Page 52 of Lucas

Yet. My mind flash forwards a few years and I imagine a teething baby, his tiny jaws closing in around his daddy’s unsuspecting finger. The thought makes me giggle.

Lucas reaches into the bag and pulls out the small T-shirt. It’s black, plain on the back, but when Lucas flips it over, the silver lettering of the Metallica logo shimmers under the kitchen lights.

He blinks. “It’s…”

“A collector’s item,” I say, for which I have paperwork to prove. That eases some of the confusion, but Lucas’s lips are pressed together like he’s still very perplexed.

He holds the tiny shirt up and smiles. “It’s kind of small,” he says.

“Actually, I think it will be a perfect fit.”

He laughs. “Sure, for a ba—” I can almost hear the gears clink together. His eyes grow wide and shimmery, and for a second I think he might cry. His Adam’s Apple bobs. “Are you serious?”

I chew on the inside of my cheek and nod.

I’ll probably always remember how he looks in this moment. Shocked. Elated. Blissfully in love. He jumps off the stool and comes around to envelop me in a hug. He kisses my lips softly and then pulls away.

“We’re going to be a family,” I whisper.

He knows what it means to me. Tears stream down my cheeks.

“I hope those are happy tears,” Lucas says softly, caressing my cheek with his thumb.

“Yes. Definitely.”

I think about everything that’s changed for me, and for us. How we’ve come together, finally letting go and giving into the love we both feel.

Giving in fully.

Lucas has been going to therapy and he’s like a different person now. He’s even started resuming contact with family and friends from his past. I’m no longer worried about what might happen with his anger.

To think that two people can help one another grow and change and become who they were meant to be…it fills me completely.

“What’s going through that head of yours right now?” he asks.

“Just thinking I wish my parents were here,” I whisper. “But I am happy. So happy, I just wish they could see it.”

“Maybe they do,” he says.

And somehow, I feel that it’s true.

There’s a circle that’s been completed. I’m going to be a mom now. I’m going to know what it’s like to care for and cherish a little life, to guide it to adulthood.

And I’m going to do it with the man of my dreams.

“There’s that smile,” he says, kissing my lips.

I giggle a little and feel my cheeks redden. He can still make me blush, even now.

I have a feeling he’ll still be making me blush in thirty years. And something like that is rare. It’s a gift.

And I’m never going to let it slip away.

~ THE END ~

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