Epilogue Oops #2
Connor’s eyes light, and he points at the artwork on Adam’s mask. “Pic-ta! Dada, Mama, Conn’a, sista! Oooh-ho-ho
! Bear, Pig-it, Dino-saw! Chomp-chomp
!”
Being a dad has never suited a single person alive more than it suits this man, I swear to God.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve jumped on him the moment he leaves their rooms after reading them a bedtime story, tucking them in for the night.
And I did the same damn thing when Adam came home four nights ago, showed me the new mask he’d made with Lily’s artwork on it, a drawing of our family.
Lily’s chin quivers. “I drew that picture. You put it on your helmet?”
Adam nods. “Gotta keep my family with me when I’m on the ice.” He lays his palm against the glass, and Lily smiles, stepping forward to lay hers on the other side.
“Here, Connor,” she says softly. “You put yours here, right next to mine.”
There’s a sniffle beside me, and the distinct click of a camera.
Lennon, the team’s new photographer and social media content manager, and newest addition to our girl crew, sniffles.
“Got it.” She flaps at her eyes. “That’s it.
That’s the sweetest picture I’ve ever taken.
The girlies are gonna go feral over this. ”
Jaxon knocks on the glass. “What about me? Did you get my picture?”
She ignores him, snapping a picture of Carter and Ireland next. “Perfection. Utter perfection.”
“Lennon? Did you get my picture? Look at this.” Jaxon shimmies backward, dropping to his knees, spreading his legs wide. “Look how low I can get.”
“Not as low as Adam,” she murmurs, flipping through her pictures.
“Len? Did you see me? Want me to do it again?”
“Yes, Jaxon,” she finally calls, rolling her eyes for only us to see, her chestnut coils bouncing from where they’re piled on top of her head as she finally swings around to give him her attention. “I saw you. We’re all so
impressed.”
He grins, so boyish and proud, and I snicker. Between the two of them, I’m not sure which one annoys the other more, but I’m certain they both enjoy it.
A gentle tap on the glass in front of me draws my gaze there, finding Adam watching me, his mask propped on top of his head.
“We’re pretty lucky, huh, trouble?”
“The luckiest.”
He smiles then, devilish and so sure of himself. “I’m gonna marry you someday, you know.”
I grin, that same giddy feeling in my stomach every time we have this conversation. “What if I say no?”
He pulls his mask down, fixing it over his face. As he backs away, he winks at me. “You won’t.”
And at the end of the game, when they win in overtime, Adam looks at us, and he taps his heart three times.
* * *
We’re up at the crack of dawn the next morning, the kids and all the animals packed up in the truck for our hike. Yes, even Dinosaur.
The sun had only just broken through the horizon when Adam dropped the kids on me in bed, hand-drawn cards and a bright bouquet of pink peonies for me on Mother’s Day, requesting a sunrise hike.
The Starbucks warm in my hands helps chase away the sleepies from a night spent celebrating with our family and friends, but I’d get up early every day for the rest of my life, so long as it’s this family I’m getting up early with.
Fractured rays of amber filter through the branches as we walk, the slowly rising sun warming this wooded trail. Connor and Lily dance ahead of us hand in hand, the dogs close behind, the cat trying to claw his way to the front of the pack.
“What are you thinking about?” Adam’s deep timbre crackles in the quiet forest as birds wake one by one, their morning songs becoming louder as we walk deeper.
“How I never imagined myself walking a cat on a leash.”
He barks a laugh, his hand squeezing mine. “Dinosaur doesn’t like when we all go out without him.”
Uh, yeah.
The cat has the biggest case of fear of missing out I’ve ever encountered. All eight pounds of him also thinks he’s as big and ferocious as his canine siblings—who are, by the way, terrified
of him—so he pretty much runs our household now.
Lily and Connor stop to inspect a bug crawling up the trunk of a tree, and the animals dash over, the five of them huddling together as the fuzzy orange and black caterpillar slowly ascends.
“I can’t believe how my world has changed in the last year.
I have everything I always wanted but never dared dream I’d actually have.
Everything I’d grown to believe I wasn’t deserving of.
I thought I needed to be better. Do something to stand out.
Dye my hair to get people to notice me. So badly, I just wanted to be chosen.
I wanted someone to look at me and say, ‘That’s her.
’ I just wanted someone to love me for who I was without having to change a single thing about myself, Adam, and then I found you.
And not only did I get your love, but I learned how to love myself better because of the way you loved me, so wholly. ”
Adam’s fingers tighten around mine, pulling me to a stop. The emotion shining in his eyes reflects exactly what I feel in my heart—so damn much gratitude for the love of a lifetime. I take his face in my hands, guiding his mouth down to mine.
“The only choice I ever had was choosing to step foot on this very trail that morning. Fate took care of the rest. That’s what I’m thinking about.”
“Marry me,” he blurts, then blinks rapidly, like he can’t believe those words just left his mouth. “Ah shit. That wasn’t how that was supposed to happen.”
“I thought you was gonna do it at the tree,” Lily scolds, hands on her hips. “Where her parents are.” She taps her foot. “And you have to give her the ring, Daddy. That’s what’s gonna make her say yes.”
“I’m so sorry,” he rushes out, and I’m not sure if he’s apologizing to me or Lily.
He grabs my hand, dragging me along as he dashes up ahead to that old tree, the one with my initials and my parents’, surrounded by a rainbow of peonies that have just begun to bloom.
My heart tries to crawl its way up my throat as he turns back to me, pulling a small velvet box from his bag with trembling hands.
“Hey, uh, forget what I said back there a minute ago, ’kay? ”
“Forgotten,” I whisper as he drops to one knee.
The dogs sit at his sides, and Dinosaur drops to his back, rolling around in the dirt as he meows. Connor tugs the box from Adam’s hands, opening it, and the rising sun catches on the most gorgeous diamond.
“ Oooh
,” he coos, shoving it in my face. “Pwetty, Mama.”
“I thought you was gonna wait for the sun to come all the way up,” Lily reminds Adam. “’Cause you said she’s like a sunrise.”
Adam drops his head, a tired laugh shaking his chest. When he looks back at me, it’s with the softest smile, so inherently Adam, tender and calm, so patient. “I should’ve expected this to go exactly opposite of how I planned it, huh?”
I nod, tears already gathering in my eyes. “That’s parenthood for you.”
“But maybe it’s exactly how I planned it, because all I need is you right here, surrounded by all the love that makes this family exactly as perfect as it is.
That’s the only thing I’ve ever dreamed of.
” He turns to Connor, taking his tiny hands in his.
“Connor, buddy, I fell in love with you the moment I met you, when you threw your shoes at my chest and demanded I put them on your feet. You are so clever and curious, and you love with your whole heart, just like your mama.” He pulls Lily in to join them.
“Lily, you are everything kind and patient in this world, and the day you asked me to read with you, I knew I loved you.” He squeezes their hands.
“I love you both, and I’m so proud and grateful to be your dad.
Now what do you say I make Mama my wife? ”
“ Yeah
!” they scream, and Connor trips over his feet, face-planting against Adam’s chest as he grabs hold of his neck.
“I lub you, Dada.” He points at me, holding the ring out. “Gib Mama wing?”
Adam takes the ring from the box with shaky hands. His gaze touches the heart carved into the tree, and when he closes his eyes, presses his hand against the very spot my parents once touched, my tears spring free.
He opens his mouth, hesitates, then closes it, shaking his head.
“I practiced this a thousand times. Every single word I wanted to say, I said it in front of the mirror, in the shower, Christ, Rosie, I even recited it in front of the guys last week. And now we’re here, and I’m looking up at you, and the only words I can think of are thank you
. Thank you for trusting me with all of you, your fears, your insecurities, your past, and your future.
Thank you for letting me into your life, for making me feel like I belonged there.
” He hangs his head, breathing out, and I reach forward, running my fingers through his soft curls until he gives me his eyes again, electric blue and shining with tears.
“Thank you for giving me a second chance. Thank you for taking the time to see all of me, to know all of me, and thank you for loving it all. Thank you for showing me what it means to be loved without reservation. Thank you, Rosie, for being you.”
Glittering golden rays dance through the forest as the sun finally breaks through the trees, bathing my family in a dazzling, breathtaking warmth I can feel all the way to the tips of my toes.
Adam smiles, a stunning, magnificent sight, the tremor in his touch disappearing as he slips my hand into his.
“You’ve been my best friend and my partner through all of this.
” He slips the exquisite ring on my finger, the teardrop diamond the same rosy shade as my hair. “Now I want you to be my wife.”
He catches me against him as I fall to his lap, a soft laugh that skates down my neck as I toss my arms around him and cry for a love I spent my life dreaming of.
“You didn’t phrase it as a question,” I cry.
“Because you’re not allowed to say no; I already told you.” He shifts me back, brushing my waves off my damp cheeks. “Do you know how I knew? How I knew it was you?”
“How?”
“Sometimes people say they know they’ve found the one because they turned their world upside down, took everything they thought they knew and shook it up.
But you? Not you, Rosie. You didn’t throw my whole world off balance.
You centered it. It was like you were my gravity, and every moment I was with you, everything settled into place.
My fears, my insecurities, my hopes, and my dreams. I was at peace with everything, as long as you were by my side.
” He tucks my hair behind my ear, his thumb sweeping over the dimple in my chin as he smiles.
“With you, I found my gravity. That’s worth so much more than my chaos. ”
We stay there all morning, me and my family, have breakfast on the bridge, splash in the cool creek down below. And when it’s time to leave, Adam takes a pocketknife from his bag and adds C, L,
and A
to that heart forever marked in the tree.
I take Lily’s hand in mine as Adam perches Connor on top of his shoulders, Bear, Piglet, and Dinosaur leading us home.
“We’ll have to come back in January to carve in one more initial.”
Adam’s gaze slides to mine. “One more?”
“Mhmm. When we’re a family of five.” I shrug. “Or eight, I guess, including the animals.”
“Family of…” He trails off, ticking off each of us on his fingers as he counts beneath his breath.
Lily gasps, and Adam’s eyes snap to my stomach when she places her hand there.
“I know it’s a little earlier than we planned, and you had high hopes for a spring or summer baby so you could be off with us, but it looks like we made a—”
“A winter baby.” His words escape him on a breath.
His chest rises sharply, and that tremor in his hands from earlier returns as he brings one to his mouth, rubbing it, before hesitantly reaching out, laying his palm over my stomach.
Blue eyes flip to mine just in time for me to track the single tear that escapes, running down his cheek. “We made a winter baby?”
I grin, covering his hand with mine, and shrug.
“Oops.”
The End.