Page 43 of Till Cupid Do Us Part

“And I’d marry you right now.”

TWO MONTHS LATER

I never expected getting married and having Travis in attendance, nor did I think that he would have been standing beside my future husband.

Life is crazy. One minute, you’re sitting on a worn-down couch, scrolling through hateful text messages your boyfriend has sent his friends about you, and the next, you’re fucking his dad in the back of his family bar. Then, you’re flashing forwardnine months and giving birth to your new man’s baby before wearing his ring on your finger. It’s not only a ring, though.

It’s a symbol of how far you’ve come and how suddenly you jumped the path that was set in front of you and found another.

Suddenly, you’re a mother and a wife, and you’re dancing with your husband and daughter at your wedding reception.

Never in a million years did I think this would be my story. That I would be this happy with a life full of light and laughter and support.

For god’s sake, I knitted the pocket square in my husband’s suit jacket pocket. Yeah, because heworeit.

Niko accepts me for who I am. Every curved, knitwear-loving, peppermint daiquiri-drinking, party-planning inch of me with no exceptions. And in return, I love every scowling, anti-Christmas tree decorating, gruff but teddy-bear-soft inch of him.

Maybe being opposites attracted us after all. If he were more like me, I’d have stayed gone after our first night together.

“You look stunnin’, angel,” Niko murmurs as we sway to the slow tempo of the music.

I know we’re not alone on the dance floor anymore, but neither of us has paid much attention to who’s joined us. Our wedding was small, and our reception stayed the same. There weren’t too many people we wanted to be here. Only the most important ones to us.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over the way you look in a suit.”

“Take a mental picture because I hate wearin’ ’em.”

“Well, thank you for sucking it up for today. I fell in love with you all over again.”

“Think Junie will make me wear one on her graduation day?”

“Yes. And her wedding.”

He furrows his brows, head shaking. “I’ll burn it after the graduation. She isn’t gettin’ married ever.”

His hold on the eight-month-old tightens as she coos between us, enjoying the music and kicking her feet to the beat. The little clip-in bow in her hair bounces as she moves her head, and the tutu on her pink dress is squished between our bodies.

I curl the hairs at Niko’s nap around my finger and roll my eyes. “I think you’ll have a hard time convincing her of that in ten-plus years.”

“Ten?” he guffaws, terror twisting his features. “Try ten hundred.”

“Poor girl,” I tell her, sneaking a kiss on her head. “Your daddy is going to drive you crazy.”

He straightens his shoulders. “That’s a father’s job.”

“She may not agree with you there. You’re used to teenage boys, Niko. Teenage girls? They’re a different ballgame entirely.”

“I’ll figure it out,” he mutters, but there isn’t much hope there.

We both know we’re in for a shit ton of mess-ups and stress that will make us feel like the worst parents that have ever parented.

“Can I cut in?”

Junie squeals at Travis, kicking her tiny, white-shoe-covered feet and reaching for her half-brother. I glance at Niko’s eldest son and smile, knowing for the first time in a long, long time that he’s happy to be near us.

“’Course you can,” Niko says.

Three words and they show just how different things have become. Even if there’s still work to be done. Tons of it.

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