“You’re in so much trouble.” Dad laughed while Mom went about trying to steal my tacos. “Your mom heard them say that you can’t have anything other than their food.”
She was currently glaring at me like I’d committed a capital sin. “I can’t believe you’d do this, Avery. What if it causes complications?”
“Mom.” I grabbed her hand. “If I eat any more of this disgusting-as-fuck food, I’m going to die. Please don’t take my tacos. I’ve been shot.” She sniffled, and I squeezed her hand. “I promise, I’m not going to die.”
“You got shot.” She gasped, clutching a taco to her chest, and I tried to grab it from her. “No.” She walked away, putting them on the counter. “No more tacos.”
“Dad,” I whined. “Make her give me the tacos. Come on, I’m wounded.”
“She’s fine, Veronica. Look at her. She’s being a pain in the ass, just like always.”
Actually, I felt more than fine. The morphine was definitely doing the job. Drugs mixed with a full taco belly, I decided it was a good time for a nap.
“Bring Lucas in,” I told them as I closed my eyes. “I miss him. He saved me, you know?”
Mom’s sniffles and Dad’s murmurs filled my ears, and I went back to sleep, exhausted and yawning.
When I opened them again, it was to find Lucas laying in my bed. He was doing his best not to touch my injury. I could hear him snoring softly next to me, and I decided enough was enough.
I wrapped my arms around him, wincing slightly at the discomfort in my stomach. But I held him, just like I always did at the house.
“You’re gonna be my mom one day,” he whispered drowsily. “I told Carter he can’t get rid of me now that he cleaned your blood off me. You bleed on me, ya buy me.”
I laughed, but didn’t say anything. The kid definitely had a point, a damned good one. “One day, maybe. If Carter asks. Yeah. I’ll be your mom.”
Lucas snuggled into my chest. “He’s dumb if he doesn’t.”
“You know, sometimes I look at him and I want to punch him,” I admitted. “I’m like … I can’t love him. He’s too perfect. Perfect hair, perfectly stupid smile, and perfectly stupid muscles. He can go suck a potato.”
“I heard that,” the man in question interjected. “You know I can hear every word you two are saying.”
“Good,” Lucas said while yawning. “Maybe you’ll do something about it then.”
“Maybe I will.” Carter laughed in the darkness. When I closed my eyes again, I couldn’t help feeling like everything was perfect.
Finally.
Carter
“Are you sure you want to do this?” My cousin Grant asked me when we stepped onto the airstrip his wife, Emmy, owned in Sunnyville.
After Avery had healed enough to travel, she insisted on visiting my cousins and family in California, saying that she wanted to chase away the bad memories from Keegan’s funeral.
I couldn’t say no.
“Fuck yes, he is.” Avery answered for me. She was already strapped in, attached to Grant’s wife, Emmy. “Let’s do this. Before I chicken out.”
With a laugh, I waved off Grant, who didn’t go up in the planes, ever. Two days before, when I had asked Avery if she wanted to go skydiving, I thought she’d say no. Instead, she took one look at me, gauging my seriousness, and had literally fist-pumped the air around her.
“Let’s go.”
Emmy’s voice in my ears had me laughing. The engine started, and the plane was off in the next minute. When the door to the plane slid open twenty minutes later as we hit the right cruising altitude, I got one more picture of her before they waved and jumped out without looking back.
“Time to go,” my partner said. I slid my phone into my jacket, making sure that the pocket was zipped entirely closed.
We jumped. Even though I wanted to scream and cry the entire time, I didn’t. Yeah, I am completely man enough to admit that heights fuckin’ terrify me. But Avery had been talking to Emmy the other day about it, and she looked so excited that I couldn’t say no.
Grant, along with Lucas and their daughter Gwen, were waiting for us in the landing zone, and everything had been planned to perfection. He’d have the phone, recording our landing.
I watched Avery the entire way down. The smile on her face, and the way her mouth stayed open in a scream of enjoyment practically the whole time.
The entire five minute fall, I thought about our life. Everything we had ahead of us. As the landing zone approached, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Avery had given me the best gift of all. Not only was I almost done adopting Lucas, but she’d finally moved into my house.
Now, we were in Sunnyville so she could meet the rest of my family. And I had the ring.
We landed, and I kept my eyes locked on Avery while I got unsnapped from my harness. The way she looked at me proved every single feeling I’d ever had. I loved her. Always would. It was either that, or I was having a stroke. Either way, I was screwed, so I decided to go with it.
As soon as Avery was completely free, she threw herself at me. Her entire body trembled as I held her in my arms, and sank to the ground, because my legs felt like they were made of jello.
She kissed me hard, and then practically yelled in my ear. “Marry me, Carter.”
Eyes wide, I stared at her, unsure of what was happening.
“I’m serious.” Avery kissed me again. “I want to get married.”
Recovering quickly, I unzipped my pocket and kissed her again to distract her. “That’s my line,” I said against her lips. “I’m supposed to be the one proposing.”
Avery smiled at me, pulling back from the kiss. “You took too long to ask.”
I held out the black box, watching the way her mouth dropped into an almost comical ‘o’ as she realized what it held.
“You couldn’t wait just one more minute?”
She shoved out of my arms, standing up and pointed at me excitedly. “Ask me already.”
Laughing, I hoped that Grant had been able to start his phone in time to catch all the epic shit that was happening. Since I sure as hell wouldn’t ever let Avery forget that she’d been the one to propose to me and not the other way around.
“Avery James,” I started. “You are the biggest pain in the ass in my entire life. I love you, even though you snore. And you sit on my kitchen counter. And you make me bend every rule I have. But I can’t picture my life without you. Will you marry me?”
Tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, Avery James said yes.
“See?” Lucas piped up from next to us. “I told you that you’d end up being my mom. Now I don’t have to call you Miss James anymore.”
“Nope.” I kissed her again. “Now she’s going to be Mrs. Malone.”
“I like Mom,” she whispered against my lips.
I nodded, sliding the ring onto her finger. “Mom, it is.”
“You know.” Avery stared at the shining diamond ring with a smile on her face I swore I’d do anything to keep there. “You gave me something I never thought I’d find.”