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“It’s okay, Mama.”

She looks up at Trey again, and you can just see every ounce of love she has for my dad in her eyes. It’s shining out of her, and I haven’t seen her like this since the day he died. Trey was right – he did make everything okay. Seeing her like this again, so happy, it almost makes it a little easier to go through this all. Especially if where she’s going is somewhere that she can be with Daddy again.

“What are you guys doing here?” Mama asks, looking up at Trey, and he smiles down at her.

“You didn’t really think we’d forget your birthday, did you?”

I gasp and my hand flies to my mouth that he even remembered as more tears fall. I told him over a week ago that her birthday was coming up but I didn’t think he’d remember that it was today. It’s too much, and I need to take a little break to compose myself.

“Excuse me,” I whisper, and Trey’s brow furrows as his eyes follow me out of the room. When I’m in the hallway again, I lean up against a wall and just cry, doing my best to stay quiet. Whenever I imagined taking Trey to see my mom, I never, in my wildest dreams, even hoped for something like this. He gave Mama and I something today that I never expected, and just when I thought I couldn’t love him more, he proves me wrong.

“Hey,” Trey says as he slips out of Mama’s room and pulls me into his body, wrapping his arms around me. I melt into him for a second before leaning back to look in his eyes.

“What’s going on? Does she need something?”

He shakes his head, chuckling. “No. She wanted me to take you to the babysitter so we could go out for her birthday.”

“I love you,” I whisper, looking up at him, and his smile is so pure that I can feel it reaching into my chest and pulling on my heartstrings.

“I love you, baby.” He leans down and presses his lips to mine but pulls away too soon. This seems to be a major problem in my life now. I never want to stop kissing him. Especially since we haven’t had sex in I don’t even know how long.

“So, should we go or what?” he asks, looking back at the room, and I nod.

“Yeah, gotta go along with whatever she wants, remember? Besides, we can come back tomorrow.”

“Good. There’s somewhere I want to take you.”

* * * *

“Babe, you know I love you but if you don’t tell me what the hell we’re doing at the bar, I’m going to hurt you,” I warn him but he just laughs at me as he pulls me toward the stage where we danced that night.

“I’d like to see you hobble over to me and try.”

“Shut up,” I growl. I stopped hobbling days ago. Despite my threat, I’m really not all that mad. The bar, when it’s closed and empty, is a whole different place, and I kind of love it – especially since I have such good memories here with Trey. We finally reach the stage and he guides me to sit down on the edge while he steps back and looks around like he’s deep in thought. What the hell is he up to?

“What if we get a live band more often? Do you think it’s a good idea?”

“Sure,” I say, still watching him closely.

“And what if we paint the walls?”

I look around at the tan walls before looking back to him. “Yeah, I’m sure the walls could use some fresh paint but who the hell is we? You and Moe? Shouldn’t you be talking to him about this?”

He stops and grins at me. “No, you and me.”

“And why would we paint Moe’s bar?”

“Because it’s not Moe’s anymore,” he says, walking back over to me and grabbing my hands, pulling me up off the stage.

“What do you mean it’s not Moe’s anymore? Did he sell it? Did you buy it?” My questions get increasingly loud as it starts to click for me, and he just laughs, his body shaking both of us as he holds me close.

“Not exactly. Moe gave it to me. It’s ours now, baby.”

“Ours?”

Before I can even process what that means, he pulls away and drops down to one knee in front of me. All the air is punched out of my lungs as I look down at him and he pulls out a gorgeous solitaire diamond ring and smiles up at me.

“Addilyn Jayne Burke, I love you more and more with each passing day. You brighten up my life in every way, and there isn’t anything in this world that I wouldn’t do for you. You are my future and standing in the place that I hope will be a big part of our family, I can think of no better place to ask you to be my wife. You’re my love, my life, my everything, baby. Will you give me everything I’ve ever wanted and marry me?”

“You want to marry me even with the possibility that my brain is going to turn into mush?” I ask, tears welling up in my eyes.

He grins, his eyes sparkling with affection. “Yeah, baby, I do. And even when your brain is mush and you have no idea who I am, I’m gonna be there, loving you with everything I have. Until the day I die. So, what do you say? You want to marry me?”

“Yes,” I sob, holding my hand out for him, and he slides the ring on. I don’t even take a second to look at it before I’m yanking him off the floor and into my arms. “I love you so much,” I say in between kisses, and he laughs.

“I love you, Addy, and I always will.”