Epilogue
Three Months Later
Dalton carefully threaded the loop of a red lure onto the fishing line from the new pole he’d selected for Max. Then he handed it to the eager boy sitting next to him in the pontoon boat, ready for their first fishing trip. They were anchored out in Bull River on a rented boat to fish for some bull trout. Brooke was spending the day with her sister for some much-deserved downtime.
“Do you think we’ll really catch anything?” Max asked, followed by another question before Dalton could respond. “Are you nervous about standing in front of my class for show and tell next week?”
One thing Dalton had learned in the last few months since he and Brooke had been officially dating was that Max usually asked several questions in succession before he was ready to hear any answers.
“Are you going to be my dad?”
There it was: the real issue weighing on the now eight-year-old’s mind.
Dalton looked over at Max to see if he could read his body language. Max looked down at his fishing rod with his elbows on his knees. Dalton set his own rod, now loaded with another lure, to the side and leaned forward to mimic Max’s pose.
“Do you want me to marry your mom and be your dad?”
His head popped up and a big smile lit up his entire face.
“More than anything ever. I even told Mom I was going to ask Santa for it for Christmas.”
“Max, you know I love your mom and I hope you know I love you?”
“Oh, yah, I know—you tell me every night when we read together.”
“Good.” He put his arm around Max and then pulled him in to give him a side hug. “I’m really glad you brought this up, because man-to-man, I wanted to ask you if it’s okay if I ask your mom to marry me?”
“Really? Heck yeah, that would be okay with me.”
Max stood and set his fishing pole against the seat, then turned to Dalton and wrapped both his arms around him. Max squeezed him hard for a bit and then sat back down.
“Dalton, you’re not going to change your mind, right? You won’t get sick of me or my mom?”
“No way, son, I’ll never get sick of you or your mom and I won’t leave. I just need to convince your mom she can’t live without me.”
“Well, I overheard Mom telling Aunt May how much she loves you and that it’s scary. Which seems weird because you’re not like a zombie, but girls are weird, right?”
Dalton couldn’t help but laugh. “Yah, us guys need to stick together.”
For the next hour they cast their lines into the river and sat and waited for a bite. Although Dalton told Max it was best to stay quiet, they ended up talking about baseball. But, finally, they caught a few trout and could head back to the dock with pride. He showed Max how to clean the fish, and then they took their fresh filets home to Dalton’s house. Although technically the house was still Levi’s, Dalton had made it his home when he wasn’t staying at Brooke’s. Usually on the weekends they took advantage of the beach access and would pop in to see Gran. Max and Dalton were getting ready to play a round of virtual baseball when Brooke arrived home early with lots of shopping bags.
“Wow, did you and May leave anything for anyone else?” Dalton teased.
“It’s been so long since I’ve done any real shopping in actual stores where you can try things on. I got a little carried away.”
“Good,” Dalton said, and kissed her before taking some of the load out of her hands and setting it to the side.
“We caught five fish, and Dalton skinned and gutted them and then he let me try too, it was disgusting and awesome!” Max said in a rush as he dove in to hug his mom.
“Sounds like you had as much fun as I did,” she said, scrunching up her face.
“It was, and I asked Dalton if he would be my dad one day,” Max said very nonchalantly as he pulled out of the hug and looked up at his mom.
But Brooke went still and a light pink started to creep up her neck.
“Max, you can’t just ask Dalton to be your dad.”
“Oh, I know, he has to marry you first,” Max said matter-of-factly.
Brooke’s eyes found Dalton’s, and her forced smile was all he needed to know that she wanted the same thing.
Right there in the living room, Dalton sank to one knee and pulled out the ring box he’d been carrying around the last week. He popped it open and smiled up at Brooke.
“So I found this and I thought, why don’t we just make things official? It’s not like I’m going to be able to love you any more than I already do. Or Max. I want to be the one who gets to hold your hand through this life and grow old together with you. Will you marry me, Brooke Garcia?”
Max held on to Brooke’s waist as his head swiveled between the ring and his mom.
“Yes, I’ll marry you!” Her chin wobbled as she swiped at tears. But then she held out her hand so Dalton could push the simple gold band with a sparkling round diamond onto her delicate finger.
“Wow, we could catch a lot of fish with that thing, it’s so sparkly,” Max said.
Dalton wrapped them both into his arms and kissed Brooke. “You’re both my favorite part of every day and I can’t wait for forever.”
“Me too,” Max said.
“Me three,” Brooke agreed.
Dalton still couldn’t believe everything he needed was right where he started in his hometown of Sandy Point, but he was grateful he’d finally made his way back. Home really was where the heart is, and he wasn’t leaving ever again.
The End