Page 170 of The Difference Between

I do.

I really, really do.

He squats down to retrieve something from the floor. “You forgot this,” he says, passing it to me.

At the glass slipper in my hands, my smile is so big it’s a wonder my face has the flesh for it.

The elevator dings with a stop at my floor and he says, “And I have something else to show you.”

With one hand in his and a glass slipper in the other, he leads me off the elevator and down the hall to the occupied conference room. At my confusion, he smiles and pushes the door open.

And at the sight before my eyes, I release Gavin’s hand and drop to my knees.

Fifty-Two

The conference room isn’t filled with a staff celebration; it’s filled with my family. Rue, Remy, my mom. The kids. Nash.

And Addie.

Who steps forward in a red velvet dress looking like a perfect ray of sunshine.

“Hi,” I say to her, hiccupping as I wipe my eyes, still on my knees because my bones might be gone. “You’re beautiful.”

“We came to get you,” she says, peering at me with bright eyes through her glasses. “Uncle Gav said you were sad.”

“I was.” My smile is soggy. “You know how that goes.”

She nods. “I love you madly even though you treat me sadly.”

I laugh; it’s from Overboard. “I’ll try not to do that again.”

She wraps her little arms around my neck and squeezes me tight.

When I stand, Gavin scoops her up and hoists her onto his shoulders, both of them radiating pure hope and possibility.

My mom steps in front of me, and on her face, I see my own grief. She pulls me to her, her voice fracturing as she speaks. “I’m so sorry, Reese.”

“I know, Mom,” I manage.

Her sorry doesn’t help, but her being here does. More than I ever imagined. Turns out no matter how old we get, sometimes we just need our moms. We pull apart, both of us wiping our eyes, and my attention goes to her surgical scar first. It’s barely noticeable. “Your doctor know you got on an airplane?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m fine, thank you for asking. The movers put a hole in the wall with your bicycle. And the house has been too quiet without you.” Her brows raise. “Especially at night.”

I bite back a smile. “I can come back, I guess. If you need me.”

Her smile overtakes her face. “I always do.”

“Liar,” Rue interjects. “She tolerates you. We all do. We’re actually here today to tell you that Mom found you in a dumpster as a baby. Why you turned out to be such a dirty bitch.”

The smile on my face turns to fresh tears in my eyes—I’m a spring—as I pull my sister to me. “I’m so sorry, Rue.”

“Me too,” she says, hugging me tight and making us teeter.

“I’m happy for you,” I say to her hair. “Even though you’re genetically inferior to me in every other way.”

She laughs through a sniff. “The world would be a boring place if we all wiped our asses with dollar bills.”

Remy joins our hug. “I’m going to pretend that Gavin didn’t show up here in a tux with a glass slipper and make every book I’ve ever read look like child’s play.”