Don’t get me wrong though, the second she steps off that stage and has a moment of privacy, it’s on. She’s going to celebrate like she’s never celebrated before, and I can’t fucking wait.
Jesse stands beside me with his applause getting louder and louder. The closer she gets to the Dean, the more he lets his pride show. As her hand reaches out to accept the diploma, Jesse gets up on his chair as a pregnant Kaylah desperately tries to pull him down.
“Fuck, yeah,” he hollers over the top of the already applauding audience. Fuck, you’d think a successful CEO of a multi-million dollar company would have a little more class than that at an event like this.
I smother a laugh as Tora’s head whips around to the crowd with wide, embarrassed eyes. She sees my little brother standing three feet above the rest of the crowd and silently scolds him, but he isn’t having it. Jesse is only just warming up. “You’re the best, Tora.”
“Get him down from there,” Mom screeches beside me, completely mortified by her son’s embarrassing behavior.
Tora tries to tune him out, but it’s simply not possible. Every single person in this grand hall can hear him. She turns back to the Dean, accepts the diploma, and takes his outstretched hand.
Tora’s mom goes nuts with the camera as her dad stands proudly, watching his little girl earn the biggest achievement of her life. Knowing exactly how Tora would feel seeing that pride from her father breaks me. I physically can’t hold it back any longer.
I launch myself up next to Jesse and let out an ear shattering wolf whistle, letting my girl and the world know exactly what I’m thinking. She finishes shaking the Dean’s hand and turns back to the crowd.
Her beautiful eyes lock on mine and the absolute joy within them is almost enough to knock me off my feet.
She fucking did it.
All of her hard work has finally paid off and what’s more, she has everyone here to show it off to. This is her moment and nothing makes me happier than to know everyone made the effort to support her and fly out here to watch her receive her diploma.
A lot of our friends were unable to make the flight over here for the day, but they’ve promised they’ll be there as soon as we get back for a massive party held in Tora’s honor. I can’t wait. It’s going to be huge. Nothing in this world gives me greater pleasure than to celebrate Tora Roberts. It’s as though she was the reason I was put on this earth.
Tora goes to stand amongst her peers as the rest of the names are called out. No one else in the room receives quite the applause as Tora did, but to be fair, a few manage to get close.
I can’t help but keep my eyes locked on hers. ‘Congratulations,’ I mouth, knowing there’s no way in hell she’ll hear me over the sound of the applause in the room.
A beaming smile takes over her beautiful face. ‘Thank you,’ she replies.
All I can do is watch.
She’s so damn beautiful. My heart aches with the need to go to her, to kiss those lips and wind my arms around her body, a body that I know will one day carry my children. I just hope to God that day is sooner rather than later.
I’ve known since I was twelve years old that she was my girl, and I’ve known since I was eighteen that no matter what, I’m going to marry her. She made me promise to wait until after law school to pop the question and I don’t know how she managed to make me agree to it, but reluctantly, I did.
Now though, law school is over and I don’t plan on waiting long.
At nineteen, I moved in with her. At twenty-one, I bought us our own home. At twenty-three, she moved across the country to attend Harvard Law. And now, finally at twenty-six, she’s coming home and I don’t intend on letting her out of my sight ever again.
She’s going to be barefoot and pregnant in no time. You know after she demands to make something of herself in the professional world. She won’t stop until she’s the number one criminal lawyer in the United States and I’m going to be right there, every step of the way, helping her to make that dream a reality.
The last student finishes shaking the Dean’s hand and I’m just about at the end of my patience. I need to get up there. I need to hold her. I need to give her the fucking world.
I watch her with a smile on my face as the whole group takes their graduation caps and tosses them in the air with a mix of pride and relief, happy their journey is finally over.