Page 81 of Nine

“Do it,” she whispers, and then disappears behind the wall.

I laugh.

“Marry me. Love me. Consume me, baby.”

Mya pokes her head out again.

“Do it,” she whispers louder. This time she throws a crayon at me to get her point across. “You don’t want me to throw another,” she shouts.

I give her the mom stare. She challenges me with her eyes. This girl does not back down. Maybe she does have a little of me in her. I look back at Trig.

“Yes!”

He springs up and grabs me in his arms. He twirls me around and kisses my cheek.

“Mommy said yes, Mya,” Trig shouts.

“It’s about time,” Mya says from somewhere in another room.

We both chuckle.

“We’re getting married,” I say, super excited. “This is crazy.”

“It’s too late to change your mind. Mya heard you say yes.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

I look at him unsure of what steps I need to take.

“Do I buy you something? I don’t really know how this works. That sounds so bad.”

“We can pick out rings at the same time.”

Trig grabs both of my hands and kisses the top of them.

“We do this together. We always have and we always will.”

Mya marches in with her pink purse slung over her shoulder.

“Are we going shopping or not? I just put my shoes on and I’m ready for the mall. I have a date at Build-A-Bear. A unicorn is waiting for me. We can’t be late.”

I look down to see that she has both of her shoes on the wrong feet. I walk over and bend down to fix them.

“Don’t you think you have enough stuffed animals?”

“But Mom, this one is really special. He’s purple and has polka dots everywhere. He’s magical,” she whispers.

“Every time you buy one, it’s magical,” I whisper back.

“This is a celebration. Let the poor girl have a purple and polka dotted unicorn,” Trig says, while tossing popcorn in his mouth.

“Yay,” she shouts, and jumps up and down. She runs over to him. He swoops her up in his arms.

“But first we have to go buy Mom something magical.”

He kisses her on her forehead and sets her down.

“Okay,” she yells, and runs for the door.

---