Finally, after what feels like forever but is really only a split second, I say, “Yes! A million times, yes.”
Then Jake is standing, wrapping me up in his arms, kissing my cheek, his hands tightening on me as a promise of what’s to come later when nobody else is watching. My parents hug and kiss me, Ellie hands me a tissue, and Zachery promises he got an amazing picture.
Aster and Daffy wrap themselves around my legs, looking up at me, talking a mile a minute.
“Are you getting married?”
“What is married?”
“Are you going to have a wedding?”
“Will you wear a dress?”
But Chrys doesn’t come over to me. Instead, she walks over to stand in front of Jake, her little chin tipped up as she regards him carefully.
“Are you our new dad?”
I pause, and it feels like we all hold our breath, looking over to him. He presses his lips together, then drops down to his knee, and the three kids gather around him.
“I’ve loved getting to know you guys, and I’d really like the chance to become a part of your family. What do you think about that?”
Aster hugs him immediately. “You can be my dad!”
“Hey!” Daffy says, barging in and fighting for a place to put her arms around Jake. “No, he’s mine!”
I bite my lip, feeling overwhelmed by the moment. How are the three of them going to feel when they realize they have another sibling coming and will have to split him four ways?
Chrys stands back a way, considering, then slowly steps forward and wraps her arms gently around the three of them, saying softly, “Okay, you can be in the family, Jake.”
EPILOGUE: ONE YEAR LATER
JAKE
“Are you sure they’re not too hot?”
Lara glances into the stroller, then back up at me, worrying at her bottom lip. I reach in and put my hand in front of the little fan I have clipped to the visor, feeling the air.
“That little fan had great reviews,” Lara’s dad says, appearing next to his daughter, “and we can keep an eye on them. If they get too hot, we’ll take them inside.”
“Can we getcorn dogs?” Daffy asks, her voice rising to a shout, but it doesn’t matter because we’re standing just inside the admissions booth to the state fair, and she’s far from the only kid shouting in here.
“They said after we check on the babies,” Chrys says, putting her hand on Daffy’s shoulder. “To make sure they’re not too hot.”
“Who needs water?” Kellie appears behind Gideon with an armful of water bottles and starts passing them out to all the kids, loosening the caps.
Once the twins are situated, everyone has water, and Daffy has been promised that we’re going to get corn dogs, we set off, our own little school of fish in the ocean of the fairground.
“Hey,” Lara says, dropping back beside me and entwining her fingers with mine. “We finally made it to the fair, huh?”
I laugh, glancing down at her, thinking she’s even more beautiful now than she’s ever been, wearing a soft pink romper with strappy brown sandals, her blond hair light from the summer and tied up on top of her head. Her hand in mine is warm, and I feel the scrape of her ring against my fingers.
“Yeah,” I say, glancing at the family ahead of us, Kellie pushing the double-stroller and Gideon with Aster on his shoulders. “We did.”
“Maybe we should get married at the state fair,” Lara says, which makes me laugh.
It’s been a just over a year since I proposed to her, and we just set our wedding date for next summer, deciding it would be okay for us to take it slow, have all the time in the world to plan out our lives before the ceremony.
Just last night, Lara informed me that she was accepted to a one-year master’s program in nursing. Once she finishes that, she’ll be well on her way to becoming the director of nursing in the obstetrics department of the hospital.
