Etching Our Way (Broken Tracks 1)

Once everyone has taken their turn, I step forward, touching the top of the headstone.

“Hey, Nat.” I smile, looking up at the flowering, pink blossom tree that sits behind her. The flower buds opening and soaking up the sunlight that is streaming from the sky. “Things are getting easier,” I tell her, looking behind me and seeing Harmony chase Frankie as he tries to run off. “Well…” I chuckle. “As easy as they can be with a three-year-old running around and terrorizing everyone and everything in his path.”

Izzie laughs at something Frankie says and she takes his hand, running away with him.

“Isabel Carter,” Harmony reprimands. “Don’t you dare run across that grass.” Her words are at complete odds with the smile on her face and I can’t help the grin that lifts my lips and crinkles the corner of my eyes.

I turn back around, staring at her headstone. “So many things have happened these last few years, Nat. But the most important thing is how Clay and Izzie are coming along. Clay stopped using his nightlights a couple of months ago.” I swallow against the lump in my throat. “I’m so proud of him. You’d be proud of him.”

“Daddy!” I spin around at the sound of Frankie’s voice. He comes barreling toward me, his golden-blond curls bouncing on his head as he runs away from Izzie and Harmony who are chasing him. I crouch down, catching him and holding him in the air before they get to him.

He giggles, throwing his head back and then wiggles in my arms to be let down.

I place him down on the grass and he frowns, looking at all of us and then at the headstone before he waddles toward it. “Mama?” He points at Clay and Izzie.

“Yeah,” Clay says, his throat noticeably deeper than it was only a few weeks ago. “That’s my mom.” He steps forward, crouching down behind Frankie. “She looked like Izzie.”

Frankie turns his gaze back to I

zzie, his little mind not quite processing it. “You wuv, Mama?”

Clay brings his hands around Frankie, letting him lean back against him as he whispers, “So much.”

“Where?” Frankie asks, his hands coming up on either side of him in a shrug. I watch their interaction, the lump in my throat getting bigger as Harmony sidles up next to me, placing her hand in mine and leaning against me.

“Up there,” Izzie says, stepping forward and kneeling down on the grass next to them as she points up at the sky.

Clay turns his head toward her, a sad smile on his face as he brings his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him.

“Look at them,” Harmony whispers. “Our family.”

“They are,” I reply, my voice hoarse. I bring her hand up to my lips, placing a soft kiss there and clearing my throat, trying my hardest not to break as I watch my three kids.

Clay plants a kiss on the top of Izzie’s head, pulling her closer as a tear falls, tracking down her cheek.

“Sky?” Frankie asks.

“Yeah.” Clay lets him go as he wiggles in his hold, leaving Clay and Izzie sitting in front of Natalia’s headstone, holding onto one another—leaning on each other—something that took me way too long to do with Harmony.

He waddles toward the headstone, looking at it and then the sky. “Wuv you,” he says, leaning forward, his bottom in the air as he kisses the headstone.

The tears that I’ve been holding back break free as he walks back toward Clay and Izzie, trying his hardest to wrap his hands around their necks as he comforts them.

I let go of Harmony’s hand, putting my arm around her shoulders and wiping away the tears running down her soft cheeks before pulling her closer.

“I think…” My voice breaks so I clear my throat, trying a second time. “I think now is the perfect time.”

“Perfect time?” Harmony asks, pulling away.

Izzie and Clay stand up, Frankie inside Clay’s arms, his arms still around his neck.

“Yeah,” I answer, watching as Harmony puts her hand around Izzie’s shoulders, kissing the top of her head and wiping away the tears from her cheeks.

I pull the envelope out that has been burning a hole in my pocket since I received it three days ago. This is the moment that I’ve been waiting for, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. And to have Natalia here, knowing that she’s watching over us and being sure in the notion that she would approve, makes it all the more perfect.

I hold it up in the air, pulling the piece of paper out and grinning. “It’s official.”

“Official?” Harmony asks.