“Hope you’re hungry for turkey!” I said to her.
She grinned. “I’m actually starved.”
I tilted my head and said, “Good! Because that thing is huge!’
Hunter’s voice filled the kitchen. “Hey, Willa?”
I peeked around Arabella and smiled. “Yes?”
“The turkey is amazing!” he said as he took a piece and popped it into his mouth. “You and Aiden make a good team.”
Turning, I glanced at Aiden who was breaking one of the biscuits Arabella had brought into small pieces and putting them on Ben’s tray. My son was eating them as fast as Aiden was putting them down. My father was placing drinks on the table, and both he and Aiden laughed about something. When Ben’s little hands reached up and fisted for more bread, Aiden leaned down and kissed him on the head before placing more pieces on the tray.
I was suddenly so overwhelmed with emotion, I couldn’t even speak.
I felt Arabella wrap her arms around me and pull me close. “He’s a keeper,” she whispered.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, wiped the tear that had slipped away, and grinned. “Yes, he most certainly is.”
December
I rolled over and felt the cold spot next to me in bed. I slowly sat up and let my eyes adjust to the dark room.
“Aiden?” I whispered as I glanced around the space. When he didn’t answer, I slipped out of bed and wrapped my robe around me as I made my way out of the bedroom.
Aiden’s nightmares had decreased over the last few weeks to maybe one or two a week. He met once a week with Dr. Sharpe, and while he was still attempting to settle into his granddad’s construction business, he was also starting a new joint venture with Mitch Hathaway. As former Navy SEALs who were both suffering from PTSD, they were on a mission to help others who also suffered. They’d both flown to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with a New Hampshire congressman to talk about TBI and the fact that many active soldiers weren’t reporting their brain injuries for fear of losing their jobs—and receiving the hazard pay they so desperately needed. They had a lot of work ahead of them, but they both were off and running with their ideas and plans.
To say I was beyond proud of Aiden was an understatement.
I stopped walking when I heard humming coming from Ben’s room. My breathing increased as I tiptoed closer to the door—which had been left cracked open—and stopped just short of it.
Aiden was humming a tune, and I could hear the rocking chair move as the floor underneath it creaked with each movement.
“I hope you don’t mind me coming in here, little man, and scooping you from your bed. I wanted to hold you and talk to you. You gave me an excuse when I woke up to your little noises. We’ll tell your mommy you were crying, and she slept right through it.”
Smiling, I ran my hand over my chest, which suddenly felt warm and tight.
“I was thinking, since Christmas is in a of couple days, well, I might be able to ask something of you.”
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut to hold back my tears as I listened to the man I had loved for as long as I could remember talk to Ben.
“You’re technically the man of the house, even though you can’t really talk yet. And, well, since she is your mother, you were the first person I knew I needed to ask permission from so that I can marry your mommy.”
My eyes shot open, and I pressed my fist to my mouth as I tried with all my might to hold in a sob.
Good Lord, he was asking my one-year-old son for my hand in marriage. If I didn’t melt into a swooning mess right there it would be a miracle.
“Some might say it’s too soon. You might think it’s too soon, but let me explain. You see, Ben, one day when I was eighteen, I walked into the kitchen of your granddaddy and grammy’s house and there stood this beautiful young woman. Oh, I’d seen her plenty of times before, and I adored her like a little sister, but that day something about her had changed. She had grown up, although she was still young, only fifteen. But the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at me, and the way it made me feel right here in my chest, I knew no one could ever make me feel like that again. I tried to ignore my feelings for her, Ben, I really did. But your mommy is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I left to go into the Navy, but I never stopped thinking about her. I took something of hers with me that I still keep in my wallet to this day.”