“Mine says this many.” Hayden holds up one finger. “You hafta open it fiwst. Right, Daddy?” She looks up at Grayson.
“That’s right, sweetheart,” he tells her.
“Open it.” Harlow jumps up and down.
“Okay.” I smile down at her. Taking the bag with the white number one on the side, I pull out the tissue paper and remove a small box with the name of the jewelry store in Billings on the outside.
“Open it,” Hayden tells me.
My eyes flash to Grayson’s.
“You heard the girls. Open it,” he says.
I lift the lid. Inside, there is a beautiful charm bracelet. A single charm hangs off it, a small silver heart. “Thank you so much.” I pull Hayden into a hug.
“Now mine,” Harlow says, thrusting her gift bag with a small number two written on it.
I repeat the process, only to find two small boxes. Lifting the lid on the first one, I read the charm, and my eyes well with tears. I look up at Hayden, but I can’t really see her through my tears. “Thank you,” I tell her. “Grayson?”
“There’s more,” he tells me.
A tissue is thrust into my hands, and when I look up, I notice it’s not just the four of us. My sister, Trace, our parents, along with Grayson’s parents and Holly’s. Standing behind them all is Tate. “What’s going on? Why is Tate here?” I ask softly.
“I wanted to make sure she got all the details right.”
“Grayson-,” I start, but he stops me.
“You have another present to open,” Grayson tells me.
“Grayson, this says Mom.” I look at the charm nestled inside the box.
“I know.” He smiles. “You have another one.”
Lifting the lid on the second box from bag number two, I see there’s another charm. This one holds a small charm with the word love. The O seems to be a small diamond from the way it sparkles.
“The girls’ birthstone,” Grayson explains. I cover my mouth as a sob breaks free from my chest.
“Gray—” I start but stop. I can’t seem to find the words. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I try to decipher what this means. My heart is afraid to hope it means that they’re mine—all three of them.
“Waken, Daddy said that if you said yes, you could be our mommy,” Harlow says.
“Yeah, our here mommy. We have one who is an angel alweady,” Hayden adds.
I look down at the girls only to find Grayson kneeling before me, holding the most gorgeous ring I’ve ever seen.
“Laken. We love you. We want to spend the rest of our lives loving you. Will you do me the incredible honor of being my wife?”
“And our mommy,” the girls add in unison.
I pull the girls into my arms. “I love you so much,” I tell them.
“We wove you too,” they reply.
“Baby?” Grayson asks.
“Baby?” the girls ask.
“Oh, can we have a baby bwother?” Harlow asks.
“And a sister,” Hayden adds.
“Girls.” Grayson huffs out a laugh. “We have to get her to marry me first.”
“Waken! You hafta say yes. Then we can call you Mommy, and we can have a bwother,” Harlow tells me.
“And a sister. Oh, pwease,” Hayden chimes in.
“Yes.” I nod. Tears stream down my face. “Yes, I’ll be your here mommy, and I’ll marry your daddy.” My heart is full of love and feels as though it could burst from my chest at any moment.
Grayson kisses me hard. A throat clearing has him pulling away and sliding the ring on my finger.
“When do we get a bwother?”
“No, a sister?” the girls ask, making us all laugh.
“I love you,” Grayson says against my lips.
“I love you too.” The words are barely out of my mouth before the girls are piling on us and yelling out, “Group hug!” It’s the best hug I’ve ever received.
I used to think that Grayson gave the best hugs, and he does, but nothing beats the hugs of Grayson and our girls.
This right here is definitely the perfect embrace.
Epilogue
Grayson
Five years later
“I can’t believe they’re nine,” my wife says as she settles next to me on the chaise lounge on the back deck.
Our twin daughters turn nine today, and they’re currently in the yard with their three-year-old brother, Kaden. They mother him to death, but he loves all of their attention.
“Come here.” I pull her into my arms. She’s holding our baby girl, Ella, who just turned nine months old. “Thank you for this life,” I say, holding her and our daughter close.
“You mean two more mouths to feed, a bigger mortgage payment, and a lot more stress,” she jokes.
“No. For being such an incredible mother to all four of our children,” I tell her.
Incredible really isn’t a strong enough description. She has patience with all four of them. She manages to work and watch the two littles and the twins after school. Our moms help, but it was important to Laken, so we hired additional help, finally, something she’d been talking about for ages, and that gives her the freedom to be close to the store and raise our children. Her apartment above the store works perfectly as a nap area for the kids and a place for the twins to eat a snack and do homework after school.