“Not today,” Katie said.
“We have something to tell you,” Sam said, and then sat down on the side of their bed, and pulled Katie down beside him. “I asked Katie to marry me, and she said yes.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The girls’ eyes widened. “What does that mean?” Evie asked. “Does she live with us now?”
Katie pulled Evie up in her lap. “No, not yet, sugar. But it means Daddy and I are engaged. See the beautiful ring he gave me? It’s like a promise for when we do get married.”
Beth scooted in and Katie pulled her up in her lap, too.
“Then you will live with us when we’re married?” she asked.
Sam wanted to hug them. They’d already included themselves in the process.
“Yes,” Katie said.
“You won’t live across the street anymore?”
“No. I’ll be right here with you two and Daddy every day. We’ll wake up in the same house and go to bed in the same house, and we’ll be a family,” Katie said.
The girls looked at Sam. “Will we still call her Miss Katie?” Evie asked.
“What do you want to call her?” Sam asked.
Evie looked at Beth and then grabbed her sister’s hand.
“We want to call her Mama. Could we please call her Mama?”
“Absolutely!” Sam said.
Katie hugged them close. “I would be so happy if you would call me Mama,” she said.
“What do we call you at school?” Beth asked.
“After we’re married, I’ll be Mama for always,” Katie said. “But we have to have a wedding first, and that will take a while to figure out.”
“A wedding? Like when the girl wears a long white dress?” Evie whispered.
Katie nodded. “But I’ll be needing flower girls for the wedding. Do you know any little girls who would like to do that?”
They raised their hands, just as if they were in school.
“We would! We would like to be flower girls!” Evie said.
“Flower girls,” Beth echoed, then added, “What do flower girls do?”
Sam burst out laughing.
“They walk in front of the bride, throwing flower petals in the aisle for her to walk on, and then they stand and be really quiet while the preacher talks.”
“We can do that!” Beth cried.
“Do we get new dresses?” Evie asked.
Katie nodded.
“Let’s play flower girls!” Evie shouted, and slid out of Katie’s lap, dragging her sister with her, and ran out of the room.
Sam looked at Katie. “I think that went well.”
And then they looked up and saw the girls skipping past the doorway, throwing pretend flowers in the air and on the floor, then busting a move as they threw them at each other.
Katie laughed. “I cannot wait for this to become a reality.”
Sam stood, and then pulled her up into his arms.
“Neither can I.”
***
The errands Katie ran that day took twice as long because everyone wanted to talk to her. To praise her. To thank her for her devotion to children in general, and for saving Donny, and then they noticed the engagement ring and that started conversations all over again.
By the time she got home, her head was reeling, but not in a bad way. Releasing the secret had freed her in a way she had not expected. And before the weekend was over, they had set the wedding for spring break, less than six months away.
The fairy costumes arrived a few days later, and the twins became obsessed with the wings. At first they’d tried them out just to see how they worked, and then they began wearing them every waking minute at home. They ate meals wearing the wings. They “flew” up and down the hall until Sam was about to lose his mind.
He came out of his office, struggling with the need to shout.
“Girls! We need to talk. Meet me in the living room.”
They came skipping into the room with their fairy wings flopping, waving magic wands, and in their minds turning everything into frogs.
“Please sit,” Sam said.
“Are we in trouble?” Evie asked.
“Trouble?” Beth repeated.
“No, but there’s something you need to know. Halloween is in two days, and if you break your wings before trick-or-treat night, you’re both going to be fairies with broken wings because I am not buying more. Understand?”
They nodded.
“Thank you,” Sam said. “Just remember, take care of your wings so you can wear them for trick or treat, or you’ll be flightless fairies.”
“Okay!” they said, and then got up and walked down the hall, reappearing a short time later without their wings and wearing their jackets. “Can we go play on the swings?” Evie asked.
“Yes. Be careful,” Sam said, and watched them exit, then walked to the window to watch. They were a royal handful, but he loved them to distraction.
As he was watching, his cell phone rang. He glanced at caller ID, then breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn’t the station.
“This is Sam.”
“Sam, this is Merle Rollins at Jackson Realty. You have inquired more than once about the house on Rawls Street in Borden’s Gap. Are you still interested in it?”
Sam’s heart skipped. “Yes, I’m interested.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say the owner has recently passed, and his family does not wish to continue ownership and wants to list it. However, if we can reach an agreement with the heirs, I think it would be in your favor.”
“I’d want to view it, and I’d want it fully inspected before I’d make an offer.”
“You name the day and time and I’ll come down and walk you through, and if you say so, then we’ll have it inspected,” Merle said.
“You tell me when you can come, and I’ll meet you there,” Sam said.
“I can do this coming Tuesday around noon, or Wednesday morning.”
“Tuesday,” Sam said. “I’ll meet you there at noon.”
“Excellent,” Merle said, and disconnected.
Sam smiled. This was exciting news. How great would it be to move into that house when he and Katie got married, instead of crowd up in this little one?