Four Keeps

James lifts his glass. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Xavier and Samuel speak at the same time and smile, though their eyes are still serious.

I’m not even trying not to cry now. “I love you, each of you, so much. I hope I tell you enough.”

“You do,” Samuel says. “You say it, and you show it. We know it, as surely as we know our own names.” The others nod in agreement.

I raise my own glass, smiling through my tears. “To our journey together into the future. May it always be filled with love and happiness.”

“To the future,” they chorus, and we all drink.