arms around Ginny and her mom, squeezing them tight and kissing the top of Ginny’s head. “I’m proud of you. I never thought you’d break out enough to chase after the things you wanted.” As he let them go, he turned to eye me. “Have you traveled before?”
Code for: Can you keep my daughter safe? I nodded. “A lot, actually.”
Which wasn’t a lie. Even before I’d traveled to Ireland on my own, my parents and I had traveled all over the place. I was pretty handy at figuring things out.
“I’m assuming, with the deal you made with my brother, you won’t be falling off the planet anytime soon?” he asked, pressing. I could see his worry even after he’d said he was proud of Ginny, and even after saying I wasn’t a stranger, there was still the “Dad” part of him that wasn’t going to just trust me without proving myself.
“We’ll be in regular communication with everyone, I promise.”
Then, one of the cousins called Ginny to the dance floor, and she dragged me with her. Me, all bumbling feet, and Ginny, all grace and finesse from her salsa classes that spread into every move she made. We danced and flirted and kissed as the minutes ticked away to a brand-new year.
After the party was disrupted by birthday songs and more surprises, and as the hands on the clock neared midnight, I grabbed two glasses of champagne and followed Ginny out onto the landing. She was watching fireworks that were going off at the town square. The burst of color and sound were just like her. The way she’d burst into my world, surprising the hell out of me and bewitching me with her scent and her smile and her multi-colored eyes.
“To being unpredictable,” I said, as I held a glass of champagne out to her.
“To being alive,” she said, glass tinkling with mine, but then she was pushing her body up against me, and wrapping her arms around my neck, and placing her lips against mine. Lips that tasted like maple and champagne and my future. I’d come to Tennessee to make sure my cousin found her heart again, and somehow, I’d found mine as well. I hadn’t known I’d lost it. I hadn’t known it was missing.
I promised I’d never let it go again. I’d never let her go.
Europe was only the beginning.
Cover Images: © Deposit Photos | SolominViktor and iStock | Antonel
Edie Brennan and Garrett Drummond
THE SECOND HALF
And finally, we get back to the very beginning. To Edie and Garrett, and the little life they formed out of love, and how it all came back together.
Still confused? Check out the “My Life as an Album Series Who’s Who.”
Edie
PLEASE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
“Please come home for Christmas
If not for Christmas by New Year's night.”
Performed by Kelly Clarkson
Written by Brown / Redd
The baby let out a tiny, little cry. It was so small and so weak it was almost unreal. It was the same cry she’d done since she’d burst into life earlier than planned. I was instantly at her side, pulling her from the beautiful bassinet Aunt Cam had given me once she’d found out I had very few things at my parents’. The majority of the baby’s things were back in the extra room in the townhouse in Knoxville.
The room in Knoxville wasn’t even a nursery yet. We’d just thrown all the baby items we’d gotten from the baby shower into the extra room, the one we’d used for guests. The plan had been to put it all together once we both got back after New Year’s.
I held my baby girl to my chest as waves of emotions filled me. Joy. Adoration. Anguish. He was missing this.
“Shh, shh. What is it now, sweetheart?” I said, trying my best to not tie her to the name that was scrolling through my brain. I was trying to wait for Garrett before I named her for real. Just thinking of Garrett brought tears to my eyes.
I focused through the damp lashes to her, staring at her precious pink face, beautiful dark lashes, and fingers so small they seemed impossible, and my chest tried to explode with the impossibility of the love that filled it. She was perfect. The hours of labor seemed inconsequential now. Holding her made it all fade away into nothing.
She had Garrett’s nose. My heart seized up before it banged back to life. Mom didn’t agree. She said baby noses were just…babyish, but all I could see when