I’d thought about giving it to her on Christmas Day, but I’d vetoed the idea when it seemed too cliché. I’d also thought about the possibility of getting Shanti to help me plan it out, but she was engrossed in Melba, Toast, and the fish, so that’d been nigh on impossible to arrange.
So, out of ideas, I’d dropped to my knee on a whim while we were at a fireworks display on New Year's Eve. As they were launched into the sky and exploding and people counted down to midnight, I asked her to marry me and make the following year the best of our lives.
Shanti had excitedly screamed yes, loud enough to get everyone’s attention on us, and Naomi had burst into tears, crying so hard all she could do was nod because she couldn’t get the word out.
I’d proposed in front of everyone who’d mattered, though, and that’s what’d made it so special. Jack had even pulled me aside and threatened to break my knees, making me feel sorry for Mark Montgomery. If he ever pulled his finger out his ass and got shit straight with Layla, I had no doubt Jack would put him through hell.
I started the year single in status, but taken in heart, and ended it with everything and more than I’d ever wanted.
TWENTY-ONE
Naomi
Three months later…
“Do I look okay? How’s my hair? Shoot, I got juice on my top, Mom,” Shanti rambled from the back seat, her nerves making mine even worse—if that was possible. “What if he doesn’t come? What if he doesn’t like us?”
“Hubba Bubba,” Carter called, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “If he doesn’t turn up or doesn’t see you and Naomi for the amazing ladies you are, whose loss is that?”
Shanti was silent for a moment, but then she groaned. “His loss. We’re the best of the best, and he’s damn lucky to have us in his life.”
I narrowed my eyes at my fiancé, knowing she was repeating what he’d said at some point.
“That’s right.”
We were on our way to meet Jeremy for the first time, and I was nervous as hell. The DNA test had come back with what I referred to as a ‘fairly conclusive’ result.
My mom was a complete bitch who’d had a baby, left him, and then shacked up with a loser addict. It was crazy, but I’d learned early in life, she was capable of anything, regardless of how unreal it seemed.
Karma had caught up with her, though, because she’d been charged with bigamy, something which was a criminal offense. Because she’d married my dad, knowing she was still married to Jeremiah, and they’d used it and him changing his name to Kelly to avoid outstanding bills and parking tickets, the authorities were pursuing prosecution against her. Dad was also being prosecuted for knowingly marrying a married woman with the intent to avoid financial and legal obligations.
As far as I was concerned, the door between us wasn’t just shut and locked, it’d been cemented, then covered in steel, frozen in ice, and dropped into the Antarctic Ocean. There was no going back now, ever. I was done.
As Carter turned into the parking lot of the hotel we were meeting at, I clenched my hands into fists.
“Oh, lordy. Oh, lordy-loo,” Shanti chanted from the back, blowing out loud breaths.
“Girls,” Carter said firmly, turning around in his seat to look at both of us. “You’ve got this.”
Getting out of our new SUV, I quickly checked Shanti to make sure she looked presentable. She’d insisted on Carter doing her hair today, so it was swept back with an Alice band, and she was wearing what he’d picked out for her—a pair of combats, her hot pink Dr. Martens, and a t-shirt with Spike from Gremlins yelling “rock on” on it. Sure enough, she had a stain that stretched from her chest to the bottom hem, but she was five now, so that was still to be expected. I think?
Before we got to the door of the hotel, it swung open, and in it stood Jeremy. His dad, Jeremiah, was standing behind him, both of whom I’d ended up praying became part of our family.
You know those people you meet, and it feels like you’ve known them your whole life? That was Jeremy and Jeremiah. Jeremiah was devastated he’d never known about Callum and me because he said he would have fought for us so we could have grown up with Jeremy. And I believed him.
I felt my lower lip tremble as he held his arms out, but before I could run into them, Shanti burst into tears and flew across the space separating us. Initially, we all burst out laughing, but then what she was saying registered.
“I’ve got a real uncle. You’re really mine and not someone else’s.”