It soothed and filled a hole in him with the purest and warmest of loves.
He took the small black box with Trinity’s name on it and walked towards her.
Trinity laughed as Miranda ran to her grandfather and insisted on head-butting him with her plastic horns. The older man groaned comically every time the plastic poked him before he dropped his glass of egg nog on a side table and scooped her up to throw her in the air.
Miranda screamed in unabashed glee, a sound that would have been downright scary if it wasn't so joy filled.
She laughed as she enjoyed the interaction between the two of them, so different from the polite conversation on her wedding day.
"He loves her," Michael said softly beside her ears, the hoarse baritone raking over her senses. Behave she shouted on herself but the fluttering in her belly continued. Her hand went to sooth the subtle ache but nudged against the manila envelope she had hidden under her shirt, she jolted for a new reason altogether.
"She loves him right back," she replied, her distracted mind struggling to stay on the issue of discussion.
He thrust a small box into her hand and she assumed that it was jewelry.
"I want you to open this," he said.
Her hands trembled as she pried the box open. Her breath rushed out in a startled gasp. "Michael?" Her voice was low and incredibly breathy.
A ring.The large diamond caught the flickering Christmas lights and threw an arc of sparkling spots into the air. It was beautiful and she was appropriately blinded... by her tears.
It's beautiful but I already have a ring," she indicated the one on her finger.
He caught her hand, got to his knees and worked the old ring off her finger as she looked on in confusion.
"Will you marry me, Trinity? Make me the happiest man in earth and marry me," he asked, looking up at her.
"But we are already married," she said again now very confused.
"What I mean is will you really marry me, without the business deal, with your whole heart, with love?" He asked earnestly, his eyes on her, conveying the intensity of his emotions.
"It's not a business deal this time and we have nothing to gain except a lifetime of love and a future with each other; marry me Trinity.” His words sounded so sincere and filled with emotion.
She felt the emotion as well, to the very bottom of her soul, she sank into that ocean of emotions, without thinking to stop. Without thinking to stall her fall, without thinking at all.
She allowed her mind to sleep in it and found it vast, found it endless. What she found shook her to the very core, cleared her last doubts and break her remaining walls. This was eternity.
"So will you?" He sounded a little unsure and she smiled to reassure him.
"Yes..." Eyes riveted on his, all her soul in them. "Yes, I will marry you! I will always marry you!"
"Oh thank God," he exhaled as giggles erupted from in front of them.
"Silly daddy," Miranda called as his grandfather chuckled at him. He ignored them sweeping his wife into a kiss.
The passion exploded between them driving a soft moan from her, it was a small exhale but it was easily masked by the Christmas carols in the background, but it reminded him of their setting.
He shifted back, away from her, but his hand remained at her side as they turned to smile at their audience of two.
Trinity fidgeted, it was now or never as her hand strayed to the manila envelope and brought it out of from under her shirt and handed it to him.
Michael regarded it with a quizzical expression before he looked up at her. She pursed her lips and shook her head to indicate that she was not going to give him a hint about what was inside.
He tore the envelope open and fished out the papers. When he glanced at the heading, he looked at her quickly before returning to the paper in his hand. It was an application to legally adopt Miranda.
His expression blanked, his face became unreadable the further down the paper he went until he finished and folded the paper carefully returned it to the manila envelope and put it in his pocket.
By then she was sweating bullets, wondering if she had misinterpreted things and gone too far.
