Um, what? My dad asked my mom to marry him on their first date? How did I not know this?
“How don’t I know this?” I vocalized my thoughts. “And why did you say no thirty-two times?”
“Actually, I said no thirty-one times. I said yes to the thirty-second proposal. And I said no thirty-one times because he didn’t have a ring.”
I stared at my mother in complete shock. Then I dissolved into a fit of laughter.
See, my mom was smart.
Holding out for a ring.
“I would’ve said yes an hour into our first date. I would’ve said yes if he’d asked me five minutes into that date. You see, I saw your father from across a crowded room. We were at a wedding reception. I came late and missed the ceremony. He was a groomsman sitting at the bridal party table. I wasn’t there two minutes looking through the crush of people searching for my friends when our eyes locked. Right then I knew he was the man for me. Your dad put his fork down on the table, stood, and made his way to me. I didn’t move a muscle. I don’t even remember breathing until he stopped in front of me. He didn’t tell me his name, didn’t ask my name, he simply smiled—”
“And I thought to myself this is the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life making happy.” My dad finished from behind me.
My mom’s smile beamed.
I felt my dad’s hand rest on my shoulder and since I was cuddling a squishy, sleeping baby I didn’t have a free hand, so I lifted my shoulder and tipped my head until I could nuzzle his hand with my cheek.
“And that’s what you feel, isn’t it?” my mom asked.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I was so scared when I got to Maryland. But the second I saw Gabe I felt…”
I couldn’t put into words how I felt. There was no way to describe it, no words that would do it justice.
“At peace,” my dad filled in.
And since that was the best way to define the way I’d felt though it still didn’t fully encompass the enormity of my feelings, I agreed.
“Yes, Dad. I felt at peace. I felt like my life had changed in all the best ways. I felt like the man I was meant to make happy for the rest of my life was right in front of me. And I knew without a word spoken he was the man who was meant to make me happy.”
My dad was silent and so was my mom. Ivy was looking at her lap, smiling. Anaya had tears in her eyes. But Natasha was staring at me with a knowing gaze.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Natasha whispered.
Not trusting my voice I nodded.
“Don’t let go. It only gets better,” she continued.
My dad’s fingers curled around my shoulder twitched, then he kissed the top of my head. And I knew all was forgiven. Though, I’d still apologize. And maybe tease him about asking my mother to marry him so many times.
The ball of unease had loosened but I still wanted to get back to Gabe.
“Can someone please wrap up this burger so I can eat it later? And when Gabe grills me about what I ate I expect all of you to have my back and tell him I finished my fries and ate a bag of chips.”
“We got you, sister.” Ivy smiled.
I still barely knew her but I believed her.
Anaya grabbed Ivy’s hand and added, “We totally got your back.”
Chapter 32
I was waiting another five minutes then I was going to do two things—rip the blood pressure cuff off of my arm and get the hell out of bed. Dr. Lexington had done her thing. She’d been accompanied by a too-young Dr. Westing. A boy-doctor who very obviously wanted to impress Dr. Lexington with his newly acquired medical degree and spent fifteen very long minutes spouting off every medical term he’d learned. It seemed he liked long, complicated words. This didn’t impress Dr. Lexington and she made short work of nixing all the tests Dr. Westing wanted to run.
Thank fuck.
Dr. I-Just-Got-My-Medical-License wanted to keep me under observation for another week. And with all the tests he wanted to run he’d need more than that to get them all done.
Forty-eight hours was what Dr. Lexington ordered.
Two more damn days.
I found this unacceptable. Dr. Lexington disagreed. So two more days it was.