on a sob.
Dad’s eyes widen as he looks between Tammy and me, and I can see the exact moment it clicks for him.
“Mia,” he whispers, cupping my face in his hands. His red, raw eyes hold mine. “It’s my fault I only got five real years with you. But even with everything we went through, they’ve been the best five years of my life.” He kisses my forehead before pulling away. “We’ll be back in two weeks to visit you and make sure you have everything you need.”
I nod, my heart in my throat as he and Tammy say goodbye to Benny with the promise of video calls. Dad shakes Leo’s hand, saying, “Take care of them, okay?”
Leo nods but doesn’t say a word. Not during the conversation, and not even as we watch them walk through security and toward the gate. When I can no longer see them, I turn to Leo and our son, still sitting on his dad’s shoulders. And then I wipe at my eyes, at the tears caused by the pain of my world being split in two. Only now, I know I’m standing on the right side of it.
I can feel it.
Because I have faith.
“Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Mia
“I can’t believe your dad’s sending his private jet!” Lincoln says.
Liam adds, “Yeah. This is insane.”
“He’s just showing off,” I mutter, watching through the window as the plane taxis into our hanger. We’re at a local airfield, where Dad flies in and out of whenever he comes to visit us.
The first time he came, it was to look at office space for us.
He bought the whole building.
The second time he visited, we took him to Sunday Family Breakfast, where he and Mr. Preston, who insists I call him either Tom or Dad, got to talking about a development Preston, Gordon and Sons was building in the next town over.
Dad invested in it.
On the third visit, he tried to convince me to let him buy our house for us. I groaned, believing Leo would hate the idea. When I told Leo about it, he shrugged and said, “It’s not a bad offer. As you say, he’ll barely feel it, and we could get a head start financially. You know, for all the other kids we’re going to have.”
“How many are you planning to have?” I almost scoffed.
“Lucas wants eight to beat our parents, so I’m going for nine to beat him,” he jokes.
“You want me to physically birth another nine babies?”
He shook his head and widened his eyes as if what he was about to say was obvious. “Just eight. We already have one, or did you forget about Benny?”
“Who forgot about me?” Benny shouted from the tire swing in the front yard.
“Besides,” Leo said, “I kind of dumped all my savings into this.” And then he held out a ring for me. The ring. It was a Tuesday morning, and he was off work. We were sitting on the porch steps watching Benny play, and there was nothing at all remarkable about the day or the way he told me we were getting married. We just were, and that was that, and that was… perfect. That was a couple of weeks ago, and we haven’t told anyone. We’re not big on celebrating love. We’re big on living in it.
“I love weddings!” Aubrey sings.
“Me, too!” says Laney.
“Settle down,” Lucas and Logan say simultaneously, and I crack a smile, glancing at the twins, who are snapping picture after picture of the plane. Probably to post on social media. I don’t know how it never came up before, but the twins are famous. Like, YouTube, social media, influencer famous. For two little shits, they sure are business smart. They’re also big believers in clean living. They don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, are both virgins, and feel strongly that all teenagers should be able to live the same life without being peer-pressured or teased. They’re currently working with Dad on an app that connects parents with teens. Basically, it’s an app that looks different every time you load it, so the people around you don’t know what it is, and there are quick message options to communicate back and forth so that if, say, you’re at a party and you’re uncomfortable and want to leave, you can send something super quick without your friends knowing. See? Smart.
Everyone is here, all the Prestons, their girlfriends. Dad said to invite anyone we wanted, so we did. The plane is at max capacity.