“That’s if she says yes,” I tell him, feeling her hand tighten in mine.
Feeling her move my hand down with hers, over her belly as she mouths the single word I’ve longed to hear her say when I ask her to be my wife.
She says yes.
She says yes.
Extended Epilogue
Over One Year Later
Brooke
Dad, or Grandpa as he insists we refer to him now, also wanted our wedding to be a double date, dual nuptials to share his own marriage to Tracey.
“Uh. No.” I remember saying quite clearly. “Just no, dad.”
Trent almost went for the idea, until I reminded him of the strife that followed when I went to the reunion as dad’s ‘date’.
“Imagine what unholy hell we could unleash if we had a double wedding?” I pleaded with him, and he firmly agreed in the negative with me.
We got our wish though, and then our perfect baby girl, Lois came into the world with rings on her mommy and daddy’s fingers.
And a newlywed Grandpa Mike to boot. Dad’s new wife, Tracey doesn’t like the association with being a Grandma, not that she doesn’t spoil Lois when we aren’t looking, so all the grandparenting titles and duties fall to my dad, which he absolutely loves.
Almost as much as he adores little Lois.
It even helped heal the rift between him and Trent, I think. With Trent making sure we include my dad in as much of our family outings as we can but making sure we both have plenty of our own time together as well.
It’s not long before dad wants to babysit, and seeing as Lois is getting bigger, I reason I can let her go for a few hours at a time.
Trent is more uptight about letting her go anywhere without him more than I am, but she is daddy’s little girl.
I resist all the ‘only daughter’ jibes I have for Trent, vowing to store them up for later in life.
But dad loves having Lois, even for short visits while mommy gets her hair done or has a date night with her husband.
It’s no surprise either when Grandpa starts to maybe exaggerate just how amazing little Lois actually is.
We don’t believe it when he tells us she’s walking around by herself.
“We saw her first steps, dad,” I tell him over the phone when we’re on our way to pick her up. “I think we’d know if our own daughter was walking around.”
I can hear Lois laughing in the background, and something tells me, my dad, that grandpa might actually be right for a change.
Sure enough, within a day or two, I catch Lois up and about.
I turn my back for a second, needing to get a fresh diaper from the table, changing her on the rug on the floor, when she’s off.
I watch with amazement, happy and proud sure. But it’s Trent’s huge frame that steps in, scooping her up before she can reach the stairs leading down to the living room.
I notice too, the balconies and in about two seconds flat, I’m one worried mommy.
“Well, the old man was right, eh?” Trent questions Lois. Her tiny body looking even smaller as Trent gently lifts her up, quizzing her about what else she’s been learning over there.
Taking over changing her at the table, Trent says what I’ve been thinking for some time, and just now I think I’ve made up my mind.
“You know?” Trent muses, pretending to talk to little Lois one on one, but I know he’s speaking for all of us. Himself included
“Living all the way up here in the sky, with mommy and daddy’s work being so close… And Grandpa being so far away… Maybe you’d like to live someplace else, Lois? Somewhere closer to Grandpa. Or maybe just somewhere that’s not way up in the sky, somewhere without a hundred stairs or balconies?”
She gurgles and wriggles, squealing as Trent blows raspberries on her tiny tummy before slipping her into her onesie.
I come up behind him, hugging him from behind.
“Thank you,” is all I have to say.
It’s the only time we talk about it as an issue, and the next day Trent is looking at land while I casually look at existing houses on the market.
He finds the perfect spot, not too far from dad, but closer to the bay, and a huge lot for the price.
Me, I find the perfect house. White picket fence, the whole bit. And it’s close to my dad as well as practical for us if we need to get to the office, the office which has filled up the once empty high rise underneath us thanks to Trent’s development business, which I kinda run with him.
When I’m not changing diapers.
I pitch him my proposal, and he does the same with his.
We do it in the conference room, with Lois on my knee, weighing in with her shrieks and bubble blowing until it’s agreed.