Given that my mouth was the size of a blue whale’s, I’d never laugh again.
“DB has been the center of my world for a long time, and then along came Tabby and Sheena, and now that I’ve got you and Cody, too, I get to enjoy more people being part of its center.”
A noise that sounded like a donkey braying behind me made me jump.
“That was DB agreeing,” he explained. “He’ll tell you with words once he can feel his mouth.”
The people watching us burst out laughing.
“What I want to say is—and Cody’s given me his permission—will you marry me?”
I stared numbly at the grass, willing my hand to move because there was no way my mouth would.
Finally, I managed to move it, so it was resting on its side on the grass, and gave him a thumbs up.
“Is that a yes?” he checked.
If he wanted words, he was screwed. Instead, I moved the thumb up and down, hoping he’d understand.
“She said yes,” he yelled at the crowd. “It was a thumbs up, but that’s fine by me.”
As he slipped the ring onto my finger, I heard Tabby talking to Dave behind me.
“Oh, just so you know, I’m pregnant.”
There went the farmyard animal noise again. I wasn’t sure if it was a good noise or a bad one this time, though.
Epilogue
Alex
Six years later…
“Normally it’s the Valedictorian who does the speech for students, but this year, they voted against it, and the parents supported it.
“In the letter we received when they notified us that they were requesting a student-elected speaker to do the leaving speech, they said getting the best grades didn’t always make you the best person to be the voice of the students.” Principal Teller lifted his head and smiled at the audience. “I have to say, I agree.”
As the roar of cheers, hooting and claps sounded across the auditorium, my daughter jumped in my arms and glared up at me like I was responsible for it.
“I didn’t tell them to do that.”
“Shh, Daddy, listen.”
Evie snorting next to me didn’t help either because Elora covered her mouth with her hand, scrunched her face up, and let out a high-pitched giggle.
“Having your own opinions and views on how things should go is essential, but when you fail to mix it with those of other people, that’s when we encounter issues. So, I wasn’t about to let an old tradition prevent our students from having the ceremony they’d worked so hard for.
“It also makes better sense to have a class elected speaker.” Teller turned to face the side of the stage and waved the elected speaker on. “Come and join me, please, elected speaker.”
Evie gasped loudly. “He never told us.”
Leaning to look around me, DB smirked. “He told me.”
Over the years, the fact I wasn’t part of Cody’s DNA makeup had never even occurred to me. I loved him as much as I loved DB, and watching him walk up to stand behind the podium, I felt a lump in my throat.
In fact, having Cody was what’d made us decide to adopt Elora. I’d always respected people who adopted. It was just a beautiful thing to happen because it created a family instead of having individual human beings.
Even if Neil had decided to play a better role in Cody’s life, I still wouldn’t have looked at him any differently. He hadn’t, though, and helping Cody through it, helping him grow into the young man he was today, was an absolute honor for me, and I knew that DB felt the same way. He’d become the big brother he never expected to be—twice—and he loved every second of it, regardless of the age differences.
And now that we had Elora, I could say I felt complete.
Clearing his throat, Cody tapped the cards in his hand on the podium. “I was going to read this from the cards, but I think I’ll go off script. Six years ago, I was in a place that I wouldn’t call bad, but I would say was great. I had it a lot better than a lot of kids do, though, and I owe that to my mom.”
Squinting out over the audience, he stage whispered into the microphone, “Let’s see if I can embarrass the hell out of her. Yo, Mom, go and stand up so everyone can see you.”
“I’ll kill him,” she hissed.
“Y’all probably already know her from Delicious Divas or the internet. If you don’t, she co-owns the salon in town and also has the internet’s most popular beauty and hair review site, also called Delicious Divas.” He leaned forward onto his elbows, like he had all of the time in the world.
At the side of the stage, Principal Teller started laughing, whereas the organizer of the graduation ceremony was looking exasperatedly up at the ceiling.
“If you don’t know Delicious Divas, you obviously have a hair pickle going on. All you need to do to resolve the situation is call the number on the card I’ve glued to the cool booklet they gave you when you came in. You’re welcome.”