Page 44 of Single All the Way

“Nice.” She stacked some of the boxes. “I told your girls I’d take them shopping to buy gifts for you next weekend. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course.” I straightened and stretched my back before taking the load to the basement. “On a similar note, Xavier pulled me aside earlier. He has a special idea for you.”

“Oh? Should I be worried?”

I laughed. “Not at all. But it’ll take some time. We’re planning to start on it Sunday, so that’ll work out well.”

“You don’t have to do that, Ben.”

“I know. I want to,” I reassured her.

“Is Skyler helping?” she asked.

I shook my head. It’d be a surprise for Skyler and my girls as well as Emerson. “Would you mind taking her with you and the girls?”

“We’ll make it a girls’ day.”

Xavier and I had come up with an idea for the parade after all. He had hopes of winning a prize for his mom, but we’d have a backup plan in place just in case, because there were a dozen variables of this thing even working.

Though it’d be a multiday project, I was all in. I liked to think Blake would approve of his son and me bonding over a project that would require power tools and manual labor.

“Mommy, come see,” Skyler called out.

All four kids were lying on the floor on their backs, shoulder to shoulder, in a semicircle, their heads partially under the tree, gazing at the lights above them.

When I came back from taking boxes to the basement, Emerson had joined the kids, lying next to her daughter on the end, her knees up, caramel hair draped across the floor.

“Come on, Daddy!” Ruby said.

“Is there room for me?”

“We’ll scoot.” Evelyn directed the group, and they made room for me next to Emerson.

I lowered my big frame onto the floor and wedged it in between Emerson and the hearth. I had to lie on my side to fit. I shared a smile with Emerson, which put our heads just inches away, so I quickly turned my head and averted my gaze to the lights above.

“Magical, right, Daddy?” Evelyn said.

“Absolutely,” I confirmed.

We did this every year, usually just the three of us. Another tradition. An attempt to ensure we all took time to stop and take in the beauty of the tree. I knew from experience how easy it was to walk by it without seeing it. The girls had taken to it immediately and never let me skip it or forget it.

I breathed in the pine and noted the hint of Emerson’s feminine scent mixed in. Letting the calm and peace of the rare quiet moment settle into my bones, I watched the sparkle of the colored lights reflect off our beloved ornaments.

As contentedness seeped through me, I rested my hand on Emerson’s arm, which was draped over her middle. I propped my head up on my other arm just enough that I could see past her to the four smaller faces. All four kids gazed upward with expressions of enchantment and wonder. I couldn’t help but feel the moment deep inside me, and with it came a kernel of a thought, an inkling ofWhat if this was forever? What if this was my family?

I couldn’t deny the warmth that shot through me.

Seconds later, the moment was interrupted by Emerson’s ringtone. I shifted my hand away as she rolled partway over to get her phone out of her back pocket.

“What time is it?” she muttered.

“Ten till nine,” I said.

Once her phone was out, I could see the name on the screen—Darius Weber. He was a real estate agent in town. I knew she’d been looking for a home, checking online listings, but his name in black-and-white made it more real.

Emerson sat up and answered.

Unlike me, the kids were unbothered and uninterested in Emerson’s conversation. They pointed out the ornaments that sparkled the most, trying to one-up each other.

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