Page 58 of Puck, Marry, Thrill

She was stunned.

Absolutely wrecked.

They did this for her?

“What is this?” she breathed, voice trembling.

“Momma!” Zachary cried out joyfully, bounding toward her. “Do you like it? Do ya? Do ya? We wanted to surprise you!”

Jamie dropped to her knees as he launched himself into her arms, clutching him tightly. She buried her face in his hair, overcome. The sugary smell of snack cakes and little-boy shampoo filled her lungs, and she let the tears fall freely now.

“I’m so surprised, too…” she whispered, holding him close.

Zachary beamed, his eyes dancing. “What did you and Daddy do?”

“Well,” he began, practically vibrating with excitement as she knelt to meet his gaze. “Me and Daddy, we had a guy-talk…”

Her gaze flicked to Kenneth.

He stood leaning in the doorway, arms crossed, a self-satisfied smirk playing at his lips—but his eyes… oh, his eyes. They were molten with love. With pride. With that unspoken depth he always wore when he looked at her and Zachary, like he couldn’t quite believe this was his life either.

Jamie’s breath caught again.

“… And our guy talk, we wanted to surprise you. So we started thinking.”

“And you guys are clever,” Jamie prompted, her voice breaking on a laugh that was mostly tears.

“We are! We are! Momma, we thought you were so sweet and needed some flowers, so we mixed ‘em up and made these for you instead.”

She pulled him into another fierce hug, her throat too full to speak at first. Her arms trembled as they held him. Her soul fluttered with emotion.

“I can’t believe you did this,” she finally managed, her voice soft and awed. She looked up at Kenneth, barely able to comprehend how she’d ever lived a life without him in it. His answering shrug was casual, but his eyes—Goodness, his eyes—said everything.

This was love.

This was real.

“This one is my favorite snack cake,” Zachary announced proudly, scrambling out of her embrace to fetch one of the more precarious vases. It wobbled dangerously, but he steadied it like it was a priceless artifact and handed it to her with both hands. “I love Cosmic Brownies – and this is my favorite, so you have to eat this one last.”

Five year olds are amazingly wonderful,she thought, smiling, her heart twisting with emotion. “I promise to eat that one last – and maybe we could share it?” she offered gently.

Zachary let out a relieved sigh, as if she'd just solved a major crisis, then dashed back to place the vase carefully on the table.

Jamie stood slowly, her gaze meeting Kenneth’s across the room.

She tilted her head, teasing, her voice soft and playful. “Do you have a favorite, big boy?”

It was a familiar line between them now, something half-flirtation, half-truth. She knew his answer before it even passed his lips, but she craved hearing it anyway. Cravedhim.

Kenneth's eyes darkened with affection as he took a step toward her, slow and sure. He passed his sleeping son off to the‘big-boy-bed’Zachary loved with the tenderness of a man who knew exactly the beauty of life and what he held—and she did too.

But then… all of Kenneth’s attention was hers.

“You know I do,” he murmured, reaching for her like she was the only steady thing in the room.

Her fingers slid along his jaw, rough with the faintest edge of a day’s stubble, as she tilted her face up until their eyes met. Her breath caught. The way he looked at her—like she was everything, like she washiseverything—undid her.

And then he kissed her.

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