CHAPTER 57 Miller Banks
Adopt a Penguin
I know we have an audience, so I do my best to keep things fairly quick—and fairly vague since we don’t need all these people knowing every intimate detail about our personal life.
“I’m sorry the last few weeks have been strange, but I promise you, Soph, whatever happens, I’m here.
I want this. All of it, the surprises and the excitement and the possibilities.
I want a future with you. I want a life and a family with you.
I have loved you for more than half my life, and I promise to love you for the rest of it.
I can’t wait to marry you in February. Will you marry me? ”
I hold my breath as I wait for her answer. My hands are trembling. Hers are, too, as they fly to cover her mouth.
We’re already engaged…technically—something I can see as I look at her hands covering her mouth. She’s wearing the ring I got her when we decided to go through with a fake engagement.
We already agreed we were going to go through with the wedding.
But I never got down on my knee to ask her.
Then things happened that changed our course, and this is my way of letting her know that nothing has changed for me. Regardless of what happened in the last few weeks, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.
Tears are splashing onto her cheeks, and I’m still kneeling even though every instinct in me is telling me to get the fuck up and dry her tears. I can’t, though. I’m frozen to the floor as I hold my breath and await her answer.
“Yes, Miller. Yes. Of course I will.” She stands and moves around the table as I push to my feet, and I pull her into my arms. I lean down and drop my lips to hers as I hear cheering behind us.
I finally pull back and rest my forehead to hers. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispers.
I catch her lips one more time with mine.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, pulling back. “Aren’t you missing camp?”
I nod. “Tanner’s covering for me. I need to get back, but I couldn’t go another second without seeing you. And, you know, I couldn’t miss your first book signing, could I?” I ask with a cheesy smile.
She giggles. “You’re too much.”
“And I’m yours. Forever. I swear to God, Soph, whatever happens, I’m here. And in the last few days, I’ve really been thinking about things, about the future, and I want whatever is meant to happen for us. Kids or no kids, a dog, a cat, a fish…fuck, a hamster. Any of it and all of it.”
She wrinkles her nose. “A hamster? No to the hamster. And no guinea pigs, too.”
“Deal.” I laugh. “Ooh, what about a penguin?”
She nods. “Yes! We can adopt one through the World Wildlife Fund! Oh, and also, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.
” She pulls back, and more tears are falling from her eyes.
She wipes them away, and she leans in toward me.
She moves to my ear, and she whispers, “I took a test. It was positive.”
My eyes widen and my stomach turns over as my chest tightens. “It was?” I whisper as she moves back, and my eyes search hers.
She nods. “I hated keeping it from you, but it’s why I couldn’t pick up when you called. I didn’t want to slip it over the phone, and I had to know you wanted this no matter what before I told you.”
I hate that I made her feel that way.
Never again. Never again will she question my love for her.
“Of course I want this.” I pick her up and twirl her around before my lips slam to hers again.
An unfamiliar feeling falls over me like this is what was always meant to be.
It feels right . We’re getting married. We’re having a baby.
Maybe we’ll have more. That uncertainty about whether I wanted to have kids or not seems to have vanished into thin air as a new feeling takes its place: anticipation.
Holy shit. We’re having a baby .
I’m going to be a daddy .
I knocked up the woman I’ve been in love with since I was fourteen.
Goddamn, I’m one lucky man.
We have a lot to talk about. We have a lot to work out. We have a lot to celebrate.
And now it feels like we have a lot of time where we can do all those things.
We hear a throat clearing behind us over the whoops and cheers of the people gathered here to get a book signed by my fiancée, and I pull apart from the woman I’m going to marry.
“So sorry to interrupt,” Victoria says, “but we have a lot of people waiting to meet Ms. Love.”
We both laugh at that .
“Yes, of course,” Sophie says, and she kisses me one more time. “How much time do you have?”
“I have to get on a flight back to San Diego in a few hours.”
“Will you hang out here with me?” she asks.
“I’d love to.” I move into place behind her as the workers pass down the next book for her to sign. “Wait a minute,” I say, and she turns back to look at me. “You didn’t sign my copy.”
“Oh, I’m keeping that one,” she says with a grin. “Forever.”
I smile, too, as warmth fills my heart. This is really, actually going to work.
The next two hours are madness as she signs books, smiles for photos, and answers questions.
Some of her readers want my photo, too, and some even want my signature.
I laugh when they ask if I’ve tried out any of the spicy scenes with her, and I make sure everyone leaves knowing I’m the man who inspired all the best ones.
Sophie just rolls her eyes and laughs. Considering she wrote most of them before we got together, it’s not true. But I can still pretend it is, and all the ones going forward definitely will be.
I don’t want to go, but I do need to get back to camp. There’s a meeting tonight I can’t miss even though I missed most of today’s practice.
It was worth it. If I get fined for ducking out, so be it. It’s worth every damn penny to know that Sophie and I are back on the track we were always meant to be on.
When the two hours scheduled for the signing are up, there are still a few more people in line. I was hoping I’d get a few minutes alone with Sophie, but I can’t take away from her first event like this.
I snap photos of her and take some video footage that she can use for social media content, and when the final person is through the line, Victoria thanks us both for being here today .
“Are we still on for dinner tonight?” she asks Sophie, who glances at me.
“My flight back is in ninety minutes. Don’t let me hold up any of your plans,” I say, holding up both hands.
Sophie nods. “I need to run back to my hotel to change, but I can meet you here at, say…six?”
Victoria nods. “Perfect.”
We head through the bookstore and out the back door, and there’s already an Uber waiting there for us.
Sophie glances at me. “Can you make a quick stop with me?”
“You should know by now that I would do anything for you.”
A smile lights up her entire face, and then we’re on our way toward her hotel.