Page 119 of Love in the Storm

“Oh! I didn’t think grown-ups got birthday presents.”

Jacob grabbed her hand and started toward the door. “Come on! Open mine first!”

Lyric let Jacob lead her out into the main room. She blew a kiss to Asa as she darted past him, and his hand caught hers before slipping from her grasp as Jacob pulled her away.

Everyone had pulled their metal folding chairs to the middle of the room, and they all faced a table with half a dozen beautifully wrapped presents on it.

“Guys, you didn’t have to get me anything!” Lyric clasped her hands to her chest and smiled at the crowd. She would still be wondering if this was a dream had she not eaten the amazing cupcakes. She’d never tasted food in a dream, so this must be real. Who knew reality could be better than anything she could have imagined?

Lyric reached for a box with blush-colored wrapping and a white bow.

“No! Mine first.” Jacob was at her side in an instant, handing her a present wrapped in blue paper.

Her breathing quickened as she tore it open. She didn’t care what it was. She would love anything Jacob gave her. He put his whole heart into everything, and he’d taught her how to love in a new way. If the Lord chose to answer her prayers, she’d one day call him her son.

Lyric lifted the album out of the box and stared at it. The room grew quiet, and she stopped breathing.

“It’s a photo album,” Jacob said. “It’s like the one you gave me, but this one is all about us.”

Lyric brushed her fingers over the photo on the cover. Lyric, Asa, and Jacob stood with their arms around each other in front of Bluestone Creek. It was from the first time Asa and Jacob took her fishing, and their smiles were wide and full of joy. There was so much happiness in the photo that it stole the breath from her lungs.

She opened the album and flipped through a few pages. “Some of these are old.” One photo caught her attention. She was maybe seven years old and sitting in the passenger seat of her dad’s old Thunderbird.

Lyric searched the crowd for Asa and found him standing beside her mom and dad.

“Mom. Dad.” Lyric stood, and Granny took the album from her.

Everyone took a step back, leaving Lyric and her parents less than five feet from each other.

“Happy birthday,” her mom said.

Lyric didn’t think. She wrapped her arms around her mom and buried her face in her mom’s shoulder. They’d visited a few times, and having little pieces of them in her life only made her miss them more in the weeks when she didn’t see them.

“Happy birthday,” her dad said beside her.

“I didn’t know you were coming.”

Her dad wrapped her in a hug. “Asa called us a few weeks ago and invited us to the party.”

Lyric looked for Asa, but she didn’t have to look far. He was standing behind her with a barely contained smile.

She opened her mouth to thank him, but the words died in her throat when he slowly knelt before her.

Asa looked up at her and reached out his hand. Lyric grasped it, holding on for dear life.

“Lyric Woods, there is no doubt in my mind that we were meant to meet the way we did—each time. Our paths were meant to cross, and I believe our lives are meant to be shared. You’ve taught me so much, but the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that I should hang onto the best things in life. If you’ll have me, I would be honored to love you for the rest of my life. Want to make this a forever thing?”

Lyric’s smile was so wide she couldn’t close her mouth. Tears blurred her vision, and she squeezed Asa’s hand. It was always a forever thing.

Before she could shout “Yes,” Jacob slid into a kneel beside his dad and said, “And me too!”

The room rumbled with laughter as Asa and Jacob each pulled out a ring. Was she laughing or crying? Either way, she couldn’t see the rings through her tears.

“Yes, and yes!” she shouted.

Her friends and family cheered as Asa and Jacob wrapped her in a hug. Lyric clung to them and drank in the comfort of the two people who would soon be hers in every way.

Asa whispered in her ear, loud enough to be heard over the cheers, “When do you want to get married?”

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