Page 115 of The Last One You Loved

“Happy birthday, McKenna!” Mila said, hopping about. “Daddy said you hate celebrating your birthday, and I said that was absolutely wrong and that we needed to change it. Isn’t that right, Daddy?”

“Damn straight,” I said, gaze not leaving McK’s wary one.

“You owe a dollar for the cuss jar, Daddy, but not yet. We have other things to do.” Mila turned to her sister and asked, “Dinner or presents first? I say presents, but it’s your birthday, so you get to decide.”

McKenna’s face softened as she watched my daughter literally bursting with enthusiasm. “I guess…presents.”

“Yes!” Mila made her little victory move and then pushed McK toward a chair. Once she was seated, my daughter handed her the first present. “This one is from me.”

Mila had wanted to wrap it on her own, so it was pretty messed up, but McK didn’t care about things like that. She actually looked like she might cry as she assessed the bulging corners and layers of tape. “I can see you wrapped it yourself, too.”

“Of course!” Mila said. “I know I’m not good at it yet, but if I keep practicing, I can be as good as you and Daddy someday. Open it!”

The woman I loved with all of my naïve, teenage heart and my cynical, grown-up heart put together tugged at the tape until the wrapping fell off, and a jewelry-sized box appeared. McK shot me a look, but I just shrugged. It was a good distraction, doing Mila’s gift first. It would throw her off a little.

When she opened the box, a silver bracelet sat on the velvet. One half of a broken-heart charm was looped onto it that had part of the phraseSisters are forever friends. It was so similar to the key chain McKenna had given me that I’d known it would be perfect as soon as Mila had spotted it.

“Look, see, this is the other half,” Mila said, shoving her foot up so McK could see the adult-sized bracelet wrapped around her ankle. “It doesn’t fit yet, but Daddy said I could wear it here until I grow into it. Do you like it?”

McK pulled Mila to her, squeezing her tight and kissing the side of her head. “The only thing better is having my sister for real.”

Mila giggled and then waved to me. “Your turn, Daddy.”

I grabbed the other small package from the table. It wasn’t wrapped, but it had a bow on it. I knelt before McK as Mila stood oddly still, quivering with anticipation.

“I feel like you’ve been a Hatley my entire life. You belonged to us the day you entered our lives, just like Mila did. And I know you’ve already promised to keep us forever, and that forever is the most important part, but I was hoping you’d also make it official by marrying us.”

My breath caught as her face remained serious for way too many heartbeats.

She put a palm on my cheek and reached out for Mila with the other, drawing her closer to us. Then, staring deep into my eyes, she said, “We’re a family, forever and always, with or without the official part, but there’s nothing I’d rather do than claim my favorite people as mine in front of the entire town.”

Mila squealed happily, and McK and I chuckled.

Then, I leaned in and kissed her. Once upon a time, when she’d driven away the first time, I’d thought she belonged to the world, but really, she’d always been mine. It had just taken a while for us to find our way back to each other. Heat licked through me with the sweet kiss, making me ache to deepen it, to devour her, to push my tongue in her mouth and my fingers through her hair, and bury myself inside her, but it would wait.

Mila hugged us, and when our kissing took too long, she pulled at our faces and said, “Breathe, you guys. Breathe.”

I smiled that huge, sappy, goofy smile Ryder had mentioned was on my face all the time. Except, it wasn’t just me smiling like that. McKenna’s was just as big, and Mila’s, too, as I tugged her so she was snuggled between us.

“You know what this means?” Mila asked, squirming in our embrace. “It means I have to write a new story.The Day the Hatleys Got Married! It’s going to be epic.”

“Why don’t you go get some paper and start on it so you can give McK and me five minutes,” I told her.

She sighed, moved away, and dragged her feet toward the door. “Okay, Daddy, but I know how to tell time now, so I’m going to be out in exactly five minutes.”

The screen door slammed behind her.

I opened the velvet box and showed McK the ring I’d picked out. “I saved you from having one in an array of rainbow stones like Mila wanted. This looked more like you.”

It was simple—a square-cut diamond with a pale-green emerald on either side that reminded me of the color her eyes turned when I was deep inside her and she was calling my name.

“It’s beautiful, Mads.” Her voice was a soft whisper on the ending letters the way only she did. The way I loved.

“I thought about taking you out, asking you when we were alone, but it?”

“Wouldn’t have felt right,” she finished for me. “No, I’m glad. Mila needed to be a part of it.”

“Your birthday deserves to be filled with good memories, McK. And starting today, I promise they always will be.”

She pressed her mouth to mine. I put my hand on the back of her head, deepening the kiss and tangling our tongues in a dance that was fierce and sweet all at the same time. I dragged her out of the chair and onto my knee, where I could feel her heart beat against mine and I could skate my fingers under her scrub top, working hard to keep us PG with Mila ready to bound back out at any second. Love flowed between us, growing with every nip and lick and soft moan until it flickered like the shimmering light of the candles, drenching us in their glow.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“Forever and always,” I whispered back.

“Five minutes is up. Can we eat now?” Mila asked at the screen door, completely ruining the moment and yet making it absolutely and completely right.

? ? ?