“You’re not the only one to blame. Clearly you dumped me, but if I had been telling you what I wanted out of life, for real, how all I wanted was to go to college, be a librarian, come back here and raise a family with you—then we could have understood each other better. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened. We lost a lot of time. Let’s not waste any more of it.”
“I don’t want to waste another second,” I told her. “Starting tomorrow, it’s the beginning of our life. It’s day one.”
“Tomorrow? What about tonight?” she said with a soft smile that slayed me.
“Tonight? Tonight, we celebrate.”
Epilogue
Michelle - One Year Later
Brie had Drew’s dark eyes, wide and coffee brown, fringed with feathery black lashes that made everyone who saw her severely jealous. She was a delightful and happy baby, all chubby legs and smiley dimples, with wispy light brown hair. She was a hundred percent Drew’s mini me. Easygoing and cheerful, everyone’s buddy.
During the picnic, we sat on the grass and I brought her Boppy because she would not sit in the stroller. If we tried to hold her while we ate, she grabbed for whatever we had even though she had zero teeth to eat it with. So, she had to use that U-shaped pillow to prop her up so she could sit like Miss Independence. That would be why Drew said she took after her mama, too. After we ate, Drew and his brother carried her around and showed her the animals at the petting zoo and won her a ridiculously big pink teddy bear at the ring toss that benefits the community center.
Greg and Katie came in for the parade and brought their newborn, Donovan Andrew Casey. Drew was so honored that they gave their son his name for a middle name. I was pretty sure Drew’s mom hadn’t put Donovan down once since they arrived at the picnic. She’d shown him off to all her friends, her second grandbaby. Since she had her hands full, we actually got to play with Brielle. Normally there was no way to keep that nana from claiming our baby girl and showering her with nonstop attention. His parents really did embrace me and our baby girl from the second they found out I was pregnant. It was really special to have his parents doting on me since I’d been an orphan for years.
The most special part though, was watching Drew be a daddy to our little girl. He moved into the house I inherited the weekend after last Fourth of July, and sold his house. Because I had inherited it from my mom, who inherited it from her grandma, we decided it had nothing to do with my father, and that the best revenge on him for trying to keep us apart was to live a long, happy life in that house. The one he didn’t want to even let Drew inside of when we were dating the first time around.
The festival was such a fun time for our little family. When Casey’s Garage was recognized as the platinum sponsor of the parade, Drew took Brielle up on stage in matching little Casey’s Garage t-shirts (Brie had on ruffly-butt baby jeans to go with hers) and said he looked forward to the garage going on to include a new generation of Caseys. His mom had cried then, and taken pictures with her phone. It was pretty damn adorable.
Katie and I were eating homemade ice cream and sharing horror stories about our babies waking up three times in the middle of the night to eat. I noticed that Drew had been gone a while on his lemonade run. I gave Brie a taste of the ice cream off the tip of my finger and she waved her arms and sucked on my finger.
“Baby girl’s gonna eat my whole finger!” I laughed. “It’s a good thing she doesn’t have any teeth yet,” I said.
“Donovan just wants to sleep during the day so he can party all night. I doubt he’d notice if I offered him ice cream,” Katie said with a rueful smile.
“He’ll sleep more pretty soon. When Brie started sleeping four hours at a time, it felt like a spa vacation,” I said with a laugh. “I was human again and had thoughts other than, ‘Jesus help me, I’m so tired!’”
“Keep telling me that. I need hope. I love him to bits and I’m so happy…”
“You’re human and you’re exhausted. It’s okay to love the baby and still miss being able to sleep,” I told her, shifting Brielle to my other arm as she finally napped.
I spotted Drew talking with Trixie and Nicole. He made his way over with the lemonade and a big plate of fried chicken and biscuits.
“I know we ate some already, but the Mayor’s office is frying chicken and I know a couple of new moms who could use an extra snack. Want some?” he said.