My mind wanders over this past month, to the meal Lukas and I had with Jamie and his fiancé, Ethan. As the four of us sat in the restaurant, laughing and joking together, it was difficult to imagine a time when I worried about Jamie’s reaction.
Mom and dad have been great, too, dad warming to Lukas and even visiting his gym a few times.
We’re all cautiously optimistic about dad’s improvement. The fact that he’s even able to work out is a fantastic sign.
I’ve been doing well in college. My book is coming along nicely.
There’s so, so much to be grateful for.
And I am.
I start every day with a silent thank you because I’m so freaking lucky.
I stand at the upstairs front window, in one of our empty bedrooms, looking down across the gravel driveway, the garden, and the fence. I have to remind myself that this is mine every time I look at it, that it’s ours.
It’s so crazy that, in the space of a couple of months, I’ve gone from not knowing what my future’s going to hold to looking forward to every single moment.
The gate starts to move and I spot the hood of Lukas’s car.
Running through the house, I go into my office and take the pregnancy test from the top drawer. My whole body is thumping in time with my heartbeat, as the importance of what I’m about to reveal hits me.
This is it, the real beginning.
I stand in the hallway with the test clutched in my hand, my heartbeat getting louder with each moment.
The door opens and Lukas walks in, pausing when he notices me waiting for him. He looks so strong and handsome and… and happy. That’s the biggest change I’ve noticed in my man since I agreed to marry him and moved into our forever home.
He’s always got a smile on his face when he sees me, a full wide smile, not a smirk or a grimace.
He’s smiling so widely it makes me want to sing in joy.
“Why the welcome party?” he says, striding over to me. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“This morning, I realized I was a little late…” I hold up the test. “And so I went to the store…It’s positive, Lukas. We’re going to have a baby.”
He pauses a few inches from me, his eyebrows raised, staring for a few moments. And then he leaps forward and pulls me into his arms.
I giggle as he lifts me off my feet and spins me around, my legs flying through the air. As he places me down, I laugh and wrap my arms around him, looking up into his eyes.
“I love you, Lori,” he says, voice bursting with joy. “And I love our child. I already love them. How is that even possible?”
“Do you want to hear something really crazy?”
I lean back in his arms, as he supports me, holding me steady.
He nods. “Yeah…”
Smoothing my hand over my belly, I smile up at him.
“I think our baby already loves you too.”
He grins and leans down for a kiss, and for a while, all we think about is each other, our love, our future.
Extended Epilogue
One Year Later
Lukas
Maybe it makes me a little strange, hiding in my own home like this, but I can’t resist the urge when my wife is being so adorable.
I love thinking of her like that, as my wife.
It fills me with a warm sensation every time the word strikes me, solidifying everything we’ve built… and are building together every single day.
She’s in her office, cradling Sebastian to her chest, as I peek around the doorframe.
“Are you going to be happy or angry when you learn your name, hmm? I wonder if you’ll make little doggie noises when I tell you we used to have a Golden Retriever called Sebastian. Or will you demand that we call you something else? I can’t wait for you to start talking, but you know what? If you could stay a cute little baby forever, I’d be okay with that too.”
She looks just as beautiful in her sweatpants and baggy T-shirt as she did in her wedding dress. It’s a different sort of beauty, of course.
On our wedding day, she walked up the aisle in a bright white dress, seeming to emit its own light, with a princess-like tiara balanced atop her intricately woven hair.
The closer she got, the hotter the tension in my body became. It was like I was feeling my future approach, our future, the life we fought for, the life we’ll never stop fighting for.
Now every inch of her shows what an incredible mother she is, with her messy hair and her scent of new motherhood.
Behind her, her computer screen shows her word document. I didn’t notice it at first because I was too consumed with watching them. But now I spot the words. She’s made them ten times the size as everything else, as though she wants to savor it.