Eva wanted a luxurious master bath and a kitchen that—if it wasn't already—could be turned into a gourmet one with an oversize island and butcher block counter tops. She also demanded a walk-in pantry. For her Cosmic Brownie and popcorn storage, of course.
Jelly wanted a room with her own bathroom because, apparently, she refused to ever share a bathroom with Jacob who spent more time getting ready than she did. Jelly, ideally, also wanted a basement that she could put mirrors and a barre up in.
Jacob also wanted the basement, but he wanted exercise equipment and mats to workout and grapple with his karate friends. He was also holding out hope for an in-ground pool and a yard that would allow us to get a dog.
We needed a room for Eva's mom. And, possibly, with space to have live-in assistance to move in to help with her if or when we had things going on.
As for me, I just wanted enough space for all of us. And somewhere safe. Somewhere we could get a tall fence. Somewhere we could really put down roots.
We'd all been hybrid co-habitating for years now. Neither of us had enough room to have bedrooms for the other's kid in our townhouse, so they kept their rooms, and we all sort of hopped from house to house depending on the day. Dinner at my place, movies at Eva's. We spent a lot of nights at my place since Jelena was younger, and Jacob no longer needed to be watch closely.
It was time we all got a place together, truly became the family we had been for a long time now.
"We need to get married," I told Eva as we pulled up to the school, waiting for Jacob.
"What? Like today?" Eva asked.
I'd been the one who had started throwing out ideas for the wedding. Eva had been the one to shoot them all down, claiming she had no interest in the white dress and the pomp and ceremony of it all. It sounded, as she claimed, "dreadful."
So, we decided to go the courthouse route.
"It's getting late," I said, glancing at the clock on the dash. "But we can try if you want. I don't know if you wanted to plan it, so you can find a dress or something."
"Let's face it, Colson, this look is what you are marrying," she claimed, waving a hand over herself in her jeans and baggy white sweatshirt. "I don't want to set your expectations too high by getting all pretty while we start out lives together," she added, smiling.
"Alright. Let's get married then," I said, smiling back as Jacob opened the back door.
"Guess what, bud?" Eva asked as he climbed in.
"What?"
"We're gonna go get married."
"But Jelly is still in school," Jacob said, looking worried.
"Well, we will just have to sign her out early, won't we?"
And so that was what we did.
"I can't believe you don't want to at least have flowers," Jelly said, her romantic heart breaking at the idea of Eva not having the same sentimentality as she did about the whole thing.
Jelena was smack dab in the middle of her teens, making heart eyes at young guys who in no way fucking deserved my little girl.
I knew that, some day, when she was forty and not a day younger, she would want a grand wedding of her own with a ton of bridesmaids and a cake and a dress that cost the price of a car.
I would be happy to give her exactly what she wanted.
Just like I was happy to give Eva exactly what she wanted.
Which was a shotgun wedding in a sweatshirt followed by an ice cream cake shared with everyone at the club, this extended family she had settled so comfortably in.
"Here," Eva said, walking down the street toward the courthouse, bending down to snag a couple wild daffodils. "Now I have flowers," she declared, giving Jelena a warm smile as she wrapped her arm around her.
"I could help you plan a real wedding," Jelly insisted. "So everyone can be there."
"This is a real wedding, honey," Eva told her. "And I have the three most important people in my life here with me. That's all that matters."
"Okay, I guess that is kind of romantic too," Jelly relented, leaning her head into Eva's shoulder.
I'd found a lot of reasons to smile the past few years.
Each time I learned something new about Eva.
Each time the kids found more reasons to get along.
Each time I saw Jacob becoming a better and better young man, someone with a bright future with a good head on his shoulders.
Each time he looked to me like a father figure in life even if he had worked to heal the relationship with his biological father as well.
But watching Jelena look to Eva as her mother, yeah, that shit got me every fucking time. It didn't matter how often it happened.