“I don’t remember seeing these under the tree.”
“Santa must have brought them.”
“Yeah, a Santa named Melanie.” Cameron carefully untied the ribbon on the small gift. Melanie’s heart was in her throat asshe nervously watched Cameron unwrap the ring box. Gasping, Cameron covered her mouth with her hand as she looked up at Melanie. “Mel…”
Tenderly taking the small box from Cameron, Melanie got down on one knee in front of her.
“I love you so much, Cameron. This last year has been the best of my life because of you. You’ve shown me what true love looks like and feels like. You’ve made me a part of the family I’ve always wanted.” Melanie quickly smiled at the kids before turning back to Cameron. “For the longest time, I thought getting to love you as more than a friend would happen only in our dreams. But you’ve made all my dreams become a reality. Except one.”
Slowly opening the box, Melanie held the ring out to Cameron. Their eyes locked as tears flooded both of their eyes. Melanie wasn’t even sure she could get the question out of her mouth with how desperately she wanted to just kiss Cameron already.
“Cameron, I want to spend every moment of the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Cameron squealed as she got to her knees in front of Melanie and kissed her. Keeping the ring box in her hand, Melanie wrapped her arms around Cameron’s neck. “Oh, my god. We really do things exactly alike.”
Melanie cocked her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
She watched as Cameron reached into the pocket of her pajama pants and pulled out a ring box.
“Oh, my god,” Melanie laughed, hugging Cameron again. “Great minds.”
“You two are ridiculous,” Jonah chimed in with a laugh. Melanie looked over at him and Dylan and was glad to see them just as excited as she felt.
“Oh, hush. We just love each other.”
“So much.”
“Mom, are you going to propose to Mel now?” Dylan asked as Cameron nodded.
“I am.” She took Melanie’s hand and squeezed it. “Mel, I love you so much. I’m so thankful to be in your life and have you love me and my kids as much as you do. We’ve always been a family, but I’m ready to make it official. Will you marry me?”
“Hmm,” Melanie teased, “let me think about it.”
Cameron playfully shoved her shoulder as they all laughed. Kissing again, Melanie couldn’t believe how perfect the proposal had ended up being. She and Cameron exchanged rings, carefully putting them on each other’s fingers. Melanie hugged her again, never wanting to let go.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Over Cameron’s shoulder, she admired the beautiful silver ring. It had a round diamond with three smaller diamonds on either side. Melanie began to laugh as she realized they’d also gotten the same rings. Pulling back from Cameron, she held up her left hand to show her.
“We got each other the same rings.”
“Oh, my god.” Cameron busted out laughing. “I was just looking at it and thought I’d given you the wrong one.”
“I guess we really do think too much alike.”
“I think it just means we were meant for each other.” Kissing Cameron again, Melanie tried to commit every single detail of the moment to memory.
“Are these rings too?” Dylan asked, holding up the rectangle-shaped present with her name on it. Melanie and Cameron sat on the floor across from them as they kept their hands intertwined.
“Sort of.” Melanie smiled at her as she took hold of Cameron’s hand. “Why don’t you and Jonah open them together?”
With possibly more nervous excitement than before the engagement, Melanie watched Jonah and Dylan open their gifts. They weren’t the same thing exactly, but close. Each was a picture frame with Melanie with each of them in their respective frames. Under the photo, Melanie had gottenme and Mama Melengraved on them. It took both the kids a second to notice the name. Jonah was the first to look up at her.
“Wait,” his smile spread wide, “does this mean what I think it means?”
“What?” Dylan looked at Jonah, then at Melanie for answers. “Mean what?”
