“What?”
He paused. “What did you just say?”
My cheeks blushed deeply. “I said… uh…”
He gripped my chin as his face came closer to mine. “Say it again, Leslie.”
I swallowed hard. “I love you so much, Trey.”
He smiled brighter than I’d ever seen, and his eyes lit up like stars in the nighttime sky. “I love you, too, Leslie. And no matter what you decide, I’ll be here supporting you the entire time.”
“So… if I chose to keep it, you’d…?”
He captured my lips softly. “Of course, I’d stay. I love you. That should be a given when you love someone.”
I threw my arms around his neck. “My God, you’re perfect.”
He hugged me close. “We’ll make it work, I promise you. For both of our sakes and our child’s sake.”
And as we stood there in the parking garage of the business that had changed my entire life, I hoped and prayed that we could both stand by our word. I hoped and prayed that Trey and I became better at our communication skills and that he wouldn’t leave me the second it got hard. I prayed that he stuck around not just for our child but for Rori as well. Because I wanted her to experience the idea of a whole family. A man she could count on and grow up around, a man who could show her what a real, true man did for his family.
I wanted that for her, and I wanted that for myself.
I wanted a future with this amazing man, and I knew I’d do whatever it took in order to make it happen.
Epilogue
Trey
One Year Later
“Cannonball!”
I bolted upright out of bed quickly and wrapped my arms around a flying Rori. “Gotcha.”
She squealed. “Oh, no! The big, flying spaghetti monster got me. I need help!”
I rolled her over in bed and started tickling her as I quickly came out of the foggy haze of sleep. She had made it a habit to wake me up every Saturday morning like this: by flying face-first into the bedroom that her mother and I shared before she tackled me awake. I had come to love our Saturday morning ritual, especially since it involved cereal and morning cartoons while Leslie slept in.
But, after I tickled Rori half to death, she caught her breath and looked up at me. “Mommy needs you in the nursery.”
I paused. “Did she need me in the nursery when you came flying in here fifteen minutes ago?”
She blinked. “Maybe.”
I bent down and kissed Rori’s forehead. “We’re going to have a talk later about how Mommy needs her messages delivered immediately, okay?”
She giggled as she wiggled beneath the covers. “Oh, it’s all warm in here.”
I slipped out of bed and reached for my robe. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about our cereal and cartoons, though. Let me go figure out what your mother needs, and I’ll be right back.”
After slipping into my house slippers, I eased myself down the hallway, listening as the beautiful sound of Leslie’s soft singing voice filtered through the doorway of the baby’s nursery. I stood outside for a few seconds, stealing a little slice of aural paradise for myself.
Especially since I had convinced her to move in with me.
It had been a fight, for sure. Leslie had it in her mind that moving in with me somehow meant giving up her independence. When really, all I wanted was to share what I had with someone. I gave her the keys to one of the cars, and it took two days of convincing her to take them before she finally relented.
But, I knew the only thing I could do was show her I’d never hold any of this over her head. Once I gave her something, it was hers. Just like the car she drove and just like the clothes I filled her closet with and just like the bedroom I let Rori design the way she wanted—these things were as much theirs as it was mine. I didn’t care that it was my card we were using. I didn’t care that this estate once used to be “just mine.”
