Page 9 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

Chapter

Four

Gonna go lay under the tree to remind my family what a gift I am.

—Dixie to Silas

DIXIE

“Hello, my beautiful wife.”

My wife looked up at me with a sour smile.

“Do you know what day it is, Dixie James Normus?” my wife of a year asked.

I patted her head and tried to contain my laughter. “Umm…Christmas?”

She punched me in the kidney.

Not hard, because she’s the tiniest little thing, but hard enough to let me know she was mad.

I caught her up to my chest and twisted us. “Happy anniversary, my beautiful, lovely, best woman in the world, wife.”

She slapped both hands on either side of my cheeks and said, “Do you regret me yet, Dixie?”

I sobered at that. “I’d never regret you, Mary Louise Normus.”

She melted. “What are we doing tonight, Dix?”

I twirled a curl around my finger before saying, “Celebrating our first wedding anniversary, then our second Christmas Eve together.”

I had Mary on the back of my bike for all of two months before I proposed. We were married on Christmas Eve a week later.

Today, a year later, I had plenty of plans for her.

But first…

I pulled a ring box out of my pocket.

“I know,” I said to her as I popped the box open, “that you didn’t complain when I gave you that shitty ring.”

“Dix!” she cried, placing her hand with said ring to her chest, and covering it with the other hand. “Don’t talk about my beautiful ring like that.”

I flashed her a grin, then turned the box around.

“This ring, I think, represents our love a whole lot better, don’t you think?” I asked.

That other ring had been bought in haste.

When I’d tried to buy her a new one, she’d told me to save the money, we’d need it when we had kids.

And honestly, I’d been intending to save my money.

But I’d seen this ring when I’d gone to buy her a necklace for our anniversary and couldn’t leave without it.

“Dixie,” she whispered. “I…we can’t afford this.”

I laughed. “Honey, I worked enough overtime in the last month to pay for this twice.”

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