Her Perfect Gift

“

Oh my God.” Ivy throws her arms around me and hugs me for what feels like a million years. “I have missed you so much. Pictures and phone calls just aren’t the same as seeing you in person.” She pulls back to examine me closely. “You look so great. Wow, and you only had a baby the other day…”

“Three and a half months ago,” I laugh. “But yes, not that long, I suppose. Although I can’t remember what life was like without Richard around. He consumes all of me. It’s lucky that I got my business to a point where I had other people working for me before he was born, because it’s so hard to have my focus pulled.”

“Where is your little man?” Ivy demands. “I have wanted to meet him face to face forever. I thought that you finally returning for the Christmas carnival would be my lucky day. But he’s nowhere to be found.”

“Seth and his father have him at the moment. He is a proud grandad for sure. He lights up around Richard, it’s so adorable. I haven’t seen him this happy in a very long time…”

“Well.” Ivy leans in and whispers while wiggling her eyebrows at me. “Rumor has it that it isn’t just the baby that has him happy these days. I heard that he might have a little romance on the side.”

“No way!” I gasp in shock. This is the news that Seth has so desperately been wanting to hear. “Who? Oh my God, this is so exciting.”

“He has been on a few dates with Adam’s mom’s best friend, Sue,” Ivy confirms. “And I think that it might be turning into something. You may even get an introduction while you are here…”

“You think so?” I clasp my hand to my chest. “That would be amazing. He deserves some happiness after everything that he has been through with that woman.” The woman that broke his heart and Seth’s too. Thankfully, after that one connection, they haven’t heard anything from her since which is for the best.

“I know. And they seem really happy together. You will love them…”

Ivy’s voice trails off and I follow her eye line to see why. As I spot what she’s looking at, I can almost feel all of the color drain from my face. My mother. She is stalking towards me on a mission. My dad is behind her, trailing slowly, but I can’t see him right now. Only her, and what I’m sure is rage from the fact that I changed my number and ran off again, leaving her with absolutely no control over my life.

“Darcy, you are here, thank goodness.” I’m shocked to hear a softness to her tone. “I was hoping that you would be… and I hear that you have a little baby boy in tow with you as well?” I can’t speak, I don’t know what has happened to my voice, so I simply nod instead. “Wow, you must be so happy.”

I glance at my father for a split second to see him nodding encouragingly at me, reassuring me that this is going to be a surprisingly nice reunion which isn’t what I expected at all. When my eyes find my mother again, I see tears in her eyes. A look of regret for everything that she has done to me. Could this be real?

“I owe you an apology, Darcy.” Oh, it seems so. “In fact, I owe you more than one apology, I owe you a lot. In my attempt to do what I thought was right for you, I ended up doing the wrong thing, over and over again. I pushed you away when you made choices that didn’t seem right to me, and I can see now that I was stupid. Even if you were going to make mistakes, they were yours to make. Nothing to do with me. I should have been there to pick you back up, not putting my own fears on you. And now…” God, the emotion is really getting to her now, which of course shoots it through me as well. My hormones still haven’t exactly settled. “And now you have a baby boy. I have a grandson that I don’t know. Your father as well. He is losing out, and it is all my fault. It isn’t fair, all I want to do is make it right and I can’t…”

It’s instinctive for me to take a step closer to her and hug her. It feels strange, I will admit that, but I meant what I said when Richard was born. I am happy to put the past behind me, for him. I can forgive and try to fix our relationship.

“I would like you to be in Richard’s life,” I whisper to her seriously. “Both of you.”

“You do? Because I know I don’t deserve it, so that makes me really happy.”

“Mom, look, let’s just forget about everything that’s happened. Clean slate, okay?”

She’s all choked up, but instead of discussing it further with me, she points behind me and indicates that I need to turn around. I don’t know what the hell is going on now, but since this Christmas carnival has already been filled with positive surprises, I guess I am down for whatever…

“Oh my God.” I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t a crowd of people circled around me, including Richard and my baby. To be fair, it isn’t just me that they are circled around, it’s Seth too. And he is the most shocking sight of all, because he is on one knee with a ring box in his hand. “What is this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he chuckles. “I’m making the Christmas carnival even more special.”

People ‘ooh’ and ‘aw’ us, which brings tears to my eyes. I can’t believe that this is happening. Of course, I have imagined it in a hypothetical way, but this is so much better.

“Darcy McNeill, I love you,” Seth starts, already hardly able to get out his words because he’s so emotional. We are never going to get through this. “I have loved you for a long time. I loved you when you were the dorky teenage girl next door, when you were my best friend, when you became a beautiful woman… it wasn’t easy for us to make it together, merging our very different lives was wild, but by doing that, and overcoming all those hurdles, I now know for sure that we can get through anything. I have experienced a magical life with you, and it makes me never want to experience it without you again. Especially now that you are the mother of my child. So, it’s time for us to make this love official, don’t you think?”

I glance around and see everyone looking at us, all the people that have always been there in our hometown, our families, friends, all of us wanting to make this work. We don’t need their support, but it’s so lovely to have it, especially when I know that this is it, the real deal, this is forever. That’s why I’m glad that it’s happening at a place so important to us, and not a place where there will be cameras and interest from all the wrong people. I have had enough of that to last me a lifetime.

“So, what do you say, Darcy?” Seth continues, actually sounding a little nervous which makes me yearn to hold him. “Will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife?”

“Of course I will.” I don’t even need to think about it. “Yes, yes, yes.”

As he slides the ring on my finger, he leaps up to envelop me in a hug with kisses raining all over me. Here in this moment, I know that everything we have been through has been worth it, all the fighting to be together, all the times when it felt impossible… none of that was worthless because it brought us to the most incredible conclusion of the best love story of my whole life. And the best part is, this isn’t even the end of my love story. It’s just the beginning. Me and Seth have so much more waiting for us and I can’t wait.

“I love you,” I whisper to him as his forehead rests against mine and we look into one another’s eyes.

“I love you too,” he reassures me. “Future Mrs. Bishop.”

Excerpt