“No, I want to buy this for our kids. Now. I want to start to put their room together.” I want to protest, but there’s something in his eyes that tells me not to. Josh takes a step to me, pulling me in his arms. “I’ve spent so much of my life waiting for something. For someone. For something to make me want to live again. I was waiting for you, for them, for . . . God, I don’t know. I’m tired of waiting. I’ve seen the other side, and I don’t want to do that.”
I lift up on my toes, pressing our lips together. “I don’t want that either.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
He lets me go, and I smile as he loads both into the cart. It all feels so real now that we know we are having a boy and a girl. He’s also moving out of the second bedroom tonight, not that he hasn’t been sleeping in my bed the last week, but we’re making plans. Josh is going to stay with me, and we’re going to be a couple, raising our children together.
My mother is close to having a coronary from the thought of it, but we’re taking it as it comes.
I’m in no rush to get married. I’m honestly happy just knowing he wants to be with me. Maybe that makes me a total idiot, but it’s how I feel.
We head home with a few bags of baby things, and when I walk into my house, I look around at how much this place has changed. The floors are beautiful, and the kitchen is just about done now too.
When Josh, Jack, and Grayson were working on it yesterday, they found a cabinet that had some rot, so what was meant to be an easy painting job has turned into much more. I tried to argue that we didn’t need to do it, but they gave me identical looks of incredulity as they ripped the cabinet off the wall so I had no option but to replace it.
They rebuilt that section, and I love it.
I head in there while Josh puts the baby gear in the spare room.
Feeling hungry and a little tired, I make us each a sandwich. As I’m putting the mayo on the bread, I feel Josh come up behind me, hands resting on my belly. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”
I smile, leaning back into his touch. “No, feel free to tell me.”
He chuckles against my neck. “You are the most beautiful woman who has ever drawn breath.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
I turn my head so I can get a glimpse of him. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
“Not bad?” Josh asks with a smirk.
“I mean, I’ve seen better.”
“Yeah?”
I giggle when he tickles my sides. “I’m totally lying, I don’t know that I’ve ever had eyes for anyone other than you.”
Fate is a funny thing.
He brings his lips to mine, and I sink into his touch. Each time we kiss, it’s like a surreal experience, and I never want it to end.
When we break apart, he runs his finger down my cheek. “What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I keep waiting for everything to change,” he confesses.
“What do you mean?”
“This happiness. I’m just waiting for it to stop.”
“Why would it?” I ask.
“It always does.”
“It doesn’t have to.”