“Trin,” he groans against me.
I wouldn’t be opposed to a quicky.
I’m reminded of another memory. The first time Dart came to dinner at our house after we started hooking up.
He’d followed me up to my bedroom, much like he did today. What always started as a heated kiss led to more, and soon Dart was inside me. My dress at my waist, his pants at his hips. I don’t think we even locked the door.
It was thrilling and reckless, and I loved him so much I blurted it out.
He stilled inside me. He’d wanted to make our relationship more public for a while, but I’d held fast to keeping him to myself. Keeping us to us.
“I love you, too, Forever,” he breathed against my mouth, showing me how he felt by finishing what we’d started.
When we went downstairs, my brother asked where we’d been.
“Kissing,” I said to the room. “I’m in love with Dart.”
Dad and Mom weren’t as shocked as I expected.
They were just happy for me.
I am happy for me.
“We can’t start this now,” Dart continues, rocking his forehead against mine.
“Later, then,” I whisper.
“Later,” he says.
“Promise?” I tease, pulling back to look him in the eye.
“Promise.”