My stomach jumped nervously. My sisters were going back and forth between studying me intently and exchanging frantic eye contact with each other, trying to guess what this was about. I could practically hear their voices in my head. Do you know? I don’t know. Does Mom know? I don’t think Mom knows.
Only my children looked calm and unsurprised, sitting next to each other on the couch with my parents, grinning like mad.
Henry dropped to his knee, and someone in the room gasped. “Sylvia,” he said, taking my hand. “You know I’m not a guy who likes the spotlight, and I generally avoid drawing this much attention to myself. But this isn’t just about me.”
I squeezed his hand, fighting back tears.
“Your family has always been such a huge part of your life, and in the last ten years, they’ve become part of mine too. From my very first day on the job here, I was welcomed and accepted, and they supported me without question when I needed it. They made me feel like I belonged. So it seemed only right to say this in front of them, and in front of your children, the two most important people in your life.”
I glanced out at Whitney and Keaton, who smiled back at me.
When I looked down at Henry again, he was taking something from his back pocket—a ring box.
Another gasp from the crowd, and a whispered, “Oh my God.”
“Sylvia,” Henry said, his voice quiet but confident, “the way I feel about you is no secret. Since you moved back, I haven’t been able to think about anything else. And when I picture the rest of my life, it’s impossible to imagine it without you—and without this family.” He opened the ring box, and a beautifully classic round-cut diamond solitaire on a pavé-studded platinum band caught the firelight and winked at me.
The next gasp was mine, and I covered my mouth with both hands.
Henry took the ring from its snug velvet home and set the box aside. “I know getting married again was the last thing either one of us thought we would do, especially so fast. I know I told you I would never be able to buy you fancy things. I know there are people in this town—maybe even in this room—who will think I’m crazy. But I also know this.” He reached for my left hand, and I gave it to him. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you, and I don’t want to wake up without you anymore. You make every single day better. You make me better. Sylvia Sawyer, will you marry me?”
I was crying and laughing at the same time as he slipped the ring on my finger. “Yes!” I shouted. “Yes!”
He stood and embraced me, lifting me right off my feet, and the entire room busted out cheering and applauding. One by one, my family members came over to congratulate us, and Chloe opened a bottle of champagne. When I refused a glass, April raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Chloe, after which both of them looked at my stomach—after which everyone in the room looked at my stomach and went silent.
“Um, is there something else you guys want to tell us?” April asked, unable to keep a grin off her face.
Henry and I looked at each other, and he pulled me in front of him, wrapping his arms around me.
“There might be one other small thing,” I said, putting my hands over his. Then I looked at my mom, whose eyes were misting over.
“This is the best birthday ever,” she said.
My dad raised his glass. “To our ever-expanding family,” he said loudly, a huge grin on his face as he took my mom’s hand. “You make us proud, you make us happy, you make us feel like the luckiest people in the world. Cheers to the next generation at Cloverleigh Farms!”
Everyone but me raised a glass and toasted the future of our family—even the kids had sparkling water in their cups—and I thought of those eight mimosas I drank just a few months back. How incredibly far I had come since then.
Henry tightened his arms around me and kissed my cheek, and I leaned back against him, completely content. My children were smiling, three generations of my family were together, and we all had so much to look forward to.
Wrapped in Henry’s embrace, with new life growing inside me, I understood the blessings of home better than I ever had before.
I was right where I belonged.
THE END