She nodded, face getting soggy from the tears that slipped free.
“An artery in her thigh was nicked,” the doctor explained. “Thankfully the paramedics arrived quickly, and it was easily repaired in surgery. It seems somebody else took the brunt of it.” Her voice shifted in implication.
My eyes dropped closed, and I knew that was the only thing I wanted.
To be her shield.
Her protection.
This girl my own savior. One I didn’t deserve but who was still waiting on me.
I let my lips press to hers.
Lightly, though I lingered.
“You’re okay.”
She nodded under my kiss. Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered.
“It’s nothing.” I edged back and set my hand on her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, Leif. You have nothing to apologize for. I told you I always recognized the man you are. The one who was waiting to be freed. He’s the man I fell in love with. He is the one standing right here, in front of me. The one who saved us. He’s the one I want.”
“Don’t want to be anywhere else, Mia. I . . .” I struggled with what to say. “My past . . . the guy . . . he was a bad guy. And I know you get what that really means now.”
I knew we had an audience. But I didn’t care. I was so over hiding behind the walls.
Behind the anger and the hate and the fear that had held me captive for the last three years.
I had to lay all of that at her feet.
“But if you can see past that—through it—I will live for you, Mia. Live for you with all that I have. I love Penny. I love Greyson.”
My heart panged with the truth of it, their sweet faces flashing through my mind. God, I loved them so much.
“And I love you. I want to spend my life with you. Let me love you. Let me love your kids. I want to see your joy. Want to be a part of it. Want to see you paint. Let’s make beauty together.”
She brushed her thumb over my jaw. “Don’t you get it . . . you are the beauty reflected back at me. You thought you were the darkness, but you were my light. I love you, Leif. Let me love you back.”
I nodded at her, tightened my hold on her cheek. A promise. A pledge. “I will let you love me every day, just like I will be loving you.”
Sable eyes gazed up at me, her lips trembling, pulling up at one side as the tears kept gliding down her face. “We caught a falling star, Leif.”
Mia’s eyes flitted to the doctor, mine following the path, my chest panging with uncertainty.
The woman gave a soft smile. “I was just giving Mia some of her test results. Her bloodwork showed a positive pregnancy. With her past medical history as well as her current situation, we need to consider this high risk. I ordered an ultrasound, and they should be in with a mobile unit soon. But as of right now, everything looks good.”
Shock slowed my heart.
I couldn’t process.
Couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t do anything but look down at Mia who was looking up at me with all that hope and love shining bright, and she whispered, “Are you happy?”
I knew it was worry in her question. Compassion. This girl who got me on a level that no one else could.
The one who would hold me through the pain.
Understand my grief. Not count it as a detriment or disloyalty.
The doctor slipped out when the ultrasound tech came in, and I watched as she squirted gel on Mia’s belly, as she held a probe to it, as the tiny thing showed up on the screen.
As my world shifted and shook.
As my heart took on a new truth.
I’d once questioned fate.
Destiny.
The idea of living each day thinking every event, conversation, and person that passed through our lives had been set on that path long before we even knew what direction we were headed.
Carved in some proverbial stone eons before we were born.
All coming together for the greater good.
I’d scoffed.
Mocked it.
I looked down at Mia.
Recognized the girl.
My purpose.
My reason.
And I thought I saw Karma in my periphery smile before she turned and slipped out the door.
I squeezed Mia’s hand, dropped my forehead back to hers. “You got me, Mia. You fucking got me. And that is my honest.”
She smiled.
Smiled her hope.
Her joy.
This girl filling me up with her love.
She cupped my cheek. “And I’m never going to let you go.”
Epilogue
Leif
We lay under the deepest night. A big blanket spread out on the lawn below us.
Stars strewn on forever.
Penny shrieked, pointed her finger. “There’s one.”
A streaking light blazed through the sky.
Arching and bright before it burned out.
The meteor shower in full force.
“I see it, Penny-Pie!” Greyson shouted, bouncing on his knees in excitement and pointing to where it had burned out. “It was a big one! Did you see it, Daddy? Did you see it?”
My chest squeezed.
So tight.
Sometimes I wondered how it was possible that I could continue to breathe under the magnitude of it.
The greatness of what had been given into my life.
Healing breathed into my soul.
I ruffled my fingers through his hair where he sat close to my side. “I saw it, buddy. It was a good one, wasn’t it?”
Carson crawled over, planting his tiny hands on my chest, rocking on his knees. Slobber from his adorable smile dripping onto my shirt, the little guy getting his second tooth. “Hi, little buddy.”
“I’m the big buddy, and he’s the little buddy, right?” Greyson asked, poking his head in between us, his shoulders coming up to his ears as he peered at his baby brother.
“That’s right. My buddies.”
My boys.
My life.
My love.
Mia sat on the blanket with her knees hugged to her chest, that gorgeous face tipped toward the sky.
River of black hair cascading down her back.
She turned that tender gaze on us.
Sable eyes flashing with all her love.
Another meteorite went blazing through the sky.
Mia lifted her hand.
Cupped it beneath it.
Her eyes closed. “There. I caught it.”
The softest smile edged that seductive mouth when she looked back at me, my wife, my perfection.
My completion.
“Don’t ever let it go,” I murmured, not even caring that I was staring, that Penny was blushing the way she always did.
“You should sing Mom her song, Dad. The one you wrote when you fell in love with her.”
Yeah.
She called me Dad, too.
My little hopeless romantic who was growing up so fast.
She’d struggled with the loss of Nixon the most. Something I’d warred with, too. We’d kept the sordid details from her as best as we could, but she was old enough for the shadow of him to cloud her.
The wounds to scar and invade.
But we loved her with everything. Held her through her hurt. Filled her with our love and our belief.
I’d sat her down a couple months after and told her I was there for her, no matter what. She could think of me however she wanted to. As a friend or a protector or a parent. Told her she could call me anything she wanted. Well, except for Mr. Godwin, of course.