"I want you," I murmur, squirming to emphasize the point.
"That's convenient." He gently bites my bottom lip. "Because you have me. Now, and for the rest of our lives."
And that, I think, sounds just about perfect.
Epilogue
Six months later
"It's mine? Really? You mean it?" Ricardo clutched the acoustic guitar tight and looked up at Noah with a smile so wide it showed off all his teeth. "I get to keep it?"
"It's yours." Noah laughed as the kid squealed "Yes!" then started to strum the guitar while belting out a chorus of thank you and gracias, slipping seamlessly between his two languages just as he did in regular conversation.
"Hey, hold on." Noah reached for the boy's shoulder, stopping the insanity. "I'm not the one you have to thank. I only asked your mom what you might like for your birthday. She's the one who said a guitar. I didn't even know you played."
"I'm gonna be in a band when I grow up," Ricardo announced. "Just like Kiki." He looked around the yard of the small Tulsa rental house. "Where is she? I need to thank her."
"Come on." Noah nodded toward the front door. "I think she's inside with your mom making sure your abuela likes her new bedroom."
The boy raced ahead, and Noah followed, moving swiftly through the three-bedroom house, tidy despite the stacks of boxes.
He found Ricardo in the kitchen, where he was embracing Kiki in a bone-crushing hug, still singing his thank you song.
"Let up there, kid," he chastised. "That's my fiancee you're accosting."
"It's the best present ever," he said sincerely.
"We figured you'd like it," Kiki said, moving to Noah's side and taking his hand.
"Why don't you go sing something for Grandma," Darla said, returning from the back bedroom. "She's resting, and I'm sure she'd love that."
Ricardo nodded, then took off down the hall as Darla smiled at the two of them.
"And now you get my thanks, too," she said.
"Stop it," Kiki said. "You've thanked us so many times I've lost count."
"This house. My tuition. A living allowance. The trust for Ricardo. The doctors, too." She blinked back tears, her eyes going to Noah. "It's too much. And more than you had to do."
He knew what she meant. Ricardo wasn't his son, and they both knew it now. But that didn't mean he was going to back away. Not from her, and not from her son. "We didn't have to do anything," he said gently, squeezing Kiki's hand. Because every dime they'd spent, every decision they'd made, had been done together. "But we wanted to."
Noah had hired attorneys to bring Darla back from the dead, on paper, at least. Then they'd helped her get enrolled at the University of Tulsa, where she was going to begin in the fall, studying toward a degree in early education.
As for the rest--the medical bills so that she could see a counselor, the allowance so that she could go to school without having to work, the trust to ensure Ricardo's future, and the rental house while she finished school--all of that seemed like a no-brainer. She and Noah might not be married anymore, but she was still his family.
As if following his train of thought, Kiki leaned against him. "We're just glad we can help," she told Darla. "We're all family now. We're happy to do it."
Darla's lips curved up. "Family," she repeated, then reached out to take each of their hands. "It's crazy, but I guess it's true."
"Mom! Come here," Ricardo called, and Darla rolled her eyes.
"I've been summoned. Back in a sec."
"I think crazy's perfectly okay," Kiki said as Darla disappeared down the hall. "I'm crazy about you, after all."
"Are you?" he asked, as she twisted in his arms.
"Mmm-hmm." She lifted herself up on her tiptoes. "I'll prove it," she said. And then she closed her mouth over his, capturing him with the kind of kiss that made the world disappear. That made him forget everything except the feel of her in his embrace.